Getting down to 2 cables to the PC, can anyone see any potential problems with this setup before I make it more permanent. (Finished)

[Danjc]

I have purchased a few products and hopefully arranged them ok but before I go ahead and make thing more permanent and sort a loom out can anyone see any potential problems I may have with the way I have set thing up. 

Edited March 20, 2019 by Danjc

[Anthonyexmouth]

Huge problem, you gotta dump that power box and send it to me for safe disposal. 

[Danjc]

1 minute ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Huge problem, you gotta dump that power box and send it to me for safe disposal. 

No problem it will be in the post tomorrow ?

[Anthonyexmouth]

1 minute ago, Danjc said:

No problem it will be in the post tomorrow ?

Disaster averted. 

[Rush]

Guidescope more to the  mount Center (in case of guiding error)

Looks nice,too perfect to be real ?.

If u see my wire jungle you will  breakdown and cry?

Cheers

Rush

[Danjc]

1 hour ago, Rush said:

Guidescope more to the  mount Center (in case of guiding error)

Looks nice,too perfect to be real ?.

If u see my wire jungle you will  breakdown and cry?

Cheers

Rush

Cheers, I didn’t realise that the guidescope location could cause issues with guiding errors.  I can switch things around easily enough. 

[Hallingskies]

Looks really good, though I went the whole hog and got the Pegasus ultimate hub that looks after the USBs and focus control as well.  Touch wood, it’s all worked very well so far...

Just make sure you keep the power leads, particularly the dew heaters, away from the data cables as far as you can.  I did suffer from what seemed to be a bit of interference pick-up on my camera (noise came and went with the dew heater cutting in and out on the auto-control provided by the hub.  Problem solved by moving and shortening dew heater lead).

Edited March 10, 2019 by Hallingskies

[Rush]

3 hours ago, Danjc said:

Cheers, I didn’t realise that the guidescope location could cause issues with guiding errors.  I can switch things around easily enough. 

Flexure issue was prominent when i moved the Guide Scope away from the mount center . G.Scope ,rings and the base plate adds extra weight, tension on top of the main scope ,front heavyness too. Watch the PHD graph and  the corner stars in the image . If  stars r round  you can leave it as it is. I avoid dew heater plugging in  the hub where  the imaging camera s plugged. Happy testing & success:)

Rush

[Danjc]

I had a day off work today so decided to sort all the cables out and test it all out.

Everything now communicates great after a small issue with the PPB not being recognised by the laptop when plugged in through the USB hub. I purchased 2 new Lindy USB cables a 0.5m one for connection between PPB & USB hub and a 3.0m one for connection from the hub to the laptop. From talking to Angelos from Pegasus Astro who was very helpful it seemed to be an issue from the USB hub as the PPB worked perfectly when connected directly to the laptop but the Lindy cables sorted it. 

I slewed the scope to its limits in all directions and no snags or cables pulling at all. For me now I only have to unplug a few cables as the rest stays connected and just unscrews off the scope saving a nice chunk of setup and takedown time. 

As mentioned regards the guidescope being further forward from the centre of the scope I kept the current configuration as the dovetail, guidescope, USB hub, PPB and aluminium plates combined weight and balance point of it all (if that makes sense) sits over the centre of the scope and  the mounts puck so should be fine. 

[Zepp]

Great setup!  I might try to do something like this. It looks like 0.25 (6 mm) inch aluminum plate was used.  How did you mount it to the dovetail bar?  Did you put threads into it and screw it in from the top?

[Danjc]

It’s 5mm aluminium plate and I just drilled 2 holes in the plate that lined up with 2 existing threaded holes in the dovetail, then bolted it up from underneath.  

I can post a pic if you want. 

[Zepp]

Thanks Dan.  You don't have to send a pic,  you have more room between the scope and the dovetail for the bolt than I do.  I can put a spacer or something.  Thanks again Kurt

[Astrokev]

Interesting pics Dan, I'm trying to design a new cabling system for my rig and this is helping, but I'm finding it a bit tricky to trace which cable goes where.  Is it possible to post a simple diagram that shows the connections, or label the pics?

thanks

kev

[Danjc]

8 minutes ago, Astrokev said:

Interesting pics Dan, I'm trying to design a new cabling system for my rig and this is helping, but I'm finding it a bit tricky to trace which cable goes where.  Is it possible to post a simple diagram that shows the connections, or label the pics?

thanks

kev

Not worries, what would you like me to label ? The connections to and from the PPB the USB hub and onto the laptop and power. 
I now have a slightly different setup but still uses the PPB and USB hub that’s all setup I can nip out and take pis off if you want. 

[Astrokev]

28 minutes ago, Danjc said:

Not worries, what would you like me to label ? The connections to and from the PPB the USB hub and onto the laptop and power. 
I now have a slightly different setup but still uses the PPB and USB hub that’s all setup I can nip out and take pis off if you want. 

Thanks for the quick reply Dan. A few pics of your current setup would be helpful whenever you've got nothing better to do. Thanks.

In the above pics, do the PPB 12V outputs power the mount and the Hub?

What is connected to the USB hub - the ASI cam, the PPB, and what else?

many thanks

kev 

[Danjc]

Hopefully these should help mate.
 

Ignore the EFW on the hub as that’s connected via the onboard hub on the asi183.

 

The empty USB3 When connected gets connected directly via a 3m cable to the laptop and power to the hub via the PPB. 

 

As the label says PPB to the hub.

3 of the 12v outs from the PPB as per the labels and the 12v in (when plugged in) is from the supplied PPB power cable going to my Nivarda power supply so just 2 cables from the rig, power & data.

 

And a few random pics. 
 

 

 

 

Hope these help Kev but just ask away if you want to know anything else 👍🏻

[Astrokev]

Brilliant. Thanks Dan, these are really helpful - thanks so much for taking these. Now to digest them and cherry pick 😉

[Danjc]

7 hours ago, Astrokev said:

Brilliant. Thanks Dan, these are really helpful - thanks so much for taking these. Now to digest them and cherry pick 😉

No problem at all mate 👍🏻