SteveBz

6 hours ago, SSI-Rick said:

I have successfully printed two complete LowSpec units and two Solex/StarEx units plus spare parts with my Ender 3V2, and found that it was a matter of (painfully) gaining experience with what works and what does not.  I upgraded my printer by replacing the extruder with a 'dual-gear drive" unit($15).  This was the most important upgrade that I made.  I consider it essential. The stock one would slip and not feed filament properly resulting in total failure of the part.   I replaced the Bowden tube with one made of Capricorn PTFE with better heat tolerance.  I tried an 'all metal hotend' and then took it off because it kept clogging.   I installed a BL Touch level sensor for helping with the bed adjustment, but I am not sure that it was really necessary.  I discarded the brass nozzle that came with the printer and used hardened steel of either 0.4 or 0.6 mm diameter.  There have been lots of good suggestions about settings, etc.  I found that PLA with carbon fiber prints very nicely, but there is the concern about thermal stability.  So, I used PETG w Carbon Fiber, and found that a nozzle temperature of 245 to 250 C worked, with a bed temp of 80C.  My printer has the Ender special glass plate on the bed, and I learned that it worked great with no added adhesion helpers as long as it was perfectly clean.  At the start of each print I use isopropyl alcohol to clean the surface.  A level bed with just the slightest distance (a sheet of printer paper can just be dragged without tearing) to the print head is essential for the first layer to adhere properly.  When the part is done, if you let the bed cool down all the way to ambient temperature, it will release from the glass plate completely ... If you try to get it off when the plate is still hot, you will break something trying to get the part off.  The printer must be calibrated as others have said, both in x,y,z dimentsions and for the extruder.  There are YouTube videos that show how to do this.  If all this works out, you grow to love your printer; if not ...

Rick

Can I ask, Rick, did you get them both working well?  Do you have any results from them that you can post here, or have posted here?

Kind regards

Steve.

2 hours ago, saac said:

@SteveBz I think there is a great temptation with 3D printers to go into upgrade fever and start replacing everything without being really necessary. I have the Ender 5 which is very similar to the Ender 3, I think it shares all the major components. I think I have had it now for 5 years coming up and the only thing I have replaced was the extruder which was slipping and failing to push the filament through. Everything other than that is stock and it works perfectly. When I have had failed prints it has either been due to my laziness in levelling the bed after a long period of no use or trying to use very old filament (possible too much moisture absorbed or brittle). All problems have been remedied by levelling the bed properly and using decent filament.  I have only once upgraded a component and that was to replace the broken extruder. 

My advice would be start from the basics all over; get the bed levelled, manually will do fine, make sure you are using decent and preferably fresh filament. When you first start a print just double check that the filament is actually feeding through properly, a wee push up the feed tube to assist can help.  Thereafter, just keep monitoring it, decent first few layers are crucial.  Sometimes, if the filament fails to feed through you end up with the head continuing to travel around on its path and the bed lowering but no layers deposited "failure to finish the print". I would double check your extruder and perhaps adjust the tension if necessary to make sure it is gripping and pushing the filament.   The Ender 3 is a sound printer and there is no real need to go upgrade crazy, just get your initial setup tuned in.  Good luck with it. 

Jim 

Hi Jim and others,

Thanks for this feedback.  I'll come back to it in the future.

I have 2 printers the Ender 3, which is really not doing anything now and I don't know why, and an iMakr Startt, which does work, but not well.  The Ender 3 actually belongs to a friend so I can't really do too much damage to it. 

At some stage, I think I'll probably just replace it with a new one that I can pull apart and mess with.  In the meantime, I'm messing with the iMakr, because I can learn how to do 3D printing.  I think that's the main thing.  

I'm currently upgrading the iMakr to a heated bed and that's quite fun because I have to upgrade the firmware too.

This project is running a bit slowly also because I have twins at university and so I can't quite throw money at it in the way I might have . 

I'll try again when my finances are looking a little better.

