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Tomatobro

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Everything posted by Tomatobro

  1. Tomatobro
    its a lottery. The performance of mine (6 months old) is very VERY disappointing. Hopefully it will be exchanged when the lock down eases but I am not holding my breath.
  2. Tomatobro
    Sorting intermittent's is really difficult because most of the time everything is working ok. I take it the mount has worked ok for sometime before the problems started? did the problems start when the new usb hub was fitted or was the new hub a result of trying to fix an issue? If the mount stopped because of a power supply droop then it would not park properly, but you mention that restarting via ASCOM the mount would park ok so that would suggest that the power supply was ok. Does your control setup keep an event log?
  3. Tomatobro
    see microbe's post rowan belt mod.....same problem I think
  4. Tomatobro
    re Carastro's question I have seen on Tomato's dual ring where one laptop runs the mount, PHD and a imaging camera that you could say that this runs two cameras (guide and imaging) but if PHD and the main image camera decide to download together then PHD looses the guide camera connection so I guess its a bandwidth or com port clash issue. PHD flags the warning of the lost camera but it always reconnects when the bus is quite.
  5. Tomatobro
    Here is a picture of my data capture board. Tomato donated a couple of stair newels which I used to make the antenna frame and everything so far has involved a zero outlay. The financial director has asked me not to put any new capex for astro items till the end of the month so will use what I have till then. Its also true to say that without the stimulation of your posts on the subject I would not have got this far. Nothing like having something to compare my results with👍
  6. Tomatobro
    The EEPROM onboard the chip has a limitation as to the number of read writes so I don't use it. I write the data to a 24lc256 EEPROM. There is a 512 version which is unused on the UKRAA receiver and I intend to use this . With EEPROM's its good practice to write 255 into each byte and then read all the locations back to check that all cells are working. This is the erase process that I use to give me confidence that the storage chip is good. Also I read in a word variable and check that if it equals 65535 then my data read has come to the end of the sequence. I am using a PIC 16f84 for my initial tests and its limited to 1k of memory so its a tight fit to get all the routines squeezed in.
  7. Tomatobro
    Spectrum lab's txt file is quite extensive so I copy it into Libre office calc, select the column of data of interest and paste it into a new spreadsheet. I then strip out the decimal and export as a text file. Using TeraTerm I send this file to my hardware that writes it to an EEPROM and then read it back to MakerPlot doing any data processing necessary. I take a snapshot of the MakerPlot graph for later reference. The hardware will allow direct recording so if I build a UKRAA radio I can dispense with the laptop . I will have to rebuild the hardware using a more powerful processor as the one I am using at the moment has 1k of memory and its about all used in the above process. Sample Graph attached
  8. Tomatobro
    Click on archive box top right of the page
  9. Tomatobro
    we are all graph watchers between takes but in the end its the quality of the subs that count.
  10. Tomatobro
    At least we wont be tearing the kit apart trying to find a fault........ I am now looking at ways to semi automate the extraction of meaningful data from the spectrum lab text file. I still think the UKRAA receiver is the way to go but will give it one last try. Will post the results when the work is done.
  11. Tomatobro
    The shutdown looks similar to yours
  12. Tomatobro
    Not had chance to do anything with this yet but will compare tomorrow.
  13. Tomatobro
    I am fortunate that I have access to an expensive fluke multimeter and a frequency generator. I will post some screen shots later on. I think that Spectrum lab offered a range of "standard" vlf frequencies and 23.4 is the only one I am currently logging ( and noise floor level) as all the others either give no signal or are seriously affected by local interference such as our induction hob and gas boiler. I am reasonably confident that I am recording DHO38 because rotating the antenna gives me a peak signal when pointing towards the station in Germany and I am seeing the early morning maintenance shutdown sessions. I can see a problem trying to extract small signal changes from the data as the noise span covers some 3db (at least). I am taking 1 reading every 30 seconds as a plot. Perhaps averaging over (say) 5 readings might help but I have not looked at this yet. Hopefully my signal maintenance dips will match up with your UKRAA receiver data Regards
  14. Tomatobro
    My wife has regular choir sessions using zoom. The choir organiser holds the account and the record is 29 individuals who have logged in. The BAA also hold regular zoom and Youtube "webinars" (if that is what they are called) and the Youtube ones are open to all. On the youtube ones about 30 or so folks log in to watch live but they can be watched anytime. I think the "free" zoom sessions are limited to 40 mins. Zoom seems to run on any vintage machine starting with Win XP.
