john32712

The capacity of weight they can handle.

Mark, I had to use FocusMax with my Atlas. That worked well. Sorry, I know this doesn't help. John

"In February 2016, it was reported that FTDI had published another driver on Windows Update with DRM components intended to block non-genuine products. This time, the driver will communicate with affected devices, but all transmitted and received data is replaced with the arbitrary, looped ASCII string "NON GENUINE DEVICE FOUND!", which could cause irregular interactions with devices" Are you sure it's not a device issue Nigel?.

Thanks for letting us know!

Mike, We all could use a clearer how and why! If you get any info that could be beneficial, please be sure to share it! Best, John Nemcik

Mike, I think the hesitation in response is based on many of us performing the task, but with not great frequency. The last time I performed, I had just upgraded Autoslew and I believe "Superfit" was applied automatically to the model. The real shame here is the lack of updated documentation.. To illustrate further, there have been a few releases of Autoslew that have confused everyone, no mention from ASA why they were released, when they were released, or what this accomplished. The typical comment of, "just read the attached doc file". Can you ever over communicate on technical matters? If I were you, I would send your request directly to ASA support with the same doc and level of questions. This forum is frequented by only a few with really in depth knowledge and as you can see by your responses, not a big help. You have a lot a questions regarding model calculations and I would not want to tell you something inaccurate. Apologies for not providing more help! John

Very Nice Mark! Looking forward to seeing the revision with the OIII data.

Thanks Nigel!

Nigel, where are you finding this better documentation? John

Thanks Luis, I am switching scopes, going from a focal length of 1100 to 2800. I'm a little concerned....

Luis, Are you autoguiding or unguided? John

Love your webpage! Some of your galaxy shots are amazing!

Hi Nigel, No worries! Yes the upgrade is not cheap and I'm sure you'll be able to function well without it. Now that I have taken the plunge and have experience the difference, I'll never own another mount without absolute encoders. Warmest regards

Nigel, Apologies for the slow response! I live on Marco Island Florida where the recent hurricane has devastated the area. Anyway, regarding the benefits.... 1. In my opinion, for the level of sophistication of the drive system, it made no sense to me to have a mount that could lose its position if power was lost or various other reasons. Let's face it, even the lowest level of consumer mounts has a home find routine that "counts" from the initialized position. I'm sure this comment will not sit well with some. But I love that the position of the mount is known always and extremely accurately 2. It might be my imagination, but the mount appears to track better and slews seem more accurate 3. If I remember correctly, it took about 5 weeks to get my mount back What you probably want to know the most, is it worth it? I would say a resounding yes! Startups are a breeze and home finds are a distant memory John

Hi George, I upgraded my mount, DDM85XL, to the new absolute encoders. Best thing I ever did! You won't regret it.... John Nemcik

Sounds really promising...

I noticed that Max, but saw no negative effect from it. Thanks for pointing it out, it prevents me from losing my mind! Best, John Nemcik

Thanks for the additional info Waldemar. I"ll have to try it! John

Lukas, Thanks again.... John

I don't have an answer, but I am heading down the same road you are. I have CCDAutopilot and would like to use it. But need a workaround for MLPT. How are you implementing MLPT? My mount has absolute encoders so it will be interesting to see if I experience any of this.... BTW, if you run a sequence in Maxim, do you have any issues? John Nemcik

Lukas and Jay thank you for your response back. I was hoping the answer would be Superfit is all that is necessary. But life is never that easy is it! Like Jay, I have great success with MLPT, but it is a pain to have to run, especially when acquiring multiple targets per night. I have CCDAutopilot (not currently using) and have begun to consider remote imaging. My observatory is only 2.5 hours away from my home, but it would be nice on night when I cannot get away. OK, back to the topic. Yes Lukas you provided me the information I wanted to know. Now you brought up autoguiding. I did autoguide with all my other mounts, Tak, AP, and stopped when I purchased the ASA. I have never tried autoguiding with my DDM85, does it work just like any other mount? I would use Maxim DL to guide with. Are you performing off-axis guiding or using a secondary scope? Correct me if am wrong here, To do what Jay is doing, He must be up all night at the monitor because MLPT cannot be automated. If you autoguide, you then can truly have an automated session in which CCDAutopilot or ACP can run the show. Right? The only issue I see here, we bought a mount light years ahead of anything else and we now have to make it like any other mount to go remote... Best Wishes, John

I have had great sucess with MLPT and have two questions which somebody might be able to answer: 1. Do you always tweek your Fourier Numbers at the bottom to optimize after a MLPT run? 2. I can get 15-20 unguided subs with MLPT. Is anyone getting this without MLPT. Can you create a good enough model with superfit so MLPT becomes unnecessary? Having to perform a MLPT run every time i start a new session will make a remote imaging a pain. I am curious to here what the remote guys are doing....

Any luck?

Disregard, I finally fixed it....

Hey Guys! Did some remodeling of my observatory over the weeekend and did a quick breakdown of my computer and its connections. Put everything back together and everything is fine except my "Ublox GPS". It has given me problems before, but I could always resolve the issue. Typically it was com port related. Not this time, can't get it to come up and I get consistent "GPS Date not accurate enough for time reading" errors. Anybody ever experience this before? Thanks! John Nemcik