Mesu installation about to commence...

[sloz1664]

Fingers crossed Simon. All the best for tonight. 

Steve

[Singlin]

Stopped due to icing on my sensor-I think!

Check my other thread.

[Singlin]

Great news! I got the ccd sorted.

I opened it all up and left it to dry in a warm and dry place.

When I put the dissident caps back in I noticed that the dissident end cap was not screwed in square and flush. I think that moist air could have had access from this area.

This evening I have had it running perfectly to -30.

I also found a working link to download the custom UCAC3 catalogue for PXP.

I use vesion 2 and Scripted Point XP5 which requires the custom UCAC3.

I can only say that I did not have the time to finish my cup of tea and the point run was finished.

Every object slap bang in the middle of my ccd cross hair reticle-WOW!!!

Here is the link for the Custom UCAC3

http://planewave.com/downloads/?did=107

[Helen]

Yay!!!  Great hear its working well Simon after all your troubles    And thanks for the link. Let's hope you (and I) get a run of clear nights...

Helen

[Singlin]

Thanks Helen just remember to put the UCAC3 file in C:\Program Files (x86)\SiTech\SiTechExe  for windows 7

[Singlin]

One of the problems I had in using the New Point XP5 was that my pc settings are all Italian.

The new Point XP5 crashed because the code could only understand anEnglish default.

I changed my windows to American and It then worked.

Here are my notes to do a run:

SCRIPTED POINT XP5 FOR WINDOWS 7 AND MAXIM DL

Config Preperation

1.    Place database file(UCAC3) in c:\program files(86)\Sitech\Sitech

2.    Make sure Horizon file is loaded.

3.    In Telescope Info Tab enter: Lat/Long,Scope Focal Length.

4.    In Mount Parms Tab enter: Mount type,If Gem enter auto flip GOTO.

5.    check the “use ActiveX Point XP”(for new version)

6.    In Miscellaneous Tab enter:

.  Nutate,Aberrate and refraction ON

.  Select camera control software

.   Enter camera x and y Pixels un-binned

.   Enter width and height of each pixel in microns

.   Click on calculate field of view window

7.    In Ascom and troubleshooting enter: Slew setting time 10 sec/ok

 Scope Prepration

1.     Initialize telescope.

2.    In scope window right click pointxp0Callpoints button and clear all PXP Calibration point.

3.    Manually perform at least one cal star init(2 or 3 seperated in alt(dec) and az(RA) Two should be separated in Ra as much as possible and the 3^rd in Dec.

4.    For GEM mount use one star near meridian on the equator and the secons star 30° above equator.

5.    Make sure that ccd camera is in focus.

 

Scripted Point XP5 Run

1.    Open Maxim Dl

2.    Call up Features/Run Script window in Sitech and set the following parameters:

.  Select how many cal stars to image(select at least 16

.  Set exposure time in seconds

.  Set binning Mode

3.    Click on “Make PointXP Run” to build script

4.    Click “PLAY” to start run

5.    Click or open pointXP 5.28 window and save Calibration file.

[Helen]

Thanks for this Simon, it has encouraged me to get this set up!  Its running now

Helen

[Singlin]

Cool , I am pleased. 

It is a smart thing to see in action.

[perfrej]

Isn't it amazing to see software written in such a way that you have to have american settings on your system? The calender says 2014 and the globe has turned global. Every piece of software I write contains one small function that changes dots and commas to whatever the local decimal point setting is. Not exactly rocket science, is it...

private string decimalPoint = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.NumberFormat.NumberDecimalSeparator;

/per

[steppenwolf]

Pah!! Uk settings work fine too, you don't need to cross the Pond to get this US written software to work [emoji2] strange though that Italian doesn't work out of the box.

Sent from my iPhone from somewhere dark .....

[Singlin]

Yep!

I could not get the XP5 (new version) to work and Dan Grey suggested to change the Windows default language to English.

I changed to to English US just to make sure. No doubt it works in any English system but definatly not Italian. 

We don't have even 26 letters in out alphabet.

[Singlin]

Anyone managed to get the park feature to be reliable?

Mine sometimes parks a couple of mil on the edge of the lock notch, I then can't lock the scope down.

Not that it matters as I just do a init etc.

Just irritating that it is not reliable.

[ncjunk]

I haven't, it's always a few mil out but I just need it to park for closing the roof as the software automatically does the pointing sync on startup.

I would like it a bit better as its anything up to 200 arc mins out and it knocks 5 mins off the startup time if it is more accurate.

I'm too scared to update the firmware as its all working.

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

[Singlin]

Could you explain " the software automatically does the pointing sync on startup"

When mine does not park and unpark precisely I do an Offset init followed by 2 "just load star no term and then "Calc only offsets/Align.

[perfrej]

Pah!! Uk settings work fine too, you don't need to cross the Pond to get this US written software to work [emoji2] strange though that Italian doesn't work out of the box.

Sent from my iPhone from somewhere dark .....

OK, Anglo-Saxon then... English software usually works because English people actually do know about the rest of Europe.

/per

[Singlin]

Point taken Per.

We grumble in Europe about the American ignorance and arogance viz a vie the rest of the world, but I have to admit that I don't know the capital cities of all the States of the USA or even the names of all the States in the US.

It would have been nice to have the software working without changing the default language but I don't feel happy blaming anyone.

[ncjunk]

Could you explain " the software automatically does the pointing sync on startup"

When mine does not park and unpark precisely I do an Offset init followed by 2 "just load star no term and then "Calc only offsets/Align.

I have ACP observatory control software and scheduler. I put the targets in and it sorts all the imaging out. It does a pointing update at the start, acp that is, and if it fails 3 times, which it will do due to the park putting the pointing out, it sends the picture to astrometry.net. they send back the result and after that acp syncs to the co-ordinates supplied by astronetry,net.

if I fixed the park acp would solve first time and I wouldn't get any fails.

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

[Singlin]

Ok Rgr that Neil.

I thought that I might be missing something in the Sitech software.

As I said before it is not the end of the world but irritating.

[ncjunk]

I had the first version of the mesu with the servocat that couldn't park....I'm just happy to be able to park at all!

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

[Singlin]

When using the Sitech software the unreliability of the parking feature makes it undependable and as the scope is not in the same position as when I parked I do the following:

I just stop the tracking and turn the scope off. Slew the scope by hand into the park notches to roll my observatory over the scope.

WHEN STARTING A SESSION:

Mount Was Moved since Last Session: 

   Start Sitech.exe

Make sure my Point model is loaded.

Start Planetarium Program and Connect to Telescope.

Perform an Offset Init (to get tracking started)

Update Offsets (but do not change PXP Terms:  Perform 2-5 "Just Load Star (no terms)" Inits      Click on "Calc only Offsets/Align"