How long does the update of Autostar ii take?

[rumples riot]

I finally decided to update my firmware today on my LX200. So I initially tried to update and found that the software I had was faulty, so I went to the site and updated the Updater. Then once this was done I started the update. It is still going after 1 hour and it is currently only at 37% completed. Does it always take this long?

Paul

[beren]

Paul i havent updated yet but from what ive read its a fairly lengthy procedure.......good luck tell us how it goes ...planning to do it over the weekend.

[rumples riot]

Now at 48% woo hoo.

[beren]

are you downloading some tours as well?

[rumples riot]

No just the program, now at 59%. Would like to get some really good tours, do you know of any?

[rumples riot]

Now 7.30 pm and it has finished and everything seems ok. 3 hours an 30 minutes. Now to test out the new firmware. Hehehehe

[Dave47tuc (David)]

Well done

It can take as you have just found out some time. I have not tested it yet. I'm setting up as we speak.

I have been so busy. But now have a few hours free. Telescope setting up but some high cloud. Should go away!!!!

Good luck Paul, we shall see how 3.0i goes.
All reports it is ok. Only some minor hiccups reported by Andrew on Yahoo. I think you are in Alt/Az mode as me so all should be fine.

Remember to do a train drive, it will help.

Talk soon.

Best.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

It was exactly the same for me the first time I updated Paul. Around three hours.

I mucked around with it after that and saved the update to my harddrive first then checked that baud rate was as high as possible then redid the update. Took about 20 min. See how it goes.

Paul

[beren]

Paul youll find some tours in the files section of the lx200gps yahoo group .........

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LX200GPS/

Bintel have some on their website , checked last night it seems their updating them and are unavailable for the moment . You can make your own to .

Saved the update to my harddrive last night , that was fairly quick, ill try install it today.

[Dave47tuc (David)]

Well all seems good with 3.0i, what did you think Paul?
After a train drive and automatic alignment, first star to align was Canopus.
This was just outside the field of my 8.8mm. Then next star was Formalhaut, this was near spot on in the eyepiece!!
Alignment done

Go To's for the rest of the night were spot on. I could Go To at any magnification. Even at 284x my Go To's were in the field anywhere in the sky.

Quick report
The Moon was just great as normal, seeing was very good. Some slight high cloud. Not good for Galaxy's.
I just worked the Apollo 17 area. Rukl pages 24-25.
Mons Argaeus, Mons Viturius,Rimea Littrow, Littrow crater. Just so much here, it was awesome.

Deep sky,
I was testing my new 22 Panoptic, super eyepiece
M42 was great, all 6 stars in the Trapezium no problem and very steady!
Looked at many objects, of note M79 at 212x well resolved.
NGC 1851, this is a very nice Globular check it out next time your out.
Missed Saturn, I do not have a good north eastly view. To many trees and houses

So hope you had a good time as well Paul. Others i don't see a problem with 3.0i

Best.

[beren]

nice one .....i gave up early to set up but typically the cloud dissappeared after twilight ended , the moon was so inviting ...ahhhh.....anywhy ended up watching Apollo 13.

Dave are there any new tours with the new firmware ?

Congrats on the new 22 pan ....nice

[Dave47tuc (David)]

Aragorn,
No I saved my old tours, and put them back.
I like the tonight's best tour, but normally i don't bother.
I have lists of Deep Sky objects, or something going on with the Planets, that I view. Unless I'm testing something as i did last night.

Best.

[beren]

I use the "tonights best tour " often but mostly use cartes du ceil to make up a list for a nights viewing . i did get a tour form the lx200 group that had a nice tour of the Carina area .

[rumples riot]

New firmware seems ok, although I only set up imaged saturn, seeing was loosy, so images we not that flash. Will go through them and see which is the best and stack them. Ony about three hundred to check.

I did note that pointing was still ok but will need to retrain drives.

Other than that I will report when I have done a more thorough inspection.

Paul

[beren]

Did the update last night , i had already saved the new firmware to my pc hard-drive earlier and everything ran smoothly and took about 35 min . Just had trouble at first because the updater couldnt find the new files , gah, didnt unzip and place in the correct folder. No chance to experiment last night but first chance i will train/calibrate drives and see how it goes.

[rumples riot]

Think I will do the same next time. Seems to save time with the update. Did you place it in the emphemeris folder?

Paul

[beren]

Yep , i followed the instructions found at the lx200 gps yahoo groups file section and the www.MeadeLX200gps site .....just forgot to unzip the files before putting them into the emphemeris folder.