Deeko

Pin A beeps.

Just so am following you, you want me to do a continuity test between the two physical pins marked A and B in the photo? Just double checking!

Hi all, have given up on it. A full day spent troubleshooting. Now looking at where I can buy a new board but Flo sadly doesn't stock. While I'm at it and out of sheer paranoia I am going to replace the current psu setup with a Pegasus Power Mini with decent AC power supply, will be able to check all the wiring and such when changing to the Pegasus. If it blows again its going in the skip 😕

No it didn't blow, did it one by one and no fuse blew this time. However the mount still doesn't power up and mount power LED doesnt come on. The LED strangely does come on when I plug in the EQMOD cable into the hand controller port, but the mount still doesn't power up or respond. Must be some power coming from the pc via the EQMOD cable. I am all out of ideas now and resigned to buying a new board, can't believe the part cost £120, shocking. That would get me a quite a high-end motherboard for my PC!

Thanks for all the help folks, think I am ready for throwing in the towel with this one and buy a new board. Is there any kind of protection that can be fitted to the mount switch to stop the board from blowing again in the future? More to the point why doesn't it have any protection built in now, not exactly a cheap item.

both pins have resistance values

I followed the wires from the power switch on the mount and they appear to be connected to the two pins on the connector in photo (red box). I then put the multimeter on them for ohms and the number started to rise.

With the board out now, can anyone point me to a guide on what I can test with a multimeter? We have had a lot of rain recently in the UK and the mount may have been in out in it for a few minutes as I have dashed out to get it when clouded over. Maybe II have just lucked out this time and possible some water got in but it was everything is all dry and no sign of any damage. May just need to buy a new board 😕

Here is a close up of what might be a hole - not sure if that is actually damage? Also a few photos of what I think may be an ever so slight burn indicator but my eye sight isn't that great to tell! What is that component for that I have marked that may have slight burn damage?

Took out the circuit board and 'appears' to be on damage or smell

Going to look at it today, I have a digital multimeter, I am not the most clued up with electronics so if anyone could provide some pointers on what/where I should test for in terms of continuity etc. that would be great! Gutted about possibly having to spend over £100 for a simple circuit board that looks like it costs a few quid to make.

Hello, I have had my HEQ5 Pro for 2 years with no issues. Tonight I went to power it up , and when I turned on the 12V 10A power supply I noticed the red power light was already glowing even though the mount switch was in the off position. I started trouble shooting as below: 1) Disconnected EQMOD cable from mount and the power light went out (with power switch in off position); 2) Switched power on at mount switch and power led didn't come on and no noise from mount, not found on PC via EQMOD console; 3) Reconnected the EQMOD cable to the mount and the power LED came on, this was with the power cable disconnected and mount power switch in off position - clearly this isn't right; 4) Checked the fuse in the mounts 12v cigarette lighter style cable and it was blown, replaced it, switched on and it blew the new fuse, tried the cigarette light cable that came with the mount and that fuse blew too; 5) The 12V PSU is powering everything else ok including camera and dew heaters and outputting a steady 13v; 6) Tried two mains 12V DC adapter 5A and 3A and using them the mount power light flickers a little intermittently when switched on, most of the time it didn't come on at all and mount made no noise (it usually clicks and makes a quiet whining noise when powered up); 7) The connector barrel on mount looks fine and not loose. After reading around the culprit may be the motherboard, maybe someone else has read about some of symptoms above and can maybe provide some pointers to what might be wrong. ta! Derek

I recently moved from a 130PDS to a TS Photoline 80mm frac., mounted on an HEQ5 Pro. Obviously, the image train protrudes much more at a different angle than the 130PDS setup and after balancing the scope on the HEQ5 Pro I noticed the camera may hit the tripod leg if imaging anything that crosses the meridian. Last night was first light and on the very last image after a 3 hour session the camera hit the tripod leg. - target was the heart nebula that crossed the meridian This was about 3am when I was sound asleep. So what are my options? An automated merdian flip sounds fraught with problems, as it would need to flip, platesolve, and centre automatically where it left off, can that even be done without manual intervention? I'd rather not but open to suggestions for this one but find it hard to imagine this sort of flawless magic done automatically by software and works 99% of the time. Buy a tripod extension tube, this looks like an easy fix but would it effect stability for the likes of guiding? Looking to size up the pros and cons for this one: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/skywatcher-eq5heq5-extension-tube.html#faq By a longer dovetail bar and experiment with sliding the telescope back and forth, but fear this will introduce counterweight and balancing issues. The dovetail bar that came with the telescope is very short.. I just avoid shooting anything that will cross the meridian 😕

I contacted the developer of ASPS and they got back to me super quick stating the server is down for maintenance for a few days, at least. I really only needed the index-4212 file but even if I got the file from Astrometry.net I don't think it is in the correct format 'out-the-box' as ASPS must parse it to its own usable format, which doesn't seem possible to do manually.

