astromerlin

Depending on actual dates Kes and I are also interested.

Kes and I are booked, thanks Grant. Can't wait now. See you all there.

I'd go with gravel, line the path with 3"X3/4" wood staked in, weed mat and then fill with gravel.

This does mean digging out though, so perhaps organise a "bring your own spade" barbie/starparty.

If we can work out a wire-reattaching method... I now have a 10D sensor to practice on :-(

How about this stuff to re-attach wires?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/0-3ML-Silver-Conductive-Compound-Electrically-Paint-Glue-Wire-Paste-Trace-Repair-/381261278511?hash=item58c4f16d2f:g:SRMAAOSwNSxVOvyD

John

Are you saying if the sensor is broke then I wouldn't received any date?

Rick

It's difficult to say, I've had cameras that have shown an all white image as well as all black but no real image. If you check all the ribbon cables are properly in their sockets then it may well be the sensor is bad.

Hi Rick, Double check the connections on the sensor it might bring it back to life. It will save 1.8mb of data because the firmware is told to do so, if the sensor is broken or not connected properly the "data" will be zero (black).

This is a huge thread.  I just found it, it seems like the only one I can find on the internet that might have a solution.  I saw someone earlier in the thread had damaged their sensor wires.  I had a sensor that I defiltered/deglassed and later cleaning it I destroyed one of the wires.  I can solder to the frame edge contacts, but the sensor itself refuses to adhere any solder.  Anyone have a fix for this...maybe I have to grind down to get to the actual pads or something...but they seem to be electrically conductive, just wont take any solder.  I might try to use electrically conductive tape or something to fix them, thats the only thing I can think might work.   Anyway, any tips?

It's a long shot but you could try using electrically conductive paint/glue used to repair heater matrix on car rear windows.

With all the good weather last month I managed to grab some data on the Tulip nebula with the 130pds and Canon 1100d

20 x 300sec rgb

10 x 600sec Ha

All subs captured at iso1600, and my first attempt at combining ha data with rgb.

I've just stumbled onto this very interesting project, now for the dumb question, will the accuracy of polar alignment using your method be affected if I have cone error in my setup?

Your quite welcome to disagree, I am thoroughly enjoying this thread so far and crossing my fingers that you suceed. I'm sure I would have given up a few sensors back.

ATB

I've stripped the 1100D down and removed the sensor assembly complete with cold finger then removed the filter housing revealing the cover glass ready for action later. Although tempted, I'm not tackling it tonight. Need to be fresh and have plenty of light. All put safely away in a box for now.

Hi Gina, If I remember rightly, the last sensor you tried to remove the cover glass with heat you still had the cold finger on and said it was very hot and the sensor didn't survive. I suggest that you remove the cold finger from the sensor so It does not conduct heat through the sensor.

Another thought is to apply a dab of heatsink compound to the center of the cover glass and rest a small block of aluminium on it so that any heat you apply will be conducted through the glass towards the aluminium and away from the sensor.

Dont shoot me, a mad idea perhaps. Depending on the thickness of the bonding material, how about trying a hot wire to slice the bond from the glass?

Hi Gina, How about getting one of these to fix to your hot air gun which will localise the heating.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Screw-Locking-Circular-3mm-Nozzle-for-850A-Hot-Air-Rework-Station-/130914744041?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item1e7b2076e9

This looks like fun

I have a water damaged 350D I bought a while back for spares, the main board is toast but the sensor worked fine... so it's now volunteered itself to science.

The cover glass didn't want to come off nicely in one piece, but got it all of eventually whilst holding it upside to avoid any tiny bits of glass falling on the sensor.

I'll have a play with it under a microscope next week, and see if any solvents have any effect before attempting to polish it off.

How about asking if there are any chemists on the forum that might suggest a solvent or chemical that would remove the matrix?

What's the substrate under the bayer matrix made of?

Great thread this, I plan to do mine sometime next year. About the rubbing belt situ, Would it not be prudent to make up some end cheeks epoxied to the larger pully so the belt is guided on the pulley. With both pullys guiding the belt it will be less likely to move off if there is a small difference in parallel alignment of wormshaft and stepper.

Things I have learnt using an SPC900 lx modded.

Once you've installed the usb converter drivers the lx side of the webcam will be available as a com port. You can see which comport in Windows by right-clicking on 'My Computer' and selecting 'Properies' click 'Hardware' and then 'Device Manager' scroll down to 'Ports' and double-click to dropdown a list of comports available. As you plug in the lx lead a new comport will be displayed. Capture software will have a dialog so you can select a comport (mine is always com2). The capture software will remember the comport selected the next time you use it. In order to keep this working without headache you will need to plug the LX usb plug into the same socket ALWAYS!! otherwise your LX comport number will change and you'll have to find what comport number and change it in the capture software.

I use WXastrocapture, I've not used Sharpcap yet because it keeps crashing on my machine (it's probably something simple i've not sussed yet) but most capture software have a textbox, just enter number of secs and start long exposure.

That's pretty much all there is to it , If you dont see a brighter image then the 'DTR' OR 'RTS' settings in the capture software may need to be changed, it all depends on how the lx mod was wired by the person who did the mod. Sharpcap has the right SC1 settings as default but I have had lx webcams that were wired differently.

Hope this helps..

PHD offers, in its camera dialog, "Long exposure webcam with LXUSB" and "Long exposure webcam with Parallel/Serial" so I think it can use LX modded webcams as guide cameras.

Hi, I have started using Phd for guiding with a modded webcam I use the "Long exposure webcam with Parallel/Serial".

I bought a USB/serial converter off ebay,one of the blue see- through

types and it didn't work at all then I bought one the same type as this one (not the same seller though)

USB to Serial RS232/RS 232 Cable Converter/Adapter DB9 on eBay (end time 06-Oct-10 13:28:40 BST)

It worked fine on my XP machine and because I had refitted the cam in a larger box I removed the USB board from it's case (the two shells of the case are not glued and are just a press fit) and installed it in the cam box and a length of serial cable has enough wires to get the cam USB and the converter wires out to 2 usb plugs at the end making a tidy job at my USB hub.

I did the LX mod with the 4066 chip. Since then I had timing problems at settings of less than 5 sec exposure which makes the cam useless for using as a guide cam. This may be due to my setup as I run the cam off a 5 meter active usb lead.

I am going to try and use the nand gate chip Steve Chambers used to see if there is any improvement to the timing issue.

Modding the SPC for long exposure is far easier than the Toucam. All the connections are made at the plug that joins the two boards together.

The Amp-off mod turns off the on-board amplifier whilst doing an exposure. If you dont do the amp-off mod, at exposures of more than 1 minute you will see a light patch to one side of your images (called amp glow) this can be removed to some extent in processing.