malc-c

Having removed all IR filters from my 400D (like a surgical operation) there are a lot of flat film connectors that either have small flaps that fold down, or pull up to release the printed film. If these flaps are not released properly the tension on the film is not released and it's easy to break the film at the point of entry. The only way to check that the cable is intact is to check each trace with a continuity tester. You could get lucky and release and reseat each cable and connector, but if that hasn't worked then chances are one of the traces on the film has been damaged.

Wow, that's an impressive image, love the colouration. Glad to see that the scope is functional, and only required the one PIC. I don't frequent the forum as often as I used to, so if any of you guys see posts from someone having similar issues get them to tag a post on the end of this one and that will notify me. I still have four PICs left in the bag, so can repair another four boards (or a pair of HEQ5 / EQ6 boards)

SGL Members 3, Synta 0 Very pleasing to hear that we have given another set of motherboards a new lease of life. Just remind me never to use Hermes couriers again 😉

Hi, Can you post up some pictures of the boards to confirm what PIC they use. In theory it should be the same as those used in AstroGeeks DOB. If they are 16F886's the pair can be had for under £5. I notice that your location is in Spain, which may be the only logistical issue, in that I would suggest some form of trackable delivery service is used to send me the faulty boards and for the repaired boards to be returned should you want to take a punt on having the PICs replaced in order to see if that resolves the issue. I'll drop you a PM with some details, and we can go from there. It's also been a while since I did these (I've slept since doing the last set of boards ) so will need to look at my notes, but I'm sure we can get your dob back up and running if it is the PICs that are at fault

As mentioned I was messing about "developing" a belt drive, and has to use off the shelf pulleys, which gave me a 4:1 ratio. The current commercial kits made by Dave over at Rowan Astronomy are machined to give the same ratio as the factory gear set so there is no need to change this. Doing so will screw up your slews and tracking

Just posted this yesterday on my build thread - still fully functional, although I tend to remote into the observatory PC from the lounge these days rather than sit in the "warm" room, especially as I've fitted a small workbench in there as well, so it doubles as a small workshop which can be isolated from the scope room

Well it's that time of year for the observatory's annual maintenance, a lick of preservative There was the odd lose board that needed a screw to secure it back in place, and the winter storms produced a small leak where the felt wraps over the wood section that prevents the roof falling off the warm room, which in hindsight could have been a tad thicker to reduce the angle the felt needed to be folded, but it's done now, and to resolve that means rebuilding the entire warm room roof and that ain't gonna happen ! - Especially as its a very small leak, and I have an idea how to fix it without too much work. I've attached an image showing the difference in four years, and other than the above, this thing has lasted well (faired better than the patio chair that is now falling apart !) considering it's now 8 years since construction commenced. The conifer tree that we thought was going to die off has made a recovery which is a good thing on one hand, but on the other it now needs 4' lopped off the top as it's obscuring a good chunk of the Western sky. The hedge is now a lot lower, and the tree behind the observatory has been pruned back considerably. The warm room now doubles as a workshop with a bench and my late father-in-laws pillar drill, but other than that nothing else has changed since the last image in 2016. Its rewarding to see that after 8 years of winter storms, with winds of 60+mph, 2' of snow, -11c in winter and +35c in summer, that the design and build has stood up to it all, and for the cost of £8 for a gallon of preservative and a few screws each year

Have a look on YouTube for Dions guide to balancing the OTA. https://youtu.be/hGduG2jB9ec?t=131 and his recap https://youtu.be/uK2bXfVNoQU They are old videos, but the information is current. It deals with one issue that is often overlooked and that is the Centre of Gravity (CoG) Basically with the mount as sweetly balanced, either with or without the bias for imaging it means that the guide system doesn't have to work harder or over compensates. With belt modified mounts there are less items in the drivetrain to create backlash. If the mount has been converted to a Rowan belt mode by the retailer, then the worm meshing and backlash should not need touching as they would (should) have set this up prior to selling the mount. My scope hadn't been used for nearly three years until recently when I gave it a full overhaul and set it all back up from scratch and then went through lots of fine tuning over several nights with PHD in order to get the best out of my finder guider. Now the scope is performing really nice given the limitation of using a finder as a guide scope.

I thought if you choose ASCOM driver in the PHD2 connection box it used whatever settings the driver (EQMOD) was set to... didn't realise you also had to set the guidrate in PHD's profile settings too ! I might go back and double check my settings

I presume you are using EQMod to control the mount ? If so the rates are changed by moving the sliders under "ASCOM pulse guide settings" top right of the application (need to expand the default view by clicking on the spanner and >>> button)

Looking at the range I would agree, rebranded Skywatcher / Synta products

OK it's obvious that you are trying to get into astro-photograpy on a budget. But IMO the mount is not going to give you the accuracy and stability to do so. The drive is intended to maintain position for visual observing where it won't matter if the polar alignment is off, or if the battery is running low and the tracking is slightly slower. The drive is a simple DC motor system and the mount will have a fair bit of backlash and lacs the precision required to produce sharp detailed long exposures. It will be fine for taking pictures of the moon, or wide field constellations where single 20-30 second exposures with a 55mm lense will not show any error, but for any deep sky work that requires a scope or heavy lens and long exposures the mount simply is not up to it. The mount is the most critical part of any true imaging rig, which is why you see pictures of HEQ5 / EQ6 / EQ8 with relatively small scopes on them. Its their ability to precisely track even whilst carrying a lot of weight that they are used. And as anyone who ventures into imaging it is not the cheapest side of the hobby compared to visual observing.

