malc-c

So are you saying that regardless of the speed setting (1-9 on the handset) the mount will only move in three of the four rotations, ie the RA azis will move back and forth, but DEC will only move in one direction ? If so, does the same happen with the ST4 removed from the mount? I've never tried scoping a board, but if what I described is the case then it could be that one of the four driver chips has blown. It won't be the PICs as you've not reported any messages on the handset about an axis not responding. If both axis move in both directions when the fastest slew speed is selected then it won't be a faulty motor board... Is the scope balanced and the CofG correct? The suggestion to try EQMOD and an EQDIR cable would be to rule out the handset as being the cause. If you find that with EQMOD set to 1 or 2 fo the four speed settings and slew the mount moves then it would point to the handset or the cable. Good luck

I guess it's whatever you are used to. I played about with Linux, Kstars and INDI a few years back, probably not long after the Pi came out. For me I found it very confusing and frustrating as most of the time it was still command line driven and scripted. Things have probably moved along a lot more and now INDI is becoming as widely supported as ASCOM is on the windows platform. As I've already mentioned, I use two PCs which are both hard wired via cat6 cable to the GB switch that forms the centre of the home network, and use remote desktop for convenience. If you find linux "better" than windows, then look at the post from discardedastro and follow that path. There are so many options and none of us can really tell you which path to go... There are dedicated controllers like Asiair (although I think these only work with their cameras) or you could use USB over Ethernet to get over the distance issue.... it can get as complicated as you want to make it...

Ignore my message I just sent. I read your other post and see that your original module was purchased new from FLO just a few months back, so return it and get a replacement under warranty.

Its under warranty - so request a replacement under the terms of the warranty Flow should be able to help you and resolve this without any cost.

You're welcome. And yes, your board is the later revision (J) which has the two jumpers, which when both are in place designate the board as an EQ3 mount Just as a point of reference, whilst these boards are quite reliable and can last for years, people have occasionally found an issue where the mount fails to respond and handset reports "Both axis no response". If you ever get that issue don't throw the board away and buy a new one, drop me a PM as I have the means to reprogram the microcontroller and replace them as detailed in this thread Most of the boards I've repaired have been damaged as a result of plugging in the wrong connector in the wrong port, and under normal use these boards last for years...

My observatory is 2.2m x 4.8m, divided into a scope room and warm room (although even with insulation in the floor, walls and roof it's not really warm in winter so whoever came up with the term must have been drunk at the time !) The cables are fed from the PC in the warm room, down a pipe that runs under the floor, then back up to the pier in the middle of the scope room, to the top plate where the hub and power is. So whilst the distance as the crow flies between the PC and mount is less than 5m (probably circa 2.5m) the actual route is close to 5m. From the hub most USB cabled are 1.5m or 2m depending how far away the device is, or how much slack is needed so they don't get snagged NUC - Next Unit of Computing - Basically an ultra small form factor PC. Typically 4.5" x 4.5" x 1.5"

Bob, thanks for the clarification. I didn't want to mention things that were not applicable. I'm not familiar with your guid cemara, nor with ST4 guiding, but if I understand it you have something like this (ignore the makes / models, it's just the wiring I'm referring to) I personally doubt that the board is faulty as they either work or don't, rather than work at max slew rates but not at low ones. The thing is the pulses will be tiny when guiding, so you probably would struggle to see them although you can normally hear the motors make a song as they are applied. To be honest, if you are using the set up as shown I would suggest you invest in an EQDIR cable for your mount, download ASCOM and EQMOD and do away with ST4 altogether. The combination of EQMOD and PHD2 works so well, and both will give you the indication you need to confirm its working. Sorry having internet issues and this uploaded before I had finished... EQMOD is simple to use. If you can use PHD2 you can use EQMOD. Both have simulator options if you want play rather than run live you can...

What's your budget? There are companies that han hypertune mounts like the upper end of SW (HEQ5 / EQ6 / EQ8) so that you can get upwards of 10 minutes unguided, but you are looking at adding £500 to £800 to the cost of the mount. After that you are into precision mounts with encoders and zero backlash gearing (iOptron, Paramount, or 10micron or a robotics mount)

10m is pushing USB, especially if it's going to a hub which then has other devices connected to it. I have two 5m active USB cables between the observatory PC and the mount. One then has the EQDIR cable connected to it, the other is connected to a HUB. The guide camera, dslr camera, and gamepad is then connected to the hub. The observatory PC then handels the software (EQMOD, APT, CdC and PHD2) to run the sessions. If it's cold I can remote into the observatory PC from the main PC via the home network and monitor the imaging session from the comfort of the lounge. As Julian mentions, the alternative is a dedicated SBC such as the Pi, or a NUC if you want to stick with windows that can replace the full blown PC if space is a problem.

