astronomer2002

Yes - me too. But I get the impression there are no 10% off's any more and the email offers from retailers have stopped too. An expensive day out with little chance of getting any 'bargains' any more, shrinking band of retailers, and the presentations are just too expensive for what they are. I'm afraid the hey day of Astrofest is long past. The Practical Astronomy Show in Stoneleigh next month has been the better option for a few years now.

It took several attempts to join Diffraction Ltd support as I got several "sorry, your application failed" email messages - but got there in the end. The response was helpful, but not very. I had kind of worked out Maxim DL REQUIRES you to have it as the default for .FIT files. It is not what I wanted as I have several other FITs programs, but it appears the expensive commercial software is not as flexible as the many free software programs that do the same job. It also required a lot of digging to find Maxim DL as despite several removal and re-install cycles it still did not appear as an option to open fits files. (as I said, not a problem for FREE programs). From the 'open file with...' windows prompt I had to search the disk for the Maxim DL intalled program and associate it from there. Following this Maxim doesn't produce the popup any more when opening .FIT files. A solution, but a less than deleriously happy owner of this pricey software. Ian B

Thankyou for the replies - I shall try support...... The copy of Borland C++ is a file backup from an older 32 bit PC that runs the product - it isn't installed on this PC (win 10 64 bit). Just here as a backup of the installer files and the code (CPROGS). Once lost it's gone forever and I still do fixes for code I've written. It appears to be an issue related to just .fit files as if I go to a folder with just jpg or tif files in it then the popup doesn't occur On this PC Photoshop is the default app for .fit files. There seems no way to associate Maxim with Fits files, or remove Photoshop as the default app. I have other programs that display fits files, and they can be set as default - but Maxim doesn't appear. Ian B

After installing Maxim DL 6 (6.29) on my win 10 desktop PC I have been getting an annoying popup every time I touch the program, and quite often when it isn't even running. What I get is a message box showing "Please wait while windows configures Maxim DL 6" and a scrolling bar that sticks around for ages. Looking at file defaults I can see Maxim is the default for several file extensions - but I am not using any of those (.fts, .fits, st10-st9, .237, .255). A separate program, Photoshop, is default fo.fit files. I have put up with this for some time as I haven't really been using the program much for a period, and now the support period is over, of course. The program works, but this is very irritating and regardless of pressing cancel on the popup Maxim will not respond until the messages stop. Then I will open another file and the pestering starts again. I haven't been able to find anything on the web about this - but there are loads of articles/forum entries about the same popup referring to Microsoft Office. These are not helpful and I do not get these popups in Office programs in any case. Anybody come across this or could offer any suggestions? I have alread tried removing, rebooting, and re-installing Maxim DL. Thanks in advance Ian B

Goran, Thankyou for the swift reply - good to know there are MESU users out there. I looked into doing that after talking to Bernard at Modern Astronomy, but there are some issues. In reality it would cost at least 6-700 euro for the trip and the export/import paperwork is horrendous (If I got caught). Have never driven in Europe and, when I was working for Mars, I used to fly into Belgium and Paris, and the taxi trips to/from the airports convinced me to never try it! It also takes 6 hours (Real time) to get to the ferry port from where I live in UK (which is the cheapest crossing). When I first started talking to Lucas it looked like the carriage would be under 300 euro, plus parts and VAT. That appears to have sky-rocketed since then. Ian B

