Auto Flat Panel

[Anthonyexmouth]

Anyone here using one of these Deep Sky Dad or Wanderer Astro flat panels? I like the idea of the DSD one with the heater but concerned the £D print wont hold up well as I keep my scope setup all year round under a cover on the pier and worried the heat might be a problem in the summer.

[scotty38]

I don't have one, although I did consider it, so just in case you don't know (and I didn't) is that the heater is a "dew heater" and not a panel heater as I mistakenly thought. If you look for the review on here I think there's a suggestion it might not work too well as a dew heater and hence may not be worth spending the money on it. YMMV of course....

[Anthonyexmouth]

1 hour ago, scotty38 said:

I don't have one, although I did consider it, so just in case you don't know (and I didn't) is that the heater is a "dew heater" and not a panel heater as I mistakenly thought. If you look for the review on here I think there's a suggestion it might not work too well as a dew heater and hence may not be worth spending the money on it. YMMV of course....

The site says it's a panel heater to stop dew on the panel but can work as a dew heater on smaller scopes, although I doubt that as the dew shield would put it too far from the glass. 

[scotty38]

54 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

The site says it's a panel heater to stop dew on the panel but can work as a dew heater on smaller scopes, although I doubt that as the dew shield would put it too far from the glass. 

Quite, that's what I thought but then I read that the heater is in the piece that fits around the end of the scope so when the flap is open (gathering dew) it's not being heated...... I'll try and dig out the thread as I think it's spoken about there.

[scotty38]

here you go:

 

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by scotty38

[bottletopburly]

Send pavle an email  great guy I’m sure he can answer your queries regarding leaving it out under cover .

[Gary Clayton]

If it's printed in PETG it should be fine outside, but if it's PLA not so much

[teoria_del_big_bang]

5 minutes ago, Gary Clayton said:

If it's printed in PETG it should be fine outside, but if it's PLA not so much

It is PETG, I have one and definitely PETG.

 

14 minutes ago, bottletopburly said:

Send pavle an email  great guy I’m sure he can answer your queries regarding leaving it out under cover .

Top Guy I have had a few items from him and had great after service with some issues that he went out of his way to help me with (one was a software issue not of his making and the other I damaged the electronics and he sent me a replacement part for a real goos price).

Steve

[Anthonyexmouth]

56 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

here you go:

 

 

So for a refractor the heater is pointless. 

[Anthonyexmouth]

9 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

It is PETG, I have one and definitely PETG.

 

Top Guy I have had a few items from him and had great after service with some issues that he went out of his way to help me with (one was a software issue not of his making and the other I damaged the electronics and he sent me a replacement part for a real goos price).

Steve

So no issues with it melting or distorting under a cover during the hot weather?

[teoria_del_big_bang]

4 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Anyone here using one of these Deep Sky Dad or Wanderer Astro flat panels? I like the idea of the DSD one with the heater but concerned the £D print wont hold up well as I keep my scope setup all year round under a cover on the pier and worried the heat might be a problem in the summer.

I have one for my Esprit 100 and very (very) happy with it. It works great and also means I can automate my flats during an imaging session using NINA.
Regarding the heater I personally think the intention was good to include it but find it of no use, whether  to replace a dew band on the scope or to heat up the panel itself to stop dew on that. But everything else about it I love.

How it would stand being outside under a cover in heat is another matter and I too would be a bit worried. On a normal day I think it will be fine but on the almost 30 degree days we seem to get now and then for several days in a row then under a cover could get a lot hotter. In theory it should be okay and the PETG should be fine at those temperature, but maybe you need to ask Pavle  about the workings themselves such as the LED panel itself and the electronics.
I know a bit of a faff but it's not too difficult to remove the panel if you know the hot days were on their way, and maybe in the summer months you do not do too much imaging anyway so might not be a big problem removing it for say June to September , just a thought.

You need to remove it to take darks anyway as it will allow light leaks so you need to do this every so often anyway. I remove mine a lot for one reason or another without any issues. I keep intending to 3D print an adapter to make this even easier maybe without having to loosen even the one screw you have to now 🙂 

Steve

[scotty38]

3 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

So for a refractor the heater is pointless. 

I couldn't say that but my plan had been for a heater on the panel so when I came to flats it wasn't dewed up. I think that's not how it works so on that basis I would have no use for the heater plus I think Steve found it no use at the end of a "bigger" scope anyway.

 

Edit, he replied while I was typing 🙂

Edited June 26, 2023 by scotty38

[teoria_del_big_bang]

1 minute ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

So no issues with it melting or distorting under a cover during the hot weather?

As I said above (was writing this when you posted this 🙂 ) I wouldn't think so, it will get a bit more flexible at temperatures over 50 degrees or so but should not distort, I say that using my experience with 3D printing more than with this item itself, although without testing I would not guarantee that. I would be more worried about the components themselves than the casing, but even saying that most electronics, including the LED panel should be fine at temperatures up to 50 degrees probably higher.

Steve

[teoria_del_big_bang]

6 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

So for a refractor the heater is pointless. 