Kind regards,

Steve.

On 30/10/2022 at 18:02, ollypenrice said:

In my head only, I conceived of a sliding counterweight system to reduce the gravitational pull on the focuser to as little as zero if that's what you wanted. It would not be all that difficult to make.

- Start with a tube mounted parallel with the optical axis of the scope and behind the focuser's knobs.

- In this tube is a cylindrical weight of the right diameter to slide up and down in it like a piston in a cylinder.

- A cable (fishing line?) goes from this weight forwards to a pulley on the back of the scope, which it loops around, and then back to the camera.

That's it. Pointing at the zenith, the camera is pulling down, a counterweight equivalent to the camera's weight is also pulling down by the same amount, but the direction of the counterweight's pull is reversed by the pulley so it neutralises the camera's pull.  Both pulls diminish proportionally (bar minor differing effects of friction) as the scope approaches the horizontal (and the problem ceases to exist anyway.)

An industry capable of producing so many excruciatingly bad focusers should have no trouble making a tube, a pulley and weight. 

Olly

Hi Olly,

I'm sort of up for a version of this.  A simpler version might be to mount the pully on the main Losmandy plate. Dangle a vertical cable straight down parallel to the pier and with a weight suspended from it then attache the othe end of the cable to the focuser by a spare screw or something.  The only issue is that there might be some torque on the focuser making optical train less than square-on to the scope.

Not sure how to make this work.

Kind regards

Steve.

Thanks for that.  It looks very nice, if a little expensive.  As I'm quite overdarwn at the moment, I think it'll have to wait

Thanks

Steve

6 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

For me, it was to replace focuser with better 2.5" R&P unit (that also has threaded connection instead of clamping one).

Hi Vlaiv,

Nice to hear from you.

Which one did you use and how much did it cost? And maybe a link if you have one.

Have a nice weekend.

Kind regards,

Steve.

Hi People,

I've just acquired a used RC8 and the focuser is a bit slippy.  Originally, it was all over the place, but I took it apart and tightened the screws and now all the tilt/slop is gone, however, the focuser movement has directional difficulties.

The load is relatively high with an SX camera, filterwheel and AO unit.  If I'm pointing overhead (maximum load), focusing manually and I support the load lightly with one hand the inward travel and outward travel work fine.  If I'm focusing remotely with a motor and belt, the same is not true.  Outward travel is fine, but inward travel just slips.  There seem to be two screws to portentially tighten or loosen.  What's the correct process to get inward and outward focus working smoothly?

Kind regards,

Steve.

6 hours ago, wimvb said:

Is there any particular reason you got photometric filters? These weren't designed for LRGB imaging, but rather to do photometry. Also, in stead of using a yellow filter for L, try combining data from the other filters to create a synthetic luminance. Specifically, the Exoplanet filter is blue blocking, so will dim any blue areas in your RGB image if you use it as luminance.

Hi Wim,

Thanks for this.  So I think I found the problem.  I had defined the filters in KStars clockwise instead of anticlockwise (or the other way round).

I have photometric filters because I got a deal on the filter wheel, and they were already in it.

But I do have a clear filter, and maybe I should use that as the Lum filter instead.

I'll try next clear night.

Kind regards,

Steve.

Hi People,

I've just refreshed my setup from a Newtonian C8-N to an RC8 with SX mono with AstroDon photometric filters.  The whole process is new to me, so I'm guessing when I suggest that the filter question is even the right question.

Last night produced about 2 hours of images which I have processed here using Siril:

The question really, is that although I quite like the richness of the field, the colours are unconventional to say the least and It's not clear to me why.  If it's just the effect of a new filter system and photometric filters always look like this, then I'm fine with that.  If there is another issue, then I should probably address it.  This is about 2 hours worth of data from last night in LRGB.  Here's my equipment breakdown:

• RC8,
• SXVF-H16
• SX filter wheel
• AstroDon Colorimetric filters (Rc, V, Bc & Exo-planet).