Been a while since I posted asking for help with my Mesu 1 so I thought I'd put an update on here. Due to a change of plans caused by Covid I have not used the Mesu 1 I acquired and have struggled to pass it on. Without a pillar to mount it on it is sitting on an old tripod (precariously) whilst I try to come to grips with it. I have been able to get it to work pretty well with Servocat and ArgoNavis but have as yet not overcome the apparent slippage during goto's, which result in having to press the goto button on the Servocat hand box once, or twice, more. It always works, thanks to ArgoNavis shaft encoders. Balancing is tricky, as everyone finds out, but not that hard. The scope array (if that's what you put on) can be balanced off the scope, which will at least bring the Dec axis within Lucas's 10nm range with no requirement to do anything more. I found the RA axis, with the motor unpowered, is actually quite free and easy to balance. This may well point to the RA needing adjustment to increase stiffness. When power is turned on it becomes harder to balance. I wanted to make sure the mount was OK so contacted Lucas for advice. His suggestion was to send it to him for a 'service', and to that end I acquired a bespoke travel box. In the meantime I have tried advertising the mount at a low price to see if there were any takers out there. Every reply I have had, and some led to weeks of email conversations, made me aware that people expect these mounts to have Sitech controllers and be run from exotic (in my opinion) software combinations purely from a PC. To that end I was persuaded to delve into that (brave new) world to see what could be done with the Servocat controller. Installing Ascom for the first time I have got Nina to control the Mesu through it's USB socket (though the ArgoNavis needs to be turned on as well as the Servocat). I have got Stellarium to drive the mount through Nina, and this is a big improvement over connecting Stellarium directly to the ArgoNavis (as you don't have to press the goto button on the servocat handbox to initiate a move). I have loaded PHD 2 and got it talking to the Servocat via NINA as well, so pulse guiding works too. I can get NINA to directly send the mount to RA and Dec locations as well. What I have yet to do is get a camera on a telescope to allow plate solving to correct any slippage in goto's . I wonder if slippage is common in the MESU but not noticed as plate solving camera controlled moves will completely hide this. After all, these are friction driven mounts. I am therefore sure that the old MESU 1 mount can be controlled from the NINA et al combination that people seem to want to do via it's existing Servocat/ArgoNavis hardware. I had pretty much decided the Sitech 1 upgrade was essential to sell the mount so held off sending it to Lucas whilst I experimented. Now I am not sure it's much of an upgrade, which leads to a real dilemma as to the next step. If there was an easy (cheap!) way to get this mount to Lucas for a service then that is where it would be now. If it absolutely needed a Sitech 1 controller installed that is the time to do it then biting the bullet and sending it for the full works would be the right thing. I am still pondering this so am going to set the MESU up on the tripod less precariously in order to progress with better (and safer) tests, and allow proper polar alignment rather than the 'anywhere close will do' I have used for the testing to date. I am beginning to see the potential this mount possesses, but it's a world away from what I am used to. As I cannot build another new observatory to take the extra mount, which I also considered, I have to face the fact the MESU is too heavy for me to use as a portable (30 years ago it would have been a no brainer, but tempus fugit and long covid have taken their toll). Posts on this thread suggest there are a lot of happy MESU users out there, and a number have more than one mount. However, the small production runs and difficult times we live in, have rather stalled large scale take up of the design, and Brexit has made returning mounts to the supplier for maintenance/upgrades much more awkward and expensive for UK owners. It's a shame, that at the moment, there's nobody in the UK willing to take on engineering support for this mount. Ian B

Dan, Thankyou for the information on how you use your mount. I have left the default slew speed at 4 degrees per second, which might be higher than yours. What ramp up/down rate are you using? In the Servocat I have set 3 seconds. I assume you have a Sitech Controller rather than a Servocat, but the parameters ought to be similar. Your guiding figures are the best I have ever heard of. I have run a number of tests with Gary Myers that indicates there is a varying amount of slippage in both axes during goto's. It isn't predictable, except that the mount always comes up a bit short. This is why I thought the 2000:1 gear ratio may be wrong. I hear what you say about friction drives, but if goto's cannot get you even close to where you want them to then it would make it frustrating to try and run the mount entirely remotely. Plate solving returned images may help to determine where the mount is pointing, but it does seem a retrograde step to have to do this every time. Having now spoken to Lucas he tells me that every mount is configured with slightly different gear ratio's which he calculates whilst the mount is on his test rig. This probably explains why he couldn't provide a generic Dat file but general advice that the ratio is around 2000:1 Unfortunately it appears previous owners have not only messed with the software loaded on the mount but also the friction adjustment. After talking to Lucas I agree with him that the best course of action is to get the mount to him to apply any mechanical corrections needed. At the same time he will change the ArgoNavis/Servocat system for a Sitech controller. I had planned to do this myself, but it would be prudent to get him to do it. After it returns, which could be months away due to supply issues, it will be fully operational for the way I (and most other people) want to use it, be fully serviced by Lucas, and so be functionally as good as any Mesu mount out there. I shall then have to consider whether to keep it or move it on. The after affects of Covid have left both my wife and myself with long term issues so plans made when Covid was just getting started are having to change. Having said the mount potentially may need some mechanical adjustments I have to add that with ArgoNavis and Servocat in unison I always know where the mount is pointing and have been able to use Stellarium to drive it through the ArgoNavis serial interface as well, so not a disastrous situation at all. I guess I was expecting a mount that was over £4K new back in the day, and now running at £6.3K new, to be perfect from day one and exhibit better goto performance than lower cost mounts. One thing that must be said in favour of the Mesu is that the electrical and electronic parts are readily available and that they are supported by the manufacturer who you can talk to. Neither of these points is true for most 10 year old budget mounts. Ian B

