Mesu mount (all versions) owner's thread

[dan_adi]

Hey Mesu fellow owners. In case you wanna control your Mesu 200 through a local area network, I wrote a little tutorial on how to do it. It applies to any Sitech controller that has a serial RS232 port .. so any Mesu mount.

With a LAN conection, you can control it from inside the house, or half way around the globe, or Mars 😆. 

Clear skies!

Mesu_LAN_Control.pdf

[Jonk]

Thanks Dan, I saw the groups.io thread - good work!

[dan_adi]

13 minutes ago, Jonk said:

Thanks Dan, I saw the groups.io thread - good work!

Thanks, anything to get rid off one more USB cable 😀. It's strange nobody tried it before.

[3rkunt]

Bought a new Mesu e200 MKII around 6 months ago. At last came few weeks ago, installation was quite straightforward. 

I thought I am experienced in these stuff, but apparently I am not! SiTech application is not something that you can decipher by yourself  Spent few nights, then stopped using the mount and checking forums. I am so glad there is a thread like these in few places.

Hopefully after spending few more nights with PointXP and other things, I will precisely use the GoTo functionality with Nina/SGP and have a proper calibration on PHD2.

[Neil27]

I had the same woes as you. The mount is exceptional in operation, mechanically it is wonderfully engineered. The software is somewhat a different story I found. Many of the issues encountered were operator error though, as the learning curve for Sitech is near vertical. A few things I found useful when setting it up -

Follow the guide at the front end of this thread by @Jonk, it really is useful. So much so I have it printed out to remind myself to always unpark when starting and parking when finishing. If you don’t do these an offset innit is required so the mount ‘knows’ where it is.

Another tip, check that your comm port is the same in the Sitech utility programme as the Sitech cfg file, (this is accessed when you start Sitech as normal and then can make changes to your cfg settings). I had connection issues for a while and it turned out to be this.

Another tip, when syncing on a star and the countdown starts on the offset innit, make sure your scope is pointing either west or east, there is a check box you tick before hitting the offset innit button. Checking the wrong button will throw out any go tos.

Personally I wouldn’t bother with the point xp and just do an offset innit, and use plate solving in NINA. It’s your choice of course but plate solving seems so easy to do it makes having precise sky models ‘pointless’ 😉👍

After honing my polar alignment very accurately and now doing several offset innit I’ve been using the sky chart within Sitech and find gotos pretty accurate for me.

Enjoy the mount and if you have any questions, please ask. I’m a newbie myself but the guys on here are very helpful and 6 months ago I was overwhelmed by the mount, but just asked lots of questions and slowly got there. Now it’s just turn on the mount, start Sitech, unpark, starts tracking, open up sky view, click on object, press goto, mount moves, then stops on the object, start imaging! The mount now is the least of my worries, back focus, poor focusing, etc have overtaken my concerns with the mount, which is testament to the mounts capability.

Hope this helps,

[dan_adi]

On 23/01/2022 at 22:25, 3rkunt said:

Bought a new Mesu e200 MKII around 6 months ago. At last came few weeks ago, installation was quite straightforward. 

I thought I am experienced in these stuff, but apparently I am not! SiTech application is not something that you can decipher by yourself  Spent few nights, then stopped using the mount and checking forums. I am so glad there is a thread like these in few places.

Hopefully after spending few more nights with PointXP and other things, I will precisely use the GoTo functionality with Nina/SGP and have a proper calibration on PHD2.

Sitech has a steep learning curve, but once you figure it out, everything will run smoothly.  Even though I've tried PointXP, you don't need it, unless you have absolute encoders on the mount.  One use of PointXP is to see how well your scope is build 🙂 . I've had a better model using a CFF refractor than using an SCT, better autoguiding RMS too. So both scope and mount are important. Some say the mount is the most important thing, while in my experience, it's more like 50-50%, both need to be as good as you can afford because astroimaging is really demanding on the gear. The better the gear, the easier things will be, otherwise everything will turn into wasted clear nights and frustration. 

Clear skies!

Edited February 4, 2022 by dan_adi

[astronomer2002]

Looking at updating my Mesu200 from Servocat to Sitech. There seems to be a huge price difference between Sitech I and Sitech II - has anyone got a Mesu 200 with Sitech I?

I will be grateful for any help/advice

 

Ian B

 

[tooth_dr]

@astronomer2002 I ‘think’ the new mesu e200 has Sitech I whereas the mark 1 mesu 200 uses Sitech II?  I have the newer e200 and have no issues with the provided Sitech I software. 

Edited April 22, 2022 by tooth_dr

[Neil27]

@astronomer2002 same, I have the newer e200 and the Sitech v1 control system works fine. The interface looks ‘old school’ and reminds me of windows 3.1 but it just works. Once set up you can just forget about it.

[astronomer2002]

Thankyou for those replies. Haven't had an answer from Lucas on this subject yet. All the Mesu's I have seen have the Sitech II controller or Servocat.

Just to be 100% certain - do your control boxes look like this

 

rather than this

 

 

 

I don't see a guider port on the Sitech I, can you use the AUX port for guiding?

 

Ian B

Edited April 22, 2022 by astronomer2002

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, astronomer2002 said:

Thankyou for those replies. Haven't had an answer from Lucas on this subject yet. All the Mesu's I have seen have the Sitech II controller or Servocat.

Just to be 100% certain - do your control boxes look like this

 

rather than this

 

 

 

I don't see a guider port on the Sitech I, can you use the AUX port for guiding?

 

Ian B

I can confirm mine looks like the first photo. I can also confirm that you cannot guide from the AUX port. 

[astronomer2002]

3 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

I can confirm mine looks like the first photo. I can also confirm that you cannot guide from the AUX port. 

Thankyou for the update.  Seems odd. How do you interface the guider?

 

Ian B

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, astronomer2002 said:

Thankyou for the update.  Seems odd. How do you interface the guider?

 

Ian B

I don’t run a guider off the mount and I think the majority of folks don’t do it this way either - pulse guiding is the common method.

The only reason I know this about the AUX for a fact is because I bought a Hinode Solar guider and contacted Lucas about connecting it to the mount.   It wasn’t possible because there is no ST4 port on the Sitech I control box. It is possible to use a Sitech radio controlled hand pad that allows ST4 guiding via Sitech I but it costs 350 euro so I didn’t bother

 http://siderealtechnology.com/RadioHandpadDoc.pdf

 

HTH

Adam

Edited April 22, 2022 by tooth_dr

[Jonk]

I "think" the main differences between Sitech 1 and 2 are:

Plastic case (1) vs metal case (2)

Plug in connectors (1) vs screw terminals (2)

More memory in (2).

The reason Lucas changed on the e200 to Sitech 1 was the 2 wasn't necessary and he wanted to reduce the costs (to him and customers).

[tooth_dr]

5 minutes ago, Jonk said:

I "think" the main differences between Sitech 1 and 2 are:

Plastic case (1) vs metal case (2)

Plug in connectors (1) vs screw terminals (2)

More memory in (2).

The reason Lucas changed on the e200 to Sitech 1 was the 2 wasn't necessary and he wanted to reduce the costs (to him and customers).

And lack of ST4 guider port in I

[astronomer2002]

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

I don’t run a guider off the mount and I think the majority of folks don’t do it this way either - pulse guiding is the common method.

The only reason I know this about the AUX for a fact is because I bought a Hinode Solar guider and contacted Lucas about connecting it to the mount.   It wasn’t possible because there is no ST4 port on the Sitech I control box. It is possible to use a Sitech radio controlled hand pad that allows ST4 guiding via Sitech I but it costs 350 euro so I didn’t bother

 http://siderealtechnology.com/RadioHandpadDoc.pdf

 

HTH

Adam

3 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

I can confirm mine looks like the first photo. I can also confirm that you cannot guide from the AUX port. 

Thankyou for the update.  Seems odd. How do you interface the guider?

 

Ian B

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

I don’t run a guider off the mount and I think the majority of folks don’t do it this way either - pulse guiding is the common method.

The only reason I know this about the AUX for a fact is because I bought a Hinode Solar guider and contacted Lucas about connecting it to the mount.   It wasn’t possible because there is no ST4 port on the Sitech I control box. It is possible to use a Sitech radio controlled hand pad that allows ST4 guiding via Sitech I but it costs 350 euro so I didn’t bother

 http://siderealtechnology.com/RadioHandpadDoc.pdf

 

HTH

Adam

Thankyou Adam. Does seem odd to design a new drive system without a direct means of attaching a guider, bearing in mind the previous generation of Mesu 200 mounts had the Sitech II which has a guide port.

Ah well, food for thought. Still, the Sitech I is less than half the cost of Sitech II so financially more attractive.

I wonder why Servocat was dropped as it has an AUX/AG port - though I never tried using it with autoguiding

Ian B

[Jonk]

2 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

And lack of ST4 guider port in I

Ah ok, didn't know that.

[gorann]

As I understand it Lucas got rid of the encoders in Mesu 200 mk2 so then the more advanced Sitech II was no longer needed.

[Jonk]

55 minutes ago, gorann said:

As I understand it Lucas got rid of the encoders in Mesu 200 mk2 so then the more advanced Sitech II was no longer needed.

I think you can fit axis encoders if you wanted to on the e200 / Sitech 1?

[tomato]

Excuse my ignorance but can I infer from the above that the Mesu mk 1 has some technical advantage over the Mk 2? From what I have seen they perform the same. What do the extra encoders on the mk 1 allow you to do?

[Jonk]

The e200 is meant to be stiffer and less likely to have goto errors, meaning positional encoders were not deemed necessary - this was my impression based on what I read before I bought one.

You could run unguided with a star map with either model if you wanted to, but I prefer guiding anyway.

The e200 still has motor encoders so at least Sitech knows where the motors are, the downside is it won’t account for slippage, which should never be an issue with correct balancing.

 

[mrpizza]

I believe the encoders on the  e200 have greater resolution thus eliminating the need for "another set" of encoders.  I have a Meade 14" with plenty of camera train load and no slippage whatsoever although I did spend some time balancing.  Whenever I end a session I park the scope near horizon and the next session  (It could be a couple of weeks due to moon or weather) I can center any object I tell the mount to goto after unparking.  A caveat here is that I have a permanent pier and have got the PA nailed down.

[tomato]

My pointing model is slightly off but I platesolve at the start of every session, takes about 30 secs so then I’m good to go at centering on the target.

[gorann]

Would not the double encoders on the Mk1 mean that it will automatically stop if there is a mismatch between the encoders, like if you have a cable snag stopping the movement or the scope hitting the pier? With only encolders on the motors they may just continue running. But what do I know...... In any case, the old Mesu Mk1 I recently bought from Olly had a pre-Sitech system so it is now with Lucas to be upgraded and I decided to play it safe and go for the Sitech II (1000 USD compared to 500 USD for the Sitech I) to be able to use all encoders. Another reason being that my present Mesu200 Mk1 came with the Sitech II and I imagine I will be running into less nocturnal confusions if they both work exactly the same.

Edited April 26, 2022 by gorann

[Jonk]

Don’t forget that the Sitech wasn’t designed for the Mesu, and there are a lot of options that are not relevant to the  Mesu.

There are a lot of interesting discussions on the Sitech groups.io page.

But yes, motor encoder and shaft encoder differences can be tuned to a degree for your individual setup, regardless of the style of mount.