frustrating night

[JohnP]

Hi Dunc, Can you pls give me a link to your gamepad - thks,  John

[The Thing]

It was a special offer at Play.com about three years ago, there are plenty like it on ebay and amazon for about the same. 4AA batteries last a year or so as it auto powers off. Some of the double offers e.g. two for £18 would tempt me as I would have a spare...

[Carole]

Hi Carole, I can give you a demo some time - you busy this afternoon? My mount is set up in the conservatory... PM for address.

That would have been great Duncan, but only just seen your message.  Unless you don't think it's too late. 

Otherwise I'll PM you and see if we can fix up another time.

Thanks
Carole

[Ivor]

Wow you leave you computer for a few hours and look at the responses

Carole agree with you about sometimes simple is good and I should have thought of that but with the consumed of few winter warmers it might have impacted my ability to think of that. I personally like to use EQMOD for two main reasons, it removed the cable between the Lodestar and the mount which can break quite easily and the mount limit function which is great for leaving the camera to it for a night.

Up until now I've been using the cable that came with mount that Mark mentions it's not been a problem before but it looks like it's time for a replacement.

Duncan, I have a USB hub I'm planning to migrate to however I need to make a 12V to 5V plug before I can start using it, so as I'll have the soldering iron out I'll look at building a cable as well.

Is this a good reference for building it fora EQ6 Pro? http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/130721-usb-eqdir-for-under-4/


Maybe this would be a good topic for the next imaging session?

[The Thing]

Hi Ivor,


12v to 5V - easiest is to get a module off Ebay, around £7 usually. I use a PC power supply to give 12V and 5V feeds but have used a module as well as made my own (EOS battery replacement!).

Join http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/EQMOD and look in the Files section. There are several build it yourself options including Bluetooth! The simplest is to buy an FTDI USB-TTL cable and add a 9 pin DSUB plug. The one on the link will work with an EQ5 but not an EQ6 as one requires 3.3v and the other 5v outputs. Also its a Prolific chipset - not the best drivers, FTDI ones 'remember' the COM port assigned so you can plug them into any USB port.

Hope that helps.

[Les R]

Hi Carole, I can give you a demo some time - you busy this afternoon? My mount is set up in the conservatory... PM for address.

That would have been great Duncan, but only just seen your message.  Unless you don't think it's too late. 

Otherwise I'll PM you and see if we can fix up another time.

I would also be interested if it's possible?

I've still a fair bit I need to understand and if I'm honest have no problem in conceding that unless you understand the settings within and what you are doing, it can be a mess and harder than a hand controller. But once you get to grips with it, the benefits are worth the pain and learning curve from what i can see.

[The Thing]

It was yesterday afternoon Les. Maybe next Imaging night?

[Les R]

It was yesterday afternoon Les. Maybe next Imaging night?

Ah ok... Trust me! lol

That's not until November is it?

[Mike]

Yep. Next imaging night is 5th November. Unless anyone is willing to volunteer to do one in October.

[JonH]

Yep. Next imaging night is 5th November. Unless anyone is willing to volunteer to do one in October.

5th November?.... Correct me if i'm wrong but that doesn't strike me as the best night of November for imaging.... 

[Mike]

My mistake, the Imaging Session is on the 1st and the Observing is the 5th. New Moon is the 3rd so both dates are the closest Friday and Tuesday to this date.

A few fireworks won't matter for Observing and won't affect the view from High Elms.

For Imaging on the 1st it is far enough away that it shouldn't be a problem.

[MarkS]

You mean Fri 1 Nov (not 3rd)

[Mike]

You mean Fri 1 Nov (not 3rd)

Exactly

[Ivor]

Thanks to Duncan's direction I have built and testing my new direct mount cable, surprisingly easy to make and saved myself at least £20.  

As it was such a bright moon last night I played around with polar alignment in EQMOD, watch the youtube video but when it moved the mount to polar alignment point the little polaris circle on the circle was out by about and hour, Cassiopeia wasn't nearly as high in the sky as it thought. The computer is set to the correct time so I'm not sure what's going on, any suggestions?

[mickw]

BST  GMT ?

I think EQMod assumes GMT