teoria_del_big_bang

10 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

My HEQ5 was similar. It turned out I had marginally over-tightened the worm drive end float bearings. This sounds similar. I have actually just changed all the bearing on my HEQ5 and it is a similar age to yours. To be honest only the worm drive bearings needed changing, but as I was dismantling everything I decided to do them all.

I did exactly the same, I bought all the bearings before doing any stripping down and when I did only the worm bearings needed replacing but as I has already bought them replaced some otherwise perfgood bearings 🙂 

Steve

1 minute ago, Simon Pepper said:

Ok the only thing I can think is that when I removed the backlash I went too far and it’s binding? I have never taken that apart before so no idea why it’s so tight. If it’s possible to burn out the RA motor well I will be surprised if I have not after all this time. Incredible I was getting 0.4 tbh! I will come back once I have opened it up. Thanks 

I doubt you have damaged the motor if it is still moving.
Removing the backlash is tricky. Because in essence these are not high end mounts costing tens of thousands (but very good mounts for the price) some of the machining of the parts does leave a bit to be desired and I would think all of these mounts suffer a little around the worm gear and matching gear and you usually cannot remove all backlash because they will get tighter and slacker during one revolution of the big gear driven by the worm. So you can remove backlash at its tightest point but there will be some backlash at the slacker part. Otherwise removing all backlash at the slacker position will mean it will bing at the tighter point (If any of that makes any sense).
I also suspect that some mounts will be machined better than others and it is just pot luck how good the one you buy is, mine was like this with slack and tight spots.

Steve

5 minutes ago, Simon Pepper said:

Hold on!!!! The DEC big cog turns effortlessly the RA one requires force! 

That was my suspicion.
Why it should be like that on an almost new mount is very odd, I guess remove the big gear and see if there was anything binding after adding the new gear.
After that it is a bit of delving inside the mount to see why it is so tight.
I have a modded HEQ5 stored away now, not used for a long while, but can get it out to check anything if you need it. I cannot remember if Ra id as free to turn as DEC but I wouldn't think too much different , certainly shouldn't require a lot of force to move it.

Steve

8 minutes ago, Simon Pepper said:

It’s just the RA but the DEC doesn’t track… if the belts are the same size I could try swapping them…

I guess its a quick way to prove its not the belt or gears as both axes use the same parts so you could swap everything from one axis to the other but from all you have said so far I really do think it is in the mount. Maybe just a bit stiff and with the original gear mechanism where there is no way to build tension up like you can in the belt you could not hear any noise with the gears.
What was the tracking like before the modification did you think it was not particularly good in the PHD2 data ?

Steve

Did you buy the mount new, or 2nd hand ?
I only ask because what you are describing makes it sound like the problem is in the mount not the modification.
This is only my thoughts (although I was an engineer for over 40 years and still am but semi retired now) but the motor is a stepper motor and so does not actually run smoothly but goes in very small steps, and you can hear this on any HEQ5 at night when very quiet there is a very feint ticking noise (nothing like your video).
But it looks like when the motor steps the large gear attached to the mechanism of the mount does not move (to begin with) but tension builds up in the belt (as you describe) then when the motor has done a few steps the tension gets enough to move the bigger gear which goes in one big movement and then causes the audible noise you hear.
Another reason I suspect this is that there is a large reduction ratio between the stepper motor and mount mechanism so one revolution of the large gear nees many revolutions of the motor so in a good mount the movement of the large gear when moving very slowly looks almost smooth and very slow but the video shows it moving in steps and quite big steps, certainly not one step of the motor.

Remove the belt and see how smooth you can turn the big gear, you may even feel that is notchy in its movement but it should be very smooth.

Steve 

At the moment i do not know what is causing this.
I do not fully understand your explanation (give me time 🙂 ) but if the belt is getting tighter then slacker as the motor rotates it almost sounds like either the motor shaft or one of the spindles of the big gear or tensioner is bent (but lets hope not).

To help can you take a picture mote straight on to the gears, from the above image it looks like the belts teeth come very close to the teeth at the other side where I have ringed in red.

If these teeth ever touch each other then it would cause a knocking sound.

Also can you make a short video of these gears and belt when the mount is slewing at high speed, that would help to see them moving at speed.

