ASA DDM85 adventures

[sloz1664]

Excellent news. Now go and hoover some photons

Steve

[Guest]

Very good news though, I have the smaller version ASA DDM 60 PRO..

 

Cheers

Martin

[Waldemar]

Congratulations!

I am glad they solved your problem 
Now enjoy that incredible piece of technique.

 

[DaveS]

Very good to hear, you should be able to get good long subs now with the PA sorted.

I should be joining the DDM85 club soon, since Rupert has got the ex demo one back here. That'll give me two DDM mounts, twice the IT "fun" .

[Datalord]

15 hours ago, DaveS said:

Very good to hear, you should be able to get good long subs now with the PA sorted.

I should be joining the DDM85 club soon, since Rupert has got the ex demo one back here. That'll give me two DDM mounts, twice the IT "fun" .

My IT fun is still not over. I find the software has a nasty tendency to crash and with mltp, a run of 5 hours takes about 20 minutes to initiate. And last night it somehow took down the telescope driver, which crashed the connection to the roof, which initiated a park and roof close. 😱

I ended up guiding with my old software and the result is really, really good. I don't see how I can benefit from going under 0.3" RMS anyway, the seeing simply can't be better than that. 

[Datalord]

Another bit of IT fun. Again, the software is supremely unhelpful in figuring out precisely why it is doing what it is doing.

Last night I had a good run. Turn off the scope in the morning, etc. Tonight I spin it all up and try to find the same target. Doing a sync. Suddenly it is wildly wrong in tracking. This is just tracking for 60 seconds:

Literally untouched by human hand, which means this is all software problems. I've done this dance a few times and I am no closer to finding the root cause. Eventually I will reset enough and load the pointing file at the time where divine intervention will help me and all is good, but I never really know when that will happen.

Edited June 27, 2019 by Datalord

[Datalord]

Ah, well, fun and games. Turns out that for whatever reason, the mount decided go upright when I turned on the power, just as the roof was opening. My PA is now 200 arcmin off. Just have to love this stuff...

[DaveS]

Are you saying that the mount slipped in its cradle? That's a mechanical problem, rather than IT, but still annoying. TBH I've not had that one with my DDM60, but then it's a lighter mount, and only carrying a small triplet apo.

[Datalord]

Nope, I'm saying the roof hit the mount and pushed it back. I can only hope the screws were giving in enough not to damage the scope. 

[DaveS]

Ah, right.

[Waldemar]

That is bad...  I hope there's no damage

[Waldemar]

This file may be of interest to you, Dave: SuperfastPA.pdf  

I have quite a library of ASA files, so if you are looking for some information, chances are that I've got it.

[Datalord]

On 28/06/2019 at 05:07, Waldemar said:

That is bad...  I hope there's no damage

Again, the heroes working at E-Eye got the mount back to within 5 arcmin PA and it seems like everything is good. I got it running a 126 autopoint file, resolved 124 of them and all targets are in the frame immediately.

And for good measure, it's ticking away now on NGC 6946 and the guiding performance is for me incredible. It is surreal for me to see these numbers when I had to fight the Celestron so hard to get even a third as good as this.

[Waldemar]

pfff... that was good fortune, then...

Yes, the ASA can not be compared to a Celestron... the proof is in the price.
I will have to get mine up and running, too. I housemoved almost a year and a half ago, planning to build an obsy, but still did not have a chance... I'm getting a bit frustrated that my equipment is just sitting there...

[DaveS]

Very good to hear there was no damage and the guys at E-EyE got the PA back.

I'll be off to fight some more IT issues, Not the mount but some interference between Sequence and the Trius drivers, possibly Maxim as well.

Dontcha just love computers. Not.

[Datalord]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

some interference between Sequence and the Trius drivers, possibly Maxim as well.

I really don't trust Sequence. When it works, it is indistinguishable from magic. When it doesn't, your mount parks, camera turns off and .Net exceptions crash everything. I use sequence for autopoint files and I have used it for making MLPT runs. Those I send to autoslew, disconnect Sequence and use APT for my camera run.

