DaveL59

I rarely use the mobile version, but am finding the desktop font sizing a bit much. Section and topic titles are a bit too big, reducing the number on screen without scrolling. I don't run the browser full screen and reducing zoom from 100% will make all other sites I use unreadable. Not using any customised views as I've never looked, just whatever the SGL default is when I open the site.

hmmm, seems there's potentially big costs to the suppliers if good are rejected back to them when the end-client doesn't want to pay the extra charges

Brexit: Retailers warn they could burn goods stuck in EU - BBC News

Rules of origin come into play too, just to make it even more fun.

I've been stung a couple times buying gear from the far east, so now I split orders to be smaller and further apart if from the same seller/same parts. Been hit from the US before too and on a used part which was annoying. New sure, but used, really?!? The "handling" fees can really sting if the item isn't high value too, £18 in one instance which on top of the duty doubled the price of the item. 

ahh but tariff isn't VAT or excise duty, unfortunately.

Gone are the days I expect of having bought stuff over there and paying local taxes you can freely walk into the UK carrying them and not have to pay again. Wonder if they'll be starting to check serial numbers on anything you're carrying that looks new like back in the old days...

1 minute ago, rnobleeddy said:

I'd hope that in future there'll be some more options to include the fees upfront - especially as I **think** VAT only kicks in at £39 and so many astroboot items would be fine. 

Doesn't that include the shipping cost as well and not just the cost of the goods?

1 hour ago, banjaxed said:

Astroboot have not been dealing for a while if I am not mistaken.

yeah they were closed for stock taking and refurb I think it was and then with the new rulez have temporarily ceased as have several others.

Catch now will be the hit of VAT and duties, then throw on the carrier's cut for "handling" that for you and there will be quite a hike in prices.  Now carriers handling the charges and billing you isn't new of course but will be a shock to many:
Brexit: 'I was asked to pay an extra £82 for my £200 coat' - BBC News

Risk for the EU seller now is that the buyer rejects having to pay the extras and the carrier has to then return it to sender, no idea what happens about costs in that case.

Just now, JeremyS said:

Jeans, Dave. Letting the side down a bit. No tweed suit and tie?

And the cap comes in handy for bailing out water.

🙂

well jeans yeah, tis a wee bit too cauld for the kilt 😉 

Thanks Steve.

For me if I do use the DSLR it'll be with vintage lenses which are metal bodied so much less of a worry. I don't plan on dew heaters for my OEM Minolta ones which are more plastic encased but have yet to really do much with either at night, not sorted dew heaters for these yet either, one on the to-do list one day...

I can see the moon! Well a fuzzy D shaped light bit behind all the grey cloud

last one I made up for the skycam I wired them in series using ceramic cased resistors. That one had 5x 15R 3W, also a temp and LDR controller board in parallel to turn it on as needed. Seems to have largely worked at keeping the dome clear tho it can struggle on very cold sub-zero nights so I may need to drop one of the resistors (when its warmer and dry, it can wait lol). I used heatshrink to cover the chain but I happened to have some laying around which was handy.

At 25 resistors in parallel you're effectively at 18R for the string, that's 666mA and 8W, pretty warm I expect? Less resistors would give a higher resistance overall so perhaps better? 

I'd worry on a camera lens if its plastic bodied that the plastic would suffer in the long run.

2 hours ago, johninderby said:

Any bets on the forecast changing to clouds and drizzle by tea time? 🤔

The sky has changed to being all cloud here now after a fairly nice day, looks like movie night, again 😞 

no swampy issues, astro-turf can be handy sometimes, tho water sits above it in heavy rain so you have to tip-toe across if you want to not get the ends of your jeans soaking up the water. All cloud again here tho after a fairly nice day, oh well...

ok so I figured I'll have a go and throw a few more pennies at this one. Just ordered the below.

6x 22uf 25v -> original is 16v
2x 4.7uf 450v
1x 330uf 35v - original is 25v
1x 47uf 63v -> replace with 56uf 63v
3x 4.7uf 50v - original is 25v
IRF2805 MOSFET

All replacement caps will be 105C versions. WIll revisit this page once the bits turn up and I've swapped/tested. Fingers crossed 🙂 

I do have a later ES700 that works just fine hence thinking this should be simple, yeah right lol. At least these spares will be pre-insurance for that one if needs be, assuming that this failed one doesn't come back to life. Might be worth me taking a pre-emptive look inside the working one and perhaps swap out at least the 22uf caps in that one too.

hmmm checking the other caps they are all 85C rated which isn't great in kit that will run pretty warm when the inverter is running. I'll replace these then with 105C rated ones and higher voltage when I get around to doing this I think. No telling if any of the on-board fuses also blew, something else to check in case those need ordering too.