More like an old Tasco EQ mount

Can you advise us what make and model the mount is as some will be better than others. It's really difficult to advise when we have no idea on how capable the mount and motor drive is But if the motor on the RA axis is designed to work with the mount you have then it should provide good enough tracking for wide angle shots with your camera and lens. Provided you can polar align the mount well there would be little to no tracking errors in a wide field image. It's only when you start using long focal length lenses or telescopes that the alignment becomes critical, and limits the exposure duration before guiding is needed in order to prevent star tailing.

Good point... could it be that the filter changed at that point (although if the 14 exposures were on the same filter that would mean it was 84 minutes before the change whereas the issue occurred around 47 minutes into the guide)

It look like the star just disappeared around frame 590. Whilst the S/N and Starmass is up and down (possibly related to the guide rates being low) at that frame it dropped completely. Could it be that after the 47 minute mark the star went out of the fields of view of the OAG or cloud cover ?

What mount do you have.... given that most DSO need stacked long exposures the mount is probably just as much, if not more important than the scope used.

If you have the log file enabled and saved, maybe post that to help diagnose what the issue my be.

Looks good - not sure what the project is, but you could always make and sell them to other forum members unless the project is very unique ?

Thanks for the summary of what you have and what you have tried... Just to clarify things (not that I may be able to offer any more to the cause as other posters are more knowledgeable on PHD), are you still having the same issues as the first HEQ5, regardless if EQMOD or the Synsan app is used? One observation I made is that with your scopes 1400mm (as per calibration data) focal length (presumable you are using a reducer as the C8 is normally over 2000mm f10), and an OAG, could the issue be that the calibration pulses are moving the star too much, or that it moves it out of the FOV of the OAG?. Could it also be a factor that what has been suggested as poor seeing could be a combination of a faint star and f10 ratio giving a faint image of the star ? My experience of guiding has been with short fast guide scopes like the ST80 and now the 9 x 50 finder, with no experience of OAG, so apologize if my comments are irrelevant, or my assumptions are wrong.

The new generation of Ryzen processors are caning intel at the moment.... But as far as astro imaging or stacking is concerned any modern day processor is fine. You don't need a 32 core overclocked CPU to stack images in Deep Sky Stacker.....

Late to the party on this occasion. I've read through this thread, but can't seem to find info on how the mount is being controlled and how the guiding is set up, other than a comment that the OP is not using EQMOD. Just want to add to the comments on backlash. Belt mods do not remove backlash to these mounts. There is still backlash in the worm and in any small tolerances in the pulleys. When I was developing / experimenting with belt conversion years ago (before rowan engineering made a business from it) I opted to use EQMOD and went for a 4:1 ratio that helps with the harmonics for PE. - But I feel we're digressing ... The thing I can't understand is the fact that in this original image the calibration steps are not at 90 degrees to each other for RA and DEC Are you still having the same problem ? - or does the calibration now gives you the correct L shaped tracks ? What is bing used as a guide scope or is the OP using an off axis guider ? If the OP is not using EQMOD, is this something they would consider? Using an EQDIR cable - It would certainly rule out whatever method is being used to interface the PC to the mount.

I presume by the fact that standard serial communications and EQmod has meen mention in this "USB" post that the mount is connected to a PC via an EQDir cable. If so is the cable plugged directly into the PC or via some form of USB extension lead. If via an extension lead then this may be where the issue is as USB signals cannot be guaranteed to maintain integrity over 5m distance unless an active cable is used. However if the issue is with communications EQMOD will report a comms error. 25amp is overkill for a PSU to drive a Skywatcher mount. An HEQ5 / EQ6 typically draws 1.9amp on each motor so a 5amp supply would be the minimum, 10amp would be ample You mention that gotos are off, yet you also stated that you don't do the alignment procedure. Is the scope permanently mounted in an observatory ? - If not then the rouge goto's are probably more to do with poor PA than the instructions to direct it. Unless the mount is fixed, you will still need to clear and re-do the alignment points in EQMOD for each session, otherwise the corrections it used from the previous session will be used, which will naturally be wrong as the scope has been moved.

Whilst expensive, you can't beat genuine meanwell power supplies. I've been using a 48v Meanwell to power my DIY LED rig for the reef tank which has been running 24/7/365 for the past 8 years and not so much as a blip. Sounds like you have picked a good person for a neighbour... saving you a fortune on new motor boards and cameras

But you need to do this for polemaster or your suggested option in the first post. What guidescope / camera combo do you have. I used a QHY5 with a stock SW 9 x 50 finder to PA my HEQ5 using sharpcaps PA tool. Worked fine.