Tom OD

Thanks William, I had clearly gone down the wrong path here. I thought that by using the jumper on the Mesu board, that this would act as the emulator for the USB signals to convert them to RS232. Thanks for these links. I 'll make sure to get the FTDI UART type electronics. I need to review that wiring diagram too. There is no problem obtaining a D style connector to wire to the RJ11. Tom.

Hi Steve, and anyone else reading this. I am about to solder the USB to the RJ11, but I m still a little confused about the diagram above. I can read it about 3 different ways. The arrows are in opposite direction suggesting the direction of the data. Yet both arrows say from the Host. is the Host the PC, or the Mesu. I presumed the PC. Reading from left to right I took the pin signal that I need to send to the RS232 port as 5v, Grd, Tx, Rx. Would you mind checking the pics, and let me know if you think its correct? Thanks Tom.

This is good to know Ray thanks for the info. The header you mention could be an issue two as its common I guess Tom.

Thanks Graham this is very useful info. I presume the jumper is already on the board, just at an unused position. I'll chat to Sitech about the cables if I struggle with the soldering iron Absolutely worth the effort to rule out the PC, Thanks Ray. Next steps are: 1) Swap out the USB cable. 2) Use a different PC to test the SiTech USB connection. 3) Switch to RS232 port with new cable and jumper installed. 4) Use a separate power supply up to 13v to power the Eagle. 5) Get my hands on a large bin, and calmly put all the broken bits into it. 6) After a deep breath, install separate power supply from step 4 to power mount. Use a new Power pack, maybe the Pegasus it has good feedback, then use a new Mini PC/ Laptop /Tower 7) Go back to the bin fish out the Eagle, and use it to focus, operate the camera and change filters on a second scope on the rig to go dual. Step 7 may be wishful thinking, but I m trying to stay positive. Thanks for everyone's input to this thread. Tom

Thanks William, 3 wire with no amp sounds like the easier way to go then. PrimaLuce got back to me to say that the USB3.0 is on a different board to the USB 2.0. So unless the issue is a common internal passing of the comms from both boards, that would seem to rule out the Eagle. "Seem" at least, not ruled out yet. Tom

Its description did say RS485, which should not matter if I m just matching pins to pins. Now I start wondering why a serial D style connector has electronics in it for its output. What are those electronics doing? Anyway that's for me to research / Google. Tom

So I wonder could I use something like this. I could plug the USB cable from the Eagle / PC into the board, then take an RJ11 cable cut one end and wire it to the Green connector on the board, then plug the other end into the RS232 on the mount.

Ha ha nice work. I think I saw something along the lines of one of these connectors for sale. I d solder this up myself, and bring it to France. I would not ask Olly to go through all those s/w steps. He prefers the mechanical. Tom.

Like this, but with an RJ11 for the RS232 port on the Sitech?

Thanks Steve, Well in an attempt to take one of the items out of the loop I asked Olly to move the USB from that USB 2.0 "A" connection to the USB 3.0 port. I m hoping that the USB 3.0 is on a different board. I dont know if it is, I sent to mail to primaluce today asking if this is so. I m waiting on a reply from them. Anyway, I cant cycle the 3.0 ports on the Eagle, but I did power cycle the Eagle itself. So it gave small differences when you open the Sitech.exe, in that it either starting saying "Initialising" > Not Initialised > Below Horizon Intialising > Faking Servos > Bad Comm> Read Servo parameters >Below Horizon It would cycle through these messages twice, then it would stabilise like the first scenario. Initialising > All 4 errors listed above, constantly cycling. So USB 3.0 did not fix the issue, which was another port, and possibly another board on the Eagle. Now maybe all the USB the comms, both 2.0 and 3.0 all go through the same thing on the Eagle, where the problem may lie, I dont know the inner architecture of the Eagle. I was thinking if the USB on the Eagle is an in recoverable state / fault, then how can I connect an external hub to the Eagle at all via a USB port? That would mean a major overhaul and re think, and more $ outlay which would be a shame. I think I have Serial to USB convertors close by. I could send one to Olly. Or buy one from a French supplier to ship to him. Tom

Hi Goran, I mean Software, although if I end up throwing the Eagle in the sea because it doe snot work, I hope it is not sea worthy On the Eagle GUI (software interface screen) you can see the voltage that the Eagle power supply is giving the Eagle, and how much wattage and current is being used up by all of the devices attached to it. I m sure 12.8v will be enough for your Mesu, it does not specify 13.8 as being necessary. Steve has already replied to this thread with a cut and paste form the manual stating this. Tom

Yes I saw your post previously on this. My Eagle power cable only outpius 12.9 according to the Eagle s/w. So that is a limiter. The 13.8v supply to the mount seems like a sensible way to go. T.

