malc-c

Man that's some build.  Certainly not a shed !! 

The build is coming along nicely... Glad my build has helped in a small way...  It's a really easy job to chisel out the mortar and replace a normal brick with an air brick.  In the course of recovering the cables that ran from the mount to the warm room I lifted the hatch and was please to see the underside was clean and dry, so they work !

Yes, you can use a bog standard USB cable with these new boards.  The boards have a Prolofic 2303 chipset that will give you a new comport when connected.  The baud rate needs changing to 115200 rather then the default 9600 the EQDIRECT comport uses.

IMO I don't thing the issue with the scope not moving is down to EQMOD.  All that does is send the commands to make the mount move each axis the required number of steps to complete the movement.  The fact the mount shudders at the ramp up and down portions of that instruction suggest that it's more mechanical as if a belt or gear is slipping.  But then you would expect the same thing with the handset, which you have stated works.   You could try using GSS in place of EQMOD and see if you get the same result.  

I have used EQMOD with my HEQ5 to custom part the scope in the observatory in the same horizontal position, and can't see why people struggle with the custom park option.  Just set the unpark option to the same custom park position.  This way the software knows exactly how the mount is positioned.

Nice looking set up,  although clearance to the RH wall seems tight !!

Given the way the YouTube algorithms work, "promoting" your own channel on forums, facebook and other social media is often seen as the way to get traffic to the channel.  This would appear to be working as the channel has 57 subscribers as of 10.30am today.  The content of some short time-lapse star trails isn't really what I would call 'invaluable resource" but I guess is better than having no content at all or a talking head shot stating your aims.

Having had a youtube channel for around 6 years (nothing related to astronomy) I've made posts to promote my latest video on relevant forums, even embedding the video into the post to boost the view count and get more people to visit the channel and watch other videos.  But I initially created the channel as a place to store the videos and share them between friends and family.  It still has less than 600 subscribers, but that don't bother me.  A few of the videos have several thousand views, with one topping 80K views....  And no click bait is used.

Hopefully the OPs channel will grow, and will have some professional quality productions covering topics that interest both the beginner and experienced amateur astronomer alike, and it does become a invaluable resource as claimed.  The one thing I dislike with so many channels is due to the monetisation requirements the videos are used as a promotional platform to get people to become members of  patreon, and constantly push the subscriptions options.  It seems more people are focused on making money, or boosting subscriber count than simply documenting or sharing quality content 

15 hours ago, LongJohn54 said:

Sorry to hear this Malcolm.   Your obsy was a major inspiration for me when I was researching ideas for mine.  Your black and purple pier* swung it for my other half which enabled me to go ahead with the build. 👍

* even though my pier didn't end up quite the same.

Best wishes for the future and I hope that includes a new obsy.

 

 

Thanks for the kind words... glad the anodising of the pier head helped... must be her favourite colour ?

My HEQ5/SW200 is in a 2.2m x 2.4m space which is comfortable for visual observation even for two people (the extra length helps).  It also depends on how you propose to open the roof.  If you need to do this from inside then you need room to move around the scope to roll the roof back, so 2.2m x 2.2m would be the minimum I would consider.  If you can open the roof externally then 2m x 2m  might work

I'm no expert but to me dust would be random and not in a straight line across the sensor.  The darker splodges towards the bottom of the image is more like your traditional "dust bunny".  Not sure if using a liquid lens cleaner would be safe on a bare CCD sensor, so a normal puffer used to blow dust away might work.

Many thanks Graeme, and glad to hear my build has helped.  Adding air bricks is easy enough, even after the walls have been built !

2 minutes ago, doublevodka said:

Shouldn't need an active cable for only a 3M run really, FLO has some non-active ones going up to 5M

 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/search/for/usb+a+to+b+cable/

The post title states the OP is looking for cables over 3m.

I found this 5m one with the same type B plug but at 100 euros it's not cheap !!

But then found this for £7.34, but although 5m it doesn't state if its an active cable or not.  The Start Tech active cable is £85 off Amazon  or £42  from this listing on Amazon, but stock is limited  Or a 10m Active USB 3 cable from Lindy for £30.84 here

Hope that helps

May be worth doing an autopsy on the mount to find out what the cause of failure is and if it's something that can be fixed.  If the mount hasn't been serviced or checked in those years it could be something simple as a gear meshing issue or bearings needing lubrication.

As Martin has mentioned, anything over 3m ideally should be an active cable regardless of which USB standard is being used.

Many thanks for the well wishes...  Even if I end up not doing anything with the scope I'll still be on the forum at least once a day... 

Many thanks for the kind words.  There's a lot going on in my life at the moment, and I'm trying not to make decisions that I will regret later on, so for now the scope will be coming with me.

Yes it is sad that all the effort and money that went into this project would now seem wasted. At the time I thought I would be using it well into my retirement which is still a good few years off. But I learnt a lot building this observatory, and it certainly done the job well.  The convenience of being up and imaging in less than half an hour made the whole thing worth while and it has served me well.  I've always been proud of what I built and how it functioned.

