Nexus opinons

[jetstream]

I'm thinking of buying the Nexus DSC for push to with the DM6, anyone have any experiences with it? Good, bad or other?

Thanks,Gerry

[Coco]

Sorry to answer not specifically about DSC but my take on it against Nexus II.

I nearly bought the DSC but having seen both in action I chose the Nexus II which runs Sky Safari just as well as the DSC, that said, if you think you will need setting circles as a fallback then go for it.

I'm running the Nexus II & S6 encoders with 10,000 ticks through a Samsung 10inch  tablet which mounts onto my dob 'hook and eye' style, both are powered by an Anker PowerCore+ 26800  dual USB port, after 5 hours in winter it's not 1/3 drained. I Flew to the USA - movies and podcasts without issues, with plenty left over. 

 

What I like about Skysafari Pro is the ability to change the pointer to a Telrad or your chosen eyepiece finder position indicator.

No bad experiences of a sort, but it does sometimes get out of sync after a couple of hours, I just re-start sky safari and in 5 minutes you're all good to go.

HTH

 

[jetstream]

1 hour ago, Coco said:

Sorry to answer not specifically about DSC but my take on it against Nexus II.

I nearly bought the DSC but having seen both in action I chose the Nexus II which runs Sky Safari just as well as the DSC, that said, if you think you will need setting circles as a fallback then go for it.

I'm running the Nexus II & S6 encoders with 10,000 ticks through a Samsung 10inch  tablet which mounts onto my dob 'hook and eye' style, both are powered by an Anker PowerCore+ 26800  dual USB port, after 5 hours in winter it's not 1/3 drained. I Flew to the USA - movies and podcasts without issues, with plenty left over. 

 

What I like about Skysafari Pro is the ability to change the pointer to a Telrad or your chosen eyepiece finder position indicator.

No bad experiences of a sort, but it does sometimes get out of sync after a couple of hours, I just re-start sky safari and in 5 minutes you're all good to go.

HTH

 

Ok, I know nothing about this stuff and use an old Sky Commander- no longer available. Nexus II is DSC right? What does Sky Safari do?

Thanks

[Coco]

2 hours ago, jetstream said:

Ok, I know nothing about this stuff and use an old Sky Commander- no longer available. Nexus II is DSC right? What does Sky Safari do?

Thanks

 Sky safari is a planetarium software like Stellarium and can work on a devise that has WI-FI  ie a tablet or smart phone.

The NEXUS/DSC once switched on creates its own wi-fi hot spot, simply find your wifi settings on your smart phone or tablet and connect, next launch Sky safari a screen not dissimilar to Stellarium will open, its a matter of telling Sky safari what sort of mount your using.

 

 

I'm currently using a push-to dob but a DM6 would be just the same as they are both ALT/AZ, you just need to know the steps per revolution of your corresponding encoders. 

Here is a kit for your DM6

https://www.astrodevices.com/shop/index.php?product/page/206/DiscMounts+DM6+Encoder+Kit

Here are the instructions how to manage the settings in Sky Safari ..

https://www.astrodevices.com/resources/NexusII/Using_Nexus-II_with_SkySafari.pdf

 

If you get stuck after you've built it you can all me and I'll walk you through it over the phone...

 

[Stu]

5 hours ago, jetstream said:

I'm thinking of buying the Nexus DSC for push to with the DM6, anyone have any experiences with it? Good, bad or other?

Thanks,Gerry

A lot depends on how you want to interact with it Gerry. The DSC has an LED display and is effectively a stand alone unit. I’m sure you can turn the brightness down but can’t remember doing this when I used one. You have to look objects up in the very comprehensive onboard database which works well if you know your way around these.

I use a Nexus and connect to SkySafari and the use that to find the objects. I find it easier as you can see where things are relative to where you are currently looking, or which bit of sky is available to you. A lot depends on whether you think you can dim a phone screen enough not to affect your night vision; for me it’s quite easy but under your much darker skies I just don’t know. A neutral density filter over the screen should work well enough I reckon.

[Mr Magoo]

I've used the Nexus DSC for push to with a DM4 and DM6. I've found the DSC to be accurate, the instructions are thorough and clear. The DSC unit itself is very well designed and straightforward to operate. Support from Serge is first class.

The Nexus is a superb addition to the DM6. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the pairing. For me, it's a top quality push to solution. 

When you switch on the Nexus GPS it starts to lock onto your location, where I am this takes 30 seconds. You assign setup parameters for up to five named telescopes. I have an Intes M500 and Intes M703 set up on my Nexus. I will be adding a Dobsonian sometime soon.

Alignment is straightforward. You choose one or two star alignment, the procedure is much the same as for any goto system. I found the alignment procedure much easier than the Celestron CPC 800 that I had experience with. The quickest I've managed is 5 minutes aligning the Nexus, I wasn't trying for speed, it was just painless.

My Nexus encoders are capable of 311,296 steps, this equates to sensitivity/accuracy, finer movements equals greater accuracy in locating targets. Fitting the encoders was somewhat fiddly, but the accompanying manual is very well written and illustrated, as is all documentation from Astro Devices.

The Nexus DSC and encoders are manufactured from high quality materials and components, the service from Astro Devices matches the product. Another example of small scale expertise producing first class astronomy equipment, and taking pride in what they do.

I bought the Nexus for a minimal technology addition DSC, I don't want to be messing around with gizmos when I'm out observing. But it's a very capable device and has many refinements should you choose to delve deeper.

The brightness of the display can be adjusted in Display/Keypad settings. It starts off bright when you are entering settings etc then dims down. 

