malc-c

Looking at the way the capsule rocks as it pulls clear would make for one hell of a ride if it were crewed. No coverage of the booster, with the telemetry showing it was around 264K feet in altitude. No confirmation if it was detonated or blew up of its own accord. There was clearly some issue they had given the duration and frequency of the holds.

The flight had several holds before launch - and at around 30,000ft the capsule separated under power... reaching 37,000ft before coming in hard. No coverage of the booster, which was last reported over 200,000ft up.... Webscast was cut short straight after the capsule hit the ground EDIT: Looking back at the footage seems the main engine failed just as the hit Max-Q, causing the escape system to deploy !

Is this a SW Explorer 200P on a EQ mount or a Dob version. I ask that because Skywatcher have not produced the Explorer in a white tube for several years which might explain the reluctance for the mirror cell to detach itself from the tube

Your welcome Glad Daz was able to pop round with his EQDIR cable and zap the new firmware to the mount.

This looks cool !! https://www.corsair.com/us/en/xeneon-flex-bendable-ultra-wide-gaming-display https://youtu.be/HbxPGoIPUzE

Good to hear that you managed to source a part and you're board is come back form the dead.... Often it's easier diagnosing what's failed than it is to find out why.... At least we now have a reference post to refer to should others with the new revision boards experience the same issue...

This was my thoughts too. If the previous designs used on Apollo or Shuttle worked then why change the design. If they had a proven working system then it makes sense to stick with that system and use that on the SLS. I mean they started work on the SLS in 2011 and the shuttles last flight was in 2011, so the parts would still be on the spares shelf ! If the old design was leaky then they've had 11 years to come up with an alternative and get it right. Did anyone watch the live stream press conference after ?? - the Panel were more like politicians, not answering any awkward questions and skirting around the answers that we all know. One was what financial impact each scrub costs NASA. None could say that whilst some fuel could be recovered they didn't know how many tankers are used and do the simple math... This was the head of NASA, the flight director and several other top profile people !

From memory, all I did was undo the (6 if I recall) screws around the base of the tube that holds the mirror cell in place and the whole assembly came out

On most goto mounts, Vcc and Vdd (typically 12v) can be found on the pins that connect to the handset as this is the main method of powering the handset. Technically, as the communications between the motorboards microcontrollers are 5v TTL serial, all you need is the TX/RX and GND wires from the TTL Serial to USB chip, be that Prolific or FTDI. This is how I connect my HEQ5 to the observatory PC. I purchased a 2m open wire FTDI 232-5V cable direct from FTDI's website and then terminated the TX/RX /GND wires in the RJ plug according to the EQMOD prerequisite web page. If your mount has one of the newer motorboards with a built in USB-B port then provided you can get the Prolific driver to install and run on whatever platform you are running then using a standard USB A-B cable would be the safest route. If you are replacing the handset with an EQDIR cable, then I would suggest its worth buying the correct EQDIR cable that's intended for use with that mount. Spending £35 on a cable that is know to work is cheaper than spending a few quid on an untested adaptor only to find out it fry's the motorboard... that's my 2p worth anyway !

I would be very careful using convertors between 6 and 4 pin RJ connections, don't want to shove supply voltages up the PICS UART and blow the motor boards !!

So what do you get when you right click on the entry and select properties. And what's listed under the hardware ID on the DETAILS tab. For info, Prolific drivers are not built into Windows since Win7 was released. The story went that as part of the development of windows Microsoft wanted hardware vendors to provide drivers under licence. Prolific didn't want to sign up for whatever contractual reasons so drivers for prolific devices were not built into to windows from that day forward. So when your PC is detecting the hardware it can not obtain any descriptor as the driver is missing. If using the option to update driver fails you can always try to install the driver manually as a legacy device, navigating to the INF file if the driver installs one Alternatively try the current drivers from prolifics website

A quick google came up with the following... too long ago for me to remember Type: CCD; Color · Sensor size: 1/4" · Pixel size: 5.6 x 5.6 (micrometers) · Image format: 640 x 480

Scrubbed ....

Ignore the fact this is an ardiuo (it's the easiest thing on hand I could use to show you that opens a new com port). When you connect the handset via the USB cable are you saying that you get no indication at all in device manager or does it create a new com port but it has a yellow exclamation mark against it ? - If you are getting an indication that windows detected the hardware with the normal audio bing-bong sound, but device manager is unchanged then try connecting the handset to a different computer to rule out your computer or windows installation as being the reason you are having this trouble. If you manage to get the com port to show up but it has no driver installed, open up properties and navigate to the tab shown, and select hardware ID - copy the fist line in the box below and google that string - this will identify the correct chipset used and driver required If on connecting the handset to two computers you get the same result of hardware being detected but not showing up in Device manager then check you haven't enabled to option to hide devices. Click on View Tab and then Select View hidden devices and see if it is then made visible

If all you want is to replace the old power connector with the new BNC type then there are several websites detailing the DIY approach to change this on existing mounts. The only other benefit the new ARM based boards offer is that they have a USB-B port allowing direct connection to a PC so no need to buy an EQDIR cable if PC control is needed. Personally I don't think the newer boards offer much more over existing PIC based boards. As far as I know the module you linked to should be a direct replacement as it states it's for the EQ6 pro, but at £144 to get a better power connector and a built in EQDIR connection.... its your money 🙄

