Thalestris24

15 minutes ago, JonCarleton said:

Actually, Linux has supported windows partitions for years and the bootloader has supported coexisting on the same drive with Windows since at least the XP days.  So, yes.  Dual boot is, and has been,  an option.

What has changed is that Windows 10 can actually write to a Linux partition, where in the past you had to be in Linux to write to the Windows partition...one way street.

Thanks for your reply though my post was from nearly 3 years ago...

Louise

3 hours ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

It certainly is, although it will take a while to arrive.

Kate Bush reference?

Yeah - Night of the Demon movie and Kate Bush 'Hounds of Love' Great movie and great song cleverly mashed together here 

Louise

ps Very impressive for 10sec exposures!

"It's in the trees! It's coming! The demon - it's coming!"

Louise

On 27/02/2021 at 17:12, Thalestris24 said:

The adapter actually came today! I had a quick  daytime go on the frac - the adapter seemed ok, generally. The only trouble is my phone has a soft case and I don't really want to have to remove it. Still, I was able to get it in position. I had to set it up to use remotely via a desktop. Of course, any small vibration would be disastrous! Even so, I think there may still have been some vibration as the image wasn't as sharp as I'd hoped. It may have been just that I took the image through window glass else it might have been to do with the autofocus. On first switching on the camera there was just a relatively small, bright, round circle. But I realised I had to expand it with finger and thumb on the phone touch screen  . Much better! I'm not sure about using it at night except on the moon. I don't know how long an exposure the phone can take but it's probably not long enough for anything faint. I'll try it on the microscope when I can. Anyway, here's my first go:

 

 

Just a distant pylon  (much reduced in size. There is some shadowing on each side - I'm not sure if that may just be caused by the soft cover which does get in the way a bit). I'll try some more shots when I can. 

Louise

 

 

Have downloaded 'Open Camera' and taken a few more phone pics. Open Camera lets you operate the shutter with just a noise, which is handy. However, images are still unsharp and I've come to the conclusion it's because of thermals. Nothing I can do about that. A short focal length would help. My F4 300mm Pentax lens would probably work quite well but I'd need an EP (T2-1.25") adapter for it. I could make one

Louise

I'll have to try that 'Vantage' just to see if it's of any real use. I installed my old/new Green Cell battery earlier but it was dead, Jim 😢. My fault. Surprising that the original battery still works albeit only lasts about an hour now. I've ordered a new 4400mAh one. I'll install it straightaway this time!

Louise

48 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Removed as it didn't add anything

Oh never mind - it's the thought that counts!  My win 10 home won't let me use the remote desktop feature but the Project/Connect lets me do the same thing over my LAN so all's good. Mind you, not tried it in anger yet. I need to sort out all these blessed cables. I would probably benefit from having some very short male to female usb cables, if I can get such things. I can use a usb hub for some things, I suppose. The laptop only has 3 usb connectors - not enough for some things.

Louise  

8 minutes ago, wulfrun said:

Lithium-Ion-Polymer aka LiPo, it's what virtually all laptops, notebooks, tablets, phones and a heap of other things use. There is also Lithium-Iron Phosphate but that tends to be found in things like electric cars and BIG batteries. As best I know, it's not used in any more mundane things, partly because it's the more expensive option. I think some power banks use it though.

My last laptop actually had an easily-removeable battery pack that slotted in. It worked fine on mains alone and I only used the battery when I needed to. No such luck with the current one, it's internal as most are.

Yeah, mine just has a couple of spring-loaded latches - out with the old, in with the new! Fingers crossed!

Louise

The adapter actually came today! I had a quick  daytime go on the frac - the adapter seemed ok, generally. The only trouble is my phone has a soft case and I don't really want to have to remove it. Still, I was able to get it in position. I had to set it up to use remotely via a desktop. Of course, any small vibration would be disastrous! Even so, I think there may still have been some vibration as the image wasn't as sharp as I'd hoped. It may have been just that I took the image through window glass else it might have been to do with the autofocus. On first switching on the camera there was just a relatively small, bright, round circle. But I realised I had to expand it with finger and thumb on the phone touch screen  . Much better! I'm not sure about using it at night except on the moon. I don't know how long an exposure the phone can take but it's probably not long enough for anything faint. I'll try it on the microscope when I can. Anyway, here's my first go:

Just a distant pylon  (much reduced in size. There is some shadowing on each side - I'm not sure if that may just be caused by the soft cover which does get in the way a bit). I'll try some more shots when I can. 