IMHO sadly yes, a pity as it would be great if it did. 

Steve

[Anthonyexmouth]

4 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I have one for my Esprit 100 and very (very) happy with it. It works great and also means I can automate my flats during an imaging session using NINA.
Regarding the heater I personally think the intention was good to include it but find it of no use, whether  to replace a dew band on the scope or to heat up the panel itself to stop dew on that. But everything else about it I love.

How it would stand being outside under a cover in heat is another matter and I too would be a bit worried. On a normal day I think it will be fine but on the almost 30 degree days we seem to get now and then for several days in a row then under a cover could get a lot hotter. In theory it should be okay and the PETG should be fine at those temperature, but maybe you need to ask Pavle  about the workings themselves such as the LED panel itself and the electronics.
I know a bit of a faff but it's not too difficult to remove the panel if you know the hot days were on their way, and maybe in the summer months you do not do too much imaging anyway so might not be a big problem removing it for say June to September , just a thought.

You need to remove it to take darks anyway as it will allow light leaks so you need to do this every so often anyway. I remove mine a lot for one reason or another without any issues. I keep intending to 3D print an adapter to make this even easier maybe without having to loosen even the one screw you have to now 🙂 

Steve

I do darks about once a year, same kinda period I check my PA. Think I'm gonna seriously consider one. I'm lazy with flats so this will really help with that. 

[Peds]

I have a 125mm and a 190mm Wanderer Cover Mini 3 and they work really well. I connect them via usb to my Pegasus powerbox and automate my flats using NINA.

A big difference between the DSD and the Wanderer is that the latter only needs usb power.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Just now, Anthonyexmouth said:

I do darks about once a year, same kinda period I check my PA. Think I'm gonna seriously consider one. I'm lazy with flats so this will really help with that. 

Yes the darks is not an issue really as I too do it once a year. If you use NINA (which I seem to think you do, or did) then you can take flats using NINA to change the light intensity by specifying an exposure time. I do it this way and all my flats are 3 seconds (that's all of them from LRGB filters to NB filters) so I also then can have a 3 second dark in my library that I know will do for all flats.

Like I say apart from the heater I love this and it does really make flats a doddle.

I also have a rotator from DSD as well and love that. Having both if I do more than one target in the nights session I can also automatically take flats after the first session before I then rotate the camera for  the framing for the next target, which in theory you should do, as the dust bunnies can move wrt the camera, if they are not on the camera, although in practice I think the majority of the bad ones are on the camera so maybe not strictly necessary

Steve 

[Anthonyexmouth]

9 minutes ago, Peds said:

I have a 125mm and a 190mm Wanderer Cover Mini 3 and they work really well. I connect them via usb to my Pegasus powerbox and automate my flats using NINA.

A big difference between the DSD and the Wanderer is that the latter only needs usb power.

I really like the look of the wanderer astro one. Where did you buy yours? 

[Peds]

9 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

I really like the look of the wanderer astro one. Where did you buy yours? 

I got them straight from Xiaoming Li at Startrip. His email is the first listed in Wanderer's website's contact page.

 

edit: I'll add that they arrived quickly and well packaged.

Edited June 26, 2023 by Peds

[Anthonyexmouth]

8 minutes ago, Peds said:

I got them straight from Xiaoming Li at Startrip. His email is the first listed in Wanderer's website's contact page.

 

edit: I'll add that they arrived quickly and well packaged.

I like the wanderer version because it'll adapt to different scopes. The dsd one is kinda limited. 

[Anthonyexmouth]

27 minutes ago, Peds said:

I got them straight from Xiaoming Li at Startrip. His email is the first listed in Wanderer's website's contact page.

 

edit: I'll add that they arrived quickly and well packaged.

What did you pay for the 125mm? Is that the overall size or the internal size of the ring/lit panel? 

[scotty38]

Hmmm liking the look of the Wanderer too....

[scotty38]

32 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

What did you pay for the 125mm? Is that the overall size or the internal size of the ring/lit panel? 

Found this on an Italian distributor site so looks like 125 is the useable size::

Diametro utile125mm

Diametro Wanderer Cover135mm

[Stuart1971]

23 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Anyone here using one of these Deep Sky Dad or Wanderer Astro flat panels? I like the idea of the DSD one with the heater but concerned the £D print wont hold up well as I keep my scope setup all year round under a cover on the pier and worried the heat might be a problem in the summer.

I had one of the Deep Sky Dad versions on my scope for about 18 months, and kept in a wooden shed observatory, a few days last year it reached over 50c degrees in there and had no issues at all, they are well made and do the job very well, one issue is in the very cold nights around -3 - -5, I noticed it would not close up straight away as the servo was not responding very quickly, due to the mechanism being frosted up, and took a couple of attempts to close within the software and one night it did not close all the way and had to finish off by hand….

But in the whole very good….👍🏻

Edited June 27, 2023 by Stuart1971

[Peds]

18 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

What did you pay for the 125mm? Is that the overall size or the internal size of the ring/lit panel? 

That's the diameter of the lit panel. The edge around it adds another 2cm.