Hi Larry,
Â
I'm going to add some steps I take with my laptop that may help. If you are
using your laptop for outreach, you might wish to ignore one of my setup steps,
but here goes.
Â
First of all, the biggest drains on my power is the brightness setting of the
screen itself, as well as the communications to the screen from the hard
drive. This was easy to minimize in the days before live video or imaging,
but it is still possible to make some adjustments. I started to make these
changes about 12 years or so ago, when I was using XP Pro with a planetarium
program and my 18" and 10" scopes to chase satellites (and it STILL WORKS for
that), but if you are constantly relying on the laptop display for live video
observation, that's cool, too.
Â
First thing I did was dug up factory 6 hour batteries for the old HP laptop,
and the newer Toshiba I'm using with Win7 Pro. Then I set up a separate user
profile under Display Settings, right clicking on the screen and getting into
the settings. I dropped the brightness down about as low as it would allow.Â
Then in the profile for the settings, I changed all of the colors to range
between black and magenta. Under the power management, I dropped the active
time to about 2 minutes before shutting the screen off, and it jumps alive if I
touch a key or the mouse, because I was only using the planetarium program to
drive the scopes to new objects. Just these changes stretched my over sized
manufacturers' battery to giving me over 11 hours in the field. The old HP
running XP Pro has a small screen and is a power hog, drawing 6 amps when the
screen is active. Still, with an alternative astronomy profile, it gives me a
whole lot more time available.
Â
Another thing I do is either use the battery converter power supply, or an 800
watt inverter, since I often am running multiple mounts and live video
cameras for outreach. At Grand Canyon Star Party, even with the inefficiency
of the inverter, I've been using the same 105 amp-hour battery for about six
years, and can get at least 3 nights without needing to think about
recharging. I also use, on occasion, a 34 amp-hour battery and inverter for
at least 2 nights. I use a single scope/camera/laptop/monitor for public
outreach about 10 times a month, with the laptop mostly idle and an HDMI output
to the monitor, and after 4 hours, the system seems OK.
Â
The biggest extension of time was creating an astronomy profile to switch to.Â
The glare is much less and the power drain not as demanding.
Â
Jim O'Connor
South Rim Coordinator
Grand Canyon Star Party
gcsp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Â
Sent from AOL Desktop
In a message dated 5/8/2018 1:47:32 PM Mountain Standard Time,
loonbird3@xxxxxxx writes:
Â
Thanks for your advice!
Larry
-----Original Message-----
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2018 7:39 AM
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: How to power my laptop
Larry,
I use a 300-Watt inverter I bought at Harbour Freight and a car battery.
Powering my GoTo telescope mount, DSLR camera, and laptop for 2 hours
dropped the charge about 10%.
David
________________________________
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
on behalf of Lawrence Irene <loonbird3@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2018 6:55 AM
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AZ-Observing] How to power my laptop
Can anyone guide me on what I have to buy to power my laptop in a remote
location??
The internal battery might last a couple of hours and the external battery I
bought is only good for about 3 more. Really not enough for a full evening.
I believe I need to purchase a "dry cell" battery with an inverter?? Can
anyone maybe be more specific as to what I need?? There is a Battery Plus
store close tom where I live, would they be able to help??
Thanks, Larry Irene
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