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Mesu mount (all versions) owner's thread


Jonk

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Hi All,

I'm considering buying a Mesu Mk1 with sitech 2 controller and have been reading as much as I can find in various forums, joining groups etc. The main concern I have which is making me hold back is how to balance the mount. Something else I would like to find out is if it is possible to control it using the ASI Air ? Has anyone even tried it ? Can anyone point me in the direction of a user manual ? 

At the moment I am using an iOptron CEM40-EC (which is for sale btw 😉) and the Air  in my observatory. All I need to do is decide what I want to capture, balance if I change scopes do a few test subs then set the auto run going and come back in the house nice and warm then just check my tablet every so often. I really don't fancy going back to sitting out most of the night babysitting. I know the Mesu is a superb piece of kit which would allow me to use larger telescopes and have them tracking as close to perfect as can be done. 

Sorry for the ramble any advice gratefully received.

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1 hour ago, Crispy5573 said:

Hi All,

I'm considering buying a Mesu Mk1 with sitech 2 controller and have been reading as much as I can find in various forums, joining groups etc. The main concern I have which is making me hold back is how to balance the mount. Something else I would like to find out is if it is possible to control it using the ASI Air ? Has anyone even tried it ? Can anyone point me in the direction of a user manual ? 

At the moment I am using an iOptron CEM40-EC (which is for sale btw 😉) and the Air  in my observatory. All I need to do is decide what I want to capture, balance if I change scopes do a few test subs then set the auto run going and come back in the house nice and warm then just check my tablet every so often. I really don't fancy going back to sitting out most of the night babysitting. I know the Mesu is a superb piece of kit which would allow me to use larger telescopes and have them tracking as close to perfect as can be done. 

Sorry for the ramble any advice gratefully received.

Balancing is not an issue if this is the only main concern. With the friction drive you will get some resistance but it is not a problem. In my case I use a voltmeter/amperemeter just to be sure.

I don't use ASI air so I can't give you any advice.

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Thanks Dan I have seen something about balancing by checking with a  volt/amp meter until there is zero load. It seems like a bit of a fuss but I only change scopes a few times a year so once it's done apart from a quick check that should be it for a while. 

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25 minutes ago, Crispy5573 said:

Thanks Dan I have seen something about balancing by checking with a  volt/amp meter until there is zero load. It seems like a bit of a fuss but I only change scopes a few times a year so once it's done apart from a quick check that should be it for a while. 

Hi, I had a Mesu mark 2 for a few years and balancing the mount was not an issue at all. As it is a mark 2 the motors can be disengaged from the friction drive making it extremely easy. I just balanced it as a normal mount and never had any issues. The biggest issue I found is getting used to Sitech!

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11 minutes ago, Neil27 said:

Hi, I had a Mesu mark 2 for a few years and balancing the mount was not an issue at all. As it is a mark 2 the motors can be disengaged from the friction drive making it extremely easy. I just balanced it as a normal mount and never had any issues. The biggest issue I found is getting used to Sitech!

The one I'm looking at is a Mk1 and the guy who's selling it say's as it's ascom the ASI Air should work with it but I've asked on Astronomy sites all over the world and no-one has come back to me saying they have even tried it. Sitech , Lucas Mesu and ZWO haven't answered but I suppose as I won't be buying from them their customers must take priority. The brief instruction manual I have seen reminds me of when I started and was using an EQMOD Vixen Polaris. Not exactly plug and play 🙂

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Hi guys, need some help as something simple (hopefully) is wrong and I can’t work it out.

I’ve been imaging frequently when the weather allows, and it’s probably 2-3 weeks since I last used everything in the observatory.

I went out tonight and the mount refuses to connect. It lights up with power and nothing has physically changed since I last used it. Im permanently set up so I don’t plug and unplug cables.

When I open up SkyView it’s view is different, looks like Alt Az maybe and in config it says I’m in az mode.

In a separate note one of my SGPro sequence files refuses to open and says is corrupt.