Can you give details of your set up. Presumably you are using an EQDIR cable between the PC and mount, and possibly EQMOD to control it, or are you linking via the handset with a PC Direct cable, or using some other hardware to interface between the two ?

I was half right.... Motherboard MC002 for EQ3 PRO GOTO (jumper in JP1 and JP2) / EQM-35 PRO GOTO (no jumper) / EQ5 PRO GOTO (jumper in JP2 position) So it uses jumpers to designate which mount the board is to be used with rather than resistors, which would make sense as it means only one production run is required and then the board can be set depending on the customers needs at the time of sale

I've been discussing this on a user group and the consensus is that there may be some subtle difference between synscan units made for an EQ3 and those designated for an EQ5 given the main gear ratio and different stepper motor resolution used. The opinion is that a designated pin on the microcontroller will be taken high or low and the firmware looks to see the state of the pin, and if it's high sets the value of certain variables to suit the gear ratios for one type of mount, if it low then it sets the variables for the other.... So to answer your question the two units might look the same, may contain identical boards apart from one or two components that may or maynot be present, and as such are not interchangeable.

You can rule the first unless the new unit has a USB port. - It would seem that despite the differences in the mount the firmware is the same. So in theory you should be able to just connect a new EQ5 box to your EQ3 and it should work right out of the box without needing any firmware upgrade. It would make sense from a manufacturing point of view for both models to use the same unit. I would love to know how the handset, or controller knows which mount is being used as the ratios are different...

Most of this thread went right over my head... but one thing at has always puzzled me with the speed of light thing is that if it were possible to be travelling at the speed of light in a straight line and I had a torch with me, if I pointed it in the direction of travel and turned it on would I see a beam of light ? - Some say yes as it's relative to me, but I've always thought that the answer would be no I wouldn't see the beam as the photons are doing the same speed as me (light speed) and as such I would catch then up the moment they leave the filament because nothing can travel faster than the speed of light... or so we are told.

The 9 x 50 stock finderscope with the same camera https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-cameras/sky-watcher-9x50-finder-adapter-zwo-asi120mm-bundle.html I'm not sure what you mean by live view in real time. If you mean to simply do "visual" observing from your PC screen via a camera rather than traditional imaging where you take and stack images then most quality CCD astro cameras and software could do that, so the individual exposures are "stacked" in real time. I don't do a great deal of imaging as I used to, but a typical session would be to open up the observatory, power up the mount and PC, target a bright start and check focus, then go back to the house and remote desktop into the observatory PC from the main PC in the lounge. I would then select the target, frame it and once guiding is up and running start an imaging run. After the first 5 min sup is complete and looks OK I leave it running and go watch some TV or do something else. One thing I do use is a webcam in the observatory so I can keep an eye on the scopes position and to check no cables are getting tangled.

In a word - Nope ! The EQ5 is really on the limit for a 200P / 200PDS. (having started with an EQ5/200p combo myself) - The ideal minimum mount for a 200PDS is an HEQ5 in my opinion

To be honest, anything over 60 seconds and I use guiding. From a review website https://telescopicwatch.com/sky-watcher-heq5-pro-review/ I can't comment on the other mount, but if you want long exposures with the stock HEQ5 then you will need to implement guiding, or hypertune the mount (replace bearings etc). https://www.darkframeoptics.com/product/heq5-hypertune-mount-tune - £400 gets you a mount that will give you 5-7 minutes with an ED80, or 3 minutes with a 200P, with 0.6 arc sec guided. £550 adds more refinement and a claimed up to 10 minutes unguided with a ED80. Personally I think you are expecting too much form a mount that is really at the bottom of the imaging mounts

When you were tracking Andromeda for that hour how far out was the tracking visually. Did it drift completely out of the field of view of the camera or wide field eyepiece ? I use EQMOD so can't really comment on the handset, but if it's really fast could it be that the tracking rate is set to luna if it's faster than sidereal ? I've never tried centering a star in the field of view and then let it track without guiding to see how well it performs on a PA mount, but given the mass production, and pricing point, I wouldn't have thought that the mount wouldn't drift over an hour even if the mount was belt driven to remove some of the backlash. Rather than use a large target such as Andromeda, re-do the experiment using a bright star such as Rigel or Betelgeuse. Center it, set it tracking in sidereal rate and set the stopwatch running. It should be a simple matter of establishing the field of view the camera or eyepiece has, and then time it to see how long it takes for the star to drift out of the field of view. This might help establish if there is a real issue, or if it's just the tolerances of the mount in question.

