Jump to content

Gina

Beyond the Event Horizon
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    45,326

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    120

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Gina

  1. Gina

    All Sky Camera Mark 7

    Gina commented on Gina's blog entry in Astro Projects

    I don't think sealing would work well enough with a remote controlled cover so I shall concentrate on the skirted version. The idea I have is to provide a tube to go round the lens and sealed to it and have the cover like a lid with curved top going over that.
  2. Gina
    After an overnight Windoze update I was able to install SketchUp and the extras I need and have it working. So I think the W desktop can take a running jump
  3. Gina
    I don't know of any screw on domes but many have a lip that can be used to hold them and you can use a sealing ring to stop damp getting in. I use TPE or TPU 3D printing filament and make custom sealing rings with 3D printer. These are a rubbery, flexible plastic.
  4. Gina
    Optical quality would not be adequate unfortunately.
  5. Gina
    I've ordered a Pine64 processor board for this project. It is similar to the Raspberry Pi but has a USB3 port I can use for the camera and the Ethernet port is gigabit, so downloading images will be much faster. It also has a 64bit processor and 2GB RAM so like a Pi with go faster stripes It has a Pi compatible GPIO port and another as well. This should work like the RPi but faster and with more facilities.
  6. Gina

    All Sky Camera Mark 7

    Gina commented on Gina's blog entry in Astro Projects

    Now then... Motorised cover... I guess 28BYJ-48 stepper motor and A4988 driver module to drive it. That isn't a problem. More of a problem is the cover itself and how the drive is arranged bearing in mind that the stepper motor wants keeping dry. The cover either wants to seal to the lens or have a skirt that goes down over it sufficiently far that the horizontal rain we get here sometimes, can't blow up under.
  7. Gina

    All Sky Camera Mark 7

    Gina commented on Gina's blog entry in Astro Projects

    Here's a photo of the Mark 6 ASC with lens. The yellow bracket holds the RPi board and locates the unit within the casing. This will require a redesign, as will the casing either to use no dome or to use a different dome. I tend to favour no dome.
  8. Gina

    All Sky Camera Mark 7

    Gina commented on Gina's blog entry in Astro Projects

    These images show the reduction in quality and the lights reflected in the dome. Discarding the dome would get rid of these but the lens would want protecting from bad weather and wind blown dust and therefore would want a cover over it when the ASC is not in use.
  9. Gina

