pete_81

Hi Paul @wookie1965 That looks pretty neat and on the cheaper side than the genuine ones. I've been pondering the power supply when I eventually get around to getting to a dark(er) site than back garden and expecting during summer months that this is relatively pointless for the couple (if even!) hours of darkness we get so staying on the patio and just learning and doing seems sensible, and using a portable pack in winter is a clever move, using the extended darkness. Anyway, ignoring ones thoughts, I've had a look at the stuff you have in your box and have seen most/all of it available on this website. Have you got a component list you'd like to share on here? What blade fuses have you set things up with (ratings)? What's the component in the 2nd/3rd image that you're holding? Can I ask about the battery you are using - what spec is it (link could be great to see too)? I'm sure this would also help other folks that might want to (carefully!) do the same! Obviously, I'd love to get a Jackery battery, but that's not going to be any time soon! Thanks!

Up to 3am this morning in Bortle4 area, with camera pointed at radiant, taking constant 20sec (@11mm, f/2.8) exposures and other than a crossing plane and nice cloud motion, might have caught but a few. Watching for them, only saw 3 between 1-1.30, one of which was nice & bright. Saw them several years ago in Switzerland and there were plenty, matching with the ZHR in astro apps, so they're always one to watch out for with the hype, but clouds generally win most years in UK so don't persevere. Last night promised to be clear (and indeed was around Auriga/Cass/And), so had high hopes, but "a damp squib" certainly sums it up! As Paul says, Geminids tend to be better with only the cloud cover being the issue

@symmetalYep, RCD in place each time 👍 Thanks again folks

To all those interested and especially @symmetal and @7170 for the latest comments... I'm presently imaging M51, 23:10, so some time to spare! The RPi is indeed working fine with the buck converter, was slightly worried as the RPi4 I think runs on more power than the zero and so on, but no issues at this time. I've not measured the leakage, more in effort to get a good setup before it got too dark. I can confirm @fozzybear that the phone charger + USB-C cable suffered the same issue as the original supply, albeit with a significant reduction in the 'tingle'. Another point of note - I've got a monitor on the RPi (Conky) which nicely displays some of the hardware stats. The reason for saying this is that I noted the temperature of the CPU when running with the original PSU was >40ºC but the phone charger cable had this lower at ~35ºC during testing this earlier today, and the same low temperature with the buck-converter presently running (USB-A to USB-C cable from buck-converter to RPi) the setup at present. Guess closing this topic as solved with the final note that all works with the Nevada supplying power to mount (via cigarette adapter) and 12V-5V buck converter supplying the RPi4 with no issues. I've made no connection to the GND on the back of the Nevada, but it appears the issue is solved (or a solution has been found!). Thanks again to all for suggestions, comments, help and patience!

Thanks @7170 James, really helpful and yes, I can visualise your setup from your description. The powered USB hub sounds good but without having all the power available from one socket (the Nevada splits between banana-type plugs and cigatette plug), I decided to go with the buck converter idea for now. This should be arriving with me today and tonight is meant to be clear from 9 so might actually have it working then too for my setup without any buzz! @fozzybear you'd mentioned trying phone charger. I have one of these arriving also to test running the RPi if not in the astro-setup (don't want to cart the Nevada to just run such a small computer!) so I shall let you know how that test worked out. I'll be a bit disappointed if both of our RPi supplies are causing the same fault (one for my astro setup and other for Pi400) Thanks to all for your help on this. Follow up to come later, including hopeful measurement of mains leakage.

Thanks @symmetal Alan, & @7170James... Think this is the best approach for me too... I'm going to do both supplies from the Nevada as this should obviously eliminate worrying about lots of cables and grounds etc. I've the USB attachment rather than the EQMod cable (newer skywatcher mounts have the USB connections), hence all the talk about hacking apart a USB and grounding things. But in summary, it looks like the ideal solution is to use a voltage converter and USB cable to power the RPi via a fast-charge capable USB-C cable (to cope with the RPi requirements).

