Recent Posts

1

Chat / Re: Finally I am replacing my Vista laptop

« Last post by RobertM on Today at 09:15:04 »

I also had this problem with the EQDirect cable (RS232 Serial to USB) Hitec Version.

I found this thread which 'might' help with the Prolific driver: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/prolific-usb-to-serial-comm-port-windows-10/0a4f8e48-7135-4434-9d10-349c9ce87fcf?auth=1 .  There is another issue in that a lot of Prolific chip sets out there are fake - later versions of the driver software only work on the genuine chip set; I remember posting something about this a few years ago (I had masses of issues with the Hitec version and com ports).  I made some FTDI Chipset versions a while back and and have had no issues since.

I also have one device with a Prolific chip set that must be either a newer chipset or genuine as I've also not had any issues with Win10.

Apart from the updates issue which can be worked around I have had no other problems, blue screens also seem to be a thing of the past.

Robert

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Chat / Re: Finally I am replacing my Vista laptop

« Last post by MarkS on Yesterday at 23:41:55 »

With APT you can run 2 cameras and imaging sessions at the same time, without all that virtual machine setup Mac ,

APT is PC only. I went to Mac about 3 years ago.

But you run all your PC stuff on the Mac don't you?  So just run APT on your Windows virtual machine on your Mac.

Mark

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Chat / Re: Finally I am replacing my Vista laptop

« Last post by MarkS on Yesterday at 23:22:31 »

This is precisely the sort of problems I am talking about with W10 that I have heard about.  I do not want to have these sort of problems and would rather run with a system that FOR ME works.

Carole

Yes, I'm seriously thinking about reverting back to W7 for the observatory.  I can't be doing with this hassle.

Mark

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Chat / Re: Finally I am replacing my Vista laptop

« Last post by Carole on Yesterday at 23:09:41 »

This is precisely the sort of problems I am talking about with W10 that I have heard about.  I do not want to have these sort of problems and would rather run with a system that FOR ME works.

Carole

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Chat / Re: Finally I am replacing my Vista laptop

« Last post by MarkS on Yesterday at 22:58:01 »

W7 is a known beast that I have control over it (I think).  W10 is an unknown monster that who knows what it's going to do - like overwriting my EQDIR Mount drivers every time it updates (I've now put them in a separate folder where I can re-install them each time).

Mark

True but you are relying on backwards compatibility to keep your programs running and that will eventually run out, the same for old drivers such as the Prolific.  For mount drivers I use FTDI serial to USB chipsets and never have any issues, the com ports always keep the same number and the driver never disappears.  I only use Windows 10 now and wouldn't go back (but yes I have been bitten a couple of times).

I'm not knowingly relying on backwards compatibility.  Maybe the Prolific driver I'm using is old but when W10 updates it to the latest Prolific driver, that's when it all stops working!  I guess there's some kind of bug in the new driver.  I end up uninstalling the updated driver and putting the old one back.  That doesn't make any kind of sense to me.

It's really lucky I methodically keep a separate copy of all my drivers otherwise I don't know what I would have done.

By the way - it is USB and not the old serial port thingy.  It's the HiTec Astro EQDir USB adapter for the EQ6.

Mark

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Chat / Re: Finally I am replacing my Vista laptop

« Last post by RobertM on Yesterday at 22:07:09 »

W7 is a known beast that I have control over it (I think).  W10 is an unknown monster that who knows what it's going to do - like overwriting my EQDIR Mount drivers every time it updates (I've now put them in a separate folder where I can re-install them each time).

Mark

True but you are relying on backwards compatibility to keep your programs running and that will eventually run out, the same for old drivers such as the Prolific.  For mount drivers I use FTDI serial to USB chipsets and never have any issues, the com ports always keep the same number and the driver never disappears.  I only use Windows 10 now and wouldn't go back (but yes I have been bitten a couple of times).

Robert

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Chat / Re: Finally I am replacing my Vista laptop

« Last post by Apophis on Yesterday at 21:45:59 »

Not sure why it would do that as never happened to me , changing edmod drivers on update i mean,
Roger

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Chat / Re: Finally I am replacing my Vista laptop

« Last post by MarkS on Yesterday at 21:18:39 »

There are no problems with Windows 10. I have it on all of my devices and have to say it is the most reliable software MS has ever made.

Sure it is very reliable but yes there are big problems if you are using it to run unattended applications as is typical for astro-imaging.  Twice it has happened that the laptop has been in the observatory running applications (i.e. actually controlling imaging) and "Windows" has unilaterally decided to close those applications that I need to be running and install updates, which by the way took an hour or more.

Sure you can argue that I should have known in advance to set some schedule to preform those updates (I've done that now) but why should I have to second guess all the weird things that Windows might try to do in advance?

W7 is a known beast that I have control over it (I think).  W10 is an unknown monster that who knows what it's going to do - like overwriting my EQDIR Mount drivers every time it updates (I've now put them in a separate folder where I can re-install them each time).

Mark

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Chat / Re: Finally I am replacing my Vista laptop

« Last post by Carole on Yesterday at 15:52:28 »

I like W7 too which is why I prefer to stick to it for the time being.

Carole

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Technical / Re: Nikons and green stars

« Last post by Apophis on Yesterday at 15:07:25 »

Same size chip but pixel size 5.7  on 1000d as compared to 3.7 for 750d , definitely get better results, and live view is much better,
Roger