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CGE power up
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Here's a quick video of the CGEs first power-up! Seems to be working great!
https://youtu.be/rRU2I-RRI7k
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Congratulations!
OnStep is way ahead of the vast majority of commercial controllers/handsets. Once you are over the learning curve, you will not want to go back to a proprietary controller ever again.
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Thank you, Khalid. You and Howard have been so tremendous throughout the process. I came in knowing next to nothing about building computer systems like this. All I knew was that I had a busted CGE and needed a solution. Through reading your documentation and these forums I've brought my CGE back to life for less than the cost of repair would've been. (I even sold many of the original components of the CGE and ended up coming out ahead financially). Now I have a robust and inexpensive system that I understand fundamentally and will be able to keep running as long as I care to. Thank you so much. Here are a few photos of the process.
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tnut55
Very nice!
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I have not given up on my CGE yet but after running it a while, motor problems came back. I swapped RA and DEC. The problems followed the motor...so there you go. Looks like I may be going Onstep unless I find a motor. Keep us updated with how it performs for you.
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Very nice! You have the controller inside the mount, with a fan too!
And that welding is awesome. Now that we have enough info for other CGE users, I added this thread to the showcase page.
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First night out under the stars! Guiding is fantastic!
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Well not FANTASTIC fantastic, but I've certainly seen worse. Definitely good enough for photography. I think my problem is my backlash adjustment and my balance. I wasn't very careful with either. I also turned the current down to 1 amp because they were getting really hot at 2.
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tnut55
Keep the reports coming! I don't like the backlash on my exos1 but then that mount was never intended to be a goto mount I think.
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So, I adjusted the balance on my scope and the guiding dialed right in. 0.6" on each axis. I've never had guiding this good. Onstep for the win. Unfortunately I'll it's way too hazy to actually get decent images but I'll get some soon. I'll start a comprehensive write up tomorrow.
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It was way too hazy out to image, but I did take a few for the hell of it. Here's a single guided 6 minute exposure of m51
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tnut55
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Seeing is dreadful because of the wild fires in Canada, but here's an hour's worth it exposure on M81. Having some tracking issues. I think PHD2 is just being too aggressive. But otherwise I'm getting very good subs overall.
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tnut55
Not bad! Your dreadful skies are better than my best skies because of light pollution. I've pretty much given up on deep sky imaging.
On Monday, June 3, 2019, 4:25:35 AM CDT, Aisling Lightworks <stercust@...> wrote:
Seeing is dreadful because of the wild fires in Canada, but here's an hour's worth it exposure on M81. Having some tracking issues. I think PHD2 is just being too aggressive. But otherwise I'm getting very good subs overall.
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Howard Dutton
On Fri, May 31, 2019 at 08:12 PM, Aisling Lightworks wrote:
Well not FANTASTIC fantastic, but I've certainly seen worse. Definitely good enough for photography. I think my problem is my backlash adjustment and my balance. I wasn't very careful with either. I also turned the current down to 1 amp because they were getting really hot at 2.I haven't really been following too closely but assuming "they" being the motors are 2A rated running at < the rated current can certainly work and work well. Sometimes though more is better with regard to guiding and the "authority" with which the motors respond to tiny micro-step changes. Also, stepper motors driven to 100% usually get rather hot. This is normal, and most people myself included don't go there... especially since 100% at 2A usually requires a Vref setting to give 2.8A (since micro-stepping only goes to 70.7% current and motors are rated both coils @ 100%.)
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They're performing well with a .65 Vref which is giving them 1.3a
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Better backlash adjustment and better balance. I never thought I'd get guiding this good out of this old mount.
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Better PHD2 settings and implementation of a PEC sensor and training.
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If you can't make it out in the image, that's .5" total error. Really superb guiding.
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