wsteel33

Better range?. When I get the wifi dongle i think I will switch back.

Thanks.. I was thinking of putting a RPi on each of my two mounts and letting them live there rather than moving them with the scopes. I think I will do this and I can see how this would help stability of the signal if the RPi isn't moving 👍

Thanks.. I have done this and forced 2.4GHz, I think it has helped.👍

Thanks Steve Brilliant! Straight into the shopping basket 😃👍

I have a powered USB3 hub, I'll give that a go 👍

Thanks for this... I also had multiple networks due to powerline boosters, I have fixed that and changed all the boosters to clone my main network and I think it has helped a little. I now have one home network and the RPi astroberry hotspot as the only options. 👍

I am using the USB3 ports for my cameras. The connection/wifi priorities seem to have sorted themselves out, I connected via ethernet and then it just seemed to stop prioritising its own hotspot 🤔. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion many of you have suggested... stronger wifi, maybe a dongle

Thanks for all the comments. I was thinking RPi wifi strength may be an issue. I actually have the RPi in a plastic case so the case shouldn't be the problem in particular. There have been developments however. It seems like the RPi keeps disconnecting from my home wifi and choosing its own hotspot connection as a priority in spite of the connection priorities I set up in the settings. I even removed my home wifi as an option and set it up again from scratch ensuring it had a higher higher priority than the Astroberry hotspot, but it still disconnected from my home wifi after a few minutes and reinitiated its own astroberry hotspot. I'm thinking a wipe and reinstallation of Astroberry might be in order to see if that fixes it... bit annoing.

Hi everyone. I have had a look around the forums and see some similar issues but not the specific one I am having. When I connect my RPi to my home network and connect to Astroberry using VNC the connection drops regularly (approx. every 5 mins), "server disconnected remotely" (or something similar) it says and eventually won't seem to reconnect at all. I don't tend to have the same issue when I connect to the Astroberry hotspot but I don't want to always have to be that close to the RPi (which sits on my telescope tube) and would like access to the internet while controlling the scope. I don't believe this is a necessarily a network strength issue as it also happens when I bring the RPi into the house and sit it next to my main router where the signal is strong (and I have repeaters near the mount which give a good signal). I also don't believe that it is the RPi being underpowered as it happens when I power it with it power socket. I love the set up and software and it has transformed my imaging sessions (I don't have to hook a laptop up anymore!!! 😀) but this inability to attach remotely over the internet is getting frustrating.. it did kind of work for a while but now it's having issues. Sorry if this same issue has been covered elsewhere, I did look, please feel free to point me to other threads if someone has had the same issue and has found a solution. Thanks for the advice and help as always it's greatly appreciated. Wayne

Cheers for this.. I will take 12 degrees of cooling. I have been using APT (thats where I got those darks) and it also reports the sensor temp. I am currently running KStars/EKOS on a dedicated RPi which means that I have everything remote without the need to hook a laptop up. I will likely just run it on max and take whatever cooling I get from it, especially with summer on the way.

Finally built a peltier cooler for the canon 600D. Credit goes to Martin Pyott for the originl design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVrTpCn1MhA&list=WL&index=1 I had to modify the design slightly due to the aluminium plate snapping and a comedy of errors on my part, such as not being patient enough in drilling the copper plate and snapping a drill bit in the hole.... all learning experiences. I was going to invest in a dedicated OSC astro camera but this will allow me to get a bit more milage out the old faithful DSLR. I have attached photos of the finished project and Darks (10 min at ISO 1600) and was impressed and surprised at the difference this mod made in noise levels. The cooler managed to drop 7 degC on ambient after running for about 15 min or so. I don't know how cold it will get when running for longer, and know it wont be able to compete with a dedicated astrocam, but any cooling is a bonus, right? At about £35 for the parts this saved me a fortune which will go into the dedicated TEC cooled mono camera fund. Next on the DIY list are a power box (with power for the mount, camera, dew heaters and RPi: I have already made my own 12v power distribution box which sits on my EXOS2 "portable" mount) and a couple of auto focusers using the MyfocuserPro2 project on sourceforge (the parts are winging their way to me as I sit here). The savings bring that dedicated mono camera all the closer 😀. Any advice from anyone who has made these projects very welcome (maybe it will help me avoid more silly errors) or ideas for other projects too. Clear skies 💫 D_0003_ISO1600_600s__20C.CR2 D_0001_ISO1600_600s__13C.CR2