    All Sky Camera Mark 7

    Gina commented on Gina's blog entry in Astro Projects

    My Mark 6 ASC has been working for about 9 months but now the acrylic dome has yellowed and become less transparent in spite of being an expensive CCTV camera dome designed for outdoor use and guaranteed not to yellow.. This means either getting a replacement every year (or less), using a cheaper acrylic dome or dispensing with a dome altogether and adding a motorised cover for the lens which is only removed when the camera is in use. I have not yet decided on which option to use or the design of this ASC. These photos show the yellowing of the dome, a cheap smaller dome from one of my earlier ASC versions and the internal parts of the Mark 6.
  10. Gina
    This is my latest generation of all sky cameras and based on the ASI178MM followed by ASI185MC CMOS astro camera and a Fujinon fish-eye lens of 1.4mm focal length. Although rated at f1.8, this lens lets a lot more light through than this would imply. Image capture is provided by a Raspberry Pi 3 in conjunction with INDI software. This is used with KStars/Ekos client software running on a Linux Mint desktop indoors. Communication is via Wi-Fi. The Mark 6 ASC has proved inadequate after being in use for some time. This blog will describe the problems of the Mark 6 and report my progress in developing this new version.
  11. Gina
    Amp has arrived
  12. Gina
    Spoke too soon! TeamViewer dropped connection to Win desktop and now won't reconnect. Looks like I shall be using the laptop instead after all...
  13. Gina
    Seems I've fixed the Windows desktop Left it running overnight and it's still working fine And TeamViewer is still connected and working fine
  14. Gina
    Took the vacuum cleaner to the Win 7 desktop and sucked up pretty well all the dust including the heatsinks. I took the graphics card out to clean it as I couldn't get at it properly in place. The fan and cooling fins were well clogged up with dust! The central processor heatsink and fan were also very dirty as were the PSU and case fans and grills. I have now connected the desktop up again and TeamViewer is now working again. So I may have cured the problems. Tomorrow I plan to take the Linux Mint desktop and give that a spring clean followed by adding the new 3TB HDD. Unless the Windows desktop fails again I shall leave its Data HDD in it and copy the astro images off it and onto the 3TB drive in the Mint box via the 1Gb/s wired LAN. That's a lot faster than USB. I also want to set up my 6TB NAS drive in due course
  15. Gina
    Fireplace opening is a rectangle with dimensions of 16.25" wide x 23.5" high and I have several pieces of 48" x 24" OSB spare. I had planned to fit the board inside the opening but I could just as easily put it on the surface of the fire surround and use battens to fit inside the opening. That would save me cutting half an inch off one edge I have power tools - a circular saw I can use for the outside and a jigsaw for the round speaker hole.
  16. Gina
    The speaker has arrived and boy, it's heavy Total weight is 2.76Kg of which 1.1Kg is the magnet! It's rated at 250W RMS and the lower frequency limit is quoted as 27Hz. I reckon this will work so I've ordered the amp which is due to arrive tomorrow. I have decided that I don't want to spend £300 on a subwoofer box and estimate the total expenditure on the fireplace subwoofer system as around £70-£80 plus a bit of time and elbow grease
  17. Gina
    Been checking the Win 7 desktop. There's certainly something wrong with it. Tried a standard monitor and it behaves the same AFAICT. It could be overheating - I've taken the side panel off and it's very dusty so I'll take the vacuum cleaner to it. I get no output from the monitor connection on the MB so I presume that's been turned off in the settings. I have backed up all my 3D printer designs onto a USB drive. There also seems to be a good part of a TB of astro images on the the second HDD. It would take ages to back that up as the Win7 desktop doesn't have any USB3 ports and TeamViewer is no longer working. If this is formatted NTFS as I presume I might still be able to mount it in my Linux Mint box. I never use the optical drive these days so I reckon I can allocate the four SATA ports to the two SSDs, another for the 3TB HDD and the fourth for the 1TB drive form the Win desktop. The Win 7 laptop should be able to take over all I used the desktop for.
  18. Gina
    No, haven't tried that. Thanks for the suggestion But I think the problem may be the graphics card. I'm using a separate graphics card and HDMI connection. I can try using the mobo graphics and a standard monitor.
  19. Gina
    The laptop has an HDD divided into two partitions, one of 200GB with Windows 7 Home and software on it and the other with 240GB for data. I could move lots of files to another computer or the NAS and I could dump most of the astro software. That should give me plenty of space to do what I want. ie. Install SketchUp for 3D print designs principally. I shall also need to transfer the current SketchUp designs over and save astro files from the Win desktop.
  20. Gina
    The Windows desktop is going to need some attention (or dumping). It keeps crashing Can't reinstall the OS as this was second hand and I haven't got the Win 7 DVDs. It may be worth buying another old Win 7 desktop and moving the data drives over. OTOH maybe I could use the Win 7 laptop now that is isn't my imaging computer. It would be rather nice to recover the space taken by the old Win 7 desktop
  21. Gina
    Found keyboard and trackball for Windows 7 desktop, connected up and powered the desktop. Set TeamViewer to "accept" rather than "accept exclusively" as for the laptop and I have TeamViewer working using the 9 digit partner ID SUCCESS!!
  22. Gina
    I've ordered that speaker to have a look at. If I don't like it I can return it (for any reason within 14 days). Might order the amp. I have at least one spare 24v 5A PSU and might have two but they aren't expensive anyway. (The amp wants two 24V 5A supplies.)
  23. Gina
    Been looking at subwoofers yet more and the only difference I can see between different sizes (8" to 15") seems to be power capacity. So I think I'll buy an 8" one and try it - not much to loose at about £25 Looking at QTX 8-Inch Woofer with Kevlar Cone and this amp to drive it - DROK® TDA8920 Subwoofer Stereo/Audio Digital Home Amplifier 140W Power AMP Module DIY I reckon I could use 12mm OSB as the baffle with extra bracing - easier that thicker board.
  24. Gina
    I find digital to be "rough", sounds rather like a slight distortion yet my technical side can't work out why.
  25. Gina
    I now have TeamViewer connecting to my Win 7 laptop I was able to ping my Windows laptop and get reply. Then I tried the "Incoming LAN connections" set to "accept" rather than "accept exclusively" and using the 9 digit ID from the desktop TeamViewer rather than the IP address, it worked. Of course, this means there's a tiny possibility of access from the internet and hacking but I guess this is probably negligible. I did try turning exclusively back on but then couldn't connect either with IP or 9 digit ID.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.