EDIT: Sorry only just noticed the video you attached to OP. That is quite a loud almost ticking noise but still not sure what is the cause.
I would still like the image and a video of a fast slew if you can do so safely.

Steve

Absolutely superb image 🙂 

steve

16 minutes ago, OK Apricot said:

Eventful, thanks guys. I will order a proper LIFEPO4 🙂👍

Really is best choice and in the end worth the extra cash I think.

Steve

14 minutes ago, malc-c said:

The problem is that three people could all measure the current draw, and get three different results unless they have the same weight of scope & kit hanging off it.  Often it's better to go by the manufactures technical specs listed on the retailers website.  The EQ6-R on FLO's site states 11-16v @ 4 Amps.   Now if in reality the actual current draw is less because the load is no where near the 20kg the mount can shift, and you have a supply rated at 4 amps or above then you should have no issues with the mount dropping out mid slew.

If we were talking about a mains power supply then yes I agree in an ideal world you should calculate the supply on all the maximum demands (like I say in an ideal world - in the real world very unlikely to get all devices demanding full draw at same time but if you do rate it like this then never should have a problem).
But pretty much all reasonable sized leisure batteries are capable of delivering pretty big currents that are well in excess of what an astro rig will demand so my reasoning for all the averaging of the demands is to get the capacity of the battery in A / hrs. When using a battery that is the important figure (I would think so anyway).

The one thing I did not mention is that if the OP does go with the inverter option (as that seemed an easy option for them) then yes we should consider maximum demand and not the average so a good point to note in this instance.
So taking maximum demands more like:
EQ6-R Pro 3A
ASI533MC-Pro 3A cooling (0.65A from USB)
ASI120MM-Mini 0.1 A from USB
Lynx astro 2" & 4" dew straps  1A if not using controller so full on all night..
So inverter needs to be capable of at lest 8A and better to go for at least 10A I would think.

Steve

7 hours ago, malc-c said:

Steve, have you measured the current drawn from an EQ6 or even your HEQ5 or was the 800mA a guess ?  I say that because when I tested the draw of an EQ5 with the 200P the smaller motors drew 1.96 Amps when slewing, but the initial torque to get moving was more at a round 2.45 Amp if I recall (was some time ago as I've had the HEQ5 for a decade now.  I would hesitate a guess that the larger steppers in the EQ6 is likely to draw more, especially when the extra torque to get the mount moving is needed. 

Malcolm, it was just a guess and I actually meant to change it to an average of 1 Amp, unless slewing around several times an hour or so I would think even for an EQ6 that would be a reasonable average current draw from a good 12V nominal supply (Which is probably more like 13V to 13.8V), but yes it's a guess so I could well be out - anyone with a EQ6 that has measured the currents could help with that one 🙂 .

I did actually check the power consumption on my HEQ5 sometime ago with the Esprit 100 and I seem to think that was around 0.5 A tracking and 2A slewing, yes you are correct there was an initial surge of current which with a meter set on capturing max current did get up towards 3A but was so transient I didn't really take much notice of, although if one of those nights when you are slewing a fair bit trying to decide on the target I guess could impact a little on my very approximate calculations.

I also did not factor in the fact it is a EQ6 not HEQ5 but assumed it would not be too much different - but again an assumption I admit 🙂 
But even then as I always then factor to buy a 50% or so extra capacity battery should not be too far out.

I think that without actually sitting down and measuring the currents it is difficult to guess to an amp or so and even measuring factoring in things like how much current over the night the cooling of the CCD will take as this is not constant also makes it difficult so always go well above the A/Hr capacity you actually need, maybe going 2X the calculations is even better.

Steve  

I too would not go for the inverter.
Think about it does it make sense to take nominal 12V (albeit more like 13.8 V DC fully charged) then boost it up to 240V AC only to reduce it back down through various power supplies to 12V nominal again.

