Waldemar

That is a very nice hint, George...Thank you ! ​

Hi La Cebra, You mean the 'Fits Liberator' programm from the NASA? Can I ask what you corrected in their source code? Best regards, Waldemar

+1 from me, although this forum seems to be dying, to my regrets...

In the windows update settings you can change the usertimes, in which period the PC will not update or restart. In that way you will not have to disable updates totally.

Hi Thomas, congratulation with your purchase of the ASA 12N and welcome to the forum! To avoid any differential flexure, Off Axis Guiding works better then a guidescope. That goes for any telescope, not only an ASA. Especially reflectors, because of the use of the mirrorcell are criticall for differential effects with a guiding scope. On top of that there will be less weight involved to be carried by your mount. I don't own an ASA telescope, so I have no idea about backfocus and possibillities for an OAG. Succes on your decission and the steep learning curve of astrophotography! best regards,

Hi Max, ASA's 'original core mount products' have always been observatory mounts and equipment... Products for amateurs is their 'second' choice, and in my eyes a side step, an effort to get a bigger piece of the pie. Being used to deal with professionals, they are not very good at communicating with the amateur market, to be honest. To me the payloads of these new mounts put them in the same (semi) professional category. It feels like they are getting out off the amateur bussiness, starting with the never released, but advertised Revolution (which would have been a real Winner), after that the termination of the DDM60 and now ending production of the DDM85... So far not the development I was hoping for... I hope I am wrong about this, because I am totally convinced the DDM mounts are the best and most sofisticated mounts in the market.

Hi Guys, Apparently ASA is producing a new range of mounts now: DDM100, DDM200 and DDM500 the numbers tell the load capacity The DDM mounts as we know them are now obsolete... the new mounts have to be mounted on a wedge or the bend pier ASA produces. I have not seen any prices, but they look expensive... I am more then curious how this will develop... awaiting more information on the ASA site.

Use Acetone, much better then alcohol.

Is this what you are looking for, Dave?: DDM85-GP1.pdf DDM85-GP2.pdf DDM85-GP2L.pdf

"intermittently slews away from the target in RA (with software showing change in position)" Does this mean your mount goes faster, or does it stall? If it stalls, and your log shows a rise in current, that could indicate a rough running bearing ... Did you make any changes in your set-up lately, which might cause a radial imbalance? Like Mark already mentioned: your logfiles may shed some light on this. Reading the logfiles is an art on its own, but I am sure ASA is willing to help you in any way they can.

I had a DDM60Pro as well, Adamo. It does not remember the position. When switched off, you first have to do a 'home find' before it knows where it is One of the reasons I traded it in was because of the incremental encoders, another one because I wanted more load capacity and power. All the new DDM85's have absolute encoders, they do not need a homefind. They always know where they are.

Since a couple of years the DDM 60 (Pro) is not made anymore. One of the reasons was because this mount could not be equiped with absolute encoders, only incremental ones. Another reason were the plans of producing the ASA Revolution, based on the DDM60, but that has never been launched alas... (probably those two are connected) Practically this means, only the DDM85 or the DDM160 are available now, both very expensive and out of budget for many people. Yours, being one of the later series, may be interesting for people who don't want to spend almost double the amount on a DDM85, but there are downsides to it as well... I agree with Luke that this is a steep price, even including the extra weights. Wishing you succes with sales.

Hi Rsanalb, For that you will need to subscribe as a beta tester. Send a request to the administrator: http://forum.astrosysteme.com/index.php?/user/1-admin/ If the request is granted you will see a new forum thread called "beta testing" , right below 'software' At the moment there is only Sequence beta software available. Apparently the appearance of AutoSlew beta software is momentarily being changed and not available, because it was not very clear that some of new versions were meant for Alt/Az mounts... Regards,

http://www.astrosysteme.com/downloads/ just follow the links to Google drive

I can see why... Congratulations!

Absolutely gorgeous! Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

Under mine as well, I think that is the same for everybody, but only visible when you open your own profile.

The automatic update times can be chosen in W10, so I got it set to update only during daytime, never in dark hours.

'if it ain’t broke don’t fix it' is not applicable to updates, I think... I believe an update is meant to make a program work better and/or faster and more suitable to new standards. That is why I choose for updating when an update is available. I never regretted that

Hi Nigel, This is what I am using without problems: Windows 10, versie 1803 (latest upgrade) FTDI driver 2.12.16 march 16, 2016 I think what John is suggesting is not applicable to you, because you still use the old 2012 driver version. newest drivers can be found here: http://www.ftdichip.com/FTDrivers.htm I always update to the latest drivers for everything. Hope this helps a bit. Best regards, Waldemar FTDI’s CDM drivers provide both D2XX and VCP functionality through a single driver package on PCs running the following Windows operating systems: Windows 10FTDI CDM Drivers 2.12.16 - Revision Comments Windows 10 x64 Windows 8.1 Windows 8.1 x64 Windows Server 2012 Windows 8 Windows 8 x64 Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows 7 Windows 7 x64 Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 x64 Windows Vista Windows Vista x64 Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 x64 Windows XP Windows XP x64 The files included in a standard CDM release are: Installation filesFTDIBUS.INF FTDIPORT.INF Driver files FTDIBUS.SYS (32-bit) FTDIBUS.SYS (64-bit) FTSER2K.SYS (32-bit) FTSER2K.SYS (64-bit) FTD2XX.H Dynamic libraryFTD2XX.DLL (32-bit) FTD2XX.DLL (64-bit) FTD2XX.LIB (32-bit) FTD2XX.LIB (64-bit) Static library FTD2XX.LIB (32-bit) FTD2XX.LIB (64-bit) FTLang.DLL (32-bit) FTLang.DLL (64-bit) FTCSERCO.DLL (32-bit) FTCSERCO.DLL (64-bit) D2XX Interface Supporting files On making a new release the files will be posted on FTDI’s web site http://www.ftdichip.com/FTDrivers.htm in ZIP file format.

Thank you for keeping us informed about your work with PRISM. I think it is a very interesting program. I downloaded a trial, but did not have the time to work with it in the trial period... Since I do have the other programs like PinPoint and Maxim, I am not in a hurry to spend a few hundreds on yet another program. I will though if it proves to be easier and better than the combination of all other programs. Best regards, Waldemar

For the beta testers among us, a new version of AutoSlew is available: Version 5.2.4.4 - Telescope Coordinate shaking near 90 degree Dec removed Waldemar

you were right, Mark :-) I am a bit behind sometimes...

Mike is not a beta tester, so he has no access to 5240. 5219 is the latest official release from ASA. So Mike... to get the latest functions you need to sign up for being a beta tester and you will be able to get AutoSlew version 5243 and Sequence 0211 Simply send a request to the moderator and you will get an answer reasonably soon. As soon as you can see the betatester forum here, you will know your request is granted Best regards, Waldemar

Hi Christian, Glad you solved the problem. I thought it could have been an issue with the ascom driver (http://www.daddog.com/ascom/sxcamera) Best regards, Waldemar