Gary and Bill, I had a friend make a cable for me. It will be a while before I can test it. My scope is stuffed into our cargo trailer, next to Amelia¡¯s. So for now, lets consider this case closed. Thanks for your help. Steve Goldberg ?
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From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Steve Goldberg via groups.io
Sent: Sunday, February 2, 2025 2:42 PM
To: [email protected]; K9RX - Gary via groups.io <amateurK9RX@...>
Subject: [ServoCAT] Goldberg Hand Pad? I think I figured out my hand paddle control issue.? When I plug the HC into the port on the SC? I can get the motors to spin. Image .2325. If I trace the cable from the SC going to the stalk and plug the HC there, no response from the motors. Image .1357. Last night while trying to figure out the problem,? why jiggle the cable high up the stalk would cause a fault.? Bill, if you think appropriate,? can you send me a new cable? What info do you need from me. Gary, thanks for your help. On 02/02/2025 7:39 AM CST K9RX - Gary via groups.io <amateurk9rx@...> wrote: Good morning Steve and Amelia, Ok ... so mostly good operation last night. A few comments re what you posted: -any 'drift' might be caused by not having done the backlash compensation. Is Amelia's scope and AN set up for the latest versions? If not you might want to upgrade to those as there were significant adds to each of them.? -When you say - and I know its a day later and it looks like you didn't know even then, when you say "go below the horizon"... what does that mean? The AN doesn't actually say that. Do you mean it had an offset for a GOTO that would have taken it below the horizon? With the latest version (and I believe earlier ones) the system would not allow a GOTO below the horizon - the AN would do a down beat - bee...booooooop telling the user that it was indeed an object below the horizon. There is no need to stop using the system at that point - just go to an object that is not below the horizon. Not sure why she gave up. IF you think that indeed as I suggested might be the case for the loooong GOTO's the night before - there might be a slipping DSC encoder, you could at that time (or any time) go to MODE ALT AZ and see if the ALT is indicating it is below the horizon. The AN and ServoCAT have LOTS of protections built in re the horizon. For example if you are tracking an object that sets - the ALT tracking will stop at the horizon (the AZ will continue on). And as mentioned it won't allow a GOTO to an object below the horizon. Further remember that the horizon is as the AN sees it to be from the initial alignment. IF there is a slipping encoder this would of course mess with that potentially. Also - there is a parameter, I believe under SETUP GOTO that allows you to set a local horizon limit. So for example if you have trees all around that limit visibility to no lower than 20¡ã you can program that in. That will then become the local horizon limit. I have mine set to I believe 12¡ã just because I don't want to look through 10+ atmospheres near the horizon nor jeopardize the main mirror moving (tipping).? -re your Gen3 HC. You might want to invest in a spare HC cable. Bill can sell that to you or you can find it online (unknown quality) by looking for a handset cable with a 4 pin RJ22 connector wired as a 'voice' cable.? If it is the connector inside the HC or inside the ServoCAT that would be more work - but that is extremely rare.? You can test the cable by plugging it in (during the day is fine) ... looking at the lights on it. After power up (all lights turn on briefly as a check) it should go to the red GUIDE fast light being on as well as the green GOTO. Wiggle the cable at one end a bunch of times and see if it restarts (lights off and then all lights back on briefly). Repeat at both ends. If one end seems to do this action, and you're sure of it, then reverse the cable and try again at THAT end of the CABLE. So - you have it plugged in and wiggle the HC end. Nothing happens. You wiggle the ServoCAT end and it seems to cause the HC lights to reset... hold THIS end of the cable - unplug it and move it to the HC - THIS end is the suspicious end... plug in the now free end to the CAT. Now repeat by wiggling at the HC. If it does it again then it is indeed the cable. If not - and it does it again by now, again, wiggling at the ServoCAT then its the ServoCAT connection. Contact bill if you suspect it is a fixed connection and not the cable. My strong suspicious is it is the cable.? ------ Original Message ------ Subject Re: [ServoCAT] Runaway tracking Sorry I didn't see this before the evening so couldn't do the test. We did, however, during the day unplug / replug all the data cables, from the 2 motors and the main box. We couldn't do the cable on the AZ motor with the plastic cover. Just could get my hands on it. 1. Last night everything went almost perfect. The tracking wasn't steady, had a slight drift that Amelia could live. NOTHING like we had seen the night before. 