Hi all,
New to the forum, about to get a Pine R controller for my slider setup.
Just wondering if you have any suggestions about a reliable, portable and sufficently powerful battery to drive a slider setup (1 motor right now, but looking into expanding to three).
I checked power requirements on Pine’s user manual so I’m looking for a 12v out with a minimum of 1,5 A.
I’m mainly doing timelapses, but some occasional video shoots happen every once in a while.
How many mAh should I look into for a several hours of running time (think holy grail time-lapses or day to night and Astro)?
Thanx
L.G
Modena (Mo)
Italy
Hi Modena,
I hope some other users will share what batteries they are using to power the PINE setup. For now, I'm happy to help you out to get you started.
It is best to find a portable power bank without automatic shut-off. Especially when you use the power saving option for the motors, there is almost no power needed by the Controller when the motors are not moving. If you have a power bank with auto shut-off, the battery might turn off entirely and the Controller will turn off. So that's not something you want.
We always recommend power banks by XTPower, as they don't have the auto shut-off function. Of course there are other brands out there but XTPower is a good start.
Important is also that the power bank has an DC Barrel Connector output (not a USB port only) which can output between 10V and 24V. Most power banks will deliver enough output current for PINE so you usually don't have to worry that much about it.
Regarding mAh and battery time:
The mAh rating is mostly misleading as most advertisements don't say at which voltage this mAh applies (this is very important). Always try to find a rating of Wh (Watt-hours) for a power bank. With that information, it is much easier to calculate how long the battery will last with PINE.
In general, at 12V supply voltage, each standard NEMA17 motor uses around 4 Watt at continuous movement. If your power bank has e.g. a rating of 40Wh, the battery would theoretically last for 10 hours with one motor constantly rotating for 40 hours. Take into account around a 25% loss due to temperature and other losses of a battery. So you still get around 7.5 hours. That's at constant motor rotation. Consider that, for timelapse recordings, the motor will not move continuously. And you can also activate the power saving option to reduce the motor power consumption during standstill. With that you can easily x2, x3, or x4 the time. So you get lots of battery life. That just as an example...
Have a look at this power bank from XTPower. We have been using it since the beginning. It's not very heavy and not too big, and gives you 75.5Wh. That's plenty, even with a full 4-axis setup.
Alternatively, this one might be worth looking into. It as 72Wh (12V x 6Ah = 72Wh). Its quite simple without much logic inside and no auto shut-off.
If you find other power banks, feel free to post a link to them here so we can have a look and see if it might work.
All the best,
Patrick
I bought this battery.
https://www.xtpower.de/MP-23000A-Power-Bank-with-23000mAh-Dual-USB-5V-21A-1A-and-9-12-16-19-20V
Unfortunately, I can not say much about it, as I only received my slider today.
Thanks for sharing Sascha!
Let us know how the MP-23000A Power Bank works for you. It looks to be a great choice for a long battery life.
Hi,
thanx, excellent feedback. I checked and both solutions you suggested are available on Amazon.
I'l get the lighter one to start with and see how that behaves with the Pine and my system.
Thanx a lot for all of the infos.
Lorenzo
Modena (MO)
Italy
Hi,
I'm going to buy a 2-axis bundle mainly for timelapse 🙂
I do already own a Ravpower Extreme RP-PB14 powerbank, rated at 23000 mAh / 85 Wh. Is has a DC output rated at 9-20V 4.5A, which seems OK. Question: What cable do I to connect it to the Pine? It would be a male-male 5,5 x 2,1 cable ?
JF
Hi JF,
that is correct.
All the best,
Moritz
Hi all,
just to confirm that THIS power bank model here works great with the PINE controller and that with just a single NEMA 17 motor (soon expanding to two) I have been able to run several timelapses of 3/400 shots each without even getting of the first dot of charge...
Great suggestion, thanx
L.