Gina Posted November 19, 2016 Author Share Posted November 19, 2016 Examination of the control board showed mistakes - missing strip breaks and a wrong connection. So I put things right and connected up again. This time the dew heater is now working as well as the cooling but the higher power raindrop heater still isn't. DMM testing showed that GPIO26 on pin 37 at 3.3v instead of 0v. I'll continue investigating but it looks like an RPi fault Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted November 19, 2016 Author Share Posted November 19, 2016 Oh no it isn't!! The fault isn't with the RPi - it was me - I used the wrong control. GPOI26 is controlled by Line D not C And it works! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted November 19, 2016 Author Share Posted November 19, 2016 Assembled all the internals and given everything (except lens and camera) a good going over with ACF50 anti-damp spray. Everything is working fine I changed the raindrop heater GPIO to 13 so that it works as Line C as in the previous version. I've noticed a potential problem though - the LED power light and maybe a little less problematic, the green activity light I'm going to have to black these out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted November 19, 2016 Author Share Posted November 19, 2016 I believe I've satisfactorily covered the LED lights on the RPi. Used a piece of foil from a packet of nuts attached with hot melt glue to the internal framework, with a tiny piece of flocking material to stop light reflection. Can only be sure when I get it outside in real darkness and I'm not doing that tonight as it's raining hard! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted November 19, 2016 Author Share Posted November 19, 2016 I have sealed the dome to the casing with two wraps of adhesive plastic insulation tape stretched round the flange and casing and further held in place with two elastic bands. Here are a couple of photos. The first shows the red glow from the power light and the second the completed ASC with dome sealed with tape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 I've put the ASC outdoors hung on the guttering just outside the living room window for testing. Unfortunately, my shielding of the RPi power light is not sufficient as may be seen in this captured image Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisLX200 Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Well it did look rather bright... ChrisH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 True! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisLX200 Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 If you really want to keep it perhaps you could re-route it to the outside of the case - maybe glue a LED into a 3/16th hole through the side or something? (replace LED on board with 2-pin header...). You could see it from the house then - with a pair of binoculars! ChrisH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 Har har flipping har No - I don't particularly want to keep it but it's an SMD and I'm afraid of damaging the board if I try to remove it. OTOH I have a dud RPi I could experiment on I think I now have it well covered though. The previous covering had dropped off. Not much sticks to the ACF 50! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 Fixed it But it's just started raining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 I'll switch the heaters on now and see if it can dry those raindrops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 Not continuous raindrops though without a lot more heat but there wouldn't be much point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted November 25, 2016 Author Share Posted November 25, 2016 I'm not really satisfied with this ASC. Two things are annoying me - the difficulty of getting it in focus and the lack of sky coverage. It will do for the time being - it tells me if the sky is clear enough for astro imaging, which is it's primary purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted December 3, 2016 Author Share Posted December 3, 2016 Had another go at focussing the ASC this afternoon but it's well nigh impossible I've put it outside, hung on the guttering to see if/when the clouds go away tonight. Whether the focus is good enough to see stars remains to be seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted December 3, 2016 Author Share Posted December 3, 2016 Sky has cleared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted December 12, 2016 Author Share Posted December 12, 2016 With the nearly full moon tonight I realise that this ASC could do with an Ha filter to block out a lot of the moon while letting the hydrogen nebulosity through plus the brighter stars. Judging by the results of my other ZWO camera and Ha filter I reckon I should be able to use one of my currently unused Ha filters with this ASI178MM camera using an exposure of 60s. With the small pixels of this camera I can use 2x2 binning to increase sensitivity and still have perfectly adequate resolution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisLX200 Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 But where to put the filter? It just about works with a longer f/l lens (I have a 1-1/4" UHC taped to the front of my finder cam) but not with a fisheye lens I think.. ChrisH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gina Posted December 12, 2016 Author Share Posted December 12, 2016 I may have a possible idea about that - with your lens I will have an extra 5mm between lens mount and camera - I may be able to arrange something. It can be done with the 1600 but that's with a T2 coupling. I'll have to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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