centroid

I'm not sure which category this fits into, but hopefully its ok here. Has anyone replaced the 9V PP3 battery in the SW hand controller with 12V external supply? I have several 12V regulated Plug Top PSUs laying around, and if the hand controller is ok with 12V, then I would simply remove the battery, and fit a 5.5 x 2.1 socket to the hand controller, and supply it with 12V I measured the current drawn from the battery, at just over 100mA. I know that the motor would be fine running on 12V, but am not sure about the hand controller.

OK, all sorted now, thank you, Uninstalled all the relevant software, and did a fresh install, including the FTDI driver, and now its all working. 👍 Which bit of software was the issue, I don't know, but it matters not, as it all up and running now.

Yep, all done correctly, but I have sorted it now, see my post below.

Directly to the PC, via am EQDirect cable.

Yes it is Peter. Its a Hitech Astro, so not a 'cheapie'.

Head scratching time!! I have new HEQ5 Pro Synscan, which functions fine with the hand controller. However I am trying to operate it from the PC. I have installed the latest ASCOM Platform, and EQMOD software, and drivers. I'm using a cable with an FTDI chipset, and Device Manager confirms that it is working fine, as a USB to Serial converter, assigned to COM 4. I can get the EQMOD control panel to display, showing the correct info back from the mount, but the mount will not respond to any instructions from the PC. In Cart du Ciel I can connect, and disconnect to the mount, but again the mount will not respond to any instructions, such as 'Slew' etc. I sucessfully used EQMOD to control an NEQ6, via The Sky 6, for many years (pre 2014), but this is a real 'head scratcher. Any thoughts would be most welcome.

Job done The new home made (apart from the welding) pier, installed today. The mount adapter will be the from the HEQ5 Pro tripod, which I have removed from the legs. Total cost, including the welding, but excluding 3 x 25kg bags of concrete, was £120.

I just had a steel pier put together by a guy here in South Suffolk. I designed what I wanted, ordered the ready cut steel on ebay, and he did the welding for me, and a neat job too. He told he that he could have obtained the steel locally. If its of interest, I can pm you his details.

Very nice too Martin 👍 We also have a motorhome, now on our second one. Took delivery of a new Majestic 105 in April. The mains charger went 'Pop' on day one, now we have a fault with the Dometic fridge. All all covered under warranty of course, but still a "PITA". Our first one was a 65 Plate Bessacarr, which we bought in 2018. A previous owner was a Doctor, who lived in Chesterfield. I have to wonder 😉

Depending on the weather, I might come up on the Saturday, in the Motorhome, stay overnight, and go home on Sunday. Won't be bringing any gear, just visiting. I note from the list of Traders that FLO and Modern Astronomy aren't listed, possibly along with others that used to attend. It must be at least 10 years+ since I last visited,.

Indeed, and it didn't cost £49 😉

Ok, I have resolved the problem. The last M4 grub screw in the line of three and nearest where the knob is removed (see attached photo), is securing nothing, it shows as a vacant hole on the inside of the focus shaft housing, outside of the shaft bearing, and appears to serve no purpose. As such, I have modified the SW bracket, and can now affix it to the scope, using a stainless steel M4 machine screw at one end, and utilising the M4 focus tube locking screw, with a back-nut, at the other end. I purchased a flexible 6mm to 6mm shaft coupler, and the focus motor now works perfectly 🙂. The pleasing thing is, it did not require drilling any holes in the scope, which was an absolute 'no-no'. Just need to give the SW bracket a coat of Satin Black paint, after my mods. I must say that I have been very surprised at what I thought was a popular scope, and yet nobody on this group, or two others, appears to have one, and has fitted a motor focuser. If they have, then they are keeping it a closely guarded secret. 🤐

And here it is, £49!!

I see that Lakeside advertise a focus motor bracket for the Altair 115 APO, so I assume they know of a way to fit to this scope? However, at £49 for a small metal 'L' bracket with holes in it, is just crazy 😮 The complete Skywatcher Motor Focus, with two brackets, albeit not made to fit the Altair 115, was just £51. I will continue my research, and if I get to see picture of a 115 with a focus motor bracket on it, I will fabricate one, and it won't cost £49 😅 This reminds me of the five years I spent owning a Motor Cruiser, which I kept on the Broads. Put the name "Marine" in front of anything, and 'whack' the price up. Stainless Steel screws were prime example, quadruple the price from the Chandlery, than from my local nuts & bolts shop. Connect something as simple as a small 'L' bracket, with Astro, and the same applies apparently.

Watch this space Gus, and I'll let you know. I don't think it matters what motor focuser you use, it has to be attached, and as far as I can see, there is no way of attaching a bracket. Other than utilising the focus tube locking screw, which is not ideal, as it only provides a single fixing point.

I have just looked back, and found that it wasn't the Altair user group where I asked the question, but I had e-mailed Altair directly, and the reply came from them. Hopefully, they will have the answer. They were very helpful when choosing a scope, and the two cameras I bought. Had never dealt with them before, but found them very knowledgeable, and pleasant to deal with.

