markusblauensteiner

Hi! Today, i had to connect my ASA DDM 60 to an USB-extention-cable. For that, i bought two active, 5 m USB 2.0 extentions (good ones!). I stated Autoslew and everything was fine, until the motors and "Autofind" started. Autofind normally takes about 15 seconds, but now it only took about 5 seconds! (for both axes together) I was a little bit scared about that and switched to cheaper, 3m extentions. Since then, everything was "normal" again. I have to say that any functions always worked normal, except Autofind. Did anybody else notice something like that before? Best regards, Markus

Hi Bill, i did. But i think i found my mistake. Because i have a special pier now (like ASA sells it, i dont know how to call it in English) i thought it would be nice, if the mount slews to EVERY object from the east side. So i told the mount "make a meridian flip if the object is 90 degrees away from the meridian". But, this was wrong, because then the mount will slew to each object from the west side. If you do the pointing, Autoslew asks before every slew (i wondered why). But when you press "move star now", Autoslew doesn't ask and because of my mistake, it wanted to move from the west side. Markus

Hi! In the last few weeks i could manage to get my setup to my new observatory. One night, i did the polar alignment like described in the manual - making a pointing with 5 stars, centering star at south, use the polar alignment function. Worked very well! But i could not finish, because fog came in. Yesterday i wanted to continue. I made a pointing at the east side (means tube on west side of pier) with 5 stars, old configuartion was deleted. I moved to a star in the south - but when i pressed "move star now", the mount wanted to do that from the west side. Means, it wanted to do a meridian flip. I had to interrupt that because of the cabling. So, this behaviour is new to me, it did not do that last time. I did not change anything... In Autoslew - flip options - i tried "stay on side", "ask" and "prefer west". It is always the same - when checking "ask", it asks before every move, but not when moving the star at the polar function. Just doing homefind and slew to any object is ok, without problems. The GPS-stick does not work, but time and location are ok. Any ideas? Best regards, Markus

Thank you very much, i will try! Markus

Hello Waldemar, yes, i did, like its written in the manual (delete with control panel + delete ASA-folder with the ini-files). But when reinstalling AS, it asked me, if AS was installed on that PC in the past. If yes, something will not be "installed". Therefore, i thought that anywhere else on the PC some data is left. But - maby rebooting is the key? Best regards, Markus

Hi to all, does somebody know how the drivers of Autoslew and Sequence are named? I tried to find them in Windows -> drivers... Why? I want to deinstall Autoslew and Sequence completely and start by zero - the reason are my problems with MLPT. I think, by installing and re-installing Autoslew and Sequnece and the Beta-versions a couple of times, something went wrong... I just deinstalled the programs and deleted the folders, but i also want to delete the drivers by hand. Regards, Markus

Hi to all, i checked the following the last nights: - cables: no difference if hanging down or beeing bended; - slew settle time: measured it with sequence, no difference; - pointing pics: round stars there; I tried to expose 4 minutes without any correction - stars are getting elongated a bit, but diagonal; 4 minutes with MLPT are worse; I wanted to try with another PC, but there i wasn't able to connect Sequence to the other programs for some reason. BR, Markus

Hi Norbert! This is another brilliant idea! I did this measurement in the past, but i'm nor sure, if i've changed to Sequence Beta before getting those troubles. So it could be, that this wasn't right. As i remeber, i got a value of 5 seconds when i measured it. I never looked at the pointing pics, i must confess.... Markus

Hi Waldemar, i have no problems with park position, AS gets there like i want. But, my behaviour is also in "old" AS and Sequence. How should those yellow curves look like when turning motors on? In DEC they are symmetric, but not in RA. But in Servo Setup - Balance - everything looks fine. Markus

Hi Robert, nice to meet you here! MLPT "curves" are straight lines in both axes , this is so when using a pointing file and without one. I pressed that button, yes, and in AS that icon is orange. In Sequence Beta, the data should be sent to AS automatically, but also pressing that button there didn't help. GPS is installed and connected, everythings fine there. It seems MLPT does some correction, but the wrong one. It measures an error that i don't have. So, if i would do that for an hour or two, the target would be out of the image and AS would still think it is in the middle. I wanted to try it with my laptop yesterday, but there was somthing wrong with the installation and at 03:00 AM i was a bit angry... Markus

Hi! Thanks again for all your ideas! George, i cleared the old file before started a new one. Luc, althought i've the pro-version, the cables of the power supply are hanging down. I've tied them to the base of the mount, so that there is a bow. How did you solve that? I've got many cables there - two focusers, two ccd, filter carussel.. Yesterday, i tried several things: 1. Go over Homepoistion, go to an object, synch, MLPT - star trails like before; no pointing file; 2. Seperate the second CCD and filter caroussel from the PC. A friend had problems like me, his PC was to weak on the USB for a second CCD camera. But, no changes, trails like before; 3. Try 300 seconds without any correction. Not perfect round stars, but, stars are elongated in both axes, should mean diagonal; And they are less elongated than using MLPT; 4. Re-Installing Autoslew and MLPT; I also deleted all files; After doing all standard settings like motor parameter, i tried only using MLPT - same result; 5. Then i noticed that the location in Autoslew was wrong; but correcting it didn't imrove the result; 6. Then i improved the polar alignment, now its 30" in both axes. No changes using MLPT; But: before i improved polar alignment, the curves of MLPT looked like that: something around 5" in RA and 1.8' in DEC, a big difference; After polar alignment, i had about 1.2' in RA and 1.5' in DEC, which seems more realistic? The result wasn't better... Then, i also noticed something strange, maby it has to do with my problems: when centering a star with the joystick, there was nothing strange. But, when centering the star with the arrows in autoslew (0.06° per second), the star went left when i clicked left, but went back right, left again, right again, for several times before it stayed on its position. Same in DEC. One can see it at the coorinates in AS. But, AS says balance is fine...and autoguiding brings RMS-data of 0.0xx in maxim for RA and DEC over hours. BR, Markus

Hello Mark, Lukas! Lukas, i've checked it this moment remote. AS says, east side of pier, this is right. So, a little summary as i see it: MLPT + Autoslew, are "measuring" a "movement" (drift,..) that doesn't exist. Accordingly, AS is correcting this "movement", and the result are those trails. Why does the movement not exist? Because unguided, uncorrected imaging is possible. If a movement, flexure,..exist, it is small enought to allow 4min uncorrected imaging. However, with MLPT the trails are there in between 2 minutes. This "movement" is also measured, when no pointing file is used. But, the first night, before starting experiments with a new pointing (i shouldn't have done that... ), MLPT + Pointing file worked well. So, i ask myself, what "thing" was saved and is considered by AS when changing the pointing file? I think this is the key. I will try it with my laptop, only using MLPT. We will see. Next step will be to deinstall AS and start at the beginning. Regards, markus

Hi Lukas, Mark! Thanks for your answers! Wrong side of pier: Autoslew asked "East or west" and i told the right side -> east. Also, the pointing was done all over the east side of the meridian, because at the west side my scope looks into a roof. MLPT was done, when the object was far away the meridian. Mark, my PA error is less than 1' in both axes. I don't think, that my mount was misaligned in one day (first night, everything worked, next night not), because it stands in an observatory. Also, if it had shifted, only using MLPT should work? Best regards, Markus

Hi to all! First of all: i'm using my DDM60pro since nearly a year now and i'm very satisfied with it. I was able to do unguided imaging with MLPT for exposure times up to 20 minutes, (1000mm FL) but since a few weeks i've big problems with it. I don't know exactly when and how the problems began any more. The result of my troubles is, - i'm getting star trails in RA-direction when using MLPT. This means: - i did a pointingfile as it is written in the manual, i did it per hand. I did a MLPT and i was able to do unguided images with 8 minutes exposure time. I haven't tried longer exposures. So, 25x8 minutes where done with perfect round stars! - the next night, i thought that a bigger pointing would be better and so i made a bigger one with 30 stars per hand, before i deleted the old pointing. I did a MLPT again, on the same target as the night before and - i got those trails. They are 3-5 times the star diameter in 2 minutes exposures! - i thought "ok, lets delete that pointing and do an autopointing". So i did, all images where solved. As result, i got trails again. - i delted the autopointing file and loaded the pointing of the first night (which then worked!). I did a MLPT again and got trails again... The next step, i deleted the pointing and just used MLPT - same result! Then, i ran the monut without a pointing, without MLPT, without guiding. After 4 minutes exposure time, stars where nearly round. Two minutes - no problem, round stars. So, i don't think my telescope is too weak, because if, uncorrected imaging wouldn't be possible? Also. at the first night, pointing + MLPT where working perfect.. I had this troubles in the past and i thought my telescope, or rather my mounting plate where too weak, so it was built new and very stiff. The first night after modification was the night when everything worked. I also deinstalled Sequence and deleted all files, same problems after re-installing it. So, i think, by doing a pointing (per hand or auto), setting home-position and so on, anything is saved anywhere and is making troubles when a new pointing or MLPT is done? Curves of MLPT are looking normal, as in times when everything was fine. When using MLPT in Autoslew, the coordinates aren't changing (they do, but only in 1/10 " in RA, up and down), but the stars are drifting through the image.... ;-) Maby somebody can help me, BR, markus

Again perfect Thomas, the cirrus is clearly visible and details are great! BR, markus