True... I thought hard about this at first and could not come up with a
compelling advantage over batteries...
Except 1: For multi-day star parties it would be great. Just bring a quart
of fuel along with you and you would be set.
Of course, if I am reading the post right, it only provides about an amp of
power, which makes it of pretty limited value right now. At 3-4 amps you'd
get some imagers interested.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: sf-bay-tac-bounces@No-Spam [mailto:sf-bay-tac-bounces@No-Spam] On
Behalf Of John R Pierce
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 8:42 PM
To: The Astronomy Connection
Subject: Re: [TAC] Fuel Cells for Astronomers
Charlie Wicks wrote:
> Hi TACos,
>
> A friend of mine is working for a bay area company that designs and
> manufactures small portable fuel cells that run on mixture of methanol
> and water. These fuel cell systems will put out 20 watts (25w peak) of
> power for 10 hours at a pop on a 250 mL can of fuel. They are about
> the size and weight of a fat hardcover book. The output voltage can be
> factory set at anywhere from about 6 to 30 volts.
>
> They are in limited production right now for industrial and military
> testing, however, they're willing to sell a limited quantity of beta
> units, at a cost of $3K each, to the amateur astronomy community. If
> anyone out there is interested in being on the bleeding edge, or want
> to be the first one on your block to get one, email me privately, and
> I'll put you in touch. My friend will be happy to give you all the
> details and specs.
heh. $3000 will buy a hella lotta 100AH 12V Costco Marine/RV
batteries. :)
TAC's Golden State Star Party at Mount Lassen
July 11 - 14, 2007 http://www.goldenstatestarparty.org
TAC's Golden State Star Party at Mount Lassen
July 11 - 14, 2007 http://www.goldenstatestarparty.org
Received on Mon Apr 23 20:46:02 2007