I have a serial device(serial camera shutter release) that needs a prolific 2303 driver, and the attached works on both windows 7 and 10 (the observatory PC is old but does the job). Worth a try PL2303_64bit_Installer.zip

Sound advice.... As the handset port has both Vcc and GBD pins, these will get shorted by the USB -B plugs shielding.... Attention is needed when making all the connections

By default EQMOD is expecting the scope to be pointing in the normal home position, ie, weights down, pointing North with the RA axis pointing at the NCP. When you install EQMOD you need to set up the "driver" using the ToolBox utility to instruct EQMOD to use the correct comms port, and the location of the observing site and the altitude above sea level. Once set you need to do the same in whatever planetarium application you use. EQMOD doesn't have the ability to transfer this info to other applications, or other applications pull it from EQMOD. So once you have entered all the location and time details (again make sure that both are using the same daylight saving options) into both applications then you should be able to unpark the scope select a target in the planetarium program and the mount should slew to target.

Jeff, pleased to hear it appears to be working, and for detailing your workflow. As far as I know (and would love to be corrected if required) that the EQ6 doesn't have physical encoders, so all the positioning is calculated by/through EQMOD. So in theory, every instruction APT sends to the mount via EQMOD, the positional data is then fed to the other applications via the ASCOM platform, so CdC should then update the telescope position on the map.

The motorboard firmware loader application can be found on the motorboard firmware page here v 1.78 would seem the one to use - There are two versions of firmware, ignore the version 2.04 at the foot of the page, this is for the older PIC based motor boards. The 2.15v for EQ6-R (with USB port) would appear to be the one suitable. But as Steve says, if it ain't broke no need to fix it. Last thing you need is a bricked mount

Most of these newer revision of motor boards with a USB port require the resulting COM port that windows creates to be set to a baud speed of 115200 in order to permit communication. This value needs to be set in any software (EQMOD or GS Server) that is used to control the mount.

Your question is too open ended. If all you want to do is visual observing then a Dob will fit that bill just fine, It's as basic as you can get, a tube set into a yoke on a rotating base. The main advantage over any other form of mount is for a given budget you get more aperture compared to any other scope. If you want to start imaging, then you will be limited to the options available, possibly just taking a video of the moon and stacking the result. The reason is that they are non equatorial and lack the ability to track correctly, by that I mean they suffer from field rotation. EQ mounted scopes tend to be more costly, mainly because the mount forms a good 50% of the cost. Their main advantage is that they can track a target without any field rotation, making an EQ scope more suited to imaging. The draw back is that to get something to take the weight of a scope of similar size to a dob the mount needs to be sturdy which tends to lean towards mounts that are heavy and expensive. But an expensive mount will have the precision if you want to do some serious imaging. You can modify dobs to function as an EQ mount using raised platforms etc. But this can lead to other issues as by design they are not meant to function in that way. Equally you can use an EQ as an ALT/AZ mount, but then if the mount is driven the software won't function correctly as it's not expecting the mount to be used this way. There are AZ/ALT/EQ mode scopes that overcome this with dual mode software, but again, these mounts are more costly. Also there is the topic of mobility. An 8" dob is far easier to transport to a remote site compared to a 200P on and EQ6, especially if you have a 200m trek from the car park. But then for a similar budget you could have a 12" or 14" dobsonian which can be less portable, and require several trips to transport the scope in sections. As I said, the topic is too open and really needs fine tuning to state the advantages / disadvantage between two or three different models of scopes.

You have a new revision synscan board as identified by the USB -B port. You're best bet it to use a standard USB - A to B cable (active if longer than 3m). Connect it to the mount and then the PC and power up. Windows should detect the new hardware and place a virtual com port in device manager. If it shows a yellow exclamation mark you may need to download the Prolific driver for a USB to TTL serial driver from either SW website or Prolific website. Once this is installed and the COM port is no longer showing any warnings, open the properties and set the transition speed to 115200 baud. You don't need to connect any cables to the handset. In fact the handset can be removed completely as you should not use it when using a PC to control the mount. You will also need ASCOM platform installed to allow all applications to communicate through it, and I recommend using EQMOD as the "driver" for telescope control. - Configuring EQMOD has been covers time and time again on the forum, so no pint in repeating things here, just use the search function to throw up previous posts.

I believe they are both identical motors

I remote into a PC in the observatory using remote desktop. My workflow is to boot the observatory PC, open CdC and connect to the mount (HEQ5) vie the TELESCOPE > CONNECT TELESCOPE and having EQMOD HEQ5/EQ6 in the select box (this is remembered from the previous session so doesn't need changing). Hit Connect and then once EQMOD window comes up I HIDE the CdC connection window and EQMOD is minimised. I then open APT and connect to the dSLR camera and then PHD2. I use PHD2 purely for running the Imaging plan, PHD2 guiding and all gotos or mount control via CdC using the right click > slew to target option. This all works for me. I've never used APT for mount control