rpineau

I use a TekPower 30A DC power supply that feed my Ultimate PowerBoxV2 (which then feed the rest of my equipment).

This has been working very well for me.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L2K263Q/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TekPower-TP30SWII-Cancelling-Analog-Switching/dp/B00L2M2Y5O/

Put in a plasric box of a proper size and you should be able to leave it at the pier all the time.

it can be done... but it's not going to be easy on your own. 2 people is a lot easier. My 12 year old son helped me as the main issue is not necessarily pure strength but mostly helping to hold things in place on one side while screwing the bolts on the other side. Carrying it is a 2 adults job to put the dome on the structure, mostly because of the size and height, not so much the weight.

@rsarwar , which Arducam are you using exactly (they have a few ).

Do you have a link ?

Thanks

Rodolphe

So I did more test  as there was still some slippage... BUT ... it was not in the Sesto Senso coupling

Turns out that it's inside the 10:1 knob assembly of my WO GT81 IV. I was able to reproduce the slippage without the Sesto Senso 2 on it. This probably means they are using some clutch system to couple the 1/10 know to the main one and that's where the slippage happens. I know this doesn't happen on my Feather Touch on another telescope. Ao you might see a similar issue on yours.

Thanks.

Hi Paul.

Great build ! 

As me and a friend are working on a small observatory project, you build log above  is a good source of ideas

What are the grey-ish/blue-ish block made of ? (the 4 one you cut to put on top of the 4 corner blocks) 

The look like Cellular concrete.

Thanks

Rodolphe

I installed a Sesto Senso 2 on a William Optics GT81 .. and at first I had slippage issue too.

I had to re-tighten every set screw to solve the issue. I also increase the amount of current to the motor in the Sesto Senso 2 config (I actually use my own X2 plugin in TheSkyX Pro and have an option to do that, not sure the current software from Primaluce Labs does it too, may be on the user 1,2 and 3 settings).

I'm honestly not impressed by the Sesto Senso 2 .. it seems a bit weak on torque and tend to slip. With my new setting and very tight set screw it seems better. As said above, the focuser itself is find and rock solid so In really suspect the Sesto Senso 2 to be the issue there as a move to and from 2 positions was not always ending up in the same place ... sometimes by a lot.

I would say that the default setting on the Sesto Senso 2 are not the best and using the "Slow" setting is you best bet a this point or set your own custom settings.

I set the speed to 7 and the current to 8 on all 3 values (acc, run and dec) and the hold current to 1 (usually once the destination is reached it doesn't move). This seems to give me a good speed with decent torque. If I see more issue I will reduce the speed but leave the current at 8, this will increase the torque and assuming there is not more slippage in the set screws and different connections ... it should be accurate.

Rodolphe

You can find a long list for Mac astronomy related software there :

https://www.macobservatory.com/mac-astronomy-software

A lot are free.

I just wanted to post this in case someone want ot use it (or part of it ) :
 
https://rti-zone.org...ome_control.php
 

Some function are still a work in progress (like the support for dropout shutter).
Rodolphe

I just finished the Rotator plugin for the Pegasus Astro Falcon Rotator.
Available for all platforms :

https://rti-zone.org/macosx_x2rotator_plugins.php

Regards, Rodolphe

I set my Xcode project for all my TheSkyX X2 plugin to a minimum deployment version of 10.9

I haven't got any complaint regarding this so far.

Rodolphe

I've tested the RG-11 from Hydreon and that's what I have on my observatory (it's also what NexDome sale with their controller) : https://rainsensors.com/

I have it configured for  Mode 1 , "it's raining"  using the dip switches inside (detailed in the doc too) :

1 - off
2 - off
3 - on
4 - off
5 - on
6 - off
7 - off
8 - off

1,2 off = Very sensitive-- first detected raindrop
3 on = Output Monostable Extended by 15 minutes so that it doesn’t do a close, open, close, open, .. dance and wait 15 minutes (aka stays closed for 15 minutes).
4 off = no dark detect .. we’re trying to detect rain … not when it’s dark.
5,6,7 = mode select = mode 1, it’s raining.
8 off = Disable Micro-power Sleep Mode, leave internal heater on -> prevents dew.

The camera has  bayer matrix for the color so you get a monochrome image until you enable debayering (aka Demosaic in oaCapture).

You'll need to chose the bayer format in the Demosaic settings.

Existing rotator use a small magnet with a hall effect sensor to home the rotator on power up.

You might want to take a look at this : https://github.com/cytan299/field_derotator

I would think that sourceforge would have multiple data center,  dually powered rack with different power rail, and announce their IP space through different tier 1 ISP via BGP .. with all the adds and other crap they are putting on their page these days ..

Rodolphe

Looks like the sourceforge page is no longer there : 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuser/

This returns a 404 !!

I just wanted to let people know that I wrote a focuser X2 plugin for TheSkyX (OS X, Windows, Ubuntu and RPI are supported) for the AAF2.

If you're interested you can find it there :

https://rti-zone.org/macosx_x2focuser_plugins.php

Regards, Rodolphe