It is not so easy to say exactly what amperage all your equipment will use, for instance the mount will depend on how often you are slewing to target as during a slew it may take 2 to 3  amps but when tracking will be more like 0.5 amps, so if you spend a long time slewing to different targets before you decide on an imaging run then your power source could last a little less than if you don't so all this messing about.
Also if you use a controller for your dew bands you may not have them at full power so could save some power there, also some nights you may not need them.
And then there's the imaging camera, the camera itself only takes about 0.5 A (spec says 0.65A)  but the cooler as rated at 12V 3A max, now I doubt it will ever take 3A but probably takes 2A when full on cooling, however, this will not be running at full whack all the time and also depends on how far you are cooling below ambient.
I am guessing your two CCD's are plugged directly into laptop and so take their USB power from the Laptop

Basically a 12V leisure battery would supply the 12V to nearly all your equipment for a cost of around £30 to £40 and then use one of THESE for the laptop. you would need to construct some sort of box with appropriate connectors for the battery there are a few threads on SGL where members have done this.

So taking averages that I have had an educated guess at I would say:
EQ6-R Pro 0.8A
ASI533MC-Pro 1A for cooling (0.5A from USB)
ASI120MM-Mini 0.1 A from USB
Lynx astro 2" & 4" dew straps  1A if not using controller so full on all night.
So 12V wise we are looking at around 3A so for 5 hours in theory a battery that is larger than 15 Ampere hours but as I say you do not want to run it fully down ever so probably looking at 25 to 30 A/Hr battery.
Something like THIS for £32

Lenovo Thinkpad laptop. I am not sure what current it would take , my thinkpad has a 20V  65W power supply so would take 3A at most I would think, but through the 12V adapter maybe more like 5A (all depends on what cooling it has to do, brightness of screen and processes running, USB connections etc) . so if using this you may need a bigger battery as this now takes the consumption to  more like the 7 to 8A suggested in above posts and then I think you are looking at a battery more like 40 A/Hrs to be on the safe side so might be more like £50.

Although the inverter is very inefficient if you are saying you will have the inverter anyway then try it but not sure what the efficiency would be and could waste 50% at least so again needs a bigger battery more like 100 A/Hrs or more so if the van battery is fully charged and a decent size then you might get away using that with the inverter but I would be careful there is enough charge left to start the thing after the session or get a 100 A/Hr battery (or more) and run the inverter from that and recharge at home (regularly even if not used it).

There are better types of batteries that do not need a much maintenance (leisure batteries or car batteries need to bee charged regularly even when not in use and must not be run down completely otherwise they can be damaged so that they are almost useless)  lithium ion are much more robust and do not need as much attention but the downside is they are expensive for the size of battery you are looking at.

Steve

 

5 minutes ago, col said:

I do intend losing weight, but as we all know that sometimes doesn't happen. 

Ha Ha, tell me about it, I certainly know where you are coming from there.

Steve

It's one of those do I risk it scenarios.
If I were buying it I would be thinking that if something is guaranteed to 20 stone then more than likely 21 stone would be fine but then if it were to break and cause injury I guess you have no come back on the manufacturer.
Personally I would be surprised if it is happy to support 20 stone and then you go 5% over it would break,
However, it's not a car or other item in use by millions of people so is probably not tested that rigorously.

Personally I would buy one in that situation and then take a good look at it and if I was worried I would beef it up myself  as I am quite handy at woodwork and as an Engineer quite good at assessing how strong things are likely to be, but I think the decision has to be yours as you are the one sitting on the thing and the only one likely to get injured. You could try contacting the manufacturers and asking the question as that is more likely to put your mind at rest. 

Steve

 

Nice image, as above post the detail is very sharp 🙂 

Steve

10 hours ago, powerlord said:

Look out for a scotsman with a wee black and white jack Russell. 😁

Great news, shouldn't be hard to spot you I am guessing 🙂 
Steve

7 hours ago, baggywrinkle said:

I can now confirm I am going. I booked T118 last year but as I had an aorta valve replacement 6 weeks ago it looked touch and go.

Making a good recovery and selecting kit based on weight and ease of lifting as I have a magnificent scar down my sternum where they went in with the angle grinder or panel saw...then stapled it up with an upholstery gun.. 😉

See you all there...

 

 

Great news take it easy and see you there.

Steve

15 minutes ago, apaulo said:

just booked today for the week. pitch 257, hopefully meet you guys there. 