Dan, I have a mi250 with original Gemini 1 controller and motors. Never had any trouble with it. I also have a 2002 AP1200, no unsolved issues and excellent support from AP even though this is also a s/h mount. I do also have a Mesu 200 which I am struggling with. I purchased a second hand Mesu 200 after hearing all the good reports about the mount and support for it. I contacted Lucas before the purchase and he assured me he was happy to support the mount. It's carrying capacity is supposed to be higher than the Mi250 and as I wanted to put multiple scopes on the mount I decided to try a Mesu. A previous owner of the Mesu seems to have changed the configuration of the Servocat and so I am trying to correct it. I lost the ArgoNavis setup during a software upgrade, but that seems to work fine now. I am now suspicious that the axes are slipping or snagging during goto operations as they always come up short. If I use the hand controller from the Servocat to move the mount until the ArgoNavis display suggests the object is close I invariably see it in the field of view. The ArgoNavis uses its own shaft encoders, of course, so as long as the mount is roughly polar aligned any object can be found in this way. I have run tests for Gary Myers, the builder of Servocat and the conclusion he has come to is that the rollers are slipping or binding during goto's. This is based on the 2-3 step goto code he wrote for Servocat. Given a goto instruction by the ArgoNavis he says the first course step should drive the mount to within 2-3 degrees of the target. The slew speed is then reduced to run a residual move and if necessary a final step to centre the object. On the test I ran I used the hand controller to move the mount to the object position to prove polar alignment. Then I drove the mount 55 degrees from the object in RA only. Now I issued a goto which should have driven the mount back to the object. Whilst it did alsmost achieve this the first stage only achieved 50% of the move (it stops between stages for a second or two) and according to Gary Myers even on the worst Dobsonians the first stage move goes at least 90% of the way. I believe there is handshaking at the end of each of these move steps between the AN and the Servocat, though I may be wrong. This may be the issue I am seeing as it explains why after a supposedly successful goto the ArgoNavis suggests the object is still some degrees away. Repeatedly pressing 'goto' does get the object in the field so I am minded to blame the odd performance on the rollers slipping or maybe binding. There is no sound change during a goto or slew so I have been progressing with setup of the Servocat. The way I understand goto's working is that the AN tells the Servocat how many ticks to drive each axis by. If it is always short then maybe the parameters are wrong. I am now not sure this is the issue but until I have the correct gear ratio and motor encoder resolution in the Servocat I am not 100% sure. I have been unable to get the original Servocat parameters from Lucas, though he has offered to check out and fix the mount if I take it to him. If he was in this country I would take the mount to him now. Taking it to the Netherlands is a long and expensive commute, which I would have to do twice. Mesu mounts may be excellent, but a small niggle in one can be extremely difficult to solve, as I am finding out. Ian B

I have been emailing Lucas for 3 months now - I don't think he has kept the dat files from the Servocat/ArgoNavis versions of the mount. This is why I am asking elsewhere as there are many enthusiastic users out there and I don't think a 10 year old high value mount is that old yet. I have a 20 year old AP1200 and any requests to AP for help get answered immediately. Try getting any support for a 5 year old Chinese made mount - it puts issues with other mounts into perspective. Ian B

Olly, I connected the Servocat to my PC via a standard USB cable (the Servocat has a USB port on the front) If you had a copy of the original dat file that Lucas should have included with the mount that would be a good starting point for me. Here's a screenshot of what I have set up

Olly, Thankyou for your offer, I was beginning to think there's no-one else out there running the Servocat/ArgoNavis control mechanism on a Mesu mount. What I need as well is the Servocat parameters which you can get from the Servocat setup program. I had no difficulty getting Stellarium to talk to the ArgoNavis, after making up the correct serial cable and setting the com values the same at both ends. It is the only one I have tried, but I can say it does work. Here's a page from the Servocat manual below:- The encoder resolution is from the motors used, and seems to always be 2000. The gear ratio I got from Lucas, and he thought it was 2000 for the original Mesu. I have no idea what the other values should be for the Mesu but the mount slews at a reasonable rate so is probably about right. The jog rate on mine seems slow. I don't know what to set for the accelerate/decelerate rate and wonder if my issue lies there. The goto's would work fine if they actually ended up where the ArgoNavis told the mount to move to. Press the goto button once and the mount gets closer than a degree to the object before announcing the move completed successfully. Unfortunately the mount requires the Servocat controller Goto but to be pressed again to encourage the mount to move closer (which it does).