No they are not a direct swap out. The hardware is the same, but the firmware will be different as the gearing of the mounts are different. The EQ3 has a gear ratio of 715:1 with 35200 microsteps per worm revolution, whilst the EQ5 has a ratio of 705:1 and 31288 microsteps.... However the firmware can be flashed using the application and firmware from SkyWatchers website, using an EQDIR cable or the handset and a PC-Direct cable. http://skywatcher.com/download/software/ It's a straightforward process to flash the firmware. Naturally if you purchased an EQ5 unit, flashed it with the EQ3 firmware and you bricked it you would technically have voided the warranty....

Just call or drop FLO a mail - I'm sure they will advise you what connects to where. Or RTFM https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/manuals-guides

Glad to hear the USB connectivity has been restored. If you are controlling the camera from a PC then it doesn't matter if the screen is dead as long as the camera still functions and you can take images. I was lucky when I modded my 400D, but I have been around electronics since leaving school in '78 so it wasn't so much of a daunting job at the time.

By moving the sliders for RGB on the completed stack I copied the single image 5 times, stacked, and then move dthe RGB peaks so that they gave the contrast and corrected the image - Naturally with darks, bias and light frames the image will be better - No need to use imaging processing - DSS has the ability to correct and stretch the data

Hi Steve and welcome, not only to the forum, but to the observatory owners club I echo the comments about running the marathon... It's all too easy to spend money on stuff you don't need, or get all the gear and then find it becomes complicated to co-ordinate the equipment and you spend more time sorting out technical issues rather than imagine. To start with use your existing equipment. It will allow you to get to grips with the basics such as mount control and the software behind it. Before splashing out on a nice CCD camera and filter wheel, pick up a cheap canon 450D or above with live view. Purchase the 9 x 50 finderscope / guide camera packages that FLO or RVO offer for under £200 so you can become familiar with the guiding process. The 150P on the EQ5 inside the dome should get you started for DSO's. For solar system images you need magnification and large aperture, so the 150 would be pushed to work as a planetary scope. You will get images of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, but adding barlow lenses to increase magnification reduces brightness and resolution, however upgrading the scope and the mount at a later stage can always be treated as a second phase of the project. For controlling the mount you will need some form of computer. For simplicity a lot of us with observatories use an old windows based PC. It doesn't have to be the fastest machine as most software is fine on hardware that is circa 10 years old ! Other systems such as a Raspberry Pi running Linux and INDI are a possibility, it all depends on what you are comfortable with. On Windows, most of us used EQMOD as the "driver" and the ASCOM platform as the common interface between applications. A £30 EQDIR cable is used to connect between the PC and the mount. The PC also runs applications such as APT or BackyardEOS to control the DSLR camera, and if you have the dome automated, the software to control that too. Then its a simple matter of remote desktopping into that PC from the one in the lounge so you can do all your imaging from the comfort of the house. Once you have mastered the basic setup, then you can look at upgrading the mount, the scope, and replacing the dSLR with a dedicated astro camera as your ability and experience grows. A good friend of mine (and an SGL member) started off using his EQ6 and a basic scope which if memory serves me correctly was a 200P or an ED80... He now has a 200mm Ritchey-Chretien sitting on an EQ8 and a QSI 638 camera, and prior to that had a SW 10" quattro, which gave him no end of issues...The amount of data he puts in, often with 100's of single images to stack and grade has resulted in several images being featured in Astronomy Now and other mainstream publications. The point is that he didn't do that overnight and straight off the bat.. it too time and it evolved as his experience grew and his budget allowed (hard to accept that his camera cost more than my car did !) If you have yet to control your EQ5, then order an EQDIR cable form FLO, download ASCOM, EQMOD and an astronomy planetarium program such as Cartes du Ciel and then have a play. There is something quite magical experiencing the action of moving a scope at the click of a button

I use the stock SW 9 x 50 finder with an adaptor to suit my old guilde camera to guide my 200P / HEQ5 - works just fine using a PC running PHD2 and EQMOD - no need for expensive interface boxes

If you connect the handset and you don't get any error messages such as "failed both axis" or similar, and you can run through the setup and manually, set the slew rate to 9 and slew the scope then this would suggest that the motorboard in the mount is fine and the issue is with the AsiAir devices. Now I've not had any experience with these devices, so not best placed to advise, but reading the manual it seem that the device is power and USB hub with wi-fi connectivity. Connectivity between the mount and the device suggests an EQDIR cable for mounts that do not have USB control such as the NEQ6. You could therefore check that cable directly by plugging the EQDIR cable into a PC and directly into the mount. However you would need to install the driver for the USB/RS232 chipset the EQDIR cable is based on. Once the driver is installed the com port should show up in device manager and running EQMOD Toolbox on the PC to configure the port used will hopefully connect to the mount. If after installing the driver the EQDIR cable is not detected then it may have been damaged in some way and a new EQDIR cable will resolve this issue.