Louise

1 hour ago, wulfrun said:

It's correct that you can't over-charge them, the charging shuts off automatically. The article makes sense, it's not good for a LiPo to be kept fully charged and it also shortens their life by repeated cycling. You can't win is the correct conclusion. LiPos also deteriorate just with age, used or not. I may have this wrong but I recall some laptops may have had the means to set the charger to stop at 80% unless overridden. Such a feature would allow best battery life by not cycling it, yet still let you charge to 100% when you knew it was needed. If it ever existed, I can't find such a feature on mine. I can only assume that either the battery replacement market is too lucrative or they expect folk to buy a new laptop by the time the battery becomes unusable.

Tip: Don't buy a replacement battery well in advance of needing it, it'll be age-deteriorated when you come to fit it.

Well it's actually Li-ion though I don't know if there is any real difference in charging characteristics etc.? Thinking about it, I've never tried running the laptop without a battery i.e. just plugged in the mains. Not sure if that would work or if something terrible might happen! I've been 'sitting' on the new battery for several years for fear of something going wrong if I removed the original battery! Not rational of me, I know, but it's actually my first laptop so no experience of them. It sounds like it might (probably has!) have age deteriorated, as you say. In which case - my bad. It can't be worse than the original one which discharges pretty quick in use. I'll be brave and attempt the swap tomorrow. What's the worst that could happen? The same ones cost about £45 to replace now  

Louise

9 minutes ago, PeterCPC said:

Re laptop batteries - https://www.howtogeek.com/124715/should-i-leave-my-laptop-plugged-in-all-the-time/

Any reductions in cables is a good thing generally.

Oh great, thanks for that, Peter! I've always been thrown by the laptop warning about it being fully charged with the charger still plugged in. But not leaving it at 100% charge when not in use makes sense! I think!

Cheers

Louise

... ever so slightly remote! In my quest to get rid of as many cables off my deathtrap floor 😮 , I came up with the bright idea of going wireless. The idea being that I could have my (albeit now ageing) laptop located at the particular mount/telescope I want to use with short usb cables just between the laptop and the mount. Then monitor and control everything from my remote desktop. 'Remote' being around 2-4 metres away  My first thought was to achieve this using Windows Remote Desktop but then I found my Windows 10 Home doesn't support it . No matter, I thought, there are other options and, in my mind had settled on TightVNC - free and basic. But then came across this Windows 10 feature - Project and Connect. Things like that have never previously been on my radar and I only acquired a wifi card for my imaging desktop this last week. So installed that, together with a wireless access point. My old Virgin Media router supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz - but not at the same time! I should really get an upgrade from Virgin but it's so much hassle... Anyway, the TP-link access point didn't cost a fortune and the pcie wifi card only cost about £16 off Ebay. Anyway, got the access point set up in dual speed mode and talking to the laptop and desktop. The laptop, being from 2014, only supports 2.4GHz, and not at a transfer great speed, but it's always been adequate. I've ordered a cheap replacement/upgrade wifi card for it via the slow boat from China - should be here in the Spring, sometime!  So after a bit of fiddling I've been able to project the screen and controls wirelessly from the laptop to the desktop - result! I wish I'd done it before! So I can now control the laptop remotely and whatever is on the laptop screen appears on the Desktop   For my purposes, it's all I need. I got a bit confused because my online research suggested I needed Miracast-compatible hardware, which I apparently don't. However, everything seems to work ok via the Win10 utilities. Of course, I still have to have some cables across the floor e.g. mains psu's and cables, but no more usb spaghetti! Well, when I've sorted it all out  .  I ought to be able to rationalise the mains cables also, with a bit of thought. 

Ooh, does anyone know if it's possible to have a laptop battery charger plugged in for long periods without it ruining the battery? My original 2014 battery has pretty much had it so needs replacing. I've had a new one sitting around for over 2 1/2 years now, lol. Hope it's still ok...

