Skipper Billy

I am not seeing a 'Generic Hub' option ??

Cheers. I have pinged 4Tronix an email.

Yes - it shows up in device manager and the supplied GUI works it OK but APT, NINA etc cant see it.

Help! I am trying to get NINA to connect to a 4Tronix focuser. The software that comes with the focuser (allegedly!) contains an ASCOM driver so I believe NINA should be able to connect to it. I cannt get NINA to 'see' the device. Any suggestions??? https://shop.4tronix.co.uk/collections/astro-electronics/products/focus-rfu?fbclid=IwAR3YIedPhzM5367z-6AZ3P-jeQ34F2q9TA4dIwFXXIvGPfOjSr0bzuTG4OI

@saac Thanks Jim. That 4Tronix unit may well be the way forward. I will investigate and see where I get to. Thanks again.

@900SL When we retire and move house, V2 will probably have a motorised curved roof as I can't see a way to automate V1. I have picked up a significant back/mobility issue and this will be essential.

Every year when I bring my all sky camera in for a clean up and check over I have the same issue. I focus the lens without the dome in place but the focus changes when the dome is added. After much faffing about I can get the focus close with the dome in place but on occasions its not quite sharp when the temperature changes wildly. I am toying with the idea of making an electric focuser - I am OK with the mechanical part (small motor and toothed rubber belt) but how can I control it with a PC ?? In the ASC box there is a mini PC running AllSkyEye software under Windows 10 and the ASI 178MC with an Arecont lens. The PC has spare USB ports. The whole system is completely autonomous but I can access it with RDP from indoors. In a perfect world it would run an autofocus routine when the camera is activated (ie when the sun dips 6º below the horizon.) Near perfect would be the ability to adjust focus by 'eye' using an electrically driven focuser driven by the mini PC. Any suggestions ??? (Other than - its not worth the effort!) 😉 https://www.davidbanksastro.com/all-sky-camera

'West is best - East is least' So deduct the Easterly variation. So when your compass points at 360/000º then true north is 359.56º To be honest the variation at the moment is so small I wouldnt worry about it. It is within the +/- accuracy of your compass.

A fully charged '12 volt' lead acid battery is ~13.7 - 13.9 volts. Nothing to worry about.

Hello Mark Just built the once but I altered the half height door to full height after a couple of seasons of use - the bending and crawling on my knees on a frozen surface wasn't doing my old back any good and it was structurally strong enough to be OK with a full height door. It made life much easier. The roof is covered in EPDM - very easy to use, completely waterproof and still in good nick 8 years on. ClassicBond® 1.2mm EPDM Rubber Roof Membrane | Rubber4Roofs The handles were sealed inside and out with Sikaflex 291 - not a single drop of water has ever passed even with the grandkids using it as a climbing frame ! Good luck! David

I used a 178 with a 71 mm scope (different brand) and had to add about 100mm (from memory) of spacers to achieve focus. I don't own it any more so I cant measure it.

You might find the second document down on this page of my website useful..... Astro-Imaging - 'How To' (davidbanksastro.com)

The purpose of darks and bias is to identify issues with the sensor so you might get away with having a set of darks and bias for a specific camera - irrespective of the scope thats attached to it. The purpose of flats is to identify issues with the optical train - any time you change or move or even disturb anything you will have to take a fresh set of flats - its takes very little to move a dust speck! For the time it takes I would take a fresh set of all 3 every time unless you have a obsy mounted rig than never gets touched.

It's never straightforward is it!! I would suggest putting 3 x small (450 x 450) paving slabs down on the 'grass' each one with a hole drilled in the middle to take the spike of the tripod legs - that would give some damping and make polar alignment much easier as long as you don't move the paving slabs once you have done the initial polar alignment. I would also suggest setting up remote operation - partly for the comfort factor but mostly so you don't need to be near the rig when its working. If the roof has got any flex at all it will spoil your imaging/guiding. Have fun. David (aka Skipper Billy)

I had the same dilemma a while ago and built the following machine - it screams through Pixi and PS etc etc. Without spending a fortune it presents a good bang for buck ratio. I updated it from W10 to W11 a day or two ago with zero issues.

Shocking weather and injury means I have only produced three images this year! This is my favourite.

Quick update. I stress tested Pixi really hard last night for several hours whilst backing up my 90gb local files to a NAS drive ie really making the machine sweat and there were zero issues.

Well it might be a bit previous but I think I have cracked it!!! The DISM and SFC routines didnt flag anything up. Furmark didnt even make the GPC sweat The above comment set me off thinking - always dangerous! Since this machine was built and set up I have noticed that in File Explorer if I drag a folder across some unused mapped network drives then the system freezes - it does it every time and I measured the time is freezes for - 110 seconds. I measured the time that Pixi freezes and it too is 110 seconds. I have deleted the unused mapped network drives and so far I have had it running WBPP with drizzle and all sorts of intensive stuff without any issues. I hope this has fixed the problem. I cant thank you all enough for your suggestions and generous knowledge sharing. Best wishes to you and yours for a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year. David.

Some great suggestions there - the two command lines do succesfully open the programme so I will try those tomorrow and then hammer Pixi to see if either works well. I will try the Remote Desktop as well. Linux would be a last resort for me (never used it - too intimidating for a thicko like me!) There is nothing in the logs relating to Pixi. The people at Pixi seem to have a downer on Nvidia cards and almost always suggest AMD cards - I have an AMD card at work I could borrow to see if that helps. Thanks for your help William - much appreciated. If I find the solution I will post it here - it might help someone in the future!

Yes - sometimes in the middle of intensive things like WBPP but sometimes just by clicking on a drop down menu! The CPU runs about 31º when doing 'heavy' things and the 4 RAM sticks are all identical and from the same batch. Your suggestion about a different installation location is worth a try!! Thanks for your help Steve - much appreciated. If I find the solution I will post it here - it might help someone in the future!

PS - I found the suggested command to start the programme when issues are encountered but it just opens a blank white screen 😞 C:\Program Files\PixInsight\bin\PixInsight.exe --opengl=raster I have run out of ideas now.....

Thanks for the suggestions @Oddsocks I have uninstalled the Nvidia drivers and reinstalled them and tried every permutation of the UI scaling without any success. Even just launching the programme and clicking a drop down menu will crash it. One strange thing I have found is that whilst Pixi is crashed all other programs work perfectly well - I can search Google for a solution whilst it is crashed !! The other weird this is that once crashed , if I leave it for a few minutes it comes back to life and from thereon seems more stable - I cant explain that!! I have run ram tests - no issues. The last thing I can try now is disabling any on board graphics. I regret upgrading to a powerful computer but really appreciate your help.

Help !! I have used Pixi for many years and have just installed it on a new more powerful machine. Every time I use it it freezes and has to be restarted. Nothing intensive - even clicking on a drop down menu will cause it to freeze. Doesn't do it every time but more often than not. I have uninstalled it and removed all trace in appdata etc and reinstalled it many times but still the same error. Any ideas where to look for a fault log etc ?? At the moment I cannot use it at all. The machine spec is as follows..... (Pixi no help at all - 'must be machine specific issue'.....)

It doesn't need to be level.

I have just seen that you bought it 'used' - having said that it is an EDX not an EDX4 so you would be within your rights to return it as it was misrepresented. Again, all depends what you paid for it.