[The_bluester (Paul)]

So, a toss up between putting this here or in the AP equipment section, mods feel free to move it if you think appropriate.

I am very much at the start of the AP journey, currently using my 9.25 SCT with a 0.63 reducer, thin OAG with an ASI290MM Mini guide cam and an ASI294 imaging camera. I have been using an old, slow, first generation Intel NUC Celeron to control the mount, run the guider and capture images via APT, which I am quite comfortable with. The problem is it is S.L.O.O.O.W.

Pretty much everything works OK so long as you leave it alone, the problem is plate solving, All Sky Plate Solver takes around 2 minutes to solve and unless a goto lands close to the expected target (Really close) Plate Solve 2 usually times out (At 300 seconds) trying to do a spiral search. Try to solve the same image on my PC in the house and ASPS solves in about 20 seconds and Plate Solve 2 pretty quickly, quickly enough that I never bothered to time it.

I am thinking about getting a current generation I5 NUC to replace it. I tried out my wife's current Gen I5 laptop and it solves in similar times to my desktop (Which is an I7 but years old)

I can build myself a NUC to image with for about $750 ignoring the OS and I can run it off my DC power setup as the current ones span an input voltage range anywhere from 12 to 19VDC. The poor little Celeron is 12VDC only and does not even like the 13.8V of most bench power supplies, it powers up and shuts down again immediately, the Intel supplied wall wart spits out 12.5V on the nose.

The plan is to mount the VESA bracket that comes with a NUC to the eyepiece tray and make a box to go over the top and keep the dew away. I have been remoting in to the NUC via my laptop and Teamviewer and plan to continue either ethernet connected or with a little 12V wifi router on low power mode, or with the NUC as a hotspot if I can arrange that.

Can anyone suggest something that is similarly priced or better for similar grunt in a small form factor and capable of being run direct from a 12VDC supply? Windows will be the required OS. Probably Win 10.