[amsat-bb] Re: A Fully Rechargeable Satellite Station

[Roger Kolakowski]

A quick inquiry about running a laptop directly off of a cigarette outlet in
the car...

for example...let's consider the HP/Compaq series of laptops that take
16-19V from their chargers/power supplies...

Can they be run directly from the auto's 13.6v supply...the available
amperage always made me nervous...as does the voltage swings when starting
and out of the regulator.

Roger
WA1KAT
----- Original Message -----
From: <n3tl at bellsouth.net>
To: "Greg D." <ko6th_greg at hotmail.com>; <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 8:52 AM
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: A Fully Rechargeable Satellite Station


> Hey Greg,
>
> In addition to the internal rechargeable pack, Yaesu provides a battery
tray for a "DIY" battery pack, and I have been assembling rechargeable
individual batteries for these trays. In the case of a longterm power
outage, it occurs to me that, as you suggest, a larger 12v battery could
come into play. The regular power supply I use in the shack includes the
provision to connect a gel cell battery for charging and backup, so that's
one option. An auto battery certainly is another although, I suspect I'd opt
for a deep-cycle marine battery (or batteries) if I was going to buy them
for this use.
>
> My intial plan would be to have enough internal-battery power to get
through at least two "cycles" (i.e., at least two battery packs ready to go
for each radio). The hope is that accesss to power from a generator or the
larger batteries would be available for recharging the batteries and
powering the radios.
>
> As for the computer, the 6-cell pack that is available for the Acer is a
lithion ion pack that, when fully charged, provides up to six hours of
continuous use. Given the nature of our satellite passes - in chunks of
10-15 minutes - I have been able to make days worth of passes without a
recharge. I hope to pick up another 6-cell battery because I believe two of
them would provide the power necessary to handle things until power was
available for recharging.
>
> Reading yours and some other comments have me thinking about a few more
elements I need to look into ... things I hadn't given much thought to, but
elements that would be helpful to know.
>
> Both on and off the reflector, I've received multiple requests to write
this up for the Journal, and that's very gratifying. I'll definitely do
that, and thank everyone for their positive feedback.
>
> 73 to all,
>
> Tim