The Exo-planet filter is yellow and I'm using it to approximate to Lum.  The Bc Filter images are much darker than the other colours and this is why I wonder if the characteristic blue ring on M57 is missing.

Any comments welcome.

Kind regards

Steve.

On 28/09/2020 at 01:54, Merlin66 said:

I was just wondering, following Valerio's journey into LowSpec spectroscopy, how the others are doing.

There's obviously a few (many?) of the 3D LowSpec instruments "in progress"

Any updates from the members????

Hi Ken,

I've been scrolling through the forum looking for examples. I'm really struggling with the printing on an Ender 3 and I wonder if I should upgrade the printer?   The 2 main problems I gave are firstly it often doesn't finish printing and secondly the pieces don't seem to fit together.  Especially the threaded pieces. 

When I started in astronomy on an eq1,  then an eq3,  then an eq5 then an eq6,  all with a Newtonian,  it wasn't until the eq5,  that I got a decent repeatable experience and the eq6 was just the icing on the cake.  Is the same true of 3d printing? You just can't do it on a cheap printer?

Kind regards,

Steve

On 02/07/2022 at 14:05, Thalestris24 said:

OK, tho I don't see any need for ABS over PLA but it's up to you! I seem to remember (3yrs ago) that Paul had a more sophisticated printer then, at least...

Back home now 🙂

Paul says PLA is transparent at IR wavelegths that's why he prefers it.

My printer is refusing to do anything at the moment, I need my friend to come over and beat it into submission.

6 hours ago, Graham Beamson said:

Hi,

I purchased an Alpy 600 just recently and have been setting it up, focussing the various parts etc. I have the base module and guide module, but not the calibration module. It has been rather slow because of the short nights and cloud. I was out last night and was able to put a star on the entrance slit (as seen in the output of the guide camera - a ZWO ASI178) and obtain reasonable-looking spectra of Vega, Deneb and Altair. 

However, I’m concerned about two things:

1. My spectra are not centered on the sensor of the spectroscopy camera - they seem to be off-centre by about 1 mm in the non-dispersive direction. The spectroscopy camera is a Lodestar X2.

2. My focus, as seen by the guide camera, seems quite bad and strangely behaved. When I adjust the telescope focus (an 80 mm, f6 refractor) one way I can see a star get bigger as I go away from focus, but going the other way the star gets fainter and disappears. Also, at the best focus I can get the shape of the star is very strange - there is lots of flaring so that it looks a bit like a comet.

I must be doing something wrong - can anyone advise me ?

Thanks, Graham.

Hi Graham,

I've eventually decided to go the LowSpec 3.0 route, which is a bit of a nightmare because of learning 3D printing etc.  However, lots of friends are rallying around.

However I also have a LodeStar x2 and a 178mm (QHY rather than ZWO, but same sensor).  I note that the pixels are very different sizes.  The X2 is about 8.x um, whereas the 178 is 2.4 um - a factor of 3 different.  I'm using the 178 as my spectrum camera and a ZWO asi290 mm (2.9 um) for the guide camera.  Then I'm doing imaging with another large format camera (SX H16) and guiding that with the X2.

Everyone says that guiding is less sensitive to sampling than image quality, so you might improve the resolution of your spectra if you switched round X2 for guiding and 178 for spectra.  But I'm not even off the ramps yet!!! What does @robin_astro think?

Steve.

2 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

Is there any reason you don't want to use PLA or PLA+ or PLA carbon fibre?

Hi Louise,

@Paul Gerlach does come from time to time and so he'll probably see this eventually.  He's also following this thread, so if he scrolls back three he'll see my question.

The reason is that he recommended that brand of ABS, so I presume he can tell me what parameters to use.

Kind regards

Steve.

On 27/06/2022 at 12:24, Paul Gerlach said:

Although ABS is a very common filament, it has its problems. Warping due to rapid cooling is a big problem. Especially with relatively big objects like the Lowspec main body.
I Use Green Tec Carbon from Extrudr. It has little warp and is, as the name suggest, filled with carbon.

