Moravian G2 8300 FW

[Firas]

At last it came with Badder 1.25 LRGB filters! 

I aslo upgraded the stock focuser on the 80 ED to Badder Steel Track. 

Looking forward for a first light but there are some issues with SGP learning curve and balancing to be solved first! 

DSLR no more! 

[MarsG76]

Nice toy... I wonder just how much better it will be in the real world compared to the DSLR.

 

[tomato]

Congratulations, I am still struggling with my G2-8300 at the moment.  I have not yet matched the results I achieved with my Atik 314 OSC camera but I am sure it is only a matter of time before I do.

[PhotoGav]

Exciting times ahead - good luck and I look forward to seeing your first light image.

[Firas]

26 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Nice toy... I wonder just how much better it will be in the real world compared to the DSLR.

 

I think my choice was made on the bases of number of reasons.

Noise, signal and colour quality, processing, the ability to shoot narrow band and the fact that you can't blame the camera anymore for not so satisfying results. 

[Firas]

13 minutes ago, PhotoGav said:

Exciting times ahead - good luck and I look forward to seeing your first light image.

Thanks friend! I really hope so! 

[MarsG76]

17 hours ago, Firas said:

I think my choice was made on the bases of number of reasons.

Noise, signal and colour quality, processing, the ability to shoot narrow band and the fact that you can't blame the camera anymore for not so satisfying results. 

I'm sure there has to be a massive benefit, the reason I'm asking is that with my full spectrum modded 40D I image narrow band quite successfully and with multiple stacks the noise was all but gone. The sub length I was doing were 20, 25, 30 and 40 minutes in Ha, OIII and SII.... Perhaps a cooled CCD will also need less exposure time to capture the same amount of data.

 

[geordie85]

Congratulations on your new toy. Mono imaging is so much fun, when skies allow 

[Droogie 2001]

I am very pleased with my Moravian G2-8300 Mono CCD. Having just started using Narrowband filters (well just Ha at the moment.. ) I am now starting to get the results I wanted when I first ordered the camera.
It did take me longer to get to this stage than I had originally anticipated. Balancing the mount and getting stable guiding were my greatest challenges which of course is nothing to do with the camera itself.

I would point out though that it is not a magic bullet as it will of course still require considerable effort on your part, the cooling will however significantly help reduce the noise you got with a DSLR.

There are alot of SGL members who have this camera, Gnomus being one such member. If you haven't already check out his images for reassurance on the Moravian's performance then I recommend you have a look.

Looking forward to first light images.

 

[tooth_dr]

Lovely camera, look forward to your first light.  All the best with it!

[Firas]

1 hour ago, Droogie 2001 said:

I am very pleased with my Moravian G2-8300 Mono CCD. Having just started using Narrowband filters (well just Ha at the moment.. ) I am now starting to get the results I wanted when I first ordered the camera.
It did take me longer to get to this stage than I had originally anticipated. Balancing the mount and getting stable guiding were my greatest challenges which of course is nothing to do with the camera itself.

I would point out though that it is not a magic bullet as it will of course still require considerable effort on your part, the cooling will however significantly help reduce the noise you got with a DSLR.

There are alot of SGL members who have this camera, Gnomus being one such member. If you haven't already check out his images for reassurance on the Moravian's performance then I recommend you have a look.

Looking forward to first light images.

 

Thanks! I actually looked through most of the images with camera here on SGL. And that has further encouraged me to purchase it. 

I am having some problems with SGP though. It crushes for some reason and sometimes it doesn't download the images.

Did you experience any similar problems? 

[Droogie 2001]

I had occasions in SGP that would disconnect me from the camera. At first I thought it was the 5 Metre USB that came with the CCD. I got a replacement one sent (another 5m) and I had the same issue.

I then purchased a 3 Meter USB cable and this has been fine ever since, I put this down to my laptop not liking the 5m USB cables. The 5m cables come with the CCD so I would imagine they are designed to like 5m cables.
Since then I have recently rebuilt the laptop and I have tried the 5m again as I could do with the extra cable length. So far it has been okay but I have been careful when testing. What you do not want to happen is for the software to crash when your CCD is at  -25C as this will mean it will heat up to ambient much more quickly that it should do. 

Not saying that this is your reason but it maybe worth testing with a shorter cable? Hope this helps.

[Droogie 2001]

Just an update on my previous post. I went out last night with the 5m USB cable and after 30mins and before I had started cooling I had the issue from a while back re-occur.
That is SGP freezes and the only way to resolve this is to end task and open SGP again.
The main issue though is that after going back into SGP it will not connect to the camera again, despite clicking setup and seeing the camera is there.
The only way to resolve is to power off the CCD and power back on after that it connects fine. As mentioned I had not started cooling and it was at ambient. 
My may concern with this is if I was inside my house and the issue occured potetntially the CCD could be at -25c and then be brought up to ambient very quickly which may or may not do damage to the CCD?
It does appears when SGP loses contact that the temperature (understandably) is no longer managed.
So it appears 5m USB still seem to be an issue. It could be my USB ports on my laptop or the only other thing I need to check is whether the two 5m USB cables are identical and therefore perhaps a different brand (ideally the same as my 3m one I guess) would help.

Will report back if I get any resolution to this.

