Waldemar

The diagram surely looks good, George. I really hope your problems are gone now and you'll have lots of fun with it! Regards, Waldemar

Hi George, Any news about your mount, yet? Regards, Waldemar

I really hope your problem will be solved fast.

No need to take anything apart. Just disconnect from the powersource and connect your Ohm meter over the plus and minus leads. The value in ohms will be the total resistance of the main electronics in your mount. If you turn the axes one by one and you see a change in resistance towards sero on your meter, you will know that something is wrong with the internal cabling. Maybe damaged shielding. Not that you would take it apart to repair or so, but it may satisfy some curiosity and it is a simple measurement. Of course there can be other causes.

Did you check if the electrical resistance changes while rotating the mount by hand? If that would be the case, it could indicate damaged wire insulation.

Be careful not to toast the coils.

So... are you going to send the mount back to ASA George? It seems you are out of options now...

Looks good... be aware that the small snap-on connectors can only deliver 3A. Somewhere in the ASA documentation I read a warning against the use of lab type power equipment, I don't know if this one falls into that category. I don't know why, either... Mean Well makes very nice switching power supplies too. Smaller and a lot cheaper.

Power supply meters are not famous for their accuracy... But 4.2 A is high for total current. While tracking, I presume? Although if the voltage is too low, the motors will ask for more current.

Will it rise any further then 5A if the powersuppply allows?? Basically I think 5A limit is too low for the mount. Maybe a cause could be that the power supply has to work too hard and runs into internal issues, which may cause a voltage drop and hence a current rise. Trying another PS may provide an answer.

Hi Nigel, The Lindy cables should be ok. Glad to hear your problem is solved! Belkin has a professional line which is absolutely top quality. I use Belkin as well as Konig (Hama) cables. Christer: I use the USB Ranger as well without any problems. I use the shortest USB cables I can find to connect to the Ranger and between the Ranger units I use F/UTP cat6 cable 25 metres is no problem whatsoever. My scope is outside, my comp in the warm house Maybe I am a little anal about cables, but I experienced really weird behaviour with cheap unshielded ones. Waldemar

I think the ASA supplied USB cables are of poor quality. I use double shielded high quality cables for all applications. Unshielded USB cables are sensitive to interferences and thus can cause many problems. Waldemar

When balancing, my DDM60Pro stays well under 1A on both channels. It strikes me that while DEC current is going up, RA current is going down in almost the same rate. As soon as it totals 5A, black out occurs. Is your power supply limited to 5A (60 W)? If so that may be a problem. I use 3 separate power supplies for different applications, so black outs or interferences won't occur. 15 A for the mount, 10 A for the camera's and 10 A for others like dew heaters. If you want the wiring schedule, I will of course post it. Regards, Waldemar

Green is on manual... save to move it while fiddling around for balancing or whatever. Documentation is not available, yet... but very necessary. That should be on top of the "to do" list at ASA now, preferably in readable English. Waldemar

I totally agree with you, George. I have been stressing this principle a couple of times already, but you made it nicely visible. It is the only way to get a nice balance in every position. Regards, Waldemar

hahaha, don't worry George. I think there's a slight misunderstanding here. I am talking about radial equilibrium about the tube axis. So called three axes balancing: http://www.brayebrookobservatory.org/BrayObsWebSite/HOMEPAGE/gleanings/balancingequatorial.html Regards, Waldemar

I had to compensate for the focus motor (direct wormdrive, weighs about 450 gramms) on my TEC 140... so yes, that is what you have to do to get perfect balance in all positions. The bigger the diameter, the larger the problem, of course. In order to find the right compensation weight and position, I rolled the tube over a flat surface and fiddled around until it laid still in all positions. Sounds weird, but it worked! Regards, Waldemar

Hi Pelle, Most of the so called "hub problems" are in fact cable problems. Many commercial cables are of very poor quality and not suited for these kind of applications. Interferences caused by other usb or power cables are very often the root cause of a whole lot of problems. Use high quality grade cables: double shielded, metal jacket, gold plated and as short as possible. Do NOT use extension cables, not even the 'powered' ones. Instead use an Icron Ranger, even if the distance you have to cover is only a few meters. Regards, Waldemar

That happened to me with my DDM60Pro when I had an unballance in the 3rd axis (radial equilibrium about the tube axis). The weight of the focus motor on one side of the telescope was the problem. Once I balanced that out, it was gone. I you mounted your filterwheel on the side, that may be the problem. BR, Waldemar

I am sorry to hear about your bad Neumann experience Pavel. I only have a TEC140, which can not be collimated, and my biggest sensor is APS size, so I am in a total different league than you. Not comparable... That test-frame is quite perfect I would say... I can only see perfectly round stars, even in the most outer parts of the image... Waldemar

Hi Pavel, I also think this is a beautiful picture of the Seven Sisters, but Antonio is right, there are quite some elongated stars in the picture. Not only in the left top, but the whole top half and left side. The 3 corners rule is kind of inverted: 3 notsogoodcorners, 1 good: The right bottom side... I think this can only be caused by a tilted camera, due to a hanging focuser, a flaw in the imaging train or a not so well mounted sensor, which is unlikely for a Moravian camera. The problem is easily solved with a CTU: http://www.gerdneumann.net/english/astrofotografie-parts-astrophotography/ctu-camera-tilting-unit.html Maybe this is the solution you were looking for? Best regards, Waldemar

Thank you for sharing, George. This is very inspiring! I would say the ultimate astro-hobby project... really amazing. Regards, Waldemar

Hi again Robert, Attached a picture of the hub. In the meantime I got word from ASA that a new hub will be send next week. I absolutely would not mind if it would be a USB3 hub.... Regards, Waldemar

Thank you Robert, I already got the hub out with no problems. Mine is attached with two little bolts and nylon nuts, not wth glue. That is done when I had my mount updated with absolute encoders and new electronics in 2012. This hub is very small and powered (I think 12V). That is why I am trying to get a new original one from ASA... it will be hard to find a generic one, these seem to be specially made for ASA, for their name is on it. Regrettably I did not get any answer back from them yet, which is new to me. Normally I get an answer within 24 hours. Holidays maybe? I remember you writing on the old forum about this and mentioned the Transcent 3.0 hub. I doubt if that one will fit, though... Maybe you can send me more info about it? Like size and maybe internal connectors? Thanks again, Robert, Best Regards, Waldemar

Wow, Nigel, that is quite something... congratulations with the results so far. It is really amazing what you already accomplished I must admit being a bit jalous . I hope to build a dome somewhere in the future also, but not in Holland, too many weather issues First move to a better place. Again: congratulations with that beautiful piece of work. Best regards, Waldemar