You have done well to get in at such a late stage, hope to see you there. Quite a journey for you I see, I though I had a fair way to travel 🙂 

Steve

57 minutes ago, SthBohemia said:

Why do members astro bits and pieces look so shiny and new, and mine resemble something one of the cats dragged in? A scope even has some hardened fibreglass resin I accidentallyl spilt on it 🙂  Maybe I am simply grubby?

We just Photoshop the images, way of the world these days 🤣

Steve

11 minutes ago, powerlord said:

I've been a naughty boy.

Flo customer return. 500 quid off.. Couldn't let that pass by. 😬

 

 

Nice one 🙂
In these times of rising costs we have to save every penny we can and £500 not to be sniffed at - I mean who needs heating anyway 🤣

Steve

33 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

It is a "seam" - over extrusion after priming the nozzle for new layer.

I would think that it is the reason and you are correct that you can use a random starting position for each layer that would help, but would still leave zits.
On most items of course this is only a cosmetic detraction, although on areas where items fit together with other printed items or with anything else it can cause issues.

I cannot speak for all slicers but on Prucer one (based on Slic3r slicer) there is another parameter that can cause the filament to retract a certain amount after finishing a layer to prevent any oozing out as it moves to the next layer start point. Also there is a separate parameter that means when starting the next layer what would help is that you can set the extruder to not advance the filament as far as it was before it was retracted, again this will prevent any ooze.
And if that still doesn't do the trick you have the option to print the fill before the perimeters to hide any blobs inside, but I personally have never tried that option 🙂 

Steve

Very nice image, especially if you now have added light pollution and your issues with flats.
Not one I have tried yet but now on my list.

Steve

Nice Benchy and cube @vlaiv 🙂 

Steve

Tonight was first clear night I have been able to try out my RC6.
Because I was struggling collimating I sent it off to RVO for them to collimate,
When I tried to take some images the collimation was off somewhat, but i am not sure if this is to be expected and final collimation has to be done on stars.

I have made some small adjustments to the secondary and much improved the star shapes but still far from being nice round things.

Without zooming in look reasonable.

But if I zoom in on any star.

 

Any thoughts ?

Steve

 

1 hour ago, Stuart1971 said:

Thanks for that, much appreciated….👍🏼

I think I did tweak the colours a bit, saturation and warmth, but just on my iPad, as I wanted the newly noise reduced image to send to someone….but they are the same images with different crops plus the colour adjustments after the NR..

TBH its hard to say anything other than what is really my perception. and what I would do, which is not necessarily the right thing.
As I say I would have done less noise reduction, but then after that your small tweaks after the NR has really brought out the colours and ended up as a great image, certainly one that I would be ,more than happy with. And at the end of the day it is your image and do to it what feels right and what you are pleased with.
 

Steve

48 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

This was my example of a before and after, and I thought it looked ok, this was with default settings, the crop is not identical but close enough for a test, what do you guys think..? as on another forum I was told it did not look real and looked “plasticky” and that I had lost loads of detail in the reduction, especially in the galaxy….….🤔🤔

I think noise reduction to some extent is down to personal taste, and difficult to say exactly but for me I would say the following:

• The after certainly is by far the better image, but I am assuming this is not immediately after the noise reduction as the colours are far more vibrant, so not sure what else has happened after the noise reduction.
• In my opinion I would say you have gone a little too far with the noise reduction, or rather that would be my personal choice to do it a little less.
• It is difficult to say exactly how much detail has been lost but I matched up enlarged sections of the two images best I could in PI and flicked between them to see the difference and on the close up of the outer galaxy you can see some loss of data on the very outskirts of the galaxy dust and gas. See the mp4 below.
• How much detail is really lost when you stand back and look at the after image is debatable as what is list you probably would not make out by eye without zooming in although you may have been able to bring it out more in the final processing if the detail had not been lost.
• However, after saying that I still think it is a great image.
• Maybe see for yourself and reprocess with maybe half the amount of noise reduction using NXT.
• Remember this is my thoughts and from somebody still learning so take it with a pinch of the proverbial salt. 

 I will see what others (more competent than myself) comment tomorrow but must dash the wife and myself are supposed to be meeting a couple of friends for some beers and an Indian in half hour and Wife is shouting at me to get ready 😞 

Steve