Hi Guys..... I think an update is in order. I had a rain free day today and so managed to have another look at this. I fired it all up and everything ran like clockwork. 🤨 The only thing I did differently was when I pressed connect I made sure I turned on tracking in the INDI control panel and I manually scanned and connected the USB ports in the INDI control panel before I closed it. I also used a different 12V power supply just in case that was an issue. Maybe it was the astrophotography gremlins the other day, afterall it was a clear night and I had a chance of getting some useful data. Would still like to thank you both for your help and advice.... much appreciated 👍😀 Clear skies ⭐

I think I also read somewhere that the baud rate could affect the operation of the mount.. its currently set to 9600, could I have read that it should be set to 115200. Apologies if my questions are obvious it's not (yet) a specialist subject.... v. new to controlling with a RPi

Agreed, if it isn't raining this weekend I'm gonna give it a go to see if I can get to the bottom of it. I have just logged into Astroberry and turned on the mount logs in preparation. Thanks mate... lets see how it goes. 🤞

Hi alacant Yeah its unparked and it says its tracking (the red tracking button is lit on the mount tab), and the handset simulator seems to work and allows me to slew it, it just doesn't perform gotos. EKOS says its "slewing" on the first control tab but the scope doesn't actually move and KStars doesnt move the red crosshairs so it seems to "know" its not moving. I was thinking that maybe I wasn't providing enough power (I read thats a common problem that people overlook) but surely it wouldn't slew on the handset simulator if thats the case.... right? Weather looks crap here for a while so next chance I get I will copy the log if it doesn't work next time I try and use it. Thanks for your help 👍

Hi Malc-c Yeah, it works a dream under ASCOM (in windows) with APT but I have hooked a RPi to it to free me from having to attach a laptop everytime I image. I thought that EKOS (in Astroberry) had the relevant INDI drivers installed as standard as I didnt have to load any for the EXOS2 mount (that had its own teething issues before I got it to work 😀). I may be wrong so I will try this, afterall its not going to harm anything loading drivers that are already there. Thanks for the help mate.

Hi everyone I am trying to get my EQ6 mount to run using astroberry on RPi. I am using an EQDirect cable straight to the RPi, bypassing the handset, and EKOS seems to recognise the mount fine. I can seem to slew the mount using the Handset controls in EKOS but when I give a goto command the EKOS control panel says the mount is slewing but the mount doesn't move and KStars doesnt move the crosshairs.. like it knows the mount isnt moving. I have had it all working fine with my ES EXOS2 mount but having issues with my EQ6 in EKOS. I am controlling the RPi using VNC viewer. Any advice gratefully received. Cheers Wayne

Thanks Whirlwind. The filter is a pretty good one and well reviewed, it is a clip-in one which I believe is supposed to go in one way around. I checked anyway after your comment and it looks to have the same coatings on both sides anyway. Its the only clip in filter I plan to buy and I am going for 2'' mounted ones going forward that will screw into the front of the reducer/flattener and may replace this one eventually (budget wont stretch to that just yet). Guess I live with the halo's for now in the sessions when I am using this particular filter and reducer combination. Thanks anyway. Clear skies (hopefully sometime soon) 🪐💫

Hi Guys I have just added the Orion 0.8 reducer/flattener to my image train. Don't know why I waited so long the extra speed of data collection alone (turning my f/7.5 Orion 80ED into a f/6) was well worth it. However, I have found I get a halo around bright stars. Anyone got any advice of how I can deal with this. I have only managed one significant session with this new set-up (bloody British weather!!) so it may just be this image but I never had this issue before I added the reducer/flattener. I notice a the halo is red too around what should be a bright blue star. I like my star colours to come out as natural as possible (don't we all?) Any advice would be gratefully received. FYI the set up is an Orion 80ED, Orion x0.8 reducer/flattener, modded Canon 600D with SkyTech CLS-CCD clip in filter for EOS (all on an ES EXOS2 mount). I have attached the photo for reference. The star is Xi Persei in the bottom right of this California nebula image. Cheers Wayne