 

[Sp@ce_d]

Hmm does sound like USB issue. One thing that made a world of difference to the stability of all my USB devices in the obsy was replacing all my hubs with industrial Startech ones. They can be powered with 12v & there's an option (disabled by default) to provide power to the USB ports rather than use the power from the pc/laptop interface. This is much more robust as you'll probably find the output spec from your laptop is struggling to provide enough for all connected devices. Just a thought but worth trying any powered hub if you have one to test with.

[Droogie 2001]

2 minutes ago, Sp@ce_d said:

Hmm does sound like USB issue. One thing that made a world of difference to the stability of all my USB devices in the obsy was replacing all my hubs with industrial Startech ones. They can be powered with 12v & there's an option (disabled by default) to provide power to the USB ports rather than use the power from the pc/laptop interface. This is much more robust as you'll probably find the output spec from your laptop is struggling to provide enough for all connected devices. Just a thought but worth trying any powered hub if you have one to test with.

Thanks for the advice. Cables are my biggest headache as I have to setup and pack down each time I go out. Will have a look to see if a hub could resolve my annoying issue as well as help speed up my setup /break down time.

[Sp@ce_d]

Something else I use with my portable setup (although it hardly gets much use these days!) is an active USB cable with attached hub ( got mine from Lindy a few years ago) 12 meter cable, plus I have a 12 metre extension if needed.  https://www.lindy.co.uk/cables-adapters-c1/usb-c449/12m-usb-2-0-active-extension-pro-4-port-hub-p498 

Note these are USB 2 if you're intending to run USB 3 devices too you'll need different ones but if it were me I'd keep them separate anyway.

Startech here, they are smaller than they look btw. The 4 & 7 ports fit in palm of hand.

https://www.startech.com/uk/Search?search_term=industrial+usb+hub

So only one cable to laptop, keeps cables short at mount & tidy. None of these & the Startechs are cheap but having messed about with cheap hubs & cables previously it was well worth the investment. 

[spillage]

+1 for a startech 7 port hub £35ish new from ebay. Had mine a few weeks now are can only recommend it. I have removed the vast amount of usb cables from the pier to pc and now just have the small power lead and 1 usb.

[kirkster501]

I had nothing but issues when I used a USB hub, even the Startech one that I am now selling.  There is just too much going on with large camera downloads, guiding images coming in and pulses going out, focusing etc.  In the end I gave up with it and used a small PC at the mount.  99% of problems gone.

[Sp@ce_d]

19 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

I had nothing but issues when I used a USB hub, even the Startech one that I am now selling.  There is just too much going on with large camera downloads, guiding images coming in and pulses going out, focusing etc.  In the end I gave up with it and used a small PC at the mount.  99% of problems gone.

Did you try setting the Startech to supply USB power to the ports? It's not enabled by default. When I introduced the QSI into the mix the extra d/load times seemed to cause intermittent timeouts on the bus with some other devices. Went away when I moved to the Startech on the mount with power to USB ports enabled. This will stop the pc USB port voltage being pulled down.

[Jkulin]

5 hours ago, Sp@ce_d said:

Did you try setting the Startech to supply USB power to the ports? It's not enabled by default. When I introduced the QSI into the mix the extra d/load times seemed to cause intermittent timeouts on the bus with some other devices. Went away when I moved to the Startech on the mount with power to USB ports enabled. This will stop the pc USB port voltage being pulled down.

Hmm, that's interesting, not that I have any problems at the moment, can I ask where you are enabling the this?

[Sp@ce_d]

7 hours ago, Jkulin said:

Hmm, that's interesting, not that I have any problems at the moment, can I ask where you are enabling the this?

Been a while since I did this. It's a setting inside, think it's a dip switch don't think it's a jumper. Just had a look for the manual & looks like it's been updated this year.. no mention of switch settings but says connect 12v if you want additional power to ports. Maybe the latest ones are auto sensing. I'll have a dig about see if I can find an older version.

[Sp@ce_d]

Ok it's coming back to me now. I'll need to go to the obsy & check which setting it is as I'm pretty sure this is an undocumented feature, at least as far as the data sheets go. The option is bus powered and/or power (7 -24 volts dc) from the terminal connector. What the setting does is switch it from bus and terminal power to terminal power only.

There were 2 reasons I did this:

1. I wanted to keep the USB bus as "clean" as possible & avoid any potential differential between the levels of the PC bus and supply from the hub that may influence the bus stability.

2. As I operate the obsy fully automated I want to be able to switch or reset USB devices independently of the PC. Ok you can also reset/disable/enable devices under device mangler in windoze but this works much better and with my scripts.

 

So conscious of thread creep, I think for the OP results of testing with a powered hub would give an indication of USB bus power draw issues. I mentioned Startech because they are robust & can be powered from a 12v supply, plus a hub will help keep things tidy on the mount with short cables. Other option as I mentioned is active USB cable/hub although the one I have has an optional mains adapter. I never needed to use it but if the OP does have a very low USB bus output it may/may not work with the active on its own. Obviously if you could borrow one to test would be ideal but best thing would be to find the specs of the laptop USB port, add up the requirements of all attached devices & see if that exceeds the total draw of the laptop USB ports.

[kirkster501]

On 9/16/2017 at 13:00, Sp@ce_d said:

Did you try setting the Startech to supply USB power to the ports? It's not enabled by default. When I introduced the QSI into the mix the extra d/load times seemed to cause intermittent timeouts on the bus with some other devices. Went away when I moved to the Startech on the mount with power to USB ports enabled. This will stop the pc USB port voltage being pulled down.

Yss I did.  Power was being provided by moving the jumper link.