Thanks Alan @symmetal... So details of setup... from outside mains socket, I connect masterplug (stating here for good quality) heavy duty extension lead to patio area (around 3m from external socket, although flex is 10m). This powers the Nevada PS-08 which only powers the AZEQ6 via the cigatette plug-GX12 connection cable. I also plug in the RPi (PSU in white, in white) to the extension. On occasion during setup, as the RPi has no screen, I use my MBP running on battery to do alignment, start EKOS, and all the bits that require the close proximity to the setup, before moving indoors and starting imaging. So the MBP can require power sometimes, meaning this is also gets plugged in, but only if battery starts running low. I also plan to use a power supply to DSLR (Camera Supply), which will enable longer sessions without requiring watching the camera for it to run out of battery charge! There is no connection from the RPi to the Nevada (Alan, you mentioned this as an assumption), but this is what I was thinking with spare USB socket (4 on RPi => CCD, GuideCam & EQMod + 1 spare) - tap into the black on it and ground somehow, reading this, ground to PS-08? Or open the Pi up (access to the GPIO pins) and use one of the Gnd's from this to the PS08? Using the Linear Power Supply I'm also guessing is a potential option... If I used the Nevada to power the RPi via a 12V-5V reducer (example?) and higher current USB-C cable (thinking min of 3A as original PSU) - would get around the issue altogether?

Thanks again guys. @Alien 13 Alan, how to incorporate this into my setup to test? Assume I have access to all pins on the RPi, am happy dismantling USB cables and confident in soldering stuff, just the electrical layout I'm unsure of here. I also note through all this I'm seeking a solution rather than potentially addressing the issue. Don't want to just rectify the issue, but get to the bottom of why it's happening! How to investigate mains leak?

@fozzybear, unfortunately got 2,one for this and another for pi400, both same issue so doubtful it's that🤔

@wulfrun not sure about what that is. Issue is reproducable in work when connecting RPi straight to ring main or at home using several different sockets, main observing done via outside plug. @Paul MPower supply to RPi is the genuine one, and when using mount, the nevada power supply available from FLO, although again the effect is noticable on ONLY the RPi. Grrr!

Thanks guys. @teoria_del_big_bangthinking it was something to do with the case, I unplugged the extra bit (taking the RPi mini to full HDMI), and ended up seeing the same, and so decided to remove the pi altogether - so just power cable (genuine RPi-4 UK plug), RPi4-4GB and attach the guide cam - same thing, feeling like the constant buzzing. Unfortunately that rules out the fan which had also been thought! @Tomatobro, 'tickle' is constant, not just once off, when touching the setup. Worst thing is during polar alignment, when nose gets a little close to the tripod or just moving things around holding the legs and zap! Is there an easy way to measure potential leakage? I've tried with multimeter connecting to GND pin on RPi and probing around, but nothing standing out to worrying voltages. @teoria_del_big_bangAgreed about minimising cables, whole intention of having the RPi mounted on a dovetail and only 'power to it and the mount' cables from the ground! @AvocetteI've seen same thing with MBP when using in the magnetic-easy-port, although can't say I noted it disappearing if connector was turned around.

Straight to the point - I've a RPi 4 4GB running astroberry successfully controlling mount, camera & guiding via KStars & EKOS. USB connection directly to newer AZEQ6, USB C to guide-cam and USB to camera. I've noted that touching the mount, camera and guide camera feels like it's electrified. Not high voltage, but more like continuous static. Very annoying when polar aligning and... zap! I've the topic posted in RPi forums, and general consensus is it'll never be the pi, always a differential voltage (well, yes, that is what voltage is!) between components. If I was to earth (GND pin on the RPi, or even taking blank USB and cutting into the black wire) to the mount and guidecam, would this eliminate the issue? It appears to be on the RPi case (Argon ONE V2 Raspberry Pi 4 Case) without any connections, and just gets worse when things are connected. Note the issue is apparent when imaging and not (whether connected to mains at home, outside whilst imaging, or work). Anyone any thoughts or potential solutions like the grounding everything idea?