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Mr Magoo
Extra information

[Captain Scarlet]

I have a Nexus DSC, which I use in push-to mode for my AYO2 with encoders, and for my AZ-EQ6 where it drives it in goto mode. It's a verstaile tool. You can use it theway @Stu uses it, as a WiFi link to SkySafari and then using SkySafari as the main interface and controller, or you can use it the way I do, which is as a control unit in its own right. Just to add some detail to what was mentioned before about brightness, you can turn the brightness right down to extremely low levels, to the extent that testing it in daylight I thought it had a glitch by appearing to suddenly power off after 30 seconds, where in fact it stays in "bright mode" for 30 seconds then reverts to whatever setting you've specified for your dark observing. I thought it was shutting down whereas I'd set its illumination level such that it was invisible in daylight. It goes that low, which is very good.

As mentioned, I use it as a stand-alone controller in its own right, effectively a super-high-spec replacement for, say, a SynScan handset. I have tried it briefly as a link to SkySafari, but I find I have to use my phone with bare fingers, and I lose feeling in them after only a short time at 7 degrees! So I use the unit itself to directly control.

It has around 60 separate object catalogues that you can select-in or select-out, even during an observing session if you like. Every conceivable catalogue you can imagine. You can select a _different_ set of catalogues for its superb "tour" feature, again mid-session if you want, such that you can ask it, say, to provide all PNs within within 4 degrees of where you're now pointing. You can set that angular range yourself, again "in the field" if you like. It's got lots of lovely features like that.

You can store the individual encoder-resolution settings and "arrow-direction" preferences for several different mounts, so if you change mount you only have to select that mount in your pre-loaded settings. Very nice.

That's the good stuff. Unfortunately for me, there's quite a lot of bad stuff too. Bear in mind my experience here is for the Nexus DSC, not the Nexus DSC pro. But I believe the pro is the same in principle but with more memory and a faster chip.

I bought mine in March 2020 IIRC. It came with firmware 1.4.39h , which has a few bugs, none fatal. However newer firmwares do have many more bugs which are fatal, at least to a user trying to control an AZ-EQ6:

- Buttons are rather small and close together, therefore near-impossible to use in anything other than very thin gloves or bare fingers. If you press a wrong button almost at any time anywhere, which is fairly common in the dark and with buttons so close together, you inevitably ruin whatever it is you're trying to do and are forced to start again from scratch, i.e. re-align.

- without warning, during a session, push-to or driven, it'll suddenly decide it's pointing somewhere completely else, and say that what you're currently pointing at, having got to it courtesy of the DSC, is now 180 degrees away! Time to switch off/on, re-align. Most push-to sessions at least once.

- in driven mode for the AZ-EQ6, when you've slewed to something, it should then continue to track it. However, it only randomly does so for me. Mostly it gets to the object and stops there. I press "goto" again, and it'll move to where it's drifted (it "knows" where it is). So I keep pressing "goto" to keep up, and then, randomly on, say, the fourth "goto" it'll start tracking! Random.

- It occasionally just goes berserk and you have to rush for the mount's power-off before you get tripod- or ground-strike.

- Several iterations of new firmware have been released since my 1.4.39h , possibly to address some of "my" bugs. I've tried them all, but actually they have introduced even more problems to the extent that with any of the newer firmwares, for driven mounts, it's impossible to get through the alignment process, let alone any observing. Fatal. The new bugs introduced in the newer firmwares are too numerous to mention. So I've had to revert to the firmware with which it was originally supplied, which luckily I saved. I've probably flashed firmware into my unit fifty times, I've tested it so much! It would be temtping to suggest the problem resides with my mount's circuitry, but these new serious problems go away when I revert to my Nexus' original firmware.

- After about a year, my GPS functionality stopped working. It never acquires satellites anymore, and never syncs the precise time. Its menu permanently says "number of satellites acquired = 0" The time on mine drifts as per any standard digital clock and I have to reset it every few months by a few minutes. It says it's using "last provided location = {mine]". Which is actually good design, but it does mean it's only OK for my current location: I can't take it anywhere.

- I constantly read about Serge's famed customer service. I've sent him many emails listing all these problems, and none of them has been fixed. On the occasions I have actually managed to speak to him, the conversations have been friendly helpful and no doubt well-intended. However he never answers (my) emails, he prefers to actually call. If you miss a/the call, you've lost your chance for weeks/months it seems. I think he's a one-man band or close to it and seems overwhelmed, so problems/involved cases like mine seem (to me at least) to get put into the "too hard box" and procrastinated for ever.

Notwithstanding all that, it's still very powerful to use even in goto mode for my AZ-EQ6 but only with my original firmware, and better and less buggy in push-to for my AYO, and is still my preferred option over all the other ways I have of controlling my mounts. But it could be so much better.

Cheers, Magnus

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Captain Scarlet

[jetstream]

Thanks all!

I can say this my old school Sky Commander never failed once- the only thing that impacts it is an unsteady base, like ice under my dob. This will throw it off but thats it.

I'm seriously thinking of the Nexus- can you make your own list of "favourites" ? This is what I do with the SC and find it great to obs from.

[Coco]

Serge is a legend, he's helped me a lot with working out how to formulate the resolution on a few of my mounts.

Would I choose a DSC over the Nexus II if I was buying again, probably, its not a lot extra to pay in the grand scheme of things..

I've got 4 mounts with encoders that use Nexus II.

 

[Mr Magoo]

9 hours ago, jetstream said:

I'm seriously thinking of the Nexus- can you make your own list of "favourites" ? This is what I do with the SC and find it great to obs from.

Yes,  the following is from the Nexus DSC manual I received with the unit in 2018. Stored lists can be found under Find from the home screen.