meade 909 apm

[mozzie]

i would like to let the lx90 users know there is still some original meade apm 909 modules here in aus they are at astro optical supplies there is only a few left im not here to give prices or endorse the company only that ive been after one and been all over the states trying to find one they are used for guiding,ccd,focuser i wouldnt hesitate cause i couldnt find them anywhere else

once again my post here is only to help lx90 users
mozzie

[renormalised]

What's the website??

[mozzie]

the web site is www.astro-optical.com.au (http://www.astro-optical.com.au)
i think
mozzie
yep thats the right address

[renormalised]

Can't find it on their site??

[mozzie]

no ring the number ask for neil i didnt see them either i emailed them and they replied with available stock
mozzie

[renormalised]

That's what I just did...emailed them:D

[mozzie]

as i said before im not affiliated with and companies but i orded it friday arvo late and it arrived today stocked finally found one
mozzie

[renormalised]

By the time I got the email back from them, they'd sold out of APM's!!!!!

[mozzie]

bugger:shrug::shrug:
mozzie

[renormalised]

They're going to let me know if any more turn up.

[DavidTrap]

I have one of the clone 909APM's from Gene in the States - Google is your friend. It was about $100 landed here.

The autoguider mechanism seems to work with my Orion StarShoot autoguider. You need to fiddle with patches for your Autostar, but Andrew in Melbourne specifically rewrote the patch for me to fix some problems. PM if you want more details.

I haven't tried using ASCOM for Autoguiding - I wanted to use the ST4 autoguiding port as this apparently make direct instructions to the guiding motors, rather than sending a signal to the Autostar for it to relay to the motors. I'm all for cutting out the middleman. I probably haven't explained this well, but it made sense when I read about it on the net.

I haven't tried out the focus or reticle sockets - don't have anything to plug into these, but they do come up as options on the Autostar once I plug the 909 clone in to the Aux socket.

Regard
David T

[AndrewJ]

Gday Dave


Whose a bl#@dy troublemaker :D
It's only new model LX90s that have a problem
Older LX90s should work OK without patching
Meade have too many different versions of motor cards and firmware to make it a simple exercise anymore.:shrug:
You just drew a short straw heheheheheeeeeee


Not so, The 497 is ALWAYS the middleman.
In the LX200GPS or the RCXs, St4 inputs go directly to a CPU interrupt
( ie they jump to the head of the queue )
With an APM module on a 497 / 497EP handbox,
the ST4 commands still go to the CPU ( without PC involvement )
but they still stand in / get blended into the same queue as the normal serial commands

Ie they walk side by side with the peasants :D

The main benefit of the 909 module is you dont necessarily need a PC to control guiding, but all commands still need to go via the Hbx

Andrew

[DavidTrap]

Thanks for clarifying that Andrew,

I am grateful for your efforts - finally got my autoguider and proved your patch works! Hopefully, I will go away to darker skies this weekend and do some imaging...

Bit disappointed you have burst my bubble about the 909 avoiding the middleman. So essentially, there is no benefit to using the 909 over ASCOM drivers???

(I suppose if I use the 909, it means the serial port on the Autostar is available for connection to planetarium software on the computer to control my imaging session - ahhh, I feel better now!)

Ta
DT

[renormalised]

Been watching too many "Medibank Private" ads:P:D

[AndrewJ]

Gday Dave



Thats not quite what i said ;)
If you have a camera that puts out direct ST4 commands
you can plug the camera into the 909, and the Hbx will happily read the data, ( with no need for a PC talking to the "Hbx" to guide )
As you note, this leaves the serial comms port available for other uses.
As to data flow you would then have
Camera - 909 - Hbx queue
For PC guiding you have
Camera - PC Application - ASCOM - Guide command - HbxSerial buffer - Hbx queue

Ie both streams end up in a common final queue to "process moves"
but the 909 is a bit shorter, hence may have lower latency errors
In the overall scheme of things, its probably not critical tho.

Andrew