I have had to replace the rotary selector switch on the AN and one of the buttons on the Servocat hand controller. These were both iffy and making it impossible to iron out exactly what was happening. This has somewhat delayed my getting to use the mount. Now those are sorted I am trying to get to grips with actually using the mount. I am struggling to get my Mesu 200 Servocat/ArgoNavis system to perform as well as I expect it to. This is probably down to incorrect settings in both ArgoNavis, which I accidentally lost during a software upgrade, and the Servocat, which had not been set up correctly by a previous owner. What I would like to know is the settings for the Servocat. I have asked Lucas, but he doesn't seem to have a record of the original settings. He did advise me the gear ratio should be around 2000 for the original Mesu (mine was set to 6000 Can anyone post a screenshot of their working Servocat system setup? (Olly maybe?) I have set the mount up temporarily on a tripod and using a C5 to try to iron out the issues. I have a rough polar alignment so not expecting pinpoint goto's, but they are close. Something odd is happening though. When I do a goto the mount slews to roughly the right place and beeps when it thinks it is there. However, on the AN screen there is a residual amount in both RA and Dec. If I press goto on the Servocat handbox again, the mount moves closer to the desired point. Sometimes at this point the object is in the field of view and sometimes a third press of 'goto' is needed. So it almost works, but not quite. Tracking appears to be fine. Another oddity is what happens if I connect a PC with Stellarium to the AN. Issuing goto's from Stellarium seems to work fine, but I am left with odd behaviour as the mount tracks. As the planetarium program relies on AN to tell it where the mount is pointing I see the telescope position on the program display drifting for a few seconds and then it jumps back to the centre of the correct object. It has been suggested this behavior is down to the resolution of the shaft encoders attached to the AN, which have 10,000 steps per revolution, meaning 1 step is 2.16 minutes of arc. The Servocat is tracking so the object doesn't move in the field, but on the planetarium program and the AN screen it looks like tracking has stopped until the next 'click' is recorded by the shaft encoders. Hopefully the above is clear to AN/Servocat Mesu users, and you recognise this behaviour as 'normal'. I really do need some help with the goto issue though as this is spoiling the usability of this mount. I will be grateful for any help. This is a good mount but rather complicated to set up. Ian b

HELP!!! I wonder if there are any MESU 200 owners out there who still use Argo Navis and ServoCat. I have just done something very stupid. I decided to update my firmware to the latest version from 2.04. I had a lot of difficulty getting the Argonaut updating software to work with the serial interface to download the setup info, so I just tried uploading the new firmware to see if that made any difference. It did, it worked. Even trying to stop it in a few seconds was not fast enough. Unfortunately the firmware on the ArgoNavis is now fried so I have no option but to load a new version. What I am after is the setup info from a working Argo Navis system - maybe the backup from a firmware update you did a while back? I've tried Lucas, but no reply as yet. Thankyou for any help Regards Ian B

Thankyou for the update. Seems odd. How do you interface the guider? Ian B Thankyou Adam. Does seem odd to design a new drive system without a direct means of attaching a guider, bearing in mind the previous generation of Mesu 200 mounts had the Sitech II which has a guide port. Ah well, food for thought. Still, the Sitech I is less than half the cost of Sitech II so financially more attractive. I wonder why Servocat was dropped as it has an AUX/AG port - though I never tried using it with autoguiding Ian B

Thankyou for the update. Seems odd. How do you interface the guider? Ian B

Thankyou for those replies. Haven't had an answer from Lucas on this subject yet. All the Mesu's I have seen have the Sitech II controller or Servocat. Just to be 100% certain - do your control boxes look like this rather than this I don't see a guider port on the Sitech I, can you use the AUX port for guiding? Ian B

Looking at updating my Mesu200 from Servocat to Sitech. There seems to be a huge price difference between Sitech I and Sitech II - has anyone got a Mesu 200 with Sitech I? I will be grateful for any help/advice Ian B

No luck in the UK, or even Europe, but have obtained one from Canada at a very reasonable rate. Thankyou Mike!

