My star tracker battery died because of a dumb habit, 3 trips wasted in Moab

I kept leaving my intervalometer hooked up to the mount between shoots and it drained the power pack overnight, which killed my whole first night out last week. Has anyone else had this issue with leaving gear powered up in the car, or am I the only one who thought "sleep mode" actually meant off?

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river18221d ago

Same thing killed me once with my old mount and a DSLR battery grip. What finally worked was putting a timer plug between the power pack and the mount, the kind people use for Christmas lights. It cuts everything off after like 4 hours no matter what mode the gear thinks it's in. Also started packing a cheap 12V jump pack as a backup, it charges my gear fine and doubles for the car battery if I mess up again. The sleep mode thing is a total trap, most mounts just dim the LED and keep draining slowly. Now I unplug the intervalometer entirely and store it in my camera bag, the physical separation forces me to remember. Moab is too far for that mistake, hope you get back out there soon.