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AKB

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Everything posted by AKB

  1. So sorry to hear this, when you thought you were close to a solution. Still, better now than when Lucas comes back saying that all is well. My fault was exhibited when I powered on the mount. The RA slewed immediately for a few seconds, then stopped in blinky mode. This was without the computer connected. Must be controller related, but whether it’s hardware or firmware is hard to say (although you said you’d tried different versions?). I did notice on your screenshot that equatorial mode was not selected. That seems a wrong configuration for the Mesu? Double check the settings?? It’s at this point that it’s probably worth contacting SciTech support. In the end, they logged in remotely using AnyDesk and diagnosed a controller issue.
  2. Well, very good luck with that, and speedy recovery. My own issues last year only took so long because I had an alternative mount, and also that I was hesitant to embrace the task and get on with it ! You're well on the way. PS: It’s a great deal better than having to send the whole mount back, which was always my worry!
  3. Is it easily replaceable? Edit: Ah yes, I see that it is (along with the motor.) Laundry marker should be indelible? Can't you etch it with a dental drill?
  4. I don’t know. So, not a stupid question at all, but one which the groups.io SciTech board could answer in a flash.….or Lucas Mesu, for that matter. I found both Lucas and SciTech support to be extremely helpful. Do you know anyone within range who has another e200 mount? Would be a good sanity check to try your controller on another, perhaps.
  5. Since the axis doesn’t change, the issue may be with the encoder. You can look at the encoder values changing in the servo software. The “stop moving and go into blinky mode” seems to happen when connection to an encoder is lost, amongst other things.
  6. How often do you polish your kit?. It’s SO clean!?
  7. One thing to try is to unplug the hand controller… it may be the faulty item. The Y cable is the one you showed in your first photo that splits into two phone connectors. Do you have the in-line phone connectors too? So many points of continuity to check.
  8. Yes, swap both power and encoders as you describe. If the problem axis changes, then the issue is on the controller side of what you swapped, else it’s towards the mount side. Note that it may not be the controller itself, since there is still the Y-shaped cable and the connectors in the controller itself. Cleaning connectors and testing cables is a next step. I’m told that the controllers themselves fail very rarely.
  9. Sorry to hear this... it's exactly the issue I had myself last year. My advice from the SciTech forum was to check the wiring. A good test is to swap the RA and DEC power AND encoder lines. Does the problem axis change, or not? There are rather too many connectors in the path for my liking. Perhaps one is flakey. Good luck. Tony
  10. Those would be nice, for sure. One disadvantage of the RASA 8 is limited back focus which restricts your options with respect to collimation and tilt adjustment. The RASA 11, on the other hand, has much more space to play with, and a solution which works well (although, as usual, expensively) is the Baader UFC system, including its tilt adjuster which may be tweaked with the camera in place. The UFC also allows space for a filter drawer. Full automation of tilt and collimation would be great – I'm thinking of something like Starlight Xpress Active Optic guiding system – but we're getting into expensive realms here! Tony
  11. Ah yes, but not a lot bigger than the 25.4mm which you originally quoted for the 533. I don’t have an axe to grind, I was just trying to correct diameter stated for that camera. Sorry to the OP for going off topic! Tony
  12. …because they often come with nice big apertures?
  13. The diagonal measurement seems to be 15.97mm (according to FLO) so about 0.6 of an inch. Your point still stands that bigger is better, of course, but one inch is nearly as big as an ASI2600? Tony
  14. Tracking, the thing which most motorised mounts do, is not to be confused with guiding, which, indeed, generally requires stars.
  15. …and number ALL of your equipment assets??! Impressive. You have a spreadsheet or database, I take it?
  16. Preprint of the original publication available here, for all your detailed questions: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.05145.pdf
  17. Ah yes, well that is the other way to do it! I must say that Lucas was very responsive to my issue too, in terms of aiding diagnosis. Add another 50 points!
  18. So sorry to hear you are having problems. I've been through some issues recently with my Mesu e200 and, in the end, it needed a whole new servo controller. I'm sure this isn't the case for your problem – all out failure of the SciTech box is, I'm told, very unusual. It certainly is, though, a bit of a learning curve compared to others. When I had problems initially, I was advised by some good folk here to try the Mesu and SciTech boards here: https://groups.io/g/Mesu-Mount https://groups.io/g/Sitechservo ...where there are some very knowledgeable people, who may well have seen this all before. Good luck, Tony
  19. The first question is really: “how good is your current guiding?” Assuming that your new scopes are not significantly heavier than your existing one, then your guide performance should be similar. The second question is: “what image scale will your new scope/camera combination yield?” As long as your guiding performance is around twice as good as your image scale in arc-seconds per pixel, then all should be well. Tony
  20. Just a brief window before the clouds last night, so took a quick peek to the west and glimpsed the comet. New scope is still not adjusted for collimation / backfocus / filters / cable diffraction, but as this is something of a transient target, undergoing various outbursts from time to time, I thought it worth a go. This is with a RASA 11 and an ASI294MC colour camera, but binned x2 in mono, over just five minutes. Subsequently, I processed them offline in colour, just for a comparison. I like this mode of working: EEVA is fast and easy with a smaller mono image, but you can return in higher resolution and colour later, if desired. Best of both worlds! Tony
  21. ... "because you're worth it", to quote an advertising campaign.
  22. Ooh, that must have changed your online life! Certainly did mine. Just the thing for big images (like this) and system updates. Tony
  23. I'm a huge fan. A couple of layers of foil-backed bubble wrap seems to work well. Did it for my Hyperstar, and now for my RASA... Tony
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