Hi all I am having some issues with platesolving. When I platesolve in APT and send info to stellarium/carte du ciel it says it is pointing in totally the wrong direction. When I try goto either in APT or the planetarium it sends the mount in totally the wrong direction. This happens on both my mounts (EXOS2-PMC8 and EQ6) I am running APT, PHD2, stellarium/carte du ciel, the mount is connected through POTH Hub (ASCOM 6.4). I had updated to 6.5 (with the new Device Hub) but I think thats when the problem first started so uninstalled and put 6.4 back on but still having the problem. It was working fine previously and platesolving correctly everytime. I am wondering if I inadertantly changed some kind of settings and screwd it up myself. Any advice would be most welcome as it is highly frustrating as I am sure everyone here can appreciate. Cheers all Wayne

Hi Adam The first photo back in April was only 60 mins worth of data and, while not high quality, the galaxy came out fine. Last night I got 80 x 150 sec subs (3hrs 20mins in total!!) yet the image was none existant, I'm wondering if the fact that I went with ISO 400 last night as opposed to ISO 1600 back in April is the issue.... or am I missing something else. Cheers

Thanks I have found one designed for the Orion 80ED 👍

Hi Guys Any chance of some imaging/processing advice please. I had a go at the Pinwheel (again) last night and thought I'd got some good data. 80 x 150sec at ISO 400, guiding was good, took darks, flats and Bias frames. I could see it there centre field when auto stretched in APT. I chose it as it was a 3/4 moon to the SE so I thought I'd go for something in the NW. I was excited to process today thinking that this was going to be my best image yet. It seemed to stack fine in DSS, I had to drop the threshhold down to 5% to pick up 35 stars but I figured that that was because I went with a low(ish) ISO. However... when I came to process and do my initial curves and levels in Photoshop.... nothing... its there, you can see it, but there seems to be no real data to process. I thought it might be my flats, they looked really bright and I'd read that some people found that washed out their image. So I stacked again with just lights and darks.... same problem, no improvement. I have shot this image before in April and It came out ok for a first stab (it was literally my first image). The other image was using BYEOS, 61 x 60 sec at ISO 1600 (scope mount and camera were the same, Evostar 120, EQ6, Unmodded 600D), the sensor temp was 18degC for the first image (it was 32degC last night!) I noticed that the histogram was very thin when processing today.. should that have set off alarm bells? I have attached images with Histograms for reference. I have stretched last nights image so you can see it is actually there... I promise 😀. Was ISO 400 just never gonna cut it? I went this low thinking that it would help noise reduction on a warm night. What do you think happened here? All advice and constructive criticism enthusiastically welcomed.. I am eager to learn and further my skills. What a hobby... frustration and amazement in almost equal measure. Thanks in advance everyone. Wayne

Hi everyone. I am looking to buy a field flattener/reducer for my scopes and would appreciate the advice and experience of you good people. I have a couple of questions. 1. The scopes I am currently using are Skywatcher Evostar 120 (120mm f8.3 Achromat Refractor). https://www.firstlightoptics.com/evostar/skywatcher-evostar-120-ota.html Orion 80ED (80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor). https://www.telescope.com/Orion-ED80-80mm-f75-Apochromatic-Refractor-Telescope/p/9895.uts Any advice on an appropriate field flattener/reducer for these scopes? 2. Would a single flattener work for both these scopes or would they need their own? I mainly use the Orion for my photography of DSO so I would prob buy one for this scope first. I generally use the Skywatcher for planetary stuff and trying to image the smaller galaxy scale stuff. Thanks in advance for your advice everyone and clear skies. Wayne 😀🪐

I had the very same issue. APT kept locking up, stellarium said my mount was parked (it wasnt) and couldn't be moved until I unparked it. Fortunately I had the installer for ASCOM 6.4 on an older laptop so uninstalled 6.5 and installed the older one with POTH hub.. all works fine now. I hope they fix this soon as the interface for 6.5 does look nice but at least all the software and my mounts are playing nice again 😀