Paramount MX Field Power Supply

If I understood Richards S. Wright, Jr's article in Astronomy Technology Today on the Paramount MX mount the input voltage is 48 volts, same as the ME Mount. So I assume that there is a stepdown transformer (brick) for use with 110 volt power company type power supplies that is provided as part of the unit.

What do I use to power this mount when I am in the filed far from a standard power company power source?

Will I have to connect four - 12 volt deep cycle batteries in series to power this unit? What type of connector(s) from the batteries to the MX will be required for this set-up?

 

Gary Wood

Gary,

The MX comes with a very nice 100-240V 40-63Hz to 48VDC @ 1.66A AC power supply box. This power supply can be connected to the AC mains, or plugged into a digital inverter (12VDC to 115VAC) fed by a 12V battery.

Just yesterday I was trying out my portable power arrangement. I am using an XPower Digital Inverter 400 W with a 32AH AGMAT (absorption glass mat) sealed lead-acid battery. It works wonderfully well. (I have used this same arrangement for several years with a G11/Gemini - but the power supply for that system is a 12V output one - also a switching PS).

My XPower Inverter has functions for monitoring battery voltage, AC line voltage, and DC power out. With a well balanced mount, I was seeing DC power averaging less than 1 W - with peaks doing initialization and slewing of 4 or 5 W. Pretty low. I am going to be measuring this more precisely soon. Of course, I will also be powering my MacBook and CCD camera from this battery/inverter (or a separate one), so the total power demand will be higher.

So, the answer is "No, you don't have to string 4 deep cycle LA batteries together to get the 48V. A single, small AGMAT battery and inverter does wonders.

Pascal

Gary Wood:

Paramount MX mount the input voltage is 48 volts, same as the ME Mount.

Correct.  The Paramount MX power specifications are listed on the Paramount MX web site and in the Paramount MX User Guide.

Gary Wood:

So I assume that there is a stepdown transformer (brick) for use with 110 volt power company type power supplies that is provided as part of the unit.

Correct.  The Paramount MX Packing List can be found in the user guide.

Gary Wood:

What do I use to power this mount when I am in the filed far from a standard power company power source?

Consider the Paramount ME/MX Portable Power Supply.

Gary Wood:

Will I have to connect four - 12 volt deep cycle batteries in series to power this unit?

This is one way to power the mount.  Here's another thread the might be helpful.

Gary Wood:

What type of connector(s) from the batteries to the MX will be required for this set-up?

The Paramount MX power connector specifications can be found on page 50 of Revision 1.18.  The Mouser part number for the 2.5 mm Kobiconn DC power plug for the Power In port on the Paramount MX is 171-7395.