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SPC900 LXmod yesyes style ;-)

yesyes

By yesyes
in DIY Astronomer

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Reggie

Reggie

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But that's extended with the amp-off mod isn't it?

So in reality, a modded cam can be > 3000x more awesome :)

Suffice to say though, that for the cost of the mod, it's well worth the effort. You'll be able to do some long exposure shots and if you decide that you want more out of the hobby, you can upgrade to a better camera and use the modded SPC as a guide camera.

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Reggie

Reggie

Posted
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amp-off kills a lot of the noise, dark frames kill some more, flat frames deal with other stuff too, so there are definitely ways to mitigate the crud.

And yeah, that's the fun of astroimaging, getting it spot on for the target and seeing conditions.

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  • 3 weeks later...
SniffTheGlove

SniffTheGlove

Posted
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Does anybody have a link to a working Win7 64bit USB-Adaptor supplier, The last link to the 5 pack on ebay is no longer available and the seller only sells in single packs at an expensive £8. Would like to get at least 4 of these adaptors so at £8 it will be quite expensive.

Any good links to other ebay sellers that will work with Win7 64bit

Thanks

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SniffTheGlove

SniffTheGlove

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Hi Sean,

this one looks to be the right thing ( if you can wait a few weeks for it to be delivered from Hong Kong)

USB to RS232 DB9 Adapter for Win7 Window 7 Vista XP 64 PL2303 1M High Quality | eBay

I haven't tried this particular model though, so can't give any guaranties... :)

At least this one is shown as Win7 32/64, most others I had looked at did not state Win7 at all.

The seller does not have any negative feedback but does have a low 303 feedback. Well at £2.29ea I won't lose to much sleep if it goes walkies in the post.

At least your recommended 4 port USB2 hubs are still available and only £1.95.

Going to convert my 4 SPC900 to LX while I have the chance.

Thanks

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SniffTheGlove

SniffTheGlove

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Just ordering the other components and would like to ask a question.

For the 11v Zener Diode, what wattage should it be as I have found many 11v Zener at different wattages or can someone tell me the actual part number for it like BZXxxxxxxx

For the BC547 Transistor, does any body know if it is a BC547A, BC547B or BC547C

Thanks

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SniffTheGlove

SniffTheGlove

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Just ordering the other components and would like to ask a question.

For the 11v Zener Diode, what wattage should it be as I have found many 11v Zener at different wattages or can someone tell me the actual part number for it like BZXxxxxxxx

For the BC547 Transistor, does any body know if it is a BC547A, BC547B or BC547C

Thanks

From a page on another website I found that it is the BC547C, also it is a 5w Zener as well.

All bits ordered and most have arrived apart from the project ABS boxes and the USB-Serial Adaptors)

Made up the home made circuit board on a 9 row x 13 columns of vero board, the leads have been soldered onto the SPC900 board, the Q3 connection was a little tricky due to my eyesight and shaky hands but I did it in the end.

I have not soldered any leads onto the SPC900 board for the USB connections, I used the existing connector that was there before, just cut the leads and resoldered directly onto one of the USB leads from the serial adaptor.

I am about to reconnect it all up and do a test to see if the cam still works in normal mode and then finish off the LX when the boxes and adaptors arrive. If all goes well on the test then I shall start modding my other 3 SPC900 as well.

Thank you YESYES for you pictures, I used then quite a bit and certainly made the job easier.

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SniffTheGlove

SniffTheGlove

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Hi Sean,

this one looks to be the right thing ( if you can wait a few weeks for it to be delivered from Hong Kong)

USB to RS232 DB9 Adapter for Win7 Window 7 Vista XP 64 PL2303 1M High Quality | eBay

I haven't tried this particular model though, so can't give any guaranties... ;)

These adaptors arrived today, very quick at only 7 working days from Hong Kong.

Opened the package to find 5 adaptors but no driver CD's. The auction description states you get 1 adaptor and 1 driver disk.

Anyway, I went to Proflic's website and downloaded the PL2303 drivers V1.5(Latest version).

Installed the drivers on my main PC (Win7 64bit) and the driver installation end with a message that I could not install this driver on 64bit Win 7 as the drivers were not signed. Usually when this happens you get the option to ignore and continue but not this time. Just the error message.

I uninstalled the drivers and downloaded the 1.47 (previous version) from Prolifics site and these installed just fine.

I then plugged in the adaptor and windows found the drivers and everything is installed fine.

I check the adaptor setting strings and it identified the adaptor as a Prolific USB PL2303 adaptor.

I then split the case on the adaptor to check things ready for moddong but I noticed that there was no Prolific PL2303 chipset on the board. There was 1 chipset on either side of the double layer pcb, one chipset was completely devoid of markings and the other chipset is a HIN 411ECA manufactured by Intersil. So the no marking chipset must be the PL2303 or it could be a fake I do not know.

Anyway I least know that it works on Win7 64bit so now off to the garage to solder the lot together to make my SPC900 LX

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Andyfx

Andyfx

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Hi, I'm not sure if its a mistake or me not understanding it correctly, but want to be sure before I build it and end up blowing something on my laptop lol! I've popped some pics below to help explain.

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yesyes

yesyes

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Hi, I'm not sure if its a mistake or me not understanding it correctly, but want to be sure before I build it and end up blowing something on my laptop lol! I've popped some pics below to help explain.

Ah, I see....

It's not wrong, just a slightly different layout. I think I made the circuit board first and must have thought that having GND in the middle was a good idea (I probably considered having a connector there). Then I made the diagram and put GND on the bottom.

On any of these boards that I made afterwards I didn't do the jumper wire and just soldered the GND wire to the 2nd row from the bottom.

Electrically they are identical but the appearance is a little different. ;-)

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SniffTheGlove

SniffTheGlove

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I have messed up somewhere along the way :-)

I noticed a funny thing, if I get within 12inches of the camera the I get a screen of static. ie I place my hand or body near the camera (either fron, side or back) the static like watching a snow storm, if I move back the picture clears. Some kind of interference to which I am going to have to check out. This is in normal mode (ie the switch is open)

Another thing is that if I close the switch then the screen goes completely black. I thought this was normal as it was then waiting for Sharpcap to be placed into LX mode but upon selecting LX in Sharpcap then Sharpcap crashes. So I am going to have to take the circuit apart and breadboard all first to test things out to see where I went wrong.

Also, the link above forAndyFX is not Win7 64bit compatible (See Amazon review comments)

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yesyes

yesyes

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The switch works the other way around. Closed is normal mode and open is LX mode.

The static sounds like there might be a problem with GND not being properly connected somewhere...

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