Martin, I have messaged you. hopefully you are willing to part with yours Regards Ian B

With the hype about upgrading AstroPhysics mounts to GTOCP4 control box I wonder if anyone in this country has? I've been looking for a GTOCP3 control box for a while but although they appear regularly on US based sites no-one there is willing to send to UK and they appear to be extremely rare in the UK. In order to keep my older AP1200 going I am looking for a replacement CP3 as I am experiencing occasional odd behaviour, that is usually fixed by rebooting. It's not the firmware as this has all been downloaded and re-installed along with replacement controller chips. After experiencing similar issues with a Losmandy Gemini based mount having a known good CP3 would make life less stressful! Can't really afford a new CP4 setup so just wondering what has happened to all the UK based upgrades. Ian B

Julian, Thankyou for your reply. I am sure it is the RA motor. I removed the motor from the mount and connected it with no load. Immediately get the issue. Removed the gearbox from the motor and on startup it spins for 1-2 secs at a low slew rate and then get the "RA overcurrent" message. Before that I tried swapping the dec drive over to the RA and that worked - until I tried moving in dec! I also tried just disconnecting the RA motor cable. The mount started up and moved in Dec but obviously didn't respond to RA requests. No error was returned with the RA motor disconnected even when asking it to fast slew so it looks like the motor is the issue. I took the gearbox off because I thought it might be the culprit since I heard a bit of a graunch when the RA started up, immediately before failing. With the gearbox off the motor juddered for a couple of seconds and did actually turn, but this behavior really only confirmed the issue was going to be the motor itself. Ian B

I have had my ZEQ25 for a long time and it has worked well until last night when suddenly I get the message RA overcurrent and it stopped. The mount is well balanced and I am using it for widefield imaging with a 65mm apo so not too much weight. Even with the clutch disengaged the problem occurs immediately you start up the mount. It seems there is little chance of getting help from iOptron so I wonder if anyone here has any advice or perhaps a spare motor. I thought of looking at the cem25 upgrade kit, which replaces the motors and control boards, but these are unavailable. Perhaps someone who has upgraded theirs has an old motor they would be prepared to sell? It's a bit of a longshot but I really hate the idea of putting a nearly £1000 mount into landfill for the sake of a £10 motor failure let alone the replacement cost. Thanks for looking Ian B

I'm afraid to say the problem has reoccurred as soon as I ran the scope at night for 20 mins. I have taken everything indoors and the Gemini has run the motors for 4 hours without an issue. Although I cannot see degradation on the board around the external handbox socket I suspect your analysis is correct. It is really weird that the system will run fine for a few mins before succumbing to the cycling menu issue. I'd have thought that if it was moisture on the main board then it would happen as soon as it was turned on rather than after running for a period of time. The board would presumably be colder and damper at the start of a session and dry out a bit in use. Maybe the air is so damp that condensation occurs on the metal socket when the dome is open but if the dome is left closed for a few days any residue evaporates in the slightly dryer atmosphere.

Peter, Thankyou for this explanation and images. I looked for the problem but there was no moisture I could detect on the board and the issue still occurred when the board had been removed from the case and brought inside the house to examine it more thoroughly. When I took it back to the observatory to try it during the day, with the board hanging in mid air in a warm dry observatory, (Sun was out!) the issue was still there. I admit I bit the bullet and sent my main board and controller to David Partridge for assessment as I could see no deterioration or measure any short. He took the socketed chips out and reinserted them following which the unit worked perfectly over an extended overnight run. I have just had it back today and in a short test it appears to work as normal on the scope, which it did not do immediately before I boxed it up for posting. Not sure what caused the issue but maybe some dirt I could not see had got between the pins. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will continue working and it was shorting between pins on the cpu. Ian B

Peter, Thankyou for your suggestion - I was hopeful! I took the motherboard out of it's case and let it hang down on the brick pillar with all cables attached. On startup things looked good as I was able to put in the details lost when I changed the battery last night. However, very shortly afterwards the issue reoccurred. Menu items started scrolling but no button had been pressed or could be pressed. I tried stressing the cable joint to the main board - no effect. I even tried stressing the board itself in case there was an unseen crack - no effect. Very odd, just don't know what to do other than ask if anyone has an old Gemini 1 setup they have upgraded to Gemini 2. Regards Ian B