At 4:17 PM -0700 10/24/98, Jack Estes wrote:
>.... I suspect the
>equatorial mode uses half the electricity or even less as the computer
>isn't having to make countless minute adjustments to compensate for not
>being equatorially mounted.

Most of the power goes to running the computer, not the motors. Except
when slewing, of course, but that is presumably a small fraction of the
total time.

>... I bought a 32 amp/hour deep drain wheelchair battery

That's what I use. I've never run out of power, even running my dew heater
on a long winter night.

>... The dew zapper, btw, uses about 5
>amps per hour whereas your LX200 computer uses less than 2 amps per
>hour.

Units, units!!! Why is this so hard? "amps per hour" is almost
meaningless. Amps is a measure of current. Amp-hours is a measure of
energy. The LX200 uses about 1/2 an amp continuosly (except when slewing
when it can go to an amp or a little more). Your wheelchair battery holds
32 amp-hours of energy. This means it can deliver one amp for 32 hours or
32 amps for one hour (theoretically). It should thus run the LX200 for 64
hours (without the dew heater) or about 6 hours with the 5 amp dew heater.
(That's a lot of power for a dewheater, btw; you can probably get by with
about 1 amp unless you are in a very wet climate.)

But most batteries won't really deliver their full amp-hour rating. Plan
at least 2x overkill. Some of my friends have 100 amp-hour marine
batteries!

(Sorry, Jack, I don't mean to pick on you. I just get upset when these
simple and basic units are misused. )
---
Bill Arnett "Science is a way of trying
Emerald Hills, CA USA not to fool yourself." -- Feynman

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