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Laptop/Netbook for guiding and EQ6 control

milan

By milan
in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups

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milan

milan

Posted
Posted

Well after finding out there are no mac drivers for the QHY5 i need a laptop/netbook. (http://stargazerslounge.com/equipment-help/113262-qhy5-drivers-osx-mac.html)

Short term plan is guiding only, long term plan is EQMOD for setup below.

Effectively will a netbook suffice or should i pay extra and get a laptop? as there seems to be a very close price point at which they cross over (around £300)

Want to get something as cheap as possible.

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Dave Smith

Dave Smith

Posted
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I'm using an Asus 1005HA netbook for all my astro needs including imaging with a DMK or webcam, guiding and running EQmod. It also runs Photoshop CS2 and many other programs. The battery will last for hours, they claim 10 hours, but I've never tested it that long. It is so handy for being mobile. For non planetary or lunar imaging I use a DSLR which is not connected to the netbook. The only limitation I have come across so far is that it only has 3 USB sockets.

Dave

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the_laughing_crow

the_laughing_crow

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If the hdd goes wrong then no matter how the hardware is configured then your pretty much stuffed.... if by go wrong you mean like properly WRONG.

Without a optical drive and if say just the boot sector on the HDD was banjaxed, youd be able to boot from USB if the BIOS allows it (which it probably will)

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Ben Ritchie

Ben Ritchie

Posted
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A good think about a netbook is that a Atom processor coupled to a decent battery give excellent battery life, my Samsung will run almost all day off battery whereas my (work-supplied) Thinkpad is good for about 90 minutes.

You don't need much processing power for mount and CCD control, so a Netbook will be just fine.

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NickH

NickH

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Cuts it fine... Want proof...this was completely imaged and guided with a netbook, on top of a plastic tub in the middle of Spain, ask Ian Pass, who was sitting next to me, imaging on another netbook at the same time, and his image won image of the month in one of the mags :-)

Rosette---For-John | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Laptops on Laptops Direct condition:used&method=and&view=grid&isort=price

One right now for £129

Has Linux, dead easy to get a copy of XP on to it!

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  • 2 weeks later...
milan

milan

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Managing to get an old laptop for the price of a 'drink' from someone i know that is a Pentium 3 and has a single USB1 port and will be maxxed out at 512MB RAM.

Will obviously need to plug in a USB hub, presume i would need a powered one?

Still be okay to run PHD and ASCOM etc on this okay?

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simon84

simon84

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The only thing to watch out for is any cameras that may need a USB2 connection, not a problem with old laptops as you can just get a pcmcia card with a USB2 port on it.

I've been using an old XP laptop which had an old celeron processor in it, 20gig HDD and 256mb of ram, that ran everything just fine, EQMOD, guiding, image capture and the odd browse on the net when I was bored.

If your going to have it online make sure to disable automatic updates as these sometimes can reset the laptop after installing. Devestating if you set up a 6 hour run and then retire for the night.

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