upahill

I was going to volunteer my height but still need to buy an awning as I tore the last one at last years SP so probably not the best qualified to help 🤣 (In my defence the awning was older than me, and damp!)

I didn't count properly, but there are around 2000 emoticons. At between 0.5-1kb each - so if they are all loading on selecting that dropdown thats between 1mb-2mb to download. They are all being resized too which slows down the loading a bit. Maybe there is a way to find out which emoticons have been used the most and restrict it to those? Then again I dont really mind waiting a few seconds each time I click it 🤣

Just caught up with your build last night and it is very inspirational, looking forward to getting the chance to do something similar myself so the wealth of information that yourself and others put here is invaluable. Thank you for documenting it

Can only speak for my own experience but mine are gorilla glued together without bolts (3 blocks) and then gorilla glued to a paving slab again without bolts and it hasnt moved at all. Good luck with the build!

Seems like the move went well. Congrats, site working great for me.

Good luck May the power of root be with you!

As John78 said the AstroEQ would be a perfect fit for a next step. Goto, autoguider, ascom support etc. The motor mouting you have done is a really neat solution. When I tried it I went with a larger pulley ratio and it really threw off the ability to tuck it all away neatly. Also have this mount in black, was billed as Skywatcher too but unbranded - identical in everyway though. Possibly an older version or one they sold for OEM rebranding?

I thought it was a character LCD at first, but actually I think its a graphic lcd panel, which would explain the extra pins. I have had some success in the past asking manufacturers to help identify components. I would start by seeing if something like this matches the physical dimensions of the LCD you have. Then get in touch with that supplier and see if they can identify compatibility / alternative options from your pics. I imagine that the pinouts are going to be the same across similar screens, and believe there is no embedded controller on these so may be worth a punt for a few $?

It looks like a basic 2 line LCD module, but the 30 pin connector is confusing me a little. Visually very similar to ones like https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/1602-16-Characters-2-Line-LCD_60758385192.html?spm=a2700.7724857.normalList.78.bd9048604VZ0Uu but unless some of those pins are shared I can't imagine what the difference is?? All the ones im finding are 15 pin

You're not new so ill skip the usual warning about the sun ? but if it was me I would only really consider imaging with the refractor. I know there are people who have some success with dobsonian imaging but much much easier on an EQ mount from my experience.

Great project! That looks like a nice solid way of doing it. Do you have a pier adapter ready to go on? Interested in which type you go for as mine should probably be replaced soon. If you have any concrete left a few inches of "mower border" might help out in the long run

Just booked Thurs-Monday, excited already. Glad to hear the marquee will be there again too.

Hopefully we will be there again this year. Need to double check the dates but fingers crossed we get some clear skies

After tinkering with the smaller K40 we decided it wasn't quite up to our needs and decided a small upgrade would be more beneficial in the long run. A 12 hour drive and overnight stay in the Lake District later and we arrived back home with a larger 50W machine, a second hand 80W CO2 tube and upgraded power supply. The 80w upgrade will have to wait as we want this machine cutting asap. It's all set up and running now, but waiting on some extras to make the process a little healthier and cleaner. New extraction system (a bouncy castle blower), a water chiller, new focus lens, and a load of stock is due to arrive (3mm plywood, mdf and slate coasters) Took a while to get aligned, but is cutting 4mm MDF in one pass now so happy with that. Once this is up and running fully I can concentrate my efforts on finishing up the CNC build.

Looks amazing up there, drive past a few times each week and keep wanting to climb up

Great choice on the Prusa. Tomas Sanladerer on Youtube has some great videos on youtube for tweaking/building/configuring the prusa.

Looks like a great site, and not too far from us - is the google maps picture accurate still as to which pitches are hard-standing? Do they all have EHU?

That screenshot is the first real look at openscad I have had - and will be steering well clear. Life is complex enough for me without that ? I've been coding since about 12/13 but I genuinely feel somethings are best interpreted with a nice GUI. Kudos to anyone who can get their head round it though! It must get very complex very quickly for intricate parts.

What about something like this to help dampen any vibration, and still fully printable... https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1707045

Quality looks great, must be quite quick with a 0.8 too. How long did that part take?

Worth mentioning that the bizer used to use the x3g format for sliced files - so most slicers couldn't handle it, or the gcode would need to be converted first. If thats the case you will find it easier to use the recommended slicer (I think it was the one from Makerbot when I had it) - The bizer is a mechanical clone of the Makerbot Replicator 2, but uses a different controller. There are some other options for handling that but to get used to it stick to whatever will output in the necessary format. Of course, im hoping they have changed it and switched to a standard marlin/ramps setup, in which case ignore everything I just said ? Some packages will let you import an STL and then work from that body (solidworks does for example) but its usually dreadful and you end up doing stuff like filling in holes and then remaking them because you cant modify the original. For fairly simple stuff I prefer to just redesign it and its usually quicker. Redesigning it also has the added benefit of giving you a file you can further tweak down the road.

Cut my teeth on the Bizer, its a great little machine and there has been a whole host of mods and improvements designed for it as it has quite a large following - search for bizer on thingiverse and you will see what I mean. Best mod I ever did was the Y rod bearing mounts but this has probably been resolved in the newer versions anyway. When it arrives I recommend going over it briefly and tightening any loose bolts on the frame, and double check terminals are nice and tight. I cant help much with the software side of things, I use Solidworks as I happen to have a license but its overkill for what I do. Have heard good things about Fusion 360 though. Thingiverse will get you started with stuff to print though while you get your head around creating your own custom stuff. Have fun!

Getting that sort of stuff done commercially is always going to be expensive. A maker could probably have just modeled the old brackets and printed them for pence. 3D scanning seems excessive for the job

I just had the connector melt / almost catch fire on the headbed for my Tevo Black Widow - even factory connectors shouldn't be trusted as being up for the job. Thing is I knew this was going to happen - its a known fault - but still annoying - pretty sure its taken the board out too when it fried. But, this is why i NEVER leave the printers alone - ever. And why I have fire extinguishers next to them. ...... So what are everyones recommendations for cheap printer controllers? - I cant stretch to a duet, so thinking of a MKS sbase, or a ledgre (but that is closed source/not marlin) I would like 32bit though.