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Padraig

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Everything posted by Padraig

  1. Oh yeah there’s also the plug and play https://eu.lunaticoastro.com/product/dragonfly-v-2-0-observatory-controller/ $$$$$ 😬
  2. Here’s one way of controlling roof Also here’s reasonably priced sliding gate opener, https://oxy4us.com/en/content/25-sliding-gate-motors It’s weather proof and you can mount outside if your caught for space Here’s a discussion about using a “velleman K8055n” ( has a new part code now I think ) https://www.velleman.eu/products/view/?id=461858 This is what I use myself, ( actually 2 ) loads of interface with Nina found it to be very stable, BUT I had to solider all components to board !!! but worth it 👍
  3. Good to know Skybadger, wonder if polarity of the sensor might be Peter’s issue …sounds strange that temp going down in his house , you’d think it’ll be 21’C ++ pointing at the ceiling.
  4. Keep us updated…very interested to see how this works
  5. Just a thought, why not leave the lid off to test it in your house, prop it up someway. Add/Or maybe discount heat pad. Looks the job 👍 Just read you post again 🙃 temp dropping to 4’c , now that doesn’t make sense. It would have to get quite warm in the box for circuits to go wacky?
  6. As-eq6 pro I have it about 3/4 years now. Started with 6” Sct but got fed up with dewing up, so jumped over to 130 pds with asi294mc. Which I enjoy but small apo would have been nice. Still a lot to learn with so few nights. latest project is collimating with my new Concenter 2”. for the secondary mirror. I find it quite good for aligning with the focuser. I’ll do a star test, then mount Zwo EAF. ( Xmas gift ) or maybe just image since it’s been so long. ???
  7. Follow up: Finally, got one hour of clear sky. So I had a few things I want to try to help with this issue, first was to retighten the floating nut on dec. and check I hadn't introduce any adverse effects. Next, was to slightly increase backlash, ( not to many out there doing that these days 😁 ) but , no joy. Also checked, had I over tighten clutch, ( grasping as straws). I was starting to think there might be some internal mechanical issue, that would need a strip down to investigate. On that note, what would that involve ? One final push, Set up backlash again, but graph looked horrible on "guider assistant" …. gone too far. Backed off till I could slightly hear and feel a backlash while rocking declination. THEN , slightly pinched the "locking Allen keys" head closest to the worm gear and then locking down the opposite two. Bingo....as good as it gets. Hope this of help to others, and thanks to Ali and ollie PS: ollie, I'll be trying your suggestion in the future but I'm really hungry to gather some subs when this cloudy spell passes Thanks again.
  8. It’s hard to know it is caused by backlash, I was very careful not to have binding. But tried to reduce as much as possible. The backlash was at around 1000mS but that was when my sidereal rate was set at 0.5 in eqmod. Since then I’ve moved it up 0.9 as recommended by one of the manuals. That’s when my backlash dropped back to ~500mS. Made sense to me, why have phd2 working so hard. Seems to preform better with the limited time I had of clear sky. Now unless I went too far with adjusting … The idea of slightly misaligned and guiding in one direction and then change after a flip sounds good, because I think read somewhere that can be automated into the sequence. like us all ,I need a few clear hours.
  9. About 2/3 weeks ago I notice that there was some backlash both in ra and dec. this was while I was trying to improve my balance. I probably went a bit heavy handed with my adjustments. I backed off the ra meshing a bit , for as far as I know it’s not as critical. Then started to fine tune dec backlash which as far as I see on the graph and physically is very slight. I had tightened up the floating nut on the dec. and thought this might be the issue. But last night, I had a short window of opportunity to test again with it only very slightly pinch tight. Following all the manuals for phd2 and Eqmod, ( yes , actually reading them 😆 ) my PA hasn’t been better and happy with my guiding 0.5 -0.7 ish. The reason I started to tinker with meshing was to reduce my peak error …which was a bit wild ? For the short time I had last night, for the most part was 1.0” and the best I’ve seen in target display. just can’t put my finger on what’s causing this strange graph ? I’ll check out your suggestions and get back. thanks.
  10. Hi does anyone know what might cause this issue with dec. backlash? south steps seem to stall ?
  11. Wonder is there an update anywhere … https://stargazerslounge.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=172489 I can’t seem to find …i2c master…in Arduino library management. ?
  12. You could always check home position in real time 😀 credit : Lazy Geek just tried it , a bit of fun 👍
  13. Well, I don’t have shower curtain but all auxiliary equipment is housed in a timber press. I “inherited” a electrical panel which I’ve mounted on wall and yet to move pc , power , hub, etc… into. Nothing should be exposed. Also, floating an the idea of using miniature inductive switches instead of Reed & magnet.
  14. Hi maxchess Are you running a raspberry pi to connect between hardware ? Not that familiar with Ekos , I went the traditional route. Maybe you could put up a pictures of how you mounted the reed switches, it’ll be great to see. Sounds like you have a all angles covered.
  15. I watching Joe’s astrophoto, at the moment, he’s building a setup with sliding gate motor and utilising an arduino. I reach out to him and he says he’s putting together a video. should be interesting. I went with hoist motor which I had to remove internal brake because it was too severe …that’s a +1 for gate motor. Don’t think he has a problem with roof height.
  16. Ooooh, if I was to do all again, a micro observatory would be the way I’d go. I do agree with your thinking that 99.9% of the time, it’ll be an equipment failure before automation. Just from my own experience working in a very large industrial plant. At the moment I watch the weather, close roof over in the morning. But that won’t stop the birds 💩 My thinking at the moment would be to hard wire a sensor(s) for home position and not letting roof move at all, no worse than where I’m at now. Food for thought, about going with no sensor , and not cluttering up pier with more cables.
  17. 2 Reed switches on the axis …good idea, could wire them in series as the fail safe. 👍
  18. By the way, thinking along this guys idea
  19. Not a great fan of bumper switches as the collision already happened, I think ? I use Nina, but I think v1.11 can set up to close roof after a predefined home position. Probably ending up using something like this: https://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/products/9026865/ A bit crude …but the lesser evil than nothing.
  20. Hi I have a motorised roof and was thinking of adding a safety switch to the mount (Az-Eq6) which sits on a pier, as the telescope needs to slew 90’ before roof closes. So far I’m thinking of a snap safety limit switch attached to pier some way. Wondering has anyone come up with novel design/ pic’s ?
  21. I went with one these , I got it second hand from Cex. It has WiFi, so it’ll link up to camera. Thanks everyone for suggestions 😊
  22. That particular one doesn’t have WiFi, but yea, I was thinking along those lines. 👍
  23. Seems like a robust bit of kit, I thinking of making use of a nest camera that I already have. I have Ethernet down in observatory but I’ll have to figure what device to get WiFi to run camera. thanks
  24. Never thought of the vents Dave, I’d probably use it when just starting up or if something goes horribly wrong.
  25. Thanks, I was going to use it when away from home, just to check in occasionally. Would you know what device I would need to connect to my Ethernet switch to generate a WiFi. There’s so much jargon surrounding “I. T. “ it has my head spinning 😵‍💫 here’s a the type of switch I’m using https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Gigabit-Ethernet-Unmanaged-GS105UK/dp/B0000E5SEQ/ref=mp_s_a_1_12?dchild=1&keywords=ethernet+switch+4+port&qid=1629797464&sprefix=ethernet+sw&sr=8-12 Any advice appreciated
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