Grierson

Having recently received a new ASIair I am keen to tidy up the cabling on my rig. I'm having great difficulty finding leads of specific lengths. (e-bay and Amazon) i.e. 2ft USB2 A to B with the A being a right angle plug. I wonder is anyone has a source of leads with oddball lengths. Thanks - John

I run my ASIAIR Pro from your second example. Runs fine indoors but I’ve not had chance yet to try it out in earnest. Can’t tell from your signature what your set up consists of but received wisdom seems to be that the mount should be powered direct rather than a port on the ASIAIR leaving the four ports for powering cameras, focuser, heaters etc. I run my setup in EQMod with the cable from the ASIAIR to the mount direct. Since, briefly in my early days, I have never used the hand controller and now that the unit has an option inbuilt to use SkySafari /EQMod this make life even better. Again the guide camera connects to the ASIAIR with one cable direct.

Hi Steve, did you get one and what are your first impressions?

I did, and it arrives this week. Although £10 is a fair sum even these days I’ll put it in the spares box as I’m sure it will come in handy some day. Nevertheless thanks again for the original pointer. (I ended up ordering the same item you suggested from a UK seller on e-bay.)

Seems as if I was trying to be too clever! The ASIAIR Pro actually comes with a dovetail fitted. 😥

Many thanks, that looks just the job.

I wonder if anyone has a source of a dovetail to fit a SW finder shoe? I want to mount the ASIAIR on the scope but I don’t mind the length, I can always cut it down. Thanks - John

Certainly did pre-order from you. Are there any other suppliers. 😀 I will e-mail. John

Didn’t see the trade in offer on your website when I pre-ordered mine Steve. How will it work?

I see our sponsor is taking pre-orders for this device!

Food for thought. Thanks for the contributions. John

Thanks Ken. I’m afraid I will need a bit of time to digest your comment. John

I didn’t take much notice at the time but I assume Star Alignment in PI would have taken of the issue!

Perhaps the following is naïve comment. My current setup is a SkyWatcher ED80 on a belt modified HEQ5 with either a ZWO 294 or ZWO 1600. (Both CMOS cameras) Having watched SharpCap's Robin Glover's presentation where he recommends lots of short subs rather than fewer longer subs I get to thinking that running a guide 'scope and software on my rig does not contribute significant benefit. I typically take 30-40 x 180sec. subs. All the control gear, ASIAIR, power distribution, focuser and guide 'scope are mounted on the ED80 and I WAS giving some thought to lightening the load by fitting an OAG. But then I hesitate and wonder if guiding on my setup is worthwhile. I should say that clear nights in recent times have not allowed any experimentation to answer my own question but on the occasions when I have not guided I see reasonably round stars. I wonder what more experienced imagers think.

Not only your fault but it is the fault of anyone buying new gear.😀 - John - G3PHJ

If you intend to use ASIAIR then I would be inclined NOT to dig too deeply into EQMOD. There is a bit to learn as I know to my cost and there is no doubt that having got it set up it is a great way to control the ‘scope. However if you have the appropriate cable and drivers in place using the EQMOD version on ASIAIR is a piece of cake. As said above this takes away the need for the handset but you do need to rely on ZWO’s list of targets rather than CdC etc.

Ah, I see. Many thanks!

I suppose the answer will be obvious when somebody knowledgeable posts but what is EEVA? It does not seem to be in the Glosary.

Yes, both work on my elderly Nexus 7 no problem. As has been said above you will need both your iOS powered devices if that is the route you take. Personally I find the Nexus a bit on the small side for my old eyes. (How people manage on their 'phones I don't know ) I finally opted for using the adapter and CdC on the laptop running the W10 platform. After a bit of a false start it now runs well. John

Pleased you have it up and running. - John

I wonder what comes up when you click on Connect in PHD2. On my W10 laptop it comes up as ASCOM Toupcam Driver which is second (in my case) on the dropdown camera list. Did you install ASCOM before or after the ST4 and Camera Drivers? (From the CD) I ask because for my ZWO camera their website makes a point of installing the ASCOM platform first. It may be the same for any camera but I am no expert. If I were to face the issue I would be inclined to delete ASCOM and re-install it and then install the ST4 and camera drivers from the disc. As far as ASCOM is concerned it might also be sensible to install the latest version from their website rather than from the disc that came with the Toupcam which I guess may be well out of date. John Edit - Just in passing I found that the Toupcam website was poor, with no updated drivers available!!

Can’t speak for the EQ6 but one of the contributory factors, on my HEQ5 at least, is the over tight bearing that required bruit force using the ‘Armstrong Method’ to get it to 52 degrees when I first set it up. It would never have been achieved with the bolts loaded or not.

Well another broken driver and a lot of heat I've finally got the screws out although I've managed to leave the shank of one of them still in the focuser when the head parted company. Looks as if I will still have to resort to drilling it out if and when I use the focuser again. I couldn't find 'P-B Blaster' Dave although my local Halfords suggested WD-40. At Gus' suggestion I had tried that last night with no luck. I was half expecting the focuser to be a tight fit to the 'scope tube but in fact it came away without difficulty. Again many thanks for all the helpful comments. - John

Many thanks everyone for taking the trouble to respond. I actually shattered the end of my ph2 100mm driver as the wife held the 'scope and I tried turning the screw. I did manage to get one screw out before that happened but now I'll have to get down to B&Q to get another driver. The screw head took some of the metallic paint off my lovely telescope in the process. I will have another go at the other two screws tomorrow taking on board your suggestions. I'm not at the drilling stage yet Billy but thanks for the offer - John