Thank you Pavel Bahtinov. The advent of your mask has seen my need for a large and reasonably powerful laptop dissappear.
Take 1: Dreary Saturday morning with little likelihood of clearing for tonight. Project time!
Because I really needed DSLR focussing controlled by ImagesPlus, I also used ImagesPlus to control and capture/store my astro images as part of the process. While it was there I also ran PHD Guiding off the same laptop.
The large Toshiba lappy drew 3.9 amps when imaging/capturing.
Now - because of the Bahtinov mask, I can do away with DSLR Focus and Images Plus. The only reason I ran ImagesPlus camera control is because I already had it hooked up to do my focus first. Nice, but unwieldy. Post-processing is done on my 64-bit desktop unit at home anyways.
I now have an Asus eeePC running XP to control JUST PHD Guiding. Nothing more. Focus is performed in two seconds flat with the mask, and camera control is now via a timer/release cable that can perform repetitive tasks. I have a 2Gb card in the camera - it is more than capable of taking a nights' worth of images. The small laptop draws about 1 amp while guiding because I can shut the lid and shut down the display - but leave the unit humming along guiding.
I can now do away with my large laptop hutch - and while I'm at it the table it sat on too. I've constructed a small table for my G11, which cradles the eeePC nicely, and is so close to the mount that I only need a standard length USB cable to run the guide camera. Nice! No more long cables to trip on.
Anyhow - here it is now.
1) The table connected to the Losmandy Digital Drive controller support posts.
2) With laptop in the guiding position (lid closed but running) - keeping the keyboard dry.
I've recently bought a EEEPC, and unfortunately I'm yet to give it a fly for astro imaging. Im hoping it will have enough grunt for everything (it seems very capable)
Your little lappy bench on your G11 looks fantastic!
Alex, thanks. I know that Big Dave out of Melbourne runs an eeePC to run his STL-11000m and guiding via PHD - all at the same time and for little power. He shuts the lid and leaves it run - worked very well at IISAC (or would have).
Just remember to turn of wireless comms - it's a power killer.
Phil - I have an older unit, that came with my Toshiba as a giveaway. It's the 701 model, with a 900MHz Celeron and 504Mb of RAM. It is a flash drive model (4GB) which i wanted so that it was all solid state. Much cheaper to run in terms of field battery power - no moving parts.
DJ - I'm running XP Home, SP3.Mine came running Xandros Linux, so I had to install it over Linux in a specif manner that is explained in the fairly comprehensive manual. All the XP drivers come on CD with the unit - for which you need an external USB CD drive to load. You leave out some of the standard Windows services to save room - can't remember which ones though. I'm now running everything I need to on 1.37Gb of "disk", leaving plenty in reserve. I could even load Cartes Du Ciel if I wanted to... which i might. The screen on my 701 is smaller than the current 901 at 800x600. It's plenty big enough to run PHD though, and if you really want to, it'll support an external monitor at 1024x768 at least..
An EEEPC is an ultra-portable laptop made by Asus. Chris's model is 7.1" diagonally (very small). They are quite powerful for their size, and some have exceptionally long battery life. (some up to 9.2hrs depending on type of use)
Rather than a moving hard disk like other laptops, the eeepc use a SSD (Solid state drive) which is somewhat like a SD card, or a USB flash drive, This lessens the power requirement, makes the system faster and generates less heat. SSD's are also more tollerant to harsh jolts etc, where a conventional hard disk would fail..
To top it all off, the eeepc's are relatively cheap, starting at $399 (depending on where you shop)...
You can buy them with bigger conventional hard drives, but for an astropc, theres just no need..
I'll be buying one soon, I'll use a USB hub to split one of the USB ports to 4, so I'll have 6 ports available, I'm just hoping the machine will run everything I need it to (CCD, Guiding, the sky+EQmod, usb focuser) and hopefully I'll be able to make a table and sit it under the tripod of my mount, keeping my setups footprint tiny.. make a little canvas tent to cover under my mount and hey presto - dew protected pc-controlled setup, with no wires hanging out for people to trip on in the dark!
Oh my I've started to rant/brainstorm in an open forum..
how long does the 701 last once you turn off the wireless? what about with the lid shut?
also, do you find the 7" screen a problem? i was looking at the 900/901 models, with the 8.9" screen and 1GB RAM, as well, but they are about $180-$200 more expensive!
the 701's available now only seem to have linux but i have a spare XP Pro at home so could load that.
The 701's just fine. Even at 800x600, the display is small so it is sharp at that resolution. I'm running StarGazer 4.5 (the cut-down version of Voyager 4.5) and the screen is nce to use.
Battery life? Dunno... I'll be running a 12-9.5v DC to DC adapter off my 80AH deep cycle.
Yeah.. I invested in a 701 yesterday.. Im following your lead Chris, and making a bracket to mount it to my tripod, I have ordered a 12v power unit for it off ebay, so it will be run of the 80ah battery I secured about a month ago!! Woooh! finally, no more requirement for 240v AC power!
Great stuff Alex - yup, nice not to require AC power at all.
DJ - you use your own copy of XP, and the unit comes with its own driver disk so that you can utilise eeePC-specific hardware features such as keyboard-controlled wireless on/off, brightness, etc, etc.
it was preinstalled with GNU linux. I left linux on it, installed VM ware, then installed XP into VMware on an 8gb usb flash drive.. as Chris said, the eeepc comes with an XP driver disk, which has everything you need.
