Battery system for a scope, cheap!

Well, I needed a battery for a scope and went down to see about buying a 7amp sealed battery. The price seemed to run over $30 so I thought about an alternative.
I went down to Pep Boys and found a jumpstart unit for $19.95 complete with a wall type charger as well as a 12v chager for a cigarette lighter and it even had a charging system board with LED display for testing state of charge and two cigarette lighter plugs.
Well I disassembled it and took out the battery (8 amp hr) and all hardware and made a battery pack that would fit in the rocker box. I used all the LEDs, boards and power receptacles. Works great, looks great and has a nice charger that is plugged in right now! LED says charging and it all seems fine. All for $19.95 + tax. You can't beat that! 8)

Floyd, you're right that is a great price for a battery system and sure beats anything made specifically for 'scopes. The one thing I would remind you of is that a jump start battery will be optimized for cold cranking amps and have thin plates. I.E. it will wear out considerably faster because you won't get as many recharges out of it. To maximze your usage, keep the discharge to a minimize (under 10% would be best).

Of course, when the time comes you can always replace it with a better, deep cycle battery which is designed for discharges of up to 80%. And then you'll have one great system for a great price.

I have been using a 17 amp hour unit that I bought at Kragens on special to run my scopes. It cost $24 IMMSMW.

I didn't take it apart...

jon

One of the reasons for buying this particular jump starter was it's size. It was rather compact compared to other ones. I needed a battery that was not too big for this scope.

I have serious doubts that this battery pack will last many deep discharges. Deep cycle batteries work much better in that regard, but you must pay for them. It will be much more than $19.95, especially after a decent charger is figured into the final cost. An extension cable to run a scope off your car battery is even less money and usually a better alternative. If you have a 70 AH car battery, then you can safely take 7AH out of it repeatedly without getting into any reliability issues, PLUS, you don't have to tote a second battery around. Car batteries usually come with a pro rated warranty, and if you were to knock one out prematurely with many deep discharges, replacing it would be cheap. If your battery holds up, it costs nothing extra, and if it does not, the warranty pays a lot of it. Sounds like a deal to me.

Phil

Floyd Blue said:

Well, I needed a battery for a scope and went down to see about buying a 7amp sealed battery. The price seemed to run over $30 so I thought about an alternative.
I went down to Pep Boys and found a jumpstart unit for $19.95 complete with a wall type charger as well as a 12v chager for a cigarette lighter and it even had a charging system board with LED display for testing state of charge and two cigarette lighter plugs.
Well I disassembled it and took out the battery (8 amp hr) and all hardware and made a battery pack that would fit in the rocker box. I used all the LEDs, boards and power receptacles. Works great, looks great and has a nice charger that is plugged in right now! LED says charging and it all seems fine. All for $19.95 + tax. You can't beat that! 8)

Good job Floyd! Cool idea 8) 8)