Anthonyexmouth

1 minute ago, Paul M said:

Oh dear. I've had trouble with my 071 and didn't even cool it last time out. I've just received one of the bespoke heater elements from FLO but I've not fitted it yet. I was hoping that'll be the end of the matter.

The camera lives on the OTA full time in an integral garage that houses the boiler also. Very dry in there. Always just a tweak away from focus and less risk of accidents and getting dust on the sensor.

Your findings don't fill me with confidence going forward!

mine lives outdoors on the pier year round, been like that for 4 yrs and never had an issue. didn't even creep up on my. The ZWO heater band didn't make any difference, nor did new tablets. 

5 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Oven will have dried them out so long as you had it hot enough for long enough. I have had to do that once in four years on my 1600mm pro. But the larger aps-c sensors seem to cause ZWO issues. If it's not sealing and frost it's oil on the sensor. I have always had it in mind that I would buy another brand if I ever got a large chip (unlikely). 

dried them in my airfryer for an hour. when that didn't work I got fresh ones from FLO, it's so frustrating having a string of issues all at once. Sent my 290 off to be repaired in May and it only got to ZWO last week. 

The patch always appears in the same spot.

I originally tried oven drying the tablets. When that didn't work I popped into FLO and got a packet of new ones and also added a zwo dew heater. 

I don't know what else to try now. 

1 hour ago, AidanTm said:

Okay, thank you, will try this.  Not sure what you mean by showing the mount pointing position?

If connected correctly, stellarium shows where the scope is pointing. 

1 minute ago, skybadger said:

And what camera is it ?

I have a qhy9 that needed extreme measures but the cooling rate didn't matter, just the achieved  temperature. 

 

 

294MC. 

Ok, heres cooled and uncooled flats, -10 cooled over 10 mins. nothing on the uncooled image.

JPG to show the area. 

Cooled Flat.fitsUncooled Flat.fits

Just now, skybadger said:

What does a flat field look like without cooling ?

 

Was looking fine.  I'll pop out and stick the panel on now and take some new ones. 

41 minutes ago, AidanTm said:

Hello, I hope I am posting this in the right section, apologizes if not.

I have recently learned of Stellarium being able to control mounts and have tried to set it up with my HEQ5.  I have watched many videos and managed to get an connection via the handset connected to the computer.  However, when I try to slew to anything, it goes off into the middle of nowhere, sometimes pointing down.  I realise I am missing steps I'm just not sure which, Do I need to align in anyway before using Stellarium to slew?  Do I need to fill out all the information in the EQMOD relative to my area (lat/long/height ect)?  I realise I am asking for step by steps here but I cannot find/understand the information I am finding online....  Another issue I have is I cannot polar align as Polaris is behind trees and houses in my backyard sadly. 

Any help with this would be great, thank you

you must fill out all the location details in EQMOD. Is stellarium showing the mount pointing position correctly? 

losing the will to carry on. 

Installed new dessicant tablets from FLO and also added a dew heater for the camera but still got the same problem. Slowed cooling to 15mins in NINA.

Had just saved up for a new scope when the mount board got fried so had to buy a new board £140 and now another £40 on this which didn't fix the problem. 

Anyone got any ideas? 

2 hours ago, 900SL said:

If you go with a concrete pier and decide to move house later, you can always paint it brown and glue a few twigs on it. 

Voila! A tree

 

If I ever quit the hobby or move I'll just take the rig off and stick a bird bath on top 

9 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

Superb, but you should really use arcseconds and not pixels for your guide graph, it will give you a much clearer idea of how good it really is….

Good catch, normally is but that's my new mini pc, seems I forgot to change that. 

Would a new board improve guiding? Best guiding of my life tonight, and of course my imaging camera is suffering with frost/condensation. 

heres the image unzoomed. 

Thought this might be frost on the lens but cant see anything when i take the camera off while still cooled. I tried drying the desiccant yesterday bit now looks like i might have a couple of dust specks in there.  Zoomed in pic. 

9 hours ago, Nugs said:

Kudos to you sir, best part of 2 tonnes of concrete....... hope you had a mixer. 🥴

It doesn't move, thats for sure. I check PA every 6 months or so but rarely needs adjusting. 

I went with a poured concrete block underground 900x900x900 and a 300mm duct for the pier with a hockey stick conduit set in it for routing cables. All done in one pour, a lot of mixing but worth it. 

48 minutes ago, StuartT said:

ok, it now seems to be tracking if I connect only EQMOD, not NINA

if you haven't got it, grab the demo of APT and see if that will connect and track. 

Can you control both axis in EQMOD? 

34 minutes ago, Len1257 said:

What is that thin wispy wire thing between the SynScan logo on the board and D5?

Bit of cotton. 

Upside is I'll lose some weight not being able to afford to eat. 

Looks very nice indeed, and sound like you approve. I run a side by side ed80/294mc with st80/120mm for guiding. My plan is to swap the st80 for the sm90/294 and use the ed80 for mixed use guiding and lunar with either 120mm or 290mc for those annoying moonlit nights. 

My credit card is gonna hate me. 

2 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I have no idea what is behind these two terminals as I have never seen this board before and it’s nigh impossible to ascertain these things from a photo. They have definitely grossly overheated causing the solder to melt and run off. Nothing to lose by re soldering them and checking everywhere else to ensure that no pieces of solder is causing shorts.

It's definitely a crystal, nothing else around it in the other side. I'll get some fresh flux and give it a go. 

5 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

I believe he's referring to the pin-in-hole solder joint above C30 which looks like it has maybe come apart.

Not sure what those 2 (includes the one above C31) are part of on the other side but no harm resolder and to remove any odd stray solder fragments like the one near U1 and checking that no others are around between pins on the PIC or other components.

This is the other side, the crystal on the right is the one on the flip side of that area

21 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

You can clearly see the solder came from the resistor terminals. Predominately the one on the right of your picture. I would personally resolder both these terminals and try it out. If it’s still not working then remove the resistor and check the component with a test meter. If blown or damaged (wrong value showing) then replace it for virtually pennies. Once these steps are taken you know where you stand better.

I'm a little confused now. The resistor number you mentioned is on the other side of the board and nowhere near where you marked. The other side of that is one of the crystals, I presume it's a crystal. 

4 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Here 

 

Here's a better picture of that area