What the heck is going on?

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15 minutes ago, whipdry said:

Looks like you have some corrupted files... if you haven't already tried rebooting your computer give that a go first, if that doesn't help do you have a backup disk? 

 

Tried rebooting a few times, did some updates. No joy. Unfortunately don’t have a back up 

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9 hours ago, whipdry said:

If you look at the Misc tab you'll see a box centre bottom of page, Load Backup Config File, click here if you  have a backup it should be a .cfg file, called mine Mesu1.cfg.

This got me well on the way to being sorted, thanks for that 👍🏻

Took a good bit of fiddling but everything appears to be working.

Ill need to assess the meridian flip settings as I remember having to change something.

The sequence file is corrupted so I’ve lost all the mosaic and framing set ups for approx 30 targets that I’d been working on but that’s not the end of the world. I’ll just start again.

It looks like anything the pc tried to save on the 27th March failed leaving a file size of 0kb

Edited by tooth_dr
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If you don't want to manually set the RA Dec for each target you can use the framing wizard, just choose a frame from an existing target & overlay to get the same RA & Dec then name as before... also possible to reset all the frames you've already acquired manually in SGPro if you can be bothered!

  • Thanks 1
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3 minutes ago, whipdry said:

If you don't want to manually set the RA Dec for each target you can use the framing wizard, just choose a frame from an existing target & overlay to get the same RA & Dec then name as before... also possible to reset all the frames you've already acquired manually in SGPro if you can be bothered!

Very helpful. Thank you again 🍻

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  • 3 weeks later...

Can anyone share their phd2 settings with the mesu? I'm giving voyager a try in a while, in conjunction with phd for guiding.

Also does anyone know the resolution of the mount encoders and scope encoders on the new version of the mount? The fist version has almost 8000000 ticks/rev for the motor encoders and 10000 ticks /rev for the scope encoders. Was curios if the newer model got an upgrade for encoders too.

Thanks

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  • 4 months later...
On 13/04/2023 at 20:45, whipdry said:

Found this indi driver for sitech controller... I use an NUC with ascom drivers & can't help any further.

https://github.com/JeffRossMT/sitech-indi-driver/blob/master/telescope_sitech.h

Hi Whipdry

I'm a recent new owner of a mesu mk1 and loving my test doddle so far! 

Untill now been using indi drivers on kstars and Ekos but rig up this mount with point xp and NINA. I thought there was no indi drivers available for sitech, do you know of anyone who confirms these indi drivers work? 

 

Another question, can anyone send links to a good sitech controller 2 guide cable to usb I can use in the future for PhD 2? (or similar) 

 

TIA! 

(now back to the R. O. R Build!) 

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18 hours ago, Waynescave said:

Hi Whipdry

I'm a recent new owner of a mesu mk1 and loving my test doddle so far! 

Untill now been using indi drivers on kstars and Ekos but rig up this mount with point xp and NINA. I thought there was no indi drivers available for sitech, do you know of anyone who confirms these indi drivers work? 

 

Another question, can anyone send links to a good sitech controller 2 guide cable to usb I can use in the future for PhD 2? (or similar) 

 

TIA! 

(now back to the R. O. R Build!) 

Sorry I don't, guess you'll need to just try them for yourself.

Peter 

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  • 3 months later...

Went out for my first session this evening since just before Xmas, and I am greeted with a malfunctioning mount e200 / mk2

I carry out the normal startup procedure for the mount and it starts tracking for about 5 seconds, then I hear the RA motor make a bit of a fuss, and it shoots off by itself, rotating about 30 degrees, then it stops abruptly and I get the message 'motors blinky'.  Shutting everything down and going through the process causes the same issue to repeat.  I've tried reseating the cables into the connecting blocks going to the motors, and even swapping them, but no changes.  LED 1 flashes when motor goes in blinky.  If I swap cables then LED 2 flashes.   All was working fine last time I used it, and I've been running my dehumidifier regularly (as usual).

Any suggestions?!

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