[DaveS]

I've never used Sequence for anything more than Autopoint and MLTP. I have tried using it for sequencing a run, but it only got as far as doing the MLPT before crashing with .Net and C++ lib errors, despite bringing both up to the latest versions. Last night MLPT got as far as making the first exposure, then when it came to doing the second it disconnected the camera, something I've not seen before, normally MLPT runs like clockwork.

Ah well, more "fun and games".

[Rainer]

deleted

Edited July 1, 2019 by Rainer
obsolete

[DaveS]

It's starting to look like an order-of-powering issue, something I've found with Autoslew, it has to be the first to be powered up or it won't start. last night I had the mount and associated hardware powered up before starting the laptop, something I hadn't done before, normally I have the lappy powered before starting everything else. I just did that, (With camera set to only -10 deg) and it looks OK as far as it goes. Did a MLPT with the 'scope covered and it made 5 exposures OK, nothing it could sove, but I'll have a go tonight if it's clear enough.

Blummin' annoyed. These are expensive mounts, at least partly designed for robotic imaging, the software needs to be BOMBPROOF, not fussy about boot order.

[Datalord]

I haven't had that issue, thank goodness. My PC is always on, connected to an UPS. On the UPS I can control all the outlets, so I fully shut down mount, camera, focuser, dew etc with one click.

I don't even shut down Autoslew between sessions. I do disconnect all apps from the autoslew server process first, otherwise they all crash sooner or later.

2 hours ago, DaveS said:

Blummin' annoyed. These are expensive mounts, at least partly designed for robotic imaging, the software needs to be BOMBPROOF, not fussy about boot order.

This is the conundrum of mainstream products (Celestron) vs professional and high end niche (ASA): The more mainstream you go, the better your software must be to cope with unforeseen faults, simply because there are more scenarios and your users are less tolerant. Think about that for a moment...

[andrew s]

16 minutes ago, Datalord said:

This is the conundrum of mainstream products (Celestron) vs professional and high end niche (ASA): The more mainstream you go, the better your software must be to cope with unforeseen faults, simply because there are more scenarios and your users are less tolerant. Think about that for a moment...

Well it maybe old hat worm and wheel technology but my Paramount ME II with The Sky X just works. 😊

Regards Andrew 

Edited July 1, 2019 by andrew s

[DaveS]

47 minutes ago, Datalord said:

I haven't had that issue, thank goodness. My PC is always on, connected to an UPS. On the UPS I can control all the outlets, so I fully shut down mount, camera, focuser, dew etc with one click.

I don't even shut down Autoslew between sessions. I do disconnect all apps from the autoslew server process first, otherwise they all crash sooner or later.

This is the conundrum of mainstream products (Celestron) vs professional and high end niche (ASA): The more mainstream you go, the better your software must be to cope with unforeseen faults, simply because there are more scenarios and your users are less tolerant. Think about that for a moment...

 I take your point, nevertheless "stuff" (Or another "S" word) happens, and if your kit is robotic then there may not be anyone around to fettle it, so the software had better be fault-tolerant. ATM I'm having to set up the computer stuff each session, and tear it down afterwards, though I'm working on an enclosure affair for the DDM60 control, and the '85 will go in an obsy, so it can all be left set up.

[ollypenrice]

This all looks like hard work to me.

 

[sdufoer]

On 21/06/2019 at 00:56, Datalord said:

Yeah, they even sorted it faster than I could imagine. Last night they had actually already fixed it, but I didn't know, so I was using an old config. This is what I got from a new config tonight:

I promised them beer, wine and whisky next time I visit.

Yes, you can thank me for that.  I spend last summer hours and hours guiding the 2 José's over the webcam and Whatsapp to remote polar align my DDM85.  They were lost in the beginning but became pretty good at it.  Step by step...

I'm in the other half of Apollo5 shed.  Was there in May and noticed you observing with that long FL RC with a small Celestronmount, then suddenly 2 ASA boxes appeared.  I thought by myself: "this guy will be very happy with this upgrade".   

[Datalord]

13 hours ago, sdufoer said:

I thought by myself: "this guy will be very happy with this upgrade".

Hahaha, I spied on your setup. You're the one with the 16" ASA newt IIRC? 

And yes, holy hell does it makes a difference.