SiD the Turtle

Just to add if anyone finds this post in future, a few points on the guide at High Point Scientific:

Thanks again @Elp, @Carbon Brush, this is why I love the astro community, you learn so much and people are happy to share their own knowledge. This is the stuff that's not in the manual! So electrics are not my speciality so happy to be wrong here, but I guess the concern is if there's any chance you could draw more than the system allows. Take the Celestrons: you pull more than 3A, they shut down for safety. The ASiair can take in 5A max, what if the downstream components ask for 6A and your PSU can provide 6A? Does it cut off, does it try to deliver 6A? Does it cook something on the board? I know the Pegasus Powerboxes are built to be fairly idiotproof to prevent burning out devices or the powerbox itself. Is there a risk here that the Air doesn't?

Oooh good shout. I don't know how good the regulation is on the Air, but I don't want to cook it.

Thanks @Elp, @Carbon Brush. Indeed if I turn off the dew heater the draw appears to max at about 2.1A when slewing. I guess I could turn off the dew heater, GOTO, do all the usual setting up of tracking etc, then turn on the heater. But as if you suggest, the draw is still high on the dew heater, I might be dancing a little close to the edge. Still, gives me options regardless. Interesting how even the mains link might cause me an issue if it breaches 5A. I have a relatively cheap Lynx Astro 12v adaptor that delivers 5A that I'm using indoors for testing. I have a ludicrously expensive Pegasus Astro adaptor in a dribox in the garden, and now I know why it was so expensive: it can support 10A. Probably more expensive than it needed to be, but it's been as solid as a rock for years.

Thanks @Carbon Brush that's good to note and tracks with my findings. You go over 3A, it just turns itself off instantly.

Thanks all, I can't believe how daft I've been. @ONIKKINEN is correct, that's my old tank, and my new one is its baby brother. Both are rated at THREE amps, not FIVE, only the even larger version will do five. I'm simply underpowered, nothing more nefarious. When the whole system is going (tracking, one dew heater, camera capturing with cooler running, anti-dew on the camera on, guide camera on) it's using about 2.5A. When using GOTO, it peaks at about 4.5A, way above what the batteries can do. Even if I turn down the slew speed it seems to take the same amperage, so no luck there. I guess this matches the AM3 documentation, which states it needs 1.7A during GOTO. I put together this setup as a travel scope, and by travel I mean small enough and light enough to go in airline carry-on, so a car battery or proper caravan-spec lithium battery is out of the question. However, all is not lost, as @ONIKKINEN suggested, I'm going to run the mount off the smaller battery directly, everything else off the larger one via the ASiair and spread the load. Plus smaller batteries are easier to spread across backpacks for the aforementioned travel, rather than returning this battery and scaling up to a monster one. For reference, the AM3 does not have the separate 12v out option.

I've got a brand new ASIair Plus, a ZWO AM3 mount hosting a Redcat 51 and a ZWO ASI2600MC-Duo camera. This is all working lovely when connected to the wall via a 12v power supply, but I'm having issues with Powertanks. I have an old Celestron Powertank Lithium Pro which has seen a lot of abuse. When slewing, the power entirely cuts out and the battery dies. So I bought a brand new smaller version, the Powertank Lithium, but it has similar issues. Basically on slewing after a moment I hear a relay-like click in the mount, the same noise you hear when you first power it up. Then it decides it's only going to slew on one axis, and beeps if you try the other. In the ASiair app it seems to occur when I breach 3 amps, but that's miles under what either battery is rated for. So, I think the ASiair and the mount are fine, as they'll work off of the wall socket. On battery if I turn off everything apart from the mount, it slews fine, so I think it's load. I'm going to try it on my HEQ5 mount via a Pegasus Powerbox to be sure, but anyone else had similar issues? How best to diagnose the cause? Are these batteries just rubbish, or am I missing something?

Hi Grant, thanks for the news, sorry that the latest version of Android is a pain!

With all respect to @FLO for providing the Android app free of charge, the lack of response here and to my emails is disappointing.

Retailer and William Optics both told me to simply screw it back in until there was resistance, but not overtighten. I did want to ask WO exactly what it's for after a slightly vague answer, but with the earthquake since, I'm not going to pester them. The focuser seems fine, but as we have this infinity cloud over the UK right now, not had a chance for first light yet.

The android app works a little better in app than the mobile website.

Yeah if you read the reviews, you'll see lots of complaints. I'm no expert but I wonder if it's something silly like each time a new Android version comes out, the developer has to go and tick a box to say it's compatible (or fix any compatibility issues). I'm sure if I sourced the APK I could sideload it, but wondering if there's could be an official update.

@FLO any news on support for Android 14?

Thanks all. Seeing as it's brand new and very expensive, I've decided not to mess with it until the retailer responds! Will post back here when I know more.

As the title really, lovely new Redcat 51 with the new WIFD focuser arrived today, on getting it out of the box there was a grub screw loose in the package. Upon checking, it's one of these circled in purple: The focuser seems fine so far, but wanted to check before I break something by putting it back in!