Hello. I have recently bought a new scope so went into reconfigure ASPS to change the focal length and download any extra index files I need. Instead of downloading I get an HTTP 1.1 503 error indicating the server is unavailable. See screenshot. Tried on two machines, even tried a new install and a VPN connection just in case my internet provider causing problems but it still doesn't work. Contacted the guys at Astrometry.net who host all the data and they said it looks fine their end, not sure if ASPS keeps a copy of the index files on their own server and doesn't download from Astrometry.net. Just wondered if anyone else experiencing same issue?

Just we I am on the same page here - when you unscrew the bevel on the OVL as in your bottom photo, it reveals an M56 female thread? Second question - how did you unscrew the bevel, mine is rock solid!

All things considered and after looking at the results of the altair tri and IDAS NB1, I have decided to instead go for the Optolong L-enhance, should have it tomorrow

The L-enhance looks like a great filter for the money! This has moved into my top slot for a narrowband filter. My thinking is I'll keep my IDAS D2 for the likes of galaxies in broadband, and use the L-enhance for nebulae.

As soon as I get a clear night I am going to do some testing with 3-4 second flats with the same exposure time for dark flats, no bias images. I am not unhappy with the images I can collect and process but feel I could do the calibration better to result in cleaner images. This is all the more so after reading around more on taking good flats with the 294.

I can get three separate peaks if I substantially lower the exposure time, but with the 294 the informed consensus seems to be that flats of 3 seconds or longer are necessary, accompanied by an equal exposure length for dark flats (forget bias with the 294).

Hi all, like many folks with an OSC camera (ZWO 294MC Pro) I am intrigued by the new wave of triband filters that have came out. I live in a bortle 6 area and use the relatively new IDAS D2 filter that is designed for reducing LED light (something we have a lot of in Sheffield). For triband I am looking at the following, but can't seem to figure out which one might be best? : AA Triband: https://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/altair-astro-triband-quadband-osc-filters.html IDAS NB1: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/light-pollution-reduction/idas-narrow-band-nebula-nb1-filter.html Of course, there is always a spanner in the works and I have read the STC Duo Narrowband filter is excellent (albeit a lot more expensive) with an OSC: https://www.modernastronomy.com/shop/filters-wheels/stc/stc-astro-duo-narrowband-filter-2/ Any of the usual words of wisdom from SGL folks would be much appreciated! D.

Following on from my last post, does anyone have any advice/info on the APT histogram for flat files shown in my attached screenshot? The flat frame in image was taken with the 294 with the IDAS D2 filter (designed for LED street light pollution) for a target ADU of 25000.

I have the ZWO 294MC Pro and use the t-shirt method with a LED tracing panel (see attached photo) for creating flats. Like the OP I have very recently read more technical discussions on the 294 and issues with creating flats and bias frames with exposures that are too short, I have been using 0.03 sec flats and 0.001 sec bias files (via APT's CCD Flats Aid feature) which in all likely have not been correct with flats in particular too bright, though I haven't had a hard time with dust etc. either. This weekend I tried the t-shirt + 2 sheets of paper with the LED panel I am able to get 4 second flats to reach 25000 ADU, I am also going to ditch bias frames and create dark flats of 4 sec exposure (same as flats). This is a recent development for me and not yet stacked any lights yet with the longer flats + dark flats.

Hello,I am confused with the CCD Flats Aid histogram in APT and what it is supposed to look like when taking flats for my OSC ZWO 294MC Pro. I have read around for advice for flats exposure length for the 294MC and it seems you really want to be >3 seconds to avoid noise to create proper flats. I can achieve this no problem by using several layers of t-shirt with an adjustable LED panel. I take the flats with the IDAS D2 light pollution filter which is designed for LED street lights, so now I wonder if using an LED panel + D2 filter is actually messing with the histogram? Attached is the histogram - could someone please give me some advice on what the histogram should look like roughly for my setup (294MC + IDAS D2). In the attached screenshot I have used the APT flats aid tool to arrive at a 4 second exposure for 25000 ADU.D.

I am looking to do the same thing here. I currently have my finder guider (9x50) setup secured to the standard finder base, but it is not very robust. I have a 130PDS and looking to mount on top a standard Skywatcher dovetail to the scope tube rings (as the OP has done), however only one of the tube rings came with the mounting bolt and threaded plastic washer - does anyone know where I can buy the bolt and threaded washer as shown in pic for the tube ring? For guider rings there are adaptors to clamp onto the dovetail available from Flo here: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/tube-rings/adm-rings-on-v-series-dovetail-adapters.html A cheaper option that might work, is to buy these guider rings and screw them onto the mounted dovetail: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-scopes/primaluce-lab-80m-plus-guide-rings.html, though I am not sure if this can be done without getting in the way of the threaded plastic washer that secures each end of the dovetail bar to the tube rings. I am hoping I can do this option as its less than half the price of the clamp adaptors.