Free mod Toucam - Page 2

davidpretorius · