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Gary and Bill, 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. Steve Goldberg 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° you can program that in. That will then become the local horizon limit. I have mine set to I believe 12° 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. Gary ------ Original Message ------ From "Ste

I was thinking of replacing my laptop in the observatory but I can't find the CD to install the Servocat Sky program on the "new" laptop, is there a way to download the software without a CD? Best regards Gabriel

Hi all, Yesterday i got a chance to try out the new firmware that Serge has developed, he recommended the Meade driver over Servocat so i gave it a try, the Meade generic driver does not work for me in NINA "Telescope connection lost, reconnect telescope" but the Advanced LX200 driver works really well. It is found under the legacy driver link on the ASCOM website (+ a few clicks more) but here is the the direct link to where the download is: https://pixelstelescopes.wordpress.com/advanced-lx200/ Here is the Meade generic driver that Serge has tested in Sharpcap and recommended: (a newer one has been realeased but Serge has not tested it) https://bitbucket.org/cjdskunkworks/meadeautostar497/downloads/ The first thing i did was point the telescope roughly at Polaris (i have a mark on the rocker and groundboard for North) then i just placed my smartphone angle meter on the scope and adjusted the telescope so it read 63 degrees in other words my latitude and also Polaris altitude. Then i turned on the Nexus where i already had the alt reference at 63 degrees and azimuth at 0 degrees with 2-star alignment set to 2 star without alt reference (Nexus remembers this, thus always assuming that my scope is pointing at Polaris when i turn it on) so i just hit enter. I also turned on automatic tracking, a new feature to make the 2 star alignment easier. I then connected the mount, camera and focuser in NINA. Entered 50 degrees in altitude and 90 degrees in azimuth, hit slew. Then Solve + Sync. I then heard the "bell sound" from Nexus, i continued by entering 55 degrees in altitude and 45 degrees in azimuth, hit slew, solve + sync and once again the Nexus bell rang. (the choice of alignment coordinates was because i have not done a proper cable management around the scope) I checked the Nexus display and indeed it stated that the alignment was successful. Quite incredible that the simple automatic tracking feature was good enough to survive ASTAP which is known to be sensitive to star shapes etc. Next was NINAS framing tab, entered M81, then hit slew, bang M81 was exactly centered on the chip. (on a visual system with a driver from a completley different telescope, simply amazing!!). Very thankful for Serge and Garys effort in to making this posssible! + Mickey and others relentless effort for months, and of course Mike Zam who builds superb scopes. Quite a feeling not having to use the ladder or any eyepieces. I continued slewing to objects and testing things out and came to the following conclusions: The automatic slew and center does not work or takes very long time since Nexus does not report back "end of slew" despite the bell sound / numbers are 0.00. Or it could be because i have not adressed backlash in my system causing the initial drift due to lash make the LX200 driver think the telescope is still slewing. However the initial equivalent of a 2-star alignment was sufficient to put M81 bang in the middle so in that case slew and center is not even needed at all. If tracking is not spot on it may think the mount is slewing and will not initiate a new slew command. The driver does not support manual slew so taking out the backlash manually would have to be done on the handpad. Not sure if the Meade generic driver supports manual slew but i don't know why i can't connect to it, not even in Sharpcap. Next time out i will adress the backlash and align with greater separation, will be interesting to see the difference! I was very lucky the first 2 platesolves during the alignment, beacuse i soon discovered that ASTAP could not solve for the 30" on most places i went to in the sky, so i downloaded and configured Platesolve 3 from Planewave, tested up to 12 000 mm Focal length and it works every time, even with star trails, NINA recommends it for very narrow field of views with small stars. Link to the Platesolve 3 download: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/842082-nina-platesolve-3-download/ Back to the mount I defined park as 63 degrees in altitude and 0 degrees in azimuth just to try it out and it parked, so it's as simple as that, define prefered parking position and it parks there. So this leaves me with the following challenges: I can't do all this remotley since i am not able to connect the mount in Nexus Infrastructure mode. I enter IP in Nexus Infrastructure mode in HW Virtual Serial Port, and TCP of 4060 then create a COM, like COM3 for example. The com is created and no error, but when i try and connect to the mount in NINA i get "Telescope connection lost, reconnect telescope" and it repeats if i try again. I have not found a guide on how to connect using Nexus Infrastructure mode like the guide for Nexus Access Point/WIFI so pherhaps i have missed something or misunderstod how it works. Mickey, you have figured this out right? The ability to go remote is fantastic but another benefit is that i can have the PC in my scopes rocker solving the problem with cable snags, it was difficult yesterday even though i had a long usb cable, i had to stop the slew command a few times. Moving on to an interesting opportunity: If it is possible to get automatic slew and center to work that means that it would be possible to create a sequence where one would press play when the scope is pointed at polaris and powered on, and with the help of NINAS function "Center after drift" would make the whole imaging session automated. With center after drift you enter say a drift of 5 arc minutes and platesolve every say 10 exposures, when that drift is exceeded Nina Slews and centers to the specified accuracy, so say within 2 arc minutes would probably be fine. I would be very thankful if someone could help me solve the Nexus Infrastructure issue or of there is another solution! Clear skies Gabriel

Hi all, my first post here. I have a Starstructure dob with Servocat and i am very inspired to try and get some decent astrophotos with it. The thing is i already have an automated imaging rig that can take "perfect pictures" so the reason i would like to use the dob for imaging is the same reasons why you would not use it for imaging, in other words it's the challenge of solving all the problems which makes it fun and also i will feel a greater appreciation of the results and i get to be more under the stars compared with an automated rig. I have attached 2 images, both taken with a Nikon D5300 DSLR and Explore Scientific HR Coma Corrector. The stars are ok on the M81 image (20 subs, 30 seconds each). I was quite surprised that it is possible to get away with 30 second subs. However, on the second NGC 2403 image (60 subs, 30 seconds each) it?s clear that tracking is not good enough so i am trying to figure out how to get more consistent results. Also the image is slightly out of focus but i have moved the EAF focuser from my imaging rig on to the dob so waiting for clear skies. Here is my method: 1. Nexus alt reference 2. Point to NCP and activate Easytrack so i am already tracking before the 2-star align. 3. 2-star on Polaris and Markab. 4. Goto on the target, center in the eyepeice and then i sync so that the numbers on the display are zero. I keep an eye on the numbers in case i need to do minor corrections untill Astrolock kicks in (i have set the delay to 60 seconds). What i noticed the last session was that the scope was not keeping up with the rate of the sky in Altitude and slighlty behind in Azimuth as well, so i did not manage to produce an ok image. I have done the following since then: 1. Added two 1.25kg weights to the back of the scope. 2. Cleaned the Alt and az bearings then sprayed Silicon spray on the surfaces. Definitely made a difference and the scope moves up as easy as it moves in Azimuth. (only tested it moving around with my hand disengaged). Might get a clear night tomorrow so will be fun to give it a try again. Bill mentioned that there are people here how do image with their dobs, so i am wondering if you have any pointers that could help me? Clear skies Gabriel

Dear all, I experience some ? encoder error ? indicated on the AN. Sometimes ? alt encoder error ?, sometimes ? az encoder error ?, sometimes ? both encoder error ? This occurs at nearly all observing sessions but not all. i tried to clean electric contacts with spray to improve electric contacts. No improvement Then put little carbon (corindon) pearls on each wire to avoid electrostatic (if I’m right) problems I tried to change the Ton and Toff settings. Originally was Ton17, Toff17 which means if I understand properly that AN was checking encoder half of the time I then put Ton17 and Toff0, which means AN is checking encoders in continuous Still no improvement Any idea to solve this ? What is impact of these encoder errors : Precision of pointing ? thanks for your replies Rapha?l