Lodestar Yukky Guide Connector

[Tinker1947]

Well the connector is like something out of a Legobox, its about as awful as it can get, any body having a solution please say, mine atm is as follows, there's images for the unaware and my solution.....

The connector socket.......

The plug that gets inserted.....

as it fits out of the box......

My solution is Shrink Wrap like this....

Then another piece over the 2 Plugs...

So properly the best Amateur Guider on the market really needs a HDMI type socket just to make it perfect.....

[pete_l]

Yes, it does look utterly cheapo.

Have you considered using Polymorph to combine the guider and USB connectors into a single entity? At least that way they'd be stiffer and stronger and possib;e more water resistant, too.

[Velvet]

I thought i was the only one who thought this connector was rubbish. Mine is already broken. When i manage to get replacement

this is the first thing i will be doing. Thanks

Velvet

[Jessun]

Teleskop service used to sell a plastic cable holder for the Lodestar. It uses the two screws on the back and holds the cable in place. I thought I'd put a link here but can't seem to find it again..

[Jessun]

It looks like this:

[BlueAstra]

I agree. I have a Lodestar and I had to tape up the two cables much as you did. I did have occasion when it would pop out during a session, but the tape sorted it. I eventually got the telescop service plastic widget at the last AstroFest which sorted the problem, but I think a proper screw lock plug would be better.

[Merlin66]

I also use the TS adaptor on Olly's recommendation.

[the rev]

Co star has same type of connection. I used tape on mine, which works well

[Luke]

The Teleskop Service strain relief link is here:

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p5029_Strain-relief-for-Lodestar-cable---protects-the-connectors.html

I thought I'd get one to go with my new Lodestar having broken the connector on my QHY5!

[Steve 1962]

Sorry - am I missing something here?

You spend the best part of £400 on a camera and that's the standard of engineering you get? .....to the point that another company makes a widget that costs £30 to solve the problem? Why have SX not resolved this themselves? I'd always thought SX products were supposed to be pretty good - I'm on the verge of getting one their new H694 cameras - maybe time to review that decision I wonder?

[dmahon]

You're still welcome to see mine.

I have the telescop service widget too.

[ollypenrice]

I totally agree about the lackadaisical (feckless?) way in which SX have done nothing about this issue. It's an expensive camera and the problem clearly exists as witness TS's product to fix it. I found that tying the two cables together made it worse. Yves did this initially on his ODK14, which lives with us, and in the end I undid them to cure an iffy connection. I use both Atik and SX gear and have six specific grumbles with regard to the SX kit as opposed to none with Atik.

Olly

[pete_l]

You spend the best part of £400 on a camera and that's the standard of engineering you get? .....to the point that another company makes a widget that costs £30 to solve the problem?

To be fair, SX's cameras are excellent - possibly unsurpassed in price, performance and innovation. However the company does seem to have some long standing "blind spots" such as their support software and some of the external mechanics of their kit.

The good news is that those problems can be fixed by third party solutions (a situation that is not uncommon - within and without astronomy: just look at all the 'scopes that don't ship with coma correctors, or that need better focusers). Personally I far prefer a piece of kit that is excellent on the inside and improvable on the outside, over one that has internal flaws than you have to live with.

Fortunately for people who don't share my views there are plenty of other suppliers with different quality/compromise mixtures. So people are free to choose products that accentuate the attributes they value. The market will decide

[Luke]

I got first light with my new Lodestar last night and in my view the connector looks more vulnerable than I first realised. I got the TS solution on sharpish! There are some things that I really like about the camera (light, compact, sensitive) but I don't feel the customer is being put first here, it was not fun breaking my QHY5 (which in fairness has reasonable connectors in my view, I take blame for trying to pull it out straight after it has been out in the frost). I certainly don't fancy breaking another camera that's double the price. As said, aside from the connector, I really like its positive attributes so far but I will make my own buying choices with this connector on a product that has been out on the market for some time in mind.

[tplatt]

The connector is not ideal, but it had to fit into a very restricted space. There is no room for an RJ12 socket and I was unable to find anything else that was fully satisfactory. In practise, the failures that we see are almost entirely due to the cables being caught up and ripped out on the mount - something that few connectors will stand up to. I have the original Lodestar outside on a G11 mount and the cable has never been replaced after over 4 years of use, so it doesn't fall apart of its own accord, even if it looks weak. We get far more failures of the USB connector than we get of the guide connector, but no-one ever complains about the quality of the USB socket! :-)

Regards,

Terry (SX Ltd)

[Martin-Devon]

Let me be another Lodestar user to gripe over the connections - Starlight Express need to get the message. I've had my Lodestar about 15 months now and have a portable set-up, so my Lodestar cables have been connected/disconnected probably 75 times over this period. No question, the connections on the Lodestar are just far too close together, you have to buckle them in at funny angles to get a connection and even then I've had issues several times losing the connection thereafter during an imaging run. I've taped them together, tried strong elastic bands, etc etc , they help to a degree but the issues are two-fold (a) the very thin white connection you see in the pictures above is vulnerable and prone to snapping especially with fitting/removing repeatedly, mine is already borderline and will probably snap in two any day now, and even the more robust USB connector cable connection gets bent due to the angle you have to push it in everytime and again I question just how much longer this will last.

Anticipating something will fail shortly I've ordered in a replacement set of the two cables from Starlight Express - the pair come in at £25.00 which is a bit steep considering the sort of cables they are - they are identical though to the current ones, Starlight have not modified anything. But at least I'll get another year of use out of them (hopefully) before one or both packs up again. As stated by other owners above, you just don't expect this from a CCD costing £400....

[harry page]

Hi

My solution to this problem is to use my main cameras relays to send the corrections so I only have to use the USB connection on the guide star

I of course have a SX main camera , but would thought this would be possible with other cameras if they have a guider output

Regards Harry Page

[Steve 1962]

The good news is that those problems can be fixed by third party solutions (a situation that is not uncommon - within and without astronomy: just look at all the 'scopes that don't ship with coma correctors, or that need better focusers).

Pete - I absolutely respect your views and the reputation that SX have for quality equipment but I'm not sure this is the same thing. As you say, we can all choose what equipment we buy. Whether we choose to buy a "Kia" or a "Bentley" (to use a car analogy), although we expect to get different quality products, both should function as a car and get you from A to B. In this case; we're talking about a purpose built guide camera and the issue appears to be with the guider cable connector. No connections - no guiding - like buying a Bentley with wheels that fall off! That wouldn't be acceptable on any car - never mind whether it's a "Kia" or a "Bentley". PLEASE NOTE - I APOLOGISE IF I HAVE OFFENDED ANY KIA OWNERS OUT THERE!

I fully appreciate what Terry has said, but there seem to be quite a number of people having issues with this connector - if there isn't room for a "conventional" RJ12 connector or to acheive clearance between the two connections - how about a slightly bigger case?

My solution to this problem is to use my main cameras relays to send the corrections so I only have to use the USB connection on the guide star

That's interesting Harry - could you explain what you mean in a bit more detail (i.e. what leads and settings you use) please?

Thanks

Steve

[harry page]

Hi

I use a sx camera as my main camera and a loadstar to do the guiding .

If you use a sx camera you will see there is a guiding port as well ( rj11) connect this to your mount ( more sturdy that the loadstar )

I just use the loadstar usb connection to follow the guide star and my software ( AA5) can send the corrections via the main camera hence dispensing with the loadstar mount connection

I can even dispense with all camera mount connections by sending the corrections through my handset

Regards Harry

[Steve 1962]

Thanks Harry - that was really useful

Regards

Steve

[Earl]

This is why i got the Mammut

[dmahon]

If you have a HEQ5/NEQ6 and use ASCOM/EQMOD then you don't need to use the ST4 connector anyway (more than likely you'll use pulse guiding [which goes down the USB/serial cable from computer to mount] so no ST4 cable is required).