fwm891

Meccano - wonderful stuff - hours spent in my youth with spanner, screwdriver, cogs, wheels, shafts... - memories 😀

22 hours ago, Alan White said:

 

...I await the full cabinet finish replacement for the plastic pet food psi/ workbench solution 😉

Thanks Alan, The pet food tub is actually very convenient, being on wheels it easily moves around to where it's needed. Having had a couple of set-up sessions now I'm really liking the built in hub on the CEM60 - it means now I just have the one short USB lead from the mount to the lappy and one mains feed cable to the plastic tub. Much better than the long USB cables from the mount/camera etc back to the lappy before.  Looking forward now to doing some imaging.

It's not beyond bounds that I might produce a cabinet of sorts for the obs...

Broken cloud last evening but woke early to clear(ish) skies and spent a hour adjusting the PA with drift align. Down to sub 1 arc minute.  Have another go hopefully Tuesday night which C.O. is telling me should be OK....

The replacement mount arrived earlier today so thankfully the weather has remained dry (though cloudy) and allowed me to try the different scopes and mark the dovetail bars, counterweight bar and saddle where the resective balance points are. Tried slewing around the sky using CdC as the pointer.

Photos show the mount with the 115 EDT mounted plus the SX Trius 825. At it's coest to the walls the camera has about 50mm clearance with the 115 +SX Trius. The other scopes Edge HD 8 and the little William Optics ZS 73 are no problem.

So need some clear skies now please 🙂

1 hour ago, SyedT said:

Yes, there's an option in the module which can extract stars.

I only get the Stide or Star mask options when I open in PI or am I missing something?

+1 for Starnet++ - just playing with it at the moment - quite processor intensive.

Currently waiting for my CEM 60 to arrive but the best mount to date is an Avalon Linear Fast Reverse. Superb mount - still regret selling that. 

Really impressed with an image I played with last night so I thought I'd have a look at the effects of the different Stride settings on an image containing nebulosity, brightish stars and small stars.

Bellow is a sheet showing the original luminance stack and the 4 stride images. Plus the individual Stride images.

Captured with SX Trius 825 through Altair 115 EDT-APO, processed in PI (aligned, stacked and STF).

I have the PI version. Tried it last night on a couple of old image files it really is superb. Star masks are much cleaner (and simpler) too.

Impressive. Are there any idiot starting guides for this. I've got it to load but not had a chance to play yet  - just had a play - superb!

Oh yes I remember the Finchley road shop - bought an 9¾ inch mirror blank from Dud. Went back a while later trudged all the way out there only to find he'd moved to Farringdon Rd !

20 hours ago, davew said:

Hi Francis,

I don't know the answer to your question as posed but I did think the 800E was controlled via USB and not serial. All it requires is the USB cable in the box ?

I can't help much with the 5100 either but it's not a setting in the camera is it ? I vaguely remember the older cameras could be set either mass storage or P2P but don't know if that's relevant.

Dave.

Hi Dave, The 800E is working now after changing the internal (printer style USB lead), it does need both leads - a 10 pin to the DSUSB and another USB 3.0 to the PC. It will give any length exposure via the 10 pin socket using an intervalometer (eg: Nikon MC-36). But the D5100 I've now tracked to the 8 pin DSUSB to camera lead being faulty. Again works with an intervalometer (I have a clone version from Amazon for the D5100). Ordered another 8 pin lead from Shoestring Astro for the D5100 so I can get control via the PC again.

For me it's my Altair 115 EDT-APO refractor. Great imaging scope and very useful for visual (so I'm told🤔)

Decided against a fixed wall shelf and made a little platform to sit on top of the trolley. That way I thought it would negate trailing leads across the obsy when I needed to move bits around...

@michael8554

My DSUSB unit I thought had packed up and I didn't want to spend a fortune on a replacement if there were other alternative in the market place right now.

I've narrowed the problem down to one camera now and probably one lead. I opened the DSUSB and changed the usb lead (printer cable) for a better quality one and one camera (D800E) is now working so the DSUSB unit is actually OK. The D5100 still doesn't work so that led me to suspect that it's connection to the DSUSB unit was faulty. I've ordered a replacement lead from Shoestring so will see if that's the problem once it arrives...

Having some problems lately with my Shestring DSUSB trigger. Fine on exposures 30 seconds or less but will not fire when set to any length exposure if bulb is selected - this is using my Nikons D5100 or 800E via Backyard Nikon (BYN ver 2.09 or 2.10) or via frame and focus in SGPro ver 3.###

Is there an alternative to this DSUSB unit out there?

I've swapped cables, tried different usb ports on the lappy and desktop PC's....

Help please

Can this challenge be extended by a couple of weeks?

