DaveL59

investigated the securing screw issue on the TAL100RS finder foot, unfortunately not viable to re-tap to 5mm as the hole is too close to the edge. So the solution I adopted was to run a drill through the existing hole and drill out the opposite side using the original hole to help guide the bit. Then a simple re-tap from the other side with a 4mm HSS tap and we're in business.

The bevelled inner edge of course guided the drill downward into the plate base but that's fine. A touch of black paint pen and it'll look passable 😉

So, on with the finder and yes, it's holding nice and secure as it should be

Of course I'll continue with using nylon thumbscrews here so the ally doesn't end up chewing out the thread again as it had done with the original screw in previous ownership, it was always loose since I purchased this scope so is about time I put it right 🙂 

3 hours ago, Steve Clay said:

Celestron Starsense Lt 70 for the grandchildren. However, I'm robbing the Starsense unit to fit to my skytee.

after umming and ahhing on this one I just pulled the trigger and ordered from Harrison's, damn you SGL throwing temptation at my credit card 😄 

Gave the SV171 8-24mm behemoth a spin earlier since I could see Jupiter was out, tho lots of cloud so wasn't expecting much. Set up the TAL100RS and Jupiter snapped nicely into focus at the 24mm end. No detail at all just a white ball, seeing very poor so no surprise. Zooming in I had to tweak focus around halfway, the white ball grew a little bigger but down at the 8mm end was hard to pin focus, just a ball of fuzz really. Jupiter then blinked out so I expect that was the thin cloud badly aflicting the view.

Not a great test to be fair but I was itching to get a look at something celestial with this one, will redo on a better night when I can also switch to other fixed eyepieces to compare. For sure it's not quite parfocal but with the good reports I'm hoping that for £49 it'll be a nice buy and very handy for quick sessions rather than swapping EP's to and fro 🙂 

tonight I notice Jupiter vaguely showing, lots of cloud which doesn't help but thought I'd at least give the finder mod and the zoom EP a quick try.

Had to reverse the finder bracket for a more comfortable fit but it worked well and much easier to switch from EP to finder and back. I think I'll be rebuilding the acrylic adaptor with the 32mm ID tube so that I've more depth for the screws to hold, didn't like the sound of acrylic straining plus to remove it needs the screws undone most of the way. They of course easily drop out as there's only a shade under 2mm of tube holding the screws at that point.

Overall tho it seems a reasonably good mod and the pentax angle finder is nice and sharp giving good views without losing much FoV.

The SV171 zoom performed fairly well, nice and sharp at the low power end with Jupiter showing well but no detail at all, tho I put that down to very poor seeing. Zooming in I did need to tweak focus but the view became more fuzzy. Not a good test really given the cloud and then Jupiter all but vanished so most likely the clouds that made the zoomed view poor. Will have to test again on a better night when I can then swap to other fixed EPs to see how things compare.

I think I am going to have to re-tap the finder securing screw as it wasn't good before with the metal original thumbscrew loose in the threads. This nylon one felt a little more secure but can't take any securing pressure. And sort the rusty screw holding the focuser in place too, hadn't noticed that before this pic.
 

figured it'd be something like that Chris, having had a few of various makes apart, might be useful for others tho 🙂 

personally I'd be real careful of aiming a laser into the night sky. You could fit a RDF tho if you can find a suitable mounting, one of the riflescope types may work tho I can't say I've ever tried given mine are wider angle than a 20x probably is.

not knowing the circuit it's hard to say but yes it might have the effect of making the board intermittent or not work. What mark had you noticed, like a leak around the electrolytic? Some go domed at the top which I've seen on some netgear switches and washing machine control boards when they start to function intermittently, think another of my ProSafe switches may be getting to that stage so it'll be a candidate for repair in the near future I think.

If you want to replace the electrolytics, pick the same uF but a higher operating voltage, might goe you a better service life.

you'd ideally want an ESR meter to test the cap unless your multimeter already has a capacitance function? Quite possible it blew if it was underrated for the applied volts but that'd make me wonder if the 12v applied managed to find it way across to the 5v side of the board. Which cap failed btw?

Wondering too about this resistor that shows discolouration

I'm hopefully fortunate in that all but the SW130 are ally tubes and are more the scopes that get used often, tho the Note-3 is one that needs to be callibrated every time by the look of things. Just need to clear nights so I can have a proper play with this and some eyepieces etc.

21 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

It would be a nice touch to try the free alternative software SkEye on Android with the same adapter hardware. If it works almost or as good then we just need a 3d printer guru to come up with a diy adapter 🙂 though I suppose it may not like the mirrored view captured.

 

 

 

SkEye can be used in a similar orientation if you switch it to indirect mode and align to a known point, just needs a suitable phone holder and tripod adaptor to mount it. There is a thread on here that shows some setups for this. It can't however do the platesolve that this celestron app brings to the party for more accuracy.

4 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

New mini computer for the obsy arrived so during tomorrow while it's raining I can install all the software. Now, no more taking the laptop out every time. 

nice, and real COM ports too, rare sight these days.

oh and SNAP! on the keyboard & mouse lol

if you don't mind the word on the label, how about a metal one:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Miranda-57mm-Metal-Push-on-Lens-Cap-B1/133488872344?hash=item1f148e8b98:g:LrMAAOSwtY1fL8uB

tho these camera ones do seem to infer 55mm so best check with the seller for the real ID

14 minutes ago, WJC said:

Gary has repaired and collimated for Leica AND Zeiss. I think ... as soon as he gets some REAL credentials ... Ken should give him a shot!