Yep, I have working profiles, just to emphasise this was single profile just to check the camera performance... The same test highlighted the Altair camera issue, but the 120mm just continued (>1hr without issue).

Didn't see the point in owning a camera to have 75% of the resolution ignored. As update, I had seen the ZWO mini on ENSOptical for significantly under the full cost of a new one so thought I'd give it a go. It's presently connected to the RPi running 16-bit mode in the Guiding section of EKOS (just streaming live feed) and has been for the past 45min without dropping a frame running 2sec exposures (connecting only the camera as I did before brings up some odd report in INDI about telescope aperture/focal length missing - this is timestamped and there is no more than 3 sec between each warning - just used matlab to get the max time between each message) so very pleased. And if things do start going wrong, I know I can just drop the bit-level to 8. Issue therefore put down to Altair not being user friendly without Windows. Moral of story, get the better gear! It just works! 🤣🤐

I guess alternative is to get another losmandy and just attach the PL200 holder(s) to that... On the AZEQ6, I can use both LM & Vixen, so have the LM for the larger scope and vixen bits for attaching other stuff with. Here's my setup in work - note how heavy the s/s bar is so the balance looks way off but it's not! haha!

I did a simple one for testing setups and guiding before really getting into bigger scopes etc - use DSLR + guidescope, attached to dovetail by quick-release mounts, similar to those found on tripod... The 3D print is a holder for the RPi so that all my kit sits on the dovetail - front tripod mount holds the guidescope which I have a tripod PL200 plate on, and the steel post at the back is required for the DSLR to clear the guiding. Amazon do the attachments for £13 and half that on Ebay. I did 4 from China for £20 last year when starting this out, but if you're in a rush, not really an option! Plus I don't have to change the attachment on my camera (peak-design tripod adapter) so clip the guidescope and camera on, locate RPi (held in with velcro), power up and I'm ready to go. Plus the camera is then balanced if I use the 70-200 by using the tripod collar. The only thing you need is the correct screws (the countersunk heads in my setup are 1/4UNC x 5/8" and a little 3D print that mounts the tripod adapter aligned to the dovetail. Has worked well as a start to getting into imaging for me.

Thanks @wimvb, felt that was probably the issue. What's the potential advantage of the MM-S over the mini? Both monochrome but £70 more expensive for the 'S' to mini? Just looked up OAG, and to do anything sensible with the longer scope (1200mm), I'd guess OAG would be the best approach, would that affect decision about which may be better suited? Thanks again for aid on this

As a last effort, I've just attached the Altair to the MBP and thought things were going well. Did live streaming in EKOS as opposed to INDI. However, after a minute or so of stability, the frame froze and first 'timeout' warning. Granted it did recover faster than the RPi, but that's to be expected due to the sheer processing power differences. Then it's in the loop of <10sec of stable footage, then timeouts. Any final thoughts on this one?

Sorry Rick, Only seeing this as I browse through the topic again to see how far I've come! Yes, quite pleased with the 500f/8, debated getting a smaller scope to learn guiding and imaging with then thought why not just use this one! It's longer than the likes of the WO ZS73APO, allbeit a stop and a bit slower, but posts from a few years ago (Site1 Site2 Site3) suggest that yes, it's dang sharp for the price and other than the bokeh being 'interesting', it's as sharp as one will get without spending 4 figures. Downsides are generally all terrestrial related and the MF, but I've 3D printed a frame that straps onto the camera: One ring locks to the fixed base of the lens, and the other on the rubber focus grip - do rough focus, then tighten up the rings, add a 3D printed Bahtinov to the front of the 3D printed extended hood (the original hood is in a 'safe place' and if I remember correctly wouldn't fit on with the UV filter) and fine-tune focus with the large knurled screws which slowly turn the focus ring. Works nicely, other than the dust spots (possibly in lens) being visible as the doughnuts (see my post above from 26th Jan!) But yes, not a bad lens, and certainly cheaper than telescope or the Nikon 200-500! Still would be cheaper to use it with dedicated astro cam with help of an adapter (ASI or Altair). Roll on clouds, although not much dark time at night!