  15. Tomatobro
    you are looking at the results and see where improvements can be made in hardware, software and technique. That means you are an imager 👍
  16. Tomatobro
    OK. I was not sure I had understood your question. On mine I use an Altair 2 inch diagonal and that must add at least 80 mm of focal length before the eyepiece. Great scope by the way😉
  17. Tomatobro
    Not sure I have understood the question but I have an ED72 and it requires a lot of back focus so you will need a 2 inch diagonal to focus properly. So my guess is the clicklock needs to be compatible with the diagonal not the scope
  18. Tomatobro
    Here is a tip you might like to try. I think your scope has a steel tube. If it has then on Ebay you can buy a digital inclinometer (£14 ish). Get one with an illuminated display. Now download Stellarium for your laptop or phone. Have a play with the software and notice that when you click on an object it gives you Alt/az coordinates as well as RA/dec. If you put the magnetic inclinometer (calibrate to level first) on the scope tube and set the scopes angle to the number given in the Alt list. At least you will have one of the angles sorted. Now swing the scope to the part of the sky where the object will be and move the scope left and right till the object is found. If no luck straight away you will need to reset the angle of the scope as the Alt numbers are slowly changing all the time. Use the 25mm eyepiece at first till you find the object. I have shown this method to newcomers and they are amazed at how much easier it is to find objects when an inclinometer is used on an alt/az mount
  19. Tomatobro
    Its the other way round. 25mm is low mag and 10 mm is high mag To be honest I would not spend a penny on eyepieces until you have had a chance to use what you have. Start with the 25mm and use it until you can master celestial navigation.
  20. Tomatobro
    Some time ago I wanted to do some in and out focus checks using a "hubble" artificial star torch. This turned out to be an excellent test for checking mount and mount floor stability. So if you could fix one up say 15 or 20 metres away, place your mount where you propose and focus on the artificial star. Best is to place a camera in the scope so you can watch a monitor while you walk around the floor near the mount. If the image wibbles and wobbles then it gives you some idea of what to expect.
  21. Tomatobro
    Just out of interest I measured my loop antenna response to input frequency and the peak response is at 25.596 Khz. looks like I would need an ATU if I go the UKRAA receiver route. Blue is frequency steps from 20 to 40 Khz in 1 khz increments and red is ac millivolts change rms Update. The antenna required 600pf to bring its peak to 23.4 khz. Its now located in the quietest place I could find, Spectrum lab is sorted. I am getting the early morning maintenance cut offs so just need a SID to verify the system.
  22. Tomatobro
    Dogs seem to be affected by the noise during slewing to a target. But when I fitted a Rowan belt conversion to my HEQ5 Pro next doors dogs stopped barking which was an unexpected benefit.
  23. Tomatobro
    Thanks for posting your latest data. Its interesting that out of 5 laptops of varying vintage only one has a sound card that seems to work. My setup is based on Jeff Lashleys book the radio sky and how to observe it. I now have Spectrum lab writing a .txt file and are doing the post analysis in a spread sheet. All the "interesting" activity seems to be at night. I have to keep in mind that the book is now some ten years old so not sure how current the transmitting stations are etc. If I go the UKRAA receiver route I would write some software for a PIC processor and do the averaging of the data before sending it too some software called MakerPlot for graphing. Take a look at Makerplot as its great software for this kind of thing as it receives RS232 commands and plots accordingly.
  24. Tomatobro
    looks like the desiccant replacement worked.
  25. Tomatobro
    No
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