Quote:
Originally Posted by TheCrazedLog
Hey all:
Slight rant/request for help/sympathy.
For the second time in a row, I've pulled out all my gear, set it up and been thwarted by computers. For a guy who's job is in computers (sysadmin) you'd think I'd have it under control. Regrettably it is not so.
I've got an EQ-6 with EQMod connected to an XP laptop running Stellarium, Stellarium Scope, Alignmaster, a GPS that think its a mouse (seriously: I plug it in and 50% of the time the pointer goes ape) and a canon 40d, with a DSI2 as a guide camera.
The first night on a HP 6930p running XP, the video drivers and stellarium didn't get on and they both crashed, taking things with it. THe backup computer (my old mac) had an enter key failure and its now permanently retired.
The replacement laptop, an IBM T61, worked fine right up to the point i plugged in the Canon and while Windows would see the camera, APT and EOS utility would not. After trial and error I've figured out that it has something to do with the USB ports on the T61: everything else works fine on the desktop at home.
My questions are:
- Is EQMod temperamental for anyone else? I seem to have it crash at least once every two sessions. It'll lock hard and I have to start again.
- Stellarium/Stellarium Scope: What is the stability like for others using these products? I like them, but I'm not sure where the system instability is coming from?
- Has anyone noticed any major difference in stability moving from XP to 7? Sure, 7 is newer, but anyone who's been around a while in IT knows straight away that just because something is newer doesn't make it better (Windows ME, Windows 8.0, the list goes on)
- Apart from the software listed here, what other suggestions do people have? I've got Astroplanner, but in terms of presentation and ease of use, Stellarium for me gives much better situational awareness. Maybe Carte Du Ciel (how do I spell that...?)
- I'm considering breaking out functions on to separate computers: One for imaging, one for scope control. Any thoughts?
Thanks
Anthony
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I finally got my old XP SP3 PC working well last night, after a 3 year break to build a new house. No room for full obs shed, so just installed a pier in the backyard about 6m from the PC location on the house back deck. The PC uses a 4yr old Gigabyte VM900M motherboard with 4Gb RAM and a misc old Pentium CPU and a TP-Link WiFi dongle.
It connects to the pier via a single ATEN 5m active USB extender cable, with two hubs at the pier, one for the power-hungry USB DSI guider and one for everything else. I disconnected the red 5v wire at the first hub to prevent 5v feed back to the PC. There are twin 12vdc heavy cables run underground to the pier for all power, no 240vac!
After a couple of initial hardware hiccups, it finally all came together yesterday and worked perfectly for 7 hours, with all equipment connected and running, including a 2 hour imaging/guiding test last night. I'm very pleased to see it all happening using XP on a single computer with a single USB 2 connection.
Pier setup is azeq6 running EQMOD via Dontronics ftdi cable, DSI II Pro mono guiding camera and QHY 8 Pro OSC imager, mounted on an ONAG guider. Test image of Eta C last night ran well with 20 x 5min exposures showing round stars. We'll start to get more ambitious tonight!
Software is PHD2 for guiding (reliable and has a good polar alignment wizard), CdC for star selection, and Nebulosity 3.2 for imaging. All on the one PC.
After the test last night, also connected the PC wirelessly via my Nexus 10 tablet using Microsoft remote desktop for Android, worked perfectly, with all programs running. Neat to be able to stroll down to the pier and still see/control the PC. Great for manually focusing.
Hope this info might be of some help in getting your setup going. It can be done!