Two adjustable shelves added to take gear. The plastic bulk pet food container carries two Maplin 7Amp regulated PSU's with 12 VDC feed cables to various pieces of kit (4 available) - the PSU's sit on hanging shelves below the top plate. An anti-surge mains sockets for smaller adapters all housed in the moveable container. I was going to break this down and put the PSU's on shelving but with the small obsy space decided I would keep the mobile as they were when using the iEQ45 Pro outside on the patio. The Tosh laptop will sit on a shelf to the upper left of the photo.

Too hot today to do much on the obsy but I have fitted some stop bolts to the track so the roof now opens fully. I have also been laying out the scopes along the back wall so they're convenient when I swap them over. I've ordered some Spur shelving uprights and brackets and will make some timber shelves and covers to secure them to and keep the dust off.

My CEM60 standard is back with FLO after the long wait for iOptron to deliver. I had and sold a very nice quiet and smooth tracking iEQ45 Pro to get the CEM60. Although I've been hit by all I can think is poor  quality control because iOptron had to get some CEM60's fast. I've not being tempted by either CEM40 or CEM60 EC or going down the SW route. After all the headaches with my NEQ6 Pro I won't go back to SW.

I'm in Rob's capable hands now hoping he can do what iOptron should have done. If the mount is beyond repair I just pray the replacement doesn't have to go back...

Time will tell.🙏

Floors down now - Tri-pier sat in position...

59 minutes ago, mckinnell said:

Francis,

      I have just had an idea to embellish your advice which will be taken up my friend, and that is, if i mark out and drill either side of where the tripod end go into the drilled holes actual, then, would it not be a problem to form three metal bands, say S/Steel type, and then as a loop screw them in place to render the tripod end 100% unable to move, thus, as they say a "bib and braces" approach with a positive end, what do you think mate?.

 

                                                                                                                              My very best regards,                 Tom.

Tom - If your holes in the concrete are the right size then the angle of the legs lock the spikes in position. However the metal bands would lock the legs in place nicely. Trying to think back to my iEQ45 Pro's tripod the spikes I think were 8mm and I drilled 10mm holes in the patio slabs for the spikes to wedge into.

1 hour ago, Rusted said:

I haven't read the description but your excellent padlock hasp is only as strong as the smallest screwdriver which will remove the fixing screws.

A padlock hasp must always cover/conceal its own fixing screws when closed. Anything less is wide open to drilling with a cheap, rechargeable drill.

The screws must be the largest and longest possible and far more preferable, the largest bolts or machine screws which will fit.

With lock nuts and load spreading washers and/or steel , load spreading plates inside the structure. A small and light crowbar will easily apply tons of localized pressure.

The tools for burglary are readily available cost almost nothing these days. I speak as a victim who lost all his power tools to the scum from a [supposedly] padlocked shed/workshop.

Well the hasp/staples are on the INSIDE of the build, they're screwed and GLUED to the roof framing. Access to the build is via a low door with two 5 level dead locks - no exterior handle to grab hold of. I have two dogs which will bark with strangers around.....

UK Geological magnetic variance calculator: http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gma_calc

With ± 8° on the mount azimuth adjustments I should be OK.

My site variation

On ‎16‎/‎07‎/‎2019 at 22:26, mckinnell said:

Francis, I know that you are using your tri/pier, but, i have the large heavy mount that comes with the 300PDS and NEQ6 PRO set up, you can see it on Rother Valleys site, and am wondering that if when i pour my 8 ft Sq slab, and, as it is going off, i placed the tripod ends which have distinct point to the ends, into said concrete, after setting up, removing the tripod would leave three distinct impressions that, hard set as they would now be, i am thinking this would hold very fast the tripod thus rendering the need for me to spend out on a pier, the cost of which i find so expensive, and as to making a pier, if this method seems ok, would enable me to not have to build, hope this makes some scence, your comments would be gratefully received.

 

                                                                                                                        Regards and thanks,              Tom...

Hi Tom - Sorry late reply. You can do that but better would be to leave you slab and then once you know where your tripod is going, mark where the feet/spikes sit on the slab and drill small holes at these points. Your holes will be more precise. If you position your tripod with a 'north' leg and you don't change the height/spread of the legs you can drop the tripod into the same holes each time you move and re-set for another session. That's what I did with a 2" steel tripod before investing in a tri-pier.

This weekend has seen the moisture/water barrier lining installed, floor joists in their hangers and start made on the T&G flooring. I've also fitted some heavy duty hasp and staples (3) to lock the roof in it's closed position. To that end I'll simply put a carabiner through the staple. When away or if heavy weather is forecast I'll put padlocks there instead. Should also keep the roof on 🙂

I cast 3 concrete blocks with indents for the tri-pier feet to sit in. The blocks are 200 x 150mm (8x6 inches) at the base and 150x150mm (6x6 inches) at the top. The indents are 65mm diameter and 12 mm deep (2½x½ inch). I consulted the UK geological site to get an accurate magnetic variation for Hereford and set the block positions with the tri-pier in position, a reasonable compass and rubber mallet...

Finish the floor tomorrow (run out of screws) then varnish the floor while I wait for the mount to be returned or replaced.