As things stand I could find myself 150 mile away form Stevenage depending on what we get for our current house and whats left after settling the mortgage etc...  That brings Cleethorpes and surrounding villages into the frame, which seems as good a place as any (I also have a friend living up that way).  So maybe whilst this is closure on this thread there could well be another observatory build thread looming round the corner 🤔😉

Well I thought that I would conclude this thread with a couple more images... Sadly, due to a change in my personal life, and our fixed rate mortgage deal coming to an end in July I am having to sell up and move home.  Having cleared our local ASDA out of their 32litre under bed storage boxes I've been systematically packing away my electronics, model railway stock, books, etc, and today it was time to decommission the telescope.  It took a good hour to pull all the cables and adaptors back through the ducting, coil them up and stow them neatly in the tub.  All that's left is to de-mount the scope and pier adaptor on the day of the move

As for the observatory, well the warm room that became a workshop still has a little leak in the roof which needs repair, but that will be down to the new owners.  They then have the choice to either remove the wheels and fix the roof permanently in place, rebuild the roof completely, or take the whole thing apart and scrap it... would love to be around when they try and remove the pier, which is 6' of pipe filled with rebar and concrete, itself in a 1cu metre block of re-enforced concrete.... 

Not sure of the scopes future... I was going to sell it (even listed it on here, but had no interest) but then seeing the prices of everything I'll probably end up keeping it and either look at sinking a new pipe in the ground at the new house, or look at a smaller MKII version of the observatory if funds and space permits.  It also depends on where I actually end up and how dark the skies are.

It doesn't get used much these days.  Prolapsed discs and damage to the Femoral nerve means the roof is a lot harder to open and close these days.  Last time I had to rest up for a week after causing it to flare up trying to close it after a short session.  Any future observatory will have to be a lot smaller and lighter.  

Google "Bar wing bolt" 

You may not get something exact, but find something that will work as an alternative

Not sure about other countries, but following on form Geoff's post, in the UK the Earth bonding is (should) be connected to ground either via the outer metal shielding of the supply cable, or via a dedicated grounding rod hammered into the ground with an Earth wire run form it to the consumer unit.

Then all copper pipe work is then bonded to the Earthing point

Well looking at the graph, and the resulting stack you're doing fine.

Inverting and selecting a crop of the full size image the stars are reasonably round given the mount.  There is signs of vignetting, and either the stacking process or that focusing could have been tweaked a little tighter as the stars have a soft edge, but the resulting image is better than some of my first attempts.  The dark art of processing is another topic, so it may be worth starting a new thread on how to improve the image results, but at least now you've got the basics for guiding sorted.

Polar alignment can be critical to make guiding work as it reduces the workload PHD2 will have to do, so take time to get polar alignment as precise as possible, and run PHD's calibration and tuning options to get the tracking errors as small as possible before you then consider running the imaging plan.  Take your time, there is no need to rush.

Not bat at all. Did you add any darks when processing ?

IMO no.  The idea is to have stable air to get the clearest views that the precision optics, be that a mirror or lens used in the scopes construction so it can produce clarity and details.  The only way to do that is to place the scope outside otherwise the reflections and imperfections in the glass used in the window will spoil the results

The synscan unit in the image is one of the newer boards that use an ARM processor.  It's strange that such a new board has dry and cracked joints, but glad you have manged to do some testing and found that both motors are fine and that you have found the possible cause.

I'm sure the steppers used are NIMA 17's but you would need to get one that has the same dimensions and micro stepping specifications.  I would suggest you contact the retailer from where the mount was purchased and ask if a replacement could be obtained.  However I would suggest you confirm the issue is the motor and not the synscan controller by swapping the motors as advised in posts above

6 hours ago, Guy65 said:

Thanks - I hadn't realised that the wifi adapter could replace all the functionality in the handset. Will certainly take a look!

You can control the mount using an EQDIR cable (around £40) and a PC running free software, or as mentioned a Wi-fi dongle and an app on a mobile phone.  There was also some dabbling with Bluetooth to do the same as the EQDIR cable but that seems to be more of a DIY venture rather than a commercial offering

As Geoff mentions, the LCD is connected to the handsets PCB via a short flex film strip.  You could try and reseat this in its connector by releasing the  pressure clip  of the connector where the film enters the connector, which should then allow the film to be eased out.  Clean the end using some 99% IPA  and reinsert the film and push the clip back home.

If this fails to work then regretfully there isn't much that can be done as Synta don't offer replacement parts at component level, and whilst the LCD may well be a 2 line 16 character display, its unique to these handsets.  The only resolution is to purchase a replacement handset.

Hi Archie,

I think part of the problem is most forums seem to have policies that remove links to other forums and discussion groups.  SGL seem to be more understanding, but yes I think we need to get the word out there that motor board can be fixed, and sometimes by replacing a cheap transistor.  

Reverse engineering boards is quite a challenge, especially when you only have photos to go by, so if anyone has already ordered a replacement and still has the faulty ARM based board that they can donate to the cause I'm sure it will be a great help.  I'm guessing that these new boards are multi-layer, so if anyone has access to a new board and a means of having it X-rayed that really would be the icing on the cake 🙂   I know Australia is a huge place, but maybe TrevaP could loan his board to you so you get a hands on and tweak the schematic if needed.