Back in May I bought a high spec Dell XPS 15 laptop to run my observatory. I upgraded and installed all the observatory software and everything seemed to work (quite a bit of work too - my first Win7 64 bit configuration). That is, until I got to first (computational) light. Slews kept failing intermittently so I couldn't even do a mapping calibration run (in TheSkyX). I fiddle farted around forever, it seemed, but Software Bisque could not identify a problem with their software. It was
exasperating. In the end I googled "Dell XPS 15 Problem" (which is the first thing I should have done
) and the screen was flooded with links about USB 3 problems (it only had 2 x USB3 ports). My heart sank - I'd wasted a couple of months trying everything to get it working only to find the issue was in the lappy!!
Thankfully, the USB3 problem didn't show up at all in normal use, so I got rid of the Dell and bought a Toshiba Qosmio X770 (a gaming rig - Win7 64 bit). (
http://apcmag.com/game-on-toshiba-qo...770-review.htm ). Picked it up for a song at Lappy King. Not into gaming - just wanted the spec and the red backlit keyboard. Let me tell you - the red backlit keyboard is an absolute boon!!!!
Perfect for observatory use!!
So, I again installed all the software, "bench" tested it and all seemed well. My old obs lappy was a Toshiba too and it's been a faithful servant for years so I figured I couldn't go wrong with another Toshiba. There were no horror stories on the web either - just the whiners complaining about battery life and that you can't achieve a zillion frames pers sec in 3D mode when playing some shoot-em-up game I've never heard of!
. So far I've installed ASCOM 6, TheSkyX, CCDSoft, CCDAutopilot 5, Automadome, Focusmax, SBIG, Paramount and Robofocus drivers and all my processing s/w.
Last night was the first time I'd run everything together. My heart was racing. The sky was clear and ............... IT ALL ........
WOOOOORKED!!!
I felt like crying I was so happy!
No error messages, no stalls or hiccups. CCDAP5 happily chugged through a small run - and more quickly and efficiently than with my old lappy too - thanks to fast accurate plate solves in TheSkyX and the latest Focusmax s/w.
Alas, once the clouds realised I'd suckered THEM for a change - they moved in quickly ... 100% cover in 20 mins flat so I only managed a couple of hours of imaging (the first in 6 months!!).
Anyway, I'm a happy chappy again. And now that I've settled into my new job, I'm ready to rock & roll again!
Cheers, Marcus
