skybadger

Serial hub USB hub at scope Game controller Sx camera Zwo camera Nikon video in Nikon control out Dome remote serial/wireless Couple of spare cables for other kit... It's not really about power, since few items consume that much, it's about those items that take a lot of bandwidth and don't work together through hubs but do work connected directly.. M

I have 3 quad USB cards in the obbo PC as well as the motherboard connectors. So my worry is not that a single connection will draw too much but that the sum of the connections will overwhelm the psu.

Several ways - Output gearing is already 14:1, aiming for 86400:1, assume we can get factor of 100-1000 through motor servo control Servo brushed DC, encoder & output gearbox. Gearbox needs to be 86400/14/60rpm = 1:100 Stepper motor with/without encoder, using microstepping down to 1/32nds and bipolar motor with 200 steps/rev, output gearbox needs to be 86400/14/200/32 = direct!. try a double length nema17 to get good current/torque and you mimght want a 10: output gearbox to avoid 'cogging' of the steps to the eyepiece view. Servo brushless DC, direct encoder to wheel. Need custom brushless motor, be nice to have a harmonic gearbox and heidenhahn 1M step resolution per rev encoder. I wrapped a drive belt over the wheels, under the disk and intend to drive that using a geared dc servo motor. The belt is actually a timinng belt ith the smooth side to the disk and the toothed side to the pulley wheels it rests on. Try onStep driver forum for a complete design for stepper controller for this and you can get stepper motors easily enough off ebay. HTH Mike

I took 18 months and you took a weekend. I want your free time! I t looks good and it's a great idea to rotate the tube. How are you planning to level it ? What are the problems in RA? How are the rollers behaving?

examples include USB Ethernet, portable hard disks . I thinks it's the individual device drivers not the USB card or hub.

Bear in mind that a whole host of usb2 stuff won't work in a usb3 socket. They are meant to be backwards compatible but I have found items that don't. Maybe it's a driver thing. Mike

I have exactly this setup and have the diagonal after the filter. You will need an extension to the focus tube to get the filter into focus using an eyepiece. Then you will find that applying a diagonal there means mm of refocusing only. I really didn't want the filter after a diagonal as it would be a lot of leverage if there is any slop. The weak point in any of this is The poor focuser on a st80 which provides little critical focus and a lot of slip unless tied down hard. All my couplings are m48 threaded and still I get some droop.... I now use an 80 ed at f/7 with microfocuser but there is still some slop... Mike

Hi Michael. I thought that myself, but the broad band photospheric limb hedgerow stuff that is always there just disappeared too. That is normally there over the wide range of tuning. Also , I might run out of reduction to tune it to , if anti-clockwise is to the blue and lower regulation temperature. Any other quark owners ?

Hi I'm using a quark chrome H-alpha filter on a skywatcher ST80 and I want to put a pre-filter in front to dump some of the heat. To this end I put a Baader 2" IR cut filter in the train and more or less lost the surface detail. Can anyone recommend a filter for this job and maybe explain why the filter had the effect it did ? Also, my quark seems to be on-band with the knob turned to 1 o' clock when previously it was at about 6. All I did was store it indoors over the winter. Has this happened to anybody else ? Ambient is about 15 to 20 degrees in the obbo. In the meantime I replaced my ST80 with a Stellarvue ED80 at f/7. On the basis that maybe the f ratio was too steep for the etalon to give good performance . While I get more contrast off the disk, I am not seeing an improvement on disk. So then I followed a suggestion to use a Baader HA 35nm filter as a pre-filter to reduce the heat loading. That actually has the same effect of removing contrast (and hence detail) too. Back to where I started. Is the only answer to this a full aperture ERF ? While an 80 mm is at the top recommended limit for use without a pre-filter, it would be good to find one that doesn't ruin the view. Finally how clear is the surface detail in your quark ? In mine it's low contrast and requires tapping the tube to see , using a 20mm eyepiece. Any pointers to optimise this ? Cheers Mike

Hi My mount uses a SS2K controller and motor set to drive it. Recently the Ra motor has been binding in reverse. So I swapped it with the dec motor but it still shows the same problem. I have another pair on another mount I could swap it with but that means removing one of the mounting ears to make it fit. Has anyone any advice on taking apart and servicing this type of DC servo motor before I start ? The encoder head and brushes are held in by punched tabs, for example, is there a good way of releasing these? I am expecting either wear on the brushes or gear wear that will need cleaning and regreasing. Anyone done this ? Cheers Mike

I would have used image magick to do the batch conversion or registax to read the native fits files and make an avi movie from the aligned output. It's another option

I recall that to overcoat the top of a grp shell, you need to sand the shell because it already has wax added to it to prevent it being sticky which will prevent the overcoat adhering. Otherwise you do it while still tacky. Is this not the case for the resin coat you are suggesting ?

Oh . Can we have a great big lightshow with fireworks please ?

Yep I enjoyed that last time . Good way of meeting people.

How about setting up some mentoring ? Pair people experienced in a skill with someone looking to Develop one ? Answers the maxim and PI questions ... ?