Cable crisis resolved

[SteveA]

Time always seems to get the better of me and what was only supposed to be a very temporary solution involving a rats nest of hanging cables and an assortment of power supplies had been in place for several years. Not only did it look a mess but every slew of the mount was a nail biting  experience and cables had to be nursed through the manoeuvre for fear of snagging. USB disconnections had become fairly regular as the cables worked loose and poor guiding was due in part I suspect to dragging cables.   So finally, with a bit of time on my hands after completing this year’s UCLAN course work I got around to starting on a good tidy up in the observatory.

I’ve managed to replace the multiple power cables and USB leads running to the rig with just two, one power and one USB. All my 12V equipment; cameras, filter wheel and mount are running from the HobbyKing 12V power strip after replacing all of the fuses with 3 amp ones and the USB devices from a StarTech 4 port USB hub. The whole setup is strapped to a spare dovetail bar on top of the scope. Power is supplied from a Maplin 12V bench power supply. It never occurred to me to take a before shot…but believe me it was a mess. It all looks a lot tidier and I’m hoping for less hanging cable related issues.

Steve