Post by robsmith on Apr 5, 2022 22:07:57 GMT
Hi All,
My Son, Toby, and I just came to the meeting.
I just thought I would say hello on the forum too.
Toby and I are trying to get his telescope set up.
The telescope is a freebie Skywatcher 200mm x 1000mm reflector telescope on a rather flexible equatorial mount.
It came with Meade Autostar controller and DS series motors. The controller was dead so we got another. The motors also gave problems with electrical noise from the motors causing signal errors and causing the controller to halt with a 'Motor fail' error. We fixed this by soldering in some capacitors and resistors as shown on a web site I found from a guy who had the same issue.
It then worked, sort of, but wouldn't properly track things it would try to pass the telescope through the tripod or do something else daft. After quite a bit of instructions trawling and calculation I worked out there is a gear ratio value which the controller needs to drive the motors the correct amount. It then started to work properly. We then found it takes far too long to set up the telescope each time we want to use it and decided it needs a small 'observatory' (shed) to live in permanently set up.
We have designed a small shed with fold down sides and removable roof. I have welded up the 'skids' the walls are built onto and peg together when the four walls are assembled. Those are now galvanised and Toby and I need to make up the walls.
Over the weekend we chose the position where the observatory/shed/box is going and now need to dig out a small patch and lay a small concrete slab for the shed and telescope to live on.
Toby has a Canon 450d camera and the 2" adapter for the telescope. We need to get the shed built and the telescope set up and then play around with balancing the camera weight. This was causing a bit of an issue when we last had the telescope out.
That is as far as we have got.
Hopefully we shall soon make some decent progress.
Rob
My Son, Toby, and I just came to the meeting.
I just thought I would say hello on the forum too.
Toby and I are trying to get his telescope set up.
The telescope is a freebie Skywatcher 200mm x 1000mm reflector telescope on a rather flexible equatorial mount.
It came with Meade Autostar controller and DS series motors. The controller was dead so we got another. The motors also gave problems with electrical noise from the motors causing signal errors and causing the controller to halt with a 'Motor fail' error. We fixed this by soldering in some capacitors and resistors as shown on a web site I found from a guy who had the same issue.
It then worked, sort of, but wouldn't properly track things it would try to pass the telescope through the tripod or do something else daft. After quite a bit of instructions trawling and calculation I worked out there is a gear ratio value which the controller needs to drive the motors the correct amount. It then started to work properly. We then found it takes far too long to set up the telescope each time we want to use it and decided it needs a small 'observatory' (shed) to live in permanently set up.
We have designed a small shed with fold down sides and removable roof. I have welded up the 'skids' the walls are built onto and peg together when the four walls are assembled. Those are now galvanised and Toby and I need to make up the walls.
Over the weekend we chose the position where the observatory/shed/box is going and now need to dig out a small patch and lay a small concrete slab for the shed and telescope to live on.
Toby has a Canon 450d camera and the 2" adapter for the telescope. We need to get the shed built and the telescope set up and then play around with balancing the camera weight. This was causing a bit of an issue when we last had the telescope out.
That is as far as we have got.
Hopefully we shall soon make some decent progress.
Rob