Louise

25 minutes ago, Louis D said:

I've blown $15 on far more ill-advised purchases.  For example, I still have an Orion flexible red/white astro flashlight from the late 90s that quickly broke.  The switchable red filter in front of the bulb won't move into position rendering it useless at night.  I should have chucked it 20 years ago, but I had spent a decent chunk of change on it back then, so I couldn't bring myself to do it.

It's not the money, it's the principle!

17 minutes ago, Louis D said:

They really shine in binoviewers for max field for those of us with wide nose bridges and deep eye sockets thanks to their diminutive size.  Since I generally use a 3x equivalent Barlow to reach focus, they are great across the field in my refractors and Dob.  Their light weight is also most welcomed in this usage to ease balance issues.

Well, at least it wasn't a complete waste - I'll have to try it on some dso's, if I get the chance.

Louise

22 hours ago, Louis D said:

Sorry to hear that.  Mine have been excellent in binoviewers.  Perhaps they have gone down hill in quality over the last few years, or they are simply incompatible with the light cone of a microscope.

Had a good view of the Moon with the aspheric on my 115mm/f6.95 frac and 2x Barlow  Shame I don't have my phone adapter yet! Should come next week, hopefully.

Louise

Just now, DaveS said:

I think it must have been, though the firmware was / is the latest version.

That's different from driver. The beta driver was the one I said you had to select manually. Hope all goes well now!

Louise

32 minutes ago, DaveS said:

I got a reply from QHY with a link to the latest ASCOM driver. After twisting Windows's arm I managed to install it

That stupid window is still there but at least I can now set the offset as well as the gain.

Would be nice if I could also set the read mode as well.

That must have been the beta driver?

12 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Sorry to hear that.  Mine have been excellent in binoviewers.  Perhaps they have gone down hill in quality over the last few years, or they are simply incompatible with the light cone of a microscope.

It may be just the microscope use. I've put it a 115mm frac so will have a look through in daytime, and night time - if we ever get a clear night!

Thanks

Louise

Just a quick update. I received the aspheric EP today but it wasn't any good - wasted my money  I think, after all that, I'll just get another couple of the 25mm EDs.

Thanks all for the suggestions and data

Louise

Oh ok, I'm getting the picture now. However, do you have a laptop you could use just with the camera as a sanity check?

It all looks very straightforward in their online manual. They used Maxim DL 6 pro and Ascom plug-in version 6.11.0 . If it were me I'd probably try and duplicate that if I was having all the problems you are. I bet it's going to be something small that's the problem!

Louise

ps they do caution to cut the power to the camera and not unplug the usb, should you need to reset it

1 minute ago, DaveS said:

When I click Connect in the Maxim camera control window the cooler buttons are still grey until the Gain / Offset window pops up, then they become black and can be clicked.

We may have enough clear sky tonight to run tests in Sequence to see if it will capture images or just hang.

On the Platform computer I only have Maxim as that is required by the ASA software. And no, I don't know why they did that instead of writing their own capture routine.

Erm... When you say 'platform computer' I'm wondering if you mean a dedicated bespoke system rather than a pc or laptop? I'm in the dark...

7 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Done that, still get the ASCOM window.

Hmm... when does this window come up, exactly? Might it be possible to try another camera control program - like APT or Sharpcap? I think qhy part of China is about 8 hours ahead of us so probably won't hear back from them for a while, at least.

4 hours ago, DaveS said:

I managed to do that from Device Manager, but it made no difference.

'Update driver' will likely only install the current official release, not the beta - I think! I would manually click on the beta, install it, switch everything off, and try again!

I had a quick look on the qhy forum, Dave. There seems to be a few people on there who apparently have it working ok - maybe some minor issues. So it's probably not a driver problem. Could there be an issue with your Maxim? (I've never used it so can't help with it). Someone on the qhy forum was using the ascom driver ok with APT.

Louise

8 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

That one looks like it might be adjustable for distance - at least you can slide it up and down EP barrel. I've got one of these:

It is attached to the top of EP and does not have height adjustment.

I've never had, or used, one before - I'll let you know what it's like. I should get it by, hopefully, early next week