2. Later in the evening, while doing GOTO, the AN said go below the horizon. So the scope stopped when horizontal. I don't know what object Amelia put into the GOTO or thought she put in. So the rest of the night she ran without tracking ( like we did in the old days). Meanwhile, back at Steve's scope, the handpad stopped working. I'm pretty sure its a connection at one of the RJ connectors. I can wiggle a connection point and the HP comes on, sometimes no lights, sometimes a weird set of lights. Its getting cold for us, into the 40's. Remember, we're from the south, not North Dakota. So we called it a night.Amelia logged 2 objects, Steve 1. Steve (going back to stamp collecting) Goldberg On 02/01/2025 3:38 PM CST K9RX - Gary via groups.io <amateurk9rx@...> wrote: Ok ... try the test I had indicated - remove the DSC cable AT the front of the ServoCAT ... see if it then is fully controllable by the handpad.? This is an important test - if the ServoCAT works a bunch of times w/o the DSC cable plugged in.? If it does - and you see this (wrong) action again (note you can do a daytime alignment, doesn't need to be very accurate, just to test this all out so you can possibly fix it BEFORE it gets dark) ... check the GUIDE values on the DSC. Do they seem right? Are they 'going down' as the GOTO slew progresses? Also - try disengaging and seeing if the object is indeed at where you told it to go (of course this would be at night after a real alignment).? You can also go to MODE ENCODER on the AN and see, as the ServoCAT moves, do the encoder values change.? This could be a slipping or non-functional DSC encoder ... if the motor speed seems correct (important distinction) but it seems to take longer to do a GOTO then it might be that the AN is not getting encoder readout partially or at all.? Point the scope straight up (assuming you have that as your ALT REF position) and north. Then turn on, do your FIX ALT REF. Now go to MODE ENCODER, enter. Now move the ALT ONLY down until it matches your LAT. Go to MODE ALIGN STAR, find Polaris, and hit enter. You now have 2/3rd of the alignment done...? open a planetarium program, one that will show stars at the current time and show their current ALT/AZ position. Find one in the sky at that time - go to MODE ENCODER, move the scope to the ALT/AZ position it shows for that star (oh - bright star, so that it is in the BRIGHT STAR catalog)... now go back to ALIGN STAR, enter, find that star - hit enter. You're now aligned. (of course for this you do need the DSC cable plugged in the whole time) ------ Original Message ------ Subject Re: [ServoCAT] Runaway tracking You are making us think back a couple of hours after we have slept. ;) This was the first GOTO of the night. The object was not in the field, too much power eyepiece. Changed to a lower power, then pushed a button to move the scope. She claimed it was moving too fast. So I moved the "speed button" down to the slower speed. She then pushed another button and the scope kept going at the same slower speed, Did the 3-button stop. Pressed a button for 2 seconds or more to reset, and when taking finger off the button the scope kept moving. We did several times. Gary, you asked about the speed of the movement. The speed was the same as the last slew speed? button push. Don't think it was accelerating, we didn't let run that long to see. That is where were stopped for the night. On 02/01/2025 1:19 PM CST K9RX - Gary via groups.io <amateurk9rx@...> wrote: Questions for you... you said Amelia did a GOTO and had no issue... was that the first GOTO or was that later in the session (you mention you were tired indicating possibly it had been working for a while)?? When you say "the scope kept moving, faster than tracking" ... did it appear to accelerate to a stable speed - then continue at a (stable) speed OR did it continue to speed up going much faster than the SLEW rate (rate you'd see when doing a GOTO)?? Try unplugging the DSC cable from the front of the ServoCAT --- then see if the HC can control the scope for slewing. Push the button - does it accelerate up to speed, go at a constant speed as long as you are holding a button, then decelerate to a stop when you let go of the button?? Does it operate in JOG speed the same, only slower overall?? If the motor encoder were not being seen the motor would, due to lack of feedback from its encoder, speed up VERY fast with no perceptible acceleration and it would not stop with a 3 button stop (it MIGHT stop ?- but rarely and only randomly - and it would start up again pretty fast).?
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