Dual ED80 setup

[tooth_dr]

5 minutes ago, Allinthehead said:

Nice work Adam. That alignment looks good. Forecast not looking great until Saturday night. Looking forward to seeing some results from this. For what it's worth i asked the same questions on here when i was doing my dual Samyangs and the advice given was the same. Get the adjustment saddle, so i did and i'm really glad i did, as i'm now going to use the same setup for dual Star 71's too. So alternating the scopes/lens will be made as easy as possible. 

I will likely end up doing the same, as this may not work or hold alignment in practice!  Going to get a few trial runs hopefully this weekend as forecast looks ok.  It was clear last night, but a vomiting bug has hit two of my wee ones, and I wasnt feeling the best either so couldnt muster the effort to go outside.  I'll try to get the cables tidied up and balancing etc done, and try out the software (APT) until it's clear.

 

Many thanks

Adam.

[tooth_dr]

Last nights work. Still need to add the two camera power cables and a usb input but it’s taking shape now with the wiring being tidied up. I also reversed the focuser knobs on the black scope to get the micro focuser on the outside  

 

[RayD]

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

Last nights work. Still need to add the two camera power cables and a usb input but it’s taking shape now with the wiring being tidied up. I also reversed the focuser knobs on the black scope to get the micro focuser on the outside  

 

 

Top job.  That looks really neat.

[tooth_dr]

Started on my 12v power supply for the two cameras. A 40d battery hasn’t arrived yet from Ebay, so just waiting on that.

 

 

[Kaliska]

Nice work

Could you not make use of the 2x 12v power supplies from the HiTech Astro Dew Heater control panel? I'm thinking of using these on my setup with a couple of inline fuses.

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, Kaliska said:

Nice work

Could you not make use of the 2x 12v power supplies from the HiTech Astro Dew Heater control panel? I'm thinking of using these on my setup with a couple of inline fuses.

Yep thats the plan.  i've got 2.1mm jacks on the end of two of the wires above, the voltage needs stepped down to 8v for the cameras.

[tooth_dr]

Quick update:

I haven’t had time to finish it but made a concerted effort on sat night and last night.

Attached the power supply directly to the tube ring and tidied up wiring.

I still have to sort out the wiring down to the pier but was just keen get it up and running.

Balancing was a breeze using @steppenwolf guide on another thread - thanks for that.

I got at least 80 x 300s useable subs last night from the pair!

One observation - one camera image is upside down. Doesn’t matter, but perhaps I fitted the sensor upside down when I modded it! If that’s even possible

 

 

 

[tooth_dr]

WALL-E

[Jessun]

That Geoptic bar looks familiar ;-)

I used three to run three OTAs bolted to the bar. I settled for shimmies but it was never perfectly aligned. I bought two adjustment saddles from FLO and then the project was decommissioned.... Never got to try them out.

For me the problem was always the focuser. Even Moonlites weren't up to the task.

Cool build you have there now!

/Jesper

 

[tooth_dr]

@Jessun yep that orange geoptik bar has proven excellent for this application!  I've always admired your set-up, it's something else!

[Allinthehead]

Great work. Can't wait to see the results.

[Davey-T]

21 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

One observation - one camera image is upside down. Doesn’t matter, but perhaps I fitted the sensor upside down when I modded it! If that’s even possible

Just a thought have you got " auto rotate " turned off in both cameras ?

Dave

[tooth_dr]

39 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Just a thought have you got " auto rotate " turned off in both cameras ?

Dave

You nailed it Dave, 40d mustnt have auto rotate off, as the 1000d def does.  Cheers!

[tooth_dr]

Picked this up from eBay, delivered this morning. Sold as faulty, gamble paid off (so far) as I was able to unbend the pin and a quick test shows that it’s working ok, and connects to the PC. The dial on top is a bit flaky but not an issue as I’ll be running it off the pc! This should hopefully allow me to stack all the images in one go now, and mount the 1000d permanently on another scope.

 

 

[tooth_dr]

It’s running 100% with APT. Shutter count is a healthy 64586! My other 40d is sitting at 60000 less