Bill

am guessing that's Gary at East Coast as per my link, Bill? Heard good things about them and of course you've pointed me there in the past too 🙂 

you could give these folks a try

http://binocular-repair.co.uk/

I'm sure others will provide more recommendations in a while 🙂 

1 hour ago, inapottingshed said:

The difficulty to use a boot is due to the plug being shorter than a RJ45 and seating fully into the socket. I'll have a go with some heatshrink and then see if I can epoxy a cut down RJ45 boot (which seems way too big at the moment!)

in that case there's maybe little point in adding heatshrink as it'll stiffen the cable where it enters the rj11 plug, might make it more likely to sustain damage than if it can flex freely.

and here it is, assembled and fitted on the TAL-1, not too shabby I think 🙂

Of course, having done all that boring out of the acrylic tube it dawned on me... the 100RS finder at 31.6mm is just under the old russian 32mm eyepiece diameter. I already have some acrylic tube of that bore from when I made the 32mm extension piece for the TAL-M. Got lulled into them looking alike so thinking they're all the same build, DOH!!! Oh well, tis done now but if the acrylic doesn't hold up having thinned the walls by a shade over 1mm I can always re-do with a piece of the other tube 🙂 

ok so I decided I'd open the bore of the acrylic tube up so it'll fit the other TAL finders, bound to happen huh. After a while of running a sanding wheel on the dremel-a-like on the inside I got it to fit the one on the TAL-1 🙂 Needed even more tho for the one that came with the 100RS, so in fact mine are 3 different dimensions on the finder ring.

Still, onward and.. all that.

While playing with leccy machines I also drilled for 2mm screws into the bracket for the angle finder and I just happen to have some brass 2mm pan head screws that are the exact length I need, from the bits I bought for the vintage scope.

and the tube after grinding (well, sanding) the inner bore test fitted on the TAL-1 finder

Black matt paint pen on the bracket and sharpie on the inside if the acrylic tube

Once all dried off I'll reassemble and hopefully the acrylic tube will hold up after removing around 1mm from the wall thickness. Oh I decided to also tap out the other M4 holes in case they're needed later.

that's great news Chris. Maybe worth posting how it was solved for future reference in case someone else hits the same issue

I've a couple of specialist MMJ/RJ8 cables for storage controllers and they've used heatshrink rather than boots, so I guess if an OEM does that then there's probably very few if any add-on boots made for them.

Something like this may do what you need, there's others out there too.
http://www.lamina.uk.com/product/heat_shrinkable_epoxy_tubing

never seen one for RJ11 but they may well exist. Perhaps use some heat-shrink tube instead? You can get some that has a glue applied to the inner so that it seals the join to prevent fluid ingress. 

Couldn't resist a quick play with that huge SV171 zoom. Popped it into the old vintage 3-inch frac via diagonal and 1.25 inch adaptor so it'd sit into the 0.965 fittings. The focus lock mod I did for that scope seemed happy to hold the weight with the eyepiece at a 60 degree angle off vertical which is good to know. So aiming at tree tops a couple hundred meters away, nice and sharp view showing good detail in the leaves and what I think was seed carriers (frond like structure) not sure of the type of tree it was. Zoom ran smooth with no oddities in the view so whatever I can hear move when inverting doesn't seem critical. I've seen comments that this is parfocal tho not advertised as such and can report that there is only a slight shift in focus across the zoom range. So far am well pleased, what a bargain! 

this morning the postie dropped off this beastie (to give an idea of size, pictured with a TAL 25mm & 42mm and vixen 20mm)

This thing is HUGE 😮 It's an SV171 for reference,.

Sits nicely in the TAL100RS diagonal

tho tightening the lock screw in the TAL-1 is more of a challenge as the hulk is resting on it - might have to sort a longer thumb screw for that then.

Feels very solid, zoom is silky smooth (no click stops) and certainly looks well made. I have noticed tho that there's the sound of movement if I invert the eyepiece in my hand, slop in the zoom mechanism perhaps. No rattles or sounds of glass colliding, something I'll keep a check on. Now just need a chance to test it out if the clouds will play ball (doesn't sound likely for several days).

so I gave rig this a quick test as the moon has appeared from behind cloud now and a few patches where stars are visible, tho only the brighter ones with the devil's floodlight in the sky. Seems to work with a decent FoV, moon centered in the cross-hairs with around 3 moon diameters to the field edge. I did note some reflections aimed at the moon however, probably between the occular and the adapter lenses? Might open these angle finders up and see if there's any stray light control I can add internally.

Aiming at UM I could make out a couple of the stars, hand holding the finder so not an ideal test and of course cloud then hid most, but they were there and nice pinpricks in the finder.

it's possible the relay had already burned, depends how close to load limit it was being run and any added load on the motor for sticking runner etc could push the relat too far. 

quite possible that you've just fused the relay contacts (the G5LE-1's) and hopefully nothing more. Had similar with a couple Miele appliances where a jump in load fused the relay and it had to be replaced.

Looking online they're a couple quid so worth a try, you may only need the one as you might be able to tell by the burned track. With luck the track didn't reach over and shunt 12v elsewhere in the circuit where it'd do harm. If you remove the suspect relay from the board you'd be able to test it easily enough.