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show us your.... cable setup?!


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Hi sgl community!

I am struggling with all the cables connecting my gear: 2 cables for the guide cam, 2 cables for my primary camera, 3 cables for the mount, usb hub power and connection ... any and all pictures on how you manage the cables would be welcomed!

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I will post a picture - once I have finished sorting my cables out. I did have them done previously but for various reaons had to beak them down again.

What I use are Self Adhesive cable tie mounts and cable ties as well as a powered USB hub, which means I have only one cable going from the laptop to the mount / scope

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cable-Tie-Mounts-Mountings-Adhesive/dp/B007JVWDP8

 

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Best to use a cable sheath rather than cable-tie the bundle of cables together - it's more flexible. For myself I run all the signal and power cables to an attachment point near the centre of the DEC axis, then leave a loop which is long enough to allow for a meridian flip, and a second attachment point on the RA axis housing. That leaves just a couple of dewstrap cables which plug into the controller which is Velcro'd onto the DEC housing. There is no significant weight of cables pulling on the OTA, and to remove the scope I just coil the cable sheath around the focuser and it comes off in one:

DSC00716_zpsdbgieao5.jpg

DSC00713_zpsmzzahkhv.jpg

ChrisH

 

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Hello Chris, thanks a lot! That's also a good idea.. i wonder what cable sheath is in german? dict.cc : "Kabelmantel"! Maybe i'll combine both ideas B) PS thanks a lot for adding the photos!

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If I showed you my cables I'd get thrown off SGL! In my defence I can say that they work and that I know which USB cable is which at both ends because my mess is a labelled mess. The dual rig has eleven cables. It also has one spare 12 volt power supply and a spare of both kinds of USB retained in the loom. You don't get me, Mr USB!

:Dlly

PS: A while back I was asked why I didn't use a HiTech Astro box on the dual rig to reduce the cable count. That very day (I kid you not!) there was a FLO announcement about recalls of some of those units. And there's your answer. When it's 'broke' I'll fix it. This game is complicated enough without trying to simplify it... :evil4:

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7 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

If I showed you my cables I'd get thrown off SGL! In my defence I can say that they work and that I know which USB cable is which at both ends because my mess is a labelled mess. The dual rig has eleven cables. It also has one spare 12 volt power supply and a spare of both kinds of USB retained in the loom. You don't get me, Mr USB!

:Dlly

You can't not show now!

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I was just following Per's excellent advice on cable arrangement :)  There are pictures and an explanation from him somewhere on here (and from what I recall he never had anything good to say about Olly's cables either!)

ChrisH

Here you go...

 

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4 hours ago, Scott said:

who let you get out of the visual section. get thee back demon ;) 

Its ok your AP secrets are safe with me and I promise I'm not wired :hello: but I do have lots of connections.... :icon_flower:

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13 hours ago, ChrisLX200 said:

I was just following Per's excellent advice on cable arrangement :)  There are pictures and an explanation from him somewhere on here (and from what I recall he never had anything good to say about Olly's cables either!)

ChrisH

Here you go...

 

Ah me, it was another of our running gags. However, he did concede that he needed to label them since there was no way of knowing which was which at either end of his superbly organized loom. My labels and Per's neatness really ought to be the way. However, I think having a spare USB in the loom is a good idea. They do suffer random failure. I was very glad of mine last month.

Olly

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Originally I'd used tape and cable ties to bind the cables into a loom so swapping cables meant an hour of undoing all this work. Eventually I ended up with two redundant cables in the loom because I simply couldn't be bothered undoing it all to get them out!  So after this incremental process of adding more cables and more tape the thing was so stiff you could have attached a brush head to the end and cleaned the patio with it :)  I saw Per's nylon braided sleave and thought 'Aha!' brilliant idea - it remains flexible and yet easy to swap/add/remove cables (I chose the zipped version). Note also Per's method of routing and securing the loom, prior to this (using my G11 with a mess of cables) I would worry every time a meridian flip was needed that a cable would snag and I would have to go outside and watch it to ensure everything was OK. Now I don't even think about it. :)

ChrisH

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  • 6 months later...

This is my current cable setup:

LX90_Astro_CAT.jpg

It's something I've tweaked, changed and sworn about for at least 10 years and really I think this is the first time I'm almost happy with things :) The LX90 having the main power socket rotate with the base has never helped matters.

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I built a powerpanel that is attached to the OTA. I only have 2 cables running from the mount (power, data)

The box is permanently attached and the cables stay plugged in when I store the scope. I cut down the time it takes me to setup the whole thing, from opening the OTA bag to powering all the devices, to less than 2 minutes :)

Here is a picture of the box attached without all the cable and protective case

ProjectBox4.JPG

Here is a video of the box in action with all cables and protective case

it works pretty well, no balancing issue as it is very light.

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 7/11/2016 at 17:28, ollypenrice said:

If I showed you my cables I'd get thrown off SGL! In my defence I can say that they work and that I know which USB cable is which at both ends because my mess is a labelled mess.

Olly, 

Apologies for resurrecting this thread, but what do you use for your labeling? I have previously use a Dymo label printer, but they don't stick to the cables well, so they just kind of flap around.

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1 hour ago, frugal said:

Olly, 

Apologies for resurrecting this thread, but what do you use for your labeling? I have previously use a Dymo label printer, but they don't stick to the cables well, so they just kind of flap around.

Just paper wrapped in Sellotape. That's the south of France for you!

Olly

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33 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Just paper wrapped in Sellotape. That's the south of France for you!

Not really an option in soggy Gloucestershire. The first time the dew comes up they will all get ruined. Time to see what google can recommend...

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Before and after shots of my cabling attempt today. It wasn't quite as bad as the before shot, as the two camera cables were cable-tied together, and the two dew heater cables were cable tied together; but it was all still hanging down (*looks for hangs-head-in-shame emoticon)

I have used a length of 30mm wide nylon cable sheathe. I could have gone with narrower, but 30mm wide meant I could get the cables down one by one with no problems. the camera and dew-heater cables are attached to the horizontal dovetail bar with a Velcro tie. Then the nylon sheath is attached to the main part of the mount by another Velcro tie slipped under a larger Velcro strap fastened around the mount head (I did not want to put any kind of permanent fixture onto the mount itself). The end of the nylon sheath is then attached to a leg with a velcro strap where the dew heater controller is attached with (you've guessed it) another velcro strap.

The advantage of all of the velcro straps is that I can remove the whole cabling loom easily when I need to pack everything away.

Before: ZIywj3FZIId7CpSnLG9fF_wvDD5U3VXxsAKi_zpF

After:

O13AccpMrYVxScsXRVtSAwbIVd7qU9w3oZ_KgJse

 

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