Thanks for those posts Wim. Don't think this will work - here's a screenshot of the T7C (called via ZWO 120 from EKOS/Indi), which contains the 8-bit option. The Altair has no such control, although it does have a 'levels' tab which isn't available with the ZWO equivalent. The issue I suppose here is the levels are capped to 8-bit (0-255) as seen. Reducing the range (0-127) did make it become more stable, so playing around with the 'dynamic range' in this way might make it OK, but not really too keen on this idea. Running streaming in Indi panel ('Streaming' tab) without any visible frame drops over > 10sec, but when running the same streaming settings from EKOS, the video keeps freezing and the error "Exposure timeout. Restarting exposure..." reappears. Not ideal for any guiding! Any last tips before I pack this one in?

https://indilib.org/ccds/altair-cameras.html About 2/3 down page Dang Cropping in 100px on each side still yields the timeouts, T7C running now as test and not one timeout. Might be going back to that.

Me again. Oh nuts says everyone! Changed to altair guide-cam (GP-Cam, IMX224) as T7C noted to be very noisy. This camera isn't supported by (at least I can't it connect to) PHD2, so forced to use new profile with guiding camera as 'ALTAIR' and internal guiding which kept reporting the backlash issues as above. Not so last night M51, here we go Guidecam connected, focused easily, and completed calibration, but during this and after a while guiding, frames dropped/frozen and "Exposure timeout. Restarting exposure..." messages throughout. Grrr. Eventually, "Exposure timeout. Aborting Autoguide." If I selected the Subframe, it appeared to run in streaming better, or if exposure was very short (0.5s), but I know these are not the typical settings. I don't really want to go down the route of cropping the camera image via the indi controls either! I am running the guidecam directly from the RPi (RPi4 4GB, astroberry), and think I've read somewhere about it not being powerful enough to run guiding - is this the case here (thinking if this is the issue, then a powered USB hub is the likely solution) Other than that, I was enjoying M51 last night, and getting much faster with the setup from scratch! Just have to remember camera cable and batteries charged! TLDR: RPi4 + Altair guidecam => is the RPi powerful enough on it's own to run USB power (via USB3 port) to run USB2 Altair guide-cam, or should I run powered USB3 hub?

M51, Whirlpool Galaxy, in Canes Venatici. Mag 8.4 ISO 800, 5min exposures, f/7 (Astro Addict mentions "Omegon 102/714 APO" on his YT channel) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Qf9aFw4Nc

EKOS Guiding... Going to continue this thread rather than start new one for the sake I've got the setup as shown above... RPi, running Astroberry and KStars. This is connected to... AZ-EQ6 (USB direct to the newer mount) Nikon DSLR (main imaging camera, which will either use standard photo lenses, or get positioned on the 10"f/4.8 once everything else really mastered!) T7C Guide camera, not using ST4 for guiding, connected to 240 f/4 guidescope Wifi dongle, just for better wifi signal - in my pic of setup, one can see the wall of the house so not far from router. That's not the topic here though! So, I've successfully used PHD2 for guiding, and did a 10min exposure of M101 the other night which guided well with no star trails etc. So all is connected correctly to guide and so on. But I'm interested in changing over to EKOS for guiding, using the internal guider. Each time I do this, I get an error up about issue clearing backlash or something along those lines. Yes, I know detailing the actual issue is better for debugging, but I was more interested in getting images than taking note of issues so switched back to PHD2 via EKOS. Does the internal guiding calibration take account of direction of guidecam (figure it all out itself as PHD2 appears to) or do I need to setup with UP on camera to +RA (for example) then calibrate? What about balancing the scope - East Heavy is the norm here, but to engage the dec drive better, should one offset the balance of the N/S too? I don't think that's a good idea as the dec shouldn't really be correcting if polar align is good enough, but just throwing ideas out to see if anyone does this. TLDR: Issue with EKOS guider - unable to guide due to error 'unable to clear backlash' or similar. PHD2 works for guiding so what's going wrong with my use of EKOS?