Question is if its even worth doing or just obtain another unit that isn't pre-fried, that tho would be a gamble too unless I spend around £60 for one from an UPS refurbish outlet which at least would be guaranteed working and with a new battery.

For sure these type of unit don't seem as good as the old SUA SmartUPS model which rarely needed more than a battery and perhaps voltage tweak on the charger side. I have read that these ES units can fail on power surges so could be just that, not a good sigh in that regard tho, perhaps.

So I picked up one of these cheap-ish, reportedly making a constant tone when powered up. Figured it may be just the usual replace battery and perhaps replace 4 capacitors so why not...

Replaced the very dead battery with a Yuasa that I have kicking around that I know is good. Noted a burnt smell when I opened the battery bay and thought that's maybe not good but no external signs of heat damage so swap battery and press on. Plug in and press the power-up button. Green light and a buzz for a couple secs, sounds good 🙂 Then 10 sec later it turns off and gives a constant beeeeee. Tried dead-heading the unit and same again, hmmm.

Now a common fail on these seems to be the small 22uf electrolytic caps, a cheap and easy fix, so ordered those yesterday and they arrived today.
How to Fix APC Back-UPS ES Constant Beeping Problem | Nicu Surdu

So I've opened the casing to make a start and pulled the board... oh dear!

that's not good! 😮 Explains the overheated/burnt smell lol and of course the magic smoke has well and truly left the building in this case.

No idea if this as been overloaded in its past life but I guess I'll be ordering a IRF2805 MOSFET as well then. Might consider replacing all the electrolytics while I'm at it, save having to revisit this board again, IF I can get it working again that is. At least the 2805 is only around £5 so perhaps worth a go.

Ho hum, worth a punt for a few quid but a bit more work than I'd planned on. Did I really need another UPS? No not really, was more thinking along the lines of one for my daughter as she gets frequent blips and a unit of this type would have been ideal.

for me today another couple of camera lenses

The little Domiplan M42 for the princely sum of £1 - it'll need the aperture pin modified to be always pressed for manual aperture control but works fine otherwise.

The larger lens is a Russian Volna-3 red Pentacon-six mount with M42 adaptor. In fact it's a Kiev-60 fit so the locator screw is longer than my P6-MAF adaptor allows, but I should be able to modify the adaptor to handle that. This one came with a M42-Canon adaptor and end cap screwed on the end, which I'm happy to send on to any Canon users here that would find it useful.

I'm guessing you mmean that the drawtube rocks as you change direction on the focus wheel?

A common issue on Synta, my SW130 suffered from that also. You can withdraw the tube and check if the teflon/felt strips are correctly in situ as this may be the issue. You could also use self-adhesive teflon tape to add into the outer tube at perhaps 120-degree offsets and take up some of that play to give better stability, just don't add too many layers to make the drawtube bind.

if you aren't able to get a pre-made part you may be able to make one or get one made. If you can determine the thread on the outer part then a metal plate drilled and tapped to suit would do the job.

Failing that, something like this

Thread-lock it into the shaft and fit a 3/8-1/4 adaptor into the other side and it'd fit onto your tripod and should be stable.

I can't help re this particular scope but others here will have experience of them, @sloz1664 for example who can tell you more. There is this thread I found which may be worth a read

TAL 150K Scope - Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups - Stargazers Lounge

I'd expect being TAL it should be very solidly made and give good views so probably worth going and taking a closer look. Make sure it has the diagonal and other accessories as they won't be as easy to come by nowadays.

ahh that's a common misconception on the bay as the high bid could have been much more but the system only increments in small steps.

does your camera have a mirror lock-up function as that'd be the only way really. Also if it has in-body IS turn that off too

As a word of caution, you might want to check others opinion here as updating the firmware may not be that beneficial and can be a road to bigger problems. @malc-c and others here will know more than I on this. I've never upgraded mine as it works just fine.

Nice work Mark. I'd agree shims seem a mechanically better solution given the loads involved. Threadlock probably wouldn't hold up well for very long and if it crumbles and ends up in the bearing race it may just increase wear instead?

very nice images there, good to know what can be achieved. I keep saying one day I may have a go but never quite happens. I blame the clouds 😉 

4 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Yes more inward travel is needed. Shortening the tube of the finder is the only real way to compensate for the additional light path length of the diagonal. A machine shop could do it but might cost more than replaceing the finder.

That'd be the way to do it tho it wouldn't be reversible. Another is to add a camera angle finder if you can adapt it to fit onto the existing eyepiece. It can then be easily removed if you want to use the finder straight through. 

Right Angle finder mod - DIY Astronomer - Stargazers Lounge