Paul

Hi Paul,

I bought this, but I'm having serious problems with printing it.  Can I ask you for some tips please?  I have an Ender-3 printer.  Specifically, I'd like to know:

- What temperature do you use on the extruder nozzle?  I'm using 260 C

- What temperature do you use on the bed? I'm using 80C. 

- What nozzle do you use? Mine is stainless steel and 0.4 mm.

- How do you assure adhesion to the bed? I'm using hairspray.

- What settings should I use in Cura?  Eg Support, skirt, raft etc etc etc.

This project isn't for the faint hearted!  3D printing on its own is a new skill!

Thanks

Steve,

Hi Folks, it seems to me that is only element 8 that is affected by the f-number of the scope. Can you tell me how to adjust it for a Meade etx90 (f/13.8)?

Tx.

1 hour ago, Thalestris24 said:

GPCAM3-178M

OK, so the same chip.  Is that Toucam?

1 hour ago, Thalestris24 said:

Oh dear - PLA is much easier to handle, I think

That IS PLA, I haven't started the ABS yet 😅

Hi People,

(My Ender 3 nozzle is blocked - delay while I unblock)

I've been thinking about the camera connection.  I've got a QHY5iii178mm mini with a c-mount connection. Should I put a helical focuser in there, or should I cut a smaller hole, or should I just use a c-mount to T2 thread reducer?

What do you think?

Kind regards

Steve. 

2 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

ps something you could try is to heat the metal T2 piece (you are trying to connect) with a hairdryer. When hot it can be easier to screw in. I've only done this with PLA.

Greast ps!!

1 hour ago, Thalestris24 said:

If you do a search on here you should be able to find instructions for setting up custom threads in Autodesk Fusion 360 if you need to make any from scratch. But aren't you just printing out the existing design? You would  probably have to calibrate the printer to get threads to print out accurately but it's a good idea to do that anyway. There are videos on YouTube for doing that.

Louise

It's just that the threads are very tight.  The female fittings I can just use a Barlow with a T-Thread to clean up the printing.  If I insert and turn with WD40, gradually it cleans up the thread if I repeat for half an hour, but the male fitting doesn't work as well.

Steve.

Hi Guys,

I can easily buy threading tools for the small threads, eg M3-M6, but the T2 threads are a bit harder.  How do you get the T2 threads to work (M42x0.75)?

Kind regards,

Steve.

13 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

I found some stuff - invoice and registration ack.

Looks like I created an account then registered on the web site. Not sure if export@jeulin.com is still their correct email. If it is you can contact them to check the ordering procedure, if you need to. 

 

Part of invoice - the shipping and handling adds a fair bit...

Louise

Excellent. Thanks. I'll email them.

Kind regards

Steve.

It strikes me that some of my fellow astronomers might have outgrown their LowSpecs.  If someone would like to sell me one or just its components, or a half built one, please do send me a PM.   I will receive your message with open arms.

Steve.

3 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

It's 3 yrs since I bought mine so not sure if anything has changed....

Brexit.  🥴  You now have to get a quote, you can't just buy it with a credit card.  After the quote it all fall into an abyss from which there appears to be no return

3 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

Just go here: 12 simple radial slots - 40 mm diameter token - Jeulin

Add to basket. I think you have to create an account.

It's 3 yrs since I bought mine so not sure if anything has changed....

Louise

Hi Louise,

Thanks for that.  Do I get the one with the holder, or just the raw disk?

Kind regards

Steve. 

Jeulin is proving a bit of a challenge.  I raised a request for a quotation last week (for the slit).  They sent me the request, but I don't know how to pay it.  If I go into it on the site, it says locked for edit by another user with no indication of how to progress the quotation.  If I go into the 'Contact us' screen, it demands a phone number, but won't accept an English phone number.

OMG