Hi Sara, Sorry thought I had replied to this. I m powering it from the Eagle. I can switch it to the Dragonfly / Mains. Tom

Olly has seen lots of issues with these units, so I know where he is coming from with his experience. My experience was with a USB that crashed / blue screened my PC a few times. Before the blue screen, it hung up the guider. I kind of have a set against them since. Maybe unfairly, but this experience does set you on a path of preference. Tom

For me though on the Eagle, its just a PC, I would have thought no difference to a PC etc.. The USB board should be similar if not the same as other PC right? I wonder if the power requirements etc.. cant be maintained with so much load on the boards. Time will tell. T

Well I cant argue at the moment. However I m still going to wait a bit until we find the issue. From my day job point of view, you need to be careful to assert a blame to one thing in particular. One year from now I may be saying, yep a PC was the way to go Tom.

Again, That will make me cry. That would mean then a second return to Primaluce. I think I 'll try an external hub but try and keep the power and PC from the eagle. I know it has its uses, and I d like it to work if at all possible. Tom

Good and bad. Exactly. So how do you makes comms more reliable. That is tricky. The incoming power is from the Eagle, from its own power supply at 12.9v. This comes from a UPS. So should be stable, at least. What would cause drops in comms in USB?, bad hardware, not enough dram or something for data transfer, bad or low power, dodgy cables, or weak s/w capability / settings. So much to diagnose yet. I don't fancy sending either equipment back for replacement Tom

Another big thanks to Steve for staying on the phone with me for about an hour. The bottom line is that the mount is not doing what it should. We kept the trouble shooting to just the Sitech. Initially we found every second time we opened it it gave errors for Bad Comms. This was odd but it then gave errors randomly on opening and closing. This looks like a comms issue, probably a com port on the Eagle. This Eagle has already been back to primaluce for a bad USB board which they said they replaced. Now maybe that is not the issue but it raises an eye brow we are unable to open and close the sitech exe consistently where it will not give errors I updated to 92eg Sitech I was on 90P this made no difference. On the 4th opening of Sitech the bad comm returned. Next is to swap USB ports on the Eagle. So somewhere between the physical cables and comms ports and wire connections on the Sitech controller to the Eagle USB board or the cable itself appears to just drop or or disconnect. So some more tests to do but this is a real spanner in the works. I was just thinking if I could keep the Eagle running but use a USB instead I might b able to use the USB 3.0 board instead of the current USB 2.0 board that the Mesu is using. I really don't want a full overhaul / replacement of the gear. I m remaining positive and grateful for the help, this is a great way to understand the in s and outs of the equipment. Tom

Ok great. I 'll be back in an 45mins / hour if you d like a quick view before its dark, Just to show you the screen settings I have etc... And the steps I have been following. I 'll need a few stars out though before I can proper test it.

I m going out for a short walk now, but if you d like you can team viewer into it when get back just to see how I have the whole thing set up. You might spot something that I m doing wrong. I'll be back in 45mins. I was using a single "take One" and plate solving that for example, so I only saw the init screen in SGP for the first time last night. I was getting it in CDC. Although I presume its essentially the same. Or is that a bad assumption. Tom T

Eagle 2. Not the full Eagle 2 Pro. Or what sounds worse, the 1500 euro one T.

No problem thanks Gav. I'll update as soon as I figure something out. T.

Thanks Gav, You re welcome to have a look too. T.

Hi Steve, Would you like to try a teamviewer to my PC so I can show you where am I at later if you have some time? Tom Happy new Year too in case I did not say it.