Dave_D

wish i could afford that sort of gear... no buyers for my spare internal organs so far lol

So after quite a few emails to the excellent Dave at Rowan Engineering, i can get 12T and 47T pulleys to fit, although the 47T will have to be sleeved to 6mm. What i don't know though, is the calculations required to see if i'll be getting the same ratios... my Vixen GP has 144 tooth gears on the RA and Dec, which i believe are the same as an EQ5 and it's currently using an EQ5 upgrade motors and gears. Anyone got any links to how the calculations work so i can work out if eqmod needs custom settings?

"Just to say to everyone that getting the polar alignment error down to a few seconds of arc is really unnecessary (although fun...)!" well it's your fault for giving us the tools to do exactly that

Having watched the polemaster videos, the one thing that really impressed me was that there was no 'click this or that star right in the middle'... sharpcap is far more intuitive to use.

Ok, i'm having an out-of-body moment with this one and just looking for opinions... I've been looking at various mounts and their belt mods, yes the rowan mod, and after a quick google, it appears that people on cloudy nights have done belt mods for Vixen GP mounts (although there is no specific details listed) Aaaaaanyway... it got me thinking that as i already replaced the original stepper motors on my GP with a synscan EQ5 upgrade, would it be feasible to replace the gears provided with the synscan kit with a good quality belt drive? Just a thought as: a. i want to tinker b. i'm broke so no mount replacement c. i adore my Vixen GP

finally managed to get my scope out for a play tonight... fired up sharpcap and (although i've never used it before) within minutes had the best polar alignment i've EVER had... Robin, you're a goddamn hero wasn't intending to try any AP as, with my personal situation meaning it's been 2 years since i did any, i'm rusty as hell, but fired off a few subs anyway. no guiding whatsoever, balance was questionable and the dew was starting to form at -3 degrees at 2am this morning but what the hell... for totally unguided, i'm really impressed with sharpcaps abilities even managed a small amount of detail my new favourite, Barnards Merope Nebula lol just a quick stretch and not much else. got a bit of distortion in star images but thats probably down to having to clean the mirror and it needing a bit more poking and prodding to get into shape, but all the software updates/new stuff apart from phd2 (which totally refused to calibrate and failed every time on the clearing backlash phase) worked flawlessly.

"Even going gently (best results are obtained by scraping with a small baguette)" that made me laugh...

Robin, have you been poking about in code again? just did a completely fresh install of ascom standards, ssag drivers (including ascom driver) and sharpcap 2.9 and lo and behold, my orion SSAG worked straight off the bat... happy is an understatement... will save me a fortune not getting a polemaster

Or, failing that, hit it with a mallet

Have you looked here? http://www.homautomation.org/2015/01/22/expand-arduino-io-with-1wire-ds2408/

have you tried the Dallas one-wire library? I had to use it for a DS18B20 one-wire device

Don't know if it's been mentioned or asked, but is the 450 sensor a direct replacement in the 1100d?

dunno about you Gina, but it never fails to amaze me the monetry value people place on broken items...

just bought one... still gonna solder it though have to retain my rep as the demon soldered of olde manchester town...

this would save messing with soldering irons and shrink tube. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RJ45-UTP-Cat-5e-Cat6-Gigabit-Ethernet-Network-Tool-less-Connector-termination-/331322561179?hash=item4d245d129b

true, i'm more inclined to use 'quality' parts too, but isn't that just perpetuating the overpricing of a great deal of kit that has 'astro' associated to it.

there's this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2pcs-PL2303-PL2303HX-USB-to-TTL-RS232-USB-Serial-Cable-Connector-Adapter-/261110516124?hash=item3ccb66499c only thing to worry about is the listing says it's not compatible with windows 8. wonder if that rules out windows 10 as the free upgrade is out in a few days. I use XP but y'know, others might have trouble.

getting the sensor absolutely square would be a pain though. wonder if a 'wedge of cheese' profile sensor would still work

i used this one and it works a treat. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-4-phase-5-wire-Stepper-Motor-Gear-Motor-28BYJ-48-12V-for-DIY-Project-XN-/271475220977?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3f352f21f1

this may be a daft suggestion, but has anyone tried putting the wooden scraper inside a spring loaded biro pen or something similar? that way it would be much harder to put too much pressure on the cmos surface... just a thought.

you have some luck there... i've been looking for broken 1100D to try to debayer, unfortunalely, people seem to think broken items have some intrinsic high value attached to them. last dead 1100D i saw went for over 50 euros

ahhh but you forget the dreaded 'astro' link with it's auto 4x cost calculator

i'd just end up depressed using one of those...

itching to have a go at debayering but there seems to be a complete lack of 1100d sensors available and the only place i found that *could* supply them wanted more than the cost of the camera when it was new stupid for a discontinued model methinks.