I did ask on the Altair users FB group, if this focus motor would be suitable for this scope, and was told yes it would be., by a nember of the Altair selected Admin Team, I believe it was. It may well be that one or more of the M4 grub screw holes could be utilised, but I need to know if this would be acceptable, as I don't know what their purpose is. They are certainly not securing a cover plate. I have now asked if any of the users have fitted a motor focus to this scope, and if so, how they did it.

The scope is an Altair Astro Starwave 115mm Triplet APO, and the focus motor, a Skywatcher unit. As you can see from the attached picture, there is no suitable means for attaching a focus motor bracket, and I have utilised the M4 focus tube locking thumb-screw, albeit not an ideal solution. There are several small grub screws, but I feel that these should left alone. I have had both Skywatcher, and William Optics refractors in the past, and there was always suitable screws that could be utilised. One solution that I did see was to use a custom made bracket mounted on the finder scope bracket, with a rubber belt to the focuser knob, but I really don't want to go down this route, especially as the finder scope bracket is already carrying a finder scope. Perhaps I'm expecting too much of the Chinese designers/manufacturers, but given that the majority of astro imaging users, are likely to use a motor focus, it would have taken very little intelligence to included a couple of pre threaded mounting holes. 🙄 I could of course drill and tap a couple of holes, but I really don't want to be drilling holes, in a brand new £1200 scope.

I am in the process of adding a Motor Focuser to my 115 Triplet APO, and am not happy with the mounting bracket being attached with just a single fixing screw. Unfortunately, I far as I can ascertain there is only one way of securing the bracket, and that is to utilise the Focus Tube locking screw (see attached picture), with a back-nut to allow it to be tightened, without going far enough in, so as to lock the focus tube. I will be using a flexible shaft coupler to connect the motor shaft, to the focuser shaft, so as not to place any undue stresses, due to any minor misalignment. I could of course drill and tap another hole to create another fixing, but I really don't want to be drilling a hole in a brand new scope. Have any of you guys come up with an ingenious method for attaching such a bracket?

All duly noted, thanks guys.

It is the Altair 294C Pro Tec that I have now bought Adam. 👍

Zero response to my question above, ah well, no problem, I got the info I wanted from elsewhere. I have now engaged the services of a local engineer/fabricator, who just happens to live in the village, to make me a steel pier , with adjustable mounting plate, to my custom design for £200 all in. That includes the cost of a pier adapter for the HEQ5 Pro, to be purchased from a well known UK astro equipment dealer. The only difference between this one, and many of the commercially available ones, is that it will have square base and mounting plates, as opposed to circular ones, but then so did my old pier.

If you have a commercially made pier for your scope(s), can you tell me the thickness of the base plate, both the top and mounting plates. I suspect 10 mm or 12mm. I am approaching a couple of local metal fabricators to have a Pier made. I have no need of a £500+ heavy weight pier, with stabilising fins, like the Pulsar, and Altair etc version. It is just going to carry an HEQ5PRO, a 115 triplet scope, both imaging and guide cameras. The Rother Valley Optics pier (https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/rother-valley-optics-heavy-duty-pier.html) £350, 'fits my requirements' perfectly, however their fabricator has a backlog of at least 4 weeks to supply it. I have all the specs I need, except the thickness of the plates. Back in the day (early 2000's), I had a local company make my pier, and never had, nor needed any stabilising Fins. It carried some heavy weight gear, and never suffered from any vibration issues, and I imaged with it for many years. It cost £100 . Unfortunately, I sold it with all the rest of the gear back in 2014. and the guy who made it, has long since retired. Here's a picture of it with a 12" SCT on a Wedge, and an ED 80 piggy backed on top of the SCT. Taken circa 2004.

A very innovative solution Tom, all neatly constructed on Vero Board, thank you for showing me that. There was a time when I was very much into 'Homebrew', as a licensed Class A radio amateur for 53 years, I built much of my own gear. I gave up the hobby when the government reduced the technical entry requirements for obtaining a license to such a low level, the hobby became little different to CB. I am now long since retired from my job as a Senior Technical Manager, and Consultant EMC Engineer, and at age 79, now look for the 'off the shelf' options. My main hobby is photography, but I am returning to astro imaging to 'scratch an itch' that hadn't gone away since I gave up the hobby in 2014, but in much smaller way than I did previously. BTW, I have now confirmed with Altair Astro, that the Skywatcher Motor Focuser will fit to the Altair 115 ED Triplet APO.

As I will be controlling everything (mount, cameras, and focuser) via 5m cables from a comfy corner in the shed 🙂, I will be using a 13.8V 7amp regulated linear PSU, which the HE5 PRO is quite happy running from. As such, if the focuser, and its controller would be happy with 13.8V, then I would remove the 9V battery, attach a small socket connector, and provide its power from the 13.8V PSU. As I said earlier the Hitech controller has a nominal 12V input. Oh to be back in the days when I had a custom built observatory, with an attached warm room (as per my avatar picture) 😢. Now its going to be a pier in the garden, and a corner of the shed/summer house, but at least I will be out of the cold, when imaging. 🙂