Altair/GSO RC8 10" Truss MKII - Happy Christmas to me :-)

[bob-c]

HI John,

Nice to here from you and am glad you are ok. . It must have been a bit of a shock for you when it was cancelled.. Fingers crossed ,your new kit looks like it will be a good purchase.I am no expert but those subs look fine and very encouraging. I am seriously thinking of one of those scopes for my final rig setup. I was imaging same night ,also last night and hopefully tonight .My mount is performing well unguided with my Star 71..Hopefully it will be okay with a big aperture scope and guided. Looking forward to more of your pics and tests.

Keep yourself well John and clear skies.

                                                            Bob.

[Jkulin]

Thanks Bob, I am back at the Hospital on Tuesday so will have to wait and see.

The 10" has taken some thinking about and without my prior knowledge of the 8" it would have taken more thinking about, all set up for this evening so hopefully can get the Lum, Blue and the Green at least whilst we are moonless and then if push comes to shove can get the red and the Ha if there is a moon.

[xthestreams]

Nice work John - loved to see what you've done to get the system all integrated, inspiring. The work with teh spider was inspired, where did you find a heater that fit between the secondary and the spiders, from what I can see the Kendrick's are too thick to get under.

Also wondering what you've done to Ulitmate Power Box to control the telescope cooling fans, have you had a chance to look at controlling their speed or do they run flat chat the entire night?

[Jkulin]

3 hours ago, xthestreams said:

Nice work John - loved to see what you've done to get the system all integrated, inspiring. The work with teh spider was inspired, where did you find a heater that fit between the secondary and the spiders, from what I can see the Kendrick's are too thick to get under.

Also wondering what you've done to Ulitmate Power Box to control the telescope cooling fans, have you had a chance to look at controlling their speed or do they run flat chat the entire night?

Hi,

The Dew heater is a Kendrick and fits perfectly.

I have just used a 12v feed of the UPB to power the fans, nothing special, but the 2.1mm plug was loose so I built it up a bit with solder so that it remains in. Yes the fans run full blast.

[xthestreams]

Okay, I must try harder with the heater. I’m going to try experimenting with adjusting fan speeds to see what it does to mirror temps vs. noise, I’ve assumed GSO knew what they were doing when they selected them but some data sure would be nice 

[xthestreams]

Managed to get the heater fitted but Kendrick advised the only way to do it was to trim off some of teh vulcanised rubber - but slotted in nicely. Managed to control teh fan speed with the variable voltage output, next step is working out how to integrate with EKOS to vary speed according to ambient temp and dew points. Have yet to try using the PWM ports to see if I could accomplish teh same, mainly because I need to make an RCA to 2.1mm adapter and haven't had time.

In other news, how did you mount the UPB to the top dovetail plate? The Pegasus mounting bracket "dovetail" adapter doesn't have an obvious way to connect - feels like I might have wasted my hard earned buying that!

[Jkulin]

10 hours ago, xthestreams said:

Managed to get the heater fitted but Kendrick advised the only way to do it was to trim off some of teh vulcanised rubber - but slotted in nicely. Managed to control teh fan speed with the variable voltage output, next step is working out how to integrate with EKOS to vary speed according to ambient temp and dew points. Have yet to try using the PWM ports to see if I could accomplish teh same, mainly because I need to make an RCA to 2.1mm adapter and haven't had time.

In other news, how did you mount the UPB to the top dovetail plate? The Pegasus mounting bracket "dovetail" adapter doesn't have an obvious way to connect - feels like I might have wasted my hard earned buying that!

I use this for most of my equipment: -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3M-Dual-Lock-1m-2m-or-3m-SJ3552-Self-Stick-Tape-Black-Heavy-Duty-25-4mm-Wide/322373472895?var=511315677855&hash=item4b0ef4d27f:g:IbYAAOSwWnhckMUm