Expect Cloudy Skies for 6 months - Just paid for a EQ8-R

[Catanonia]

9 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

'kin'ell! Not exactly grab and go! 😄

Nope, the tripod is a good lift on it's own.

If you are fairly fit, then you could do it

[jacko61]

3 hours ago, Catanonia said:

This is because the USB hub is unpowered without the 12v external power attached and the camera doesn't get it's power.

Makes sense if you think about it.

This means that the power and USB hub is totally separate to the actual mount and its power.

This I did not expect and is a little bit disappointing as I still have to run cables that can snag to moving parts.

 

Just to clarify, I had both the hub power and  mount power plugged in and switched on. The camera wouldn't register till I plugged the camera cooler in to the mount power sockets. 

[Catanonia]

11 hours ago, jacko61 said:

Just to clarify, I had both the hub power and  mount power plugged in and switched on. The camera wouldn't register till I plugged the camera cooler in to the mount power sockets. 

AH that is different and strange. No idea what happened there unless the hub needed power to run basic USB tasks and make the camera visible or activate the actual USB hub. Not tried this myself as all my kit is plugged into the ASI

Edited January 29, 2022 by Catanonia

[Catanonia]

Managed to get first light on the EQ8-R last night for an hour and it was fantastic to use.

Polar alignment was a doddle and the best I have ever achieved with ASI Air Pro. The RA and Dec movements were butter smooth even with the scope all mounted up.

Tracking was great too, the best I have had for a very long time and even in windy conditions

Well worth the investment, this mount is a beast, weighs a tonne and does not move one nanometre

[jacko61]

So far I've not used mine in anger. I have got it talking to Stellarium though which was pretty straightforward. Missed out on a lovely clear night last night as I was at a Stranglers gig in Glasgow (bit lacklustre - should have stayed at home) but I did spend half an hour polar aligning with my polemaster when I got home.  As you say, very easy. The mount is put together so well it responds to the smallest ra and dec adjustments very smoothly. 

Graeme 

[MikeP]

I polar aligned with Polemaster very easily - as Graeme says small adjustments are easy and I found it was possible to tighten everything down with no discernible movement of the alignment image on the screen.   

Since then I have been fighting weird connection problems to NINA.  Everything on the mount is new other than the focuser so I expected some problems but I concluded that the built in hub was faulty.  To test it, I bypassed it by connecting the cameras, filter wheel and focuser to a HitecAstro Mount Hub (which was used with my old mount and I planned to sell)  and hey presto everything connected.  As I was pondering how this would be resolved, I had another thought - the USB lead from the NUC to the HitecAstro hub was not the one I had used from the NUC to the built in hub.  I reconnected everything back to the built in hub using the HitecAstro USB lead and hey presto again - everything connected.  Ordinarily I would have wondered about the USB leads but they were all new and not cheapos.

However, I think I still have a problem and was just lucky with the result above.  In NINA, if I don't connect to the mount first, I can't get it to connect.   Not the end of the world but very irritating.  I use the ASCOM Device Hub Mount -> HEQ5/6 as the driver because I found that worked with my old set up to allow synchronisation with the dome by using Device Hub dome.  I've not tried the dome connection yet because I want to get something captured even if it means manually rotating the dome.  I've a bit of measuring to do for the dome parameters but it worked before so hopefully it won't be a problem now.

Two steps forward, one back.

Mike

[scotty38]

17 hours ago, MikeP said:

I polar aligned with Polemaster very easily - as Graeme says small adjustments are easy and I found it was possible to tighten everything down with no discernible movement of the alignment image on the screen.   

Since then I have been fighting weird connection problems to NINA.  Everything on the mount is new other than the focuser so I expected some problems but I concluded that the built in hub was faulty.  To test it, I bypassed it by connecting the cameras, filter wheel and focuser to a HitecAstro Mount Hub (which was used with my old mount and I planned to sell)  and hey presto everything connected.  As I was pondering how this would be resolved, I had another thought - the USB lead from the NUC to the HitecAstro hub was not the one I had used from the NUC to the built in hub.  I reconnected everything back to the built in hub using the HitecAstro USB lead and hey presto again - everything connected.  Ordinarily I would have wondered about the USB leads but they were all new and not cheapos.

However, I think I still have a problem and was just lucky with the result above.  In NINA, if I don't connect to the mount first, I can't get it to connect.   Not the end of the world but very irritating.  I use the ASCOM Device Hub Mount -> HEQ5/6 as the driver because I found that worked with my old set up to allow synchronisation with the dome by using Device Hub dome.  I've not tried the dome connection yet because I want to get something captured even if it means manually rotating the dome.  I've a bit of measuring to do for the dome parameters but it worked before so hopefully it won't be a problem now.

Two steps forward, one back.

Mike

I don't have this mount so no experience at all but I have seen various posts about the USB hub so maybe this is what you're seeing?

Example thread:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/760036-eq8-r-usb-issues/

[MikeP]

Thanks for the link Scotty, I'd found a few references myself but I'm reluctant to blame the hub. 

There are three USB cables plugged into the NUC. 

• One for the dome (which I have not powered up since the EQ8 was installed)
• One to the EQ8 "mount" - it is a straightforward USB cable not an EQDIR type of lead
• One to the EQ8 "hub".  There are two USB leads from the hub - one to the Sesto Senso focuser and one to an ASI2600.  The ASI2600 is further connected to the ZWO filter wheel and an AS mini guide camera,

In NINA, if I connect any one or all devices that are physically connected via the hub before I connect the mount, they all connect but the mount will not connect.  If I connect the mount first, all other devices can then be connected.

Since this workaround is not onerous, I'll continue getting everything set up and just live with it.  One thing I might try though is connecting the NUC to the EQ8 mount with an EQDIR cable since I have one spare.

Mike