prefetch

no, i believe he means within maximDL. if i recall correctly, in the camera window, under the guide tab there is a check box you can select to reverse the x,y after a flip. (i also use maximDL, autoslew and theskyx.)

so i think i fixed it. i stopped trying to make auto tune work an instead used manual tune and just picked the "small" OTA option and everything just worked so much better. no more occasional squeaks or whines during slewing and after heavy exercise i never once got a slewing error. really weird, but i'll take it.

i switched to a much lighter scope (a 5" refractor) and so i thought i'd have a lot less trouble with my DDM85, but i seem to keep getting snagged by random position errors. my balance is pretty good. i seem to have plenty of power available to the system. i started logging the errors. has anyone seen anything like this? any ideas? 23:20:33.925: Starting Slew to RA 01.85h DE -08.00d EPOCH 0000 23:20:55.454: Interface setting TargetRightAscension to 7.27 False 23:20:55.485: Interface setting TargetDeclination to 0.00 True 23:20:55.516: Interface ForceNextPierSide = pierWest 23:20:55.516: Interface SlewToTargetAsynch 23:20:55.516: Starting Slew to RA 07.27h DE 00.00d EPOCH 0000 23:20:58.610: To long sleep of main timer, was reset by controltimer 23:20:58.610: AliveProgresscount stopped at 100 23:20:59.610: To long sleep of main timer, was reset by controltimer 23:20:59.610: AliveProgresscount stopped at 101 23:21:00.610: To long sleep of main timer, was reset by controltimer 23:21:00.610: AliveProgresscount stopped at 102 23:21:01.611: To long sleep of main timer, was reset by controltimer 23:21:01.611: AliveProgresscount stopped at 103 23:21:02.611: To long sleep of main timer, was reset by controltimer 23:21:02.611: AliveProgresscount stopped at 104 23:21:03.611: To long sleep of main timer, was reset by controltimer 23:21:03.611: AliveProgresscount stopped at 105 23:21:04.611: To long sleep of main timer, was reset by controltimer 23:21:04.611: AliveProgresscount stopped at 106 23:21:05.611: To long sleep of main timer, was reset by controltimer 23:21:05.611: AliveProgresscount stopped at 107 23:21:06.611: To long sleep of main timer, was reset by controltimer 23:21:06.611: AliveProgresscount stopped at 108 23:21:07.611: To long sleep of main timer, was reset by controltimer 23:21:07.611: AliveProgresscount stopped at 109 23:21:08.127: Axis DE/AL reported the following Problem: Position Error Position Error during slewing autocorrected by ClServo Position Error correction failed 23:21:08.158: Raising Warning DE Axis: Position Error Position Error during slewing autocorrected by ClServo Position Error correction failed

anyone know the cost of the new DDM60 revolution? looked for a price on the website..couldn't find anything.

the short answer is, if you aren't guiding, then yes, MLPT can be useful, even with a 40 star pointing model in a stationary observatory. not sure what you mean by it being tricky if you run automated. do you use a remote desktop viewer? if so, then it's just the same. if not, then yes, i think it'd be very tricky to use the ASA tools.

daniel, i just want to second what john expressed. balancing (and keeping it balanced) the DDM85 is a big deal (and sometimes nightmarish depending on your payload.) i strongly advise you to start with one OTA and see how you like it - see how it works for you. as far as the saddle goes, you can buy them at optcorp.com (who orders them from ASA) and then you can try to rig something to make it work w/ your OTA. my setup is w/ a C14HD and i've ended up drilling plenty of holes to make it mount properly. unless you go all ASA OTA + mount, i think you need to be okay with the possibility that you'll have to get creative in how you mount your system. that's my $.02, YMMV.

i too would love to know how to upgrade to absolute encoders. homefind is a pain, and my mount gets very confused often between sessions.

just chiming in w/ my $.02 - i fully support this thread, and especially love the idea of open source software for ASA. otherwise i worry that someday my super expensive mount will be a paperweight if one day the software stops being updated. if it's open source, everyone wins. the ASA mount and software is fun and challenging, but it's also temperamental and frustrating. (i actually use a OAG because i find myself pulling less hair out of my head than trying to get the mount to give me the elusive 10 minute subs that i hoped it would give me - i know, i know, i could get them if i wasn't using a C14HD...!) and yes, ASA really should, at least weekly (if not daily) be replying to posts on this forum. not sure who their customers really are - maybe they aren't really selling to hobbyists, so they don't care that much about folks like me, but it just would be really nice to have more communication about things. on a positive note, i do love the beta updates that show up every once and a while - that is very nice. please keep those coming ASA!!

welcome to autoslew hell. :-) i dont have any solutions for you. this has happened to me before, and i'm currently having the same problem and i have no idea how to fix it. edit: i think i fixed it. somehow my home position got corrupted. no idea how that happened - i'm confident i didnt reset it myself. anyway, try checking out this thread: http://forum.astrosysteme.com/index.php?/topic/513-incorrect-altitude-and-declination-in-autoslew/?hl=zenith&do=findComment&comment=2820

beautiful!

30 minute frames guided C14HD, DDM85

>I requested tech support a week ago, still no response....

oops - didn't work out last night for running the flexure tests (they take so long!) i got distracted with jupiter. maybe this weekend i'll get to testing that. but i did make some adjustments and got a 10 minute perfect round star image. when it works, it works. black magic i tell ya.

i did some testing a few months back with my C11, and up vs. down did not show any significant difference in flexure. it's a double lift system, mated with 1/4" steel plate, but still it doesn't take much wobble make a difference. i will test it again tonight up vs. down and report back on what i find. and yes, i'm at 146mm on my backfocus, starting at the top end of the flange threads of the reducer. that took A LOT of work to get right, and a bunch of custom adapters from preciseparts.com. thanks for bringing that up, i appreciate any advice or insights. i'll post a report later tonight on flexure up vs. down.

Luc, i very much appreciate the sanity check. i really want to love this DDM85, but it's kind of driving me nuts. maybe it is the cables. it was definitely sub zero last night, and will be again tonight. the 5" flex was a few weeks ago, but i don't remember if it was freezing at the time or not. that could be the difference. perhaps i should look into get sub zero cables for everything. so i've collimated my scope tonight, and it's much nicer. still can't really do 5 minutes without getting little eggs, but i'm getting the hang of maximDL guiding and it seems to work better for me than PHD for guiding. here's a pic of my system:

40 views so far and no replies. well, i kept at it, and after rotating just about every piece of my image train, over and over, and then laying cables down one at a time, testing one side, then the other side, i was still unable to obtain a perfect balance. i got about 100 mA or so from a perfect balance in the vertical DEC position east pier side and west pier side and because of this i was of course unable to obtain balance over all. i went ahead with it, did an auto tune and then did a random 32 star autpoint file so as to average any sagging out and was able to track at 5 minutes, then 10 minutes in a particular position, but later that night in another position i got trails at 5 minutes. i ran a flexure test, and last time i ran it i was at about 5" error, but this time i was at 30" error. i have no idea what caused the difference this time. it's black magic. i'm about ready to give up on this setup. i can probably have things working with a smaller, lighter OTA or perhaps i just need to go with an AP1200 mount instead or just know that i can't do anything without guiding. i'm pretty frustrated.

so i've been wrestling with balance on my DDM85 with my C14HD for a few months now. the stars in my images aren't super round - mostly slightly egg shaped, and it's driving me nuts. i assume it's because i'm not quite as balanced as i should be. based on everything i've read, and experienced, imbalance is the root of all evil for the ASA DDM system. i just thought i'd check with everyone to see what they think about the process i'm going through. here's what i've been doing: and step 2: and finally, do the RA balance. i've been setting the balancing tool to measure at a scale of 1.5 A and when i get step 1 lined up on the east side, i then move it over to the west side and verify that step 1 is still balanced, and it invariably is not. at this point, i don't bother going to step 2 because if i can't get step 1 balanced on east *and* west sides, then there isn't much point in continuing. today i got desperate, and i tore my image train down to nothing and went to step 1 for east, then west. next, i added my OAG, and repeated step 1 on east then west, rotating it into place to find the perfect balance. after that, i added my focuser, and repeated everything. then my filter wheel, and at this point, i simply couldn't get east and west to match. i use an FLI centerline focuser. i guess it's not balanced. it has two wheels, 4 filters in one, 3 in the other - and perhaps that extra filter on the one side makes it imbalanced. the DDM is so freaking sensitive it drives me crazy. anyway, my question to everyone is, does this method make sense? and how close do you match the red lines at 1.5A? i try to get them to settle exactly on top of each other. and another question - if you slew the mount around and run the balance tool at random places, do you actually get it to show balance in arbitrary positions? i believe this is the holy grail, but this seems nearly unobtainable for my setup.

very nice!

thanks george. i'm just trying to fine tune everything now that i have my C14HD using scope rings and the big ASA mount plate. the sequence flexure test tells me that i'm down to about 5" from 36" on my previous setup, so i'm getting much better - just trying to see where else i can optimize.

"Lift front End of Telescope up on mounting plate" is the note next to Collimation in the correction report on autoslew. this doesn't make a lot of sense to me. does anyone else get this?

the reason i think it would make sense would be when you want to go to sleep at 11pm, but the target won't be high enough to start imaging until 3am. from what i understand, you would have to wait until 3am to start the MLPT run. i think it'd be nice to set it to start a run at a certain time. am i thinking about this correctly?

lukas, i haven't tried the latest beta version - but does it have a way to run MLPT at a certain time? eg. "it's 10pm now, but i want you to run this at 2am"

actually, the more i think about it - maybe you don't need to counterbalance the 9 kg on the top of your OTA. i'm always over thinking balance. anyway, it's still really heavy!

this is just an FYI for all of you: the ASA 24" dovetail plate is REALLY HEAVY at ~20 lbs (about 9 kg). it's incredibly sturdy - but just amazingly heavy. which means to counter-balance the weight, you'll need another 9 kg. on the top of your OTA, so a total of 18 kgs added to your OTA, which is quite a lot. anyway, i thought i'd just share this information with everyone in case someone was considering using the ASA 24" dovetail plate. i'm going to go ahead and use it, but if it strains my DDM85 standard too much, then i might have to get a custom dovetail built that is lighter weight. i have the 10" dovetail plate, and it's not long enough (but it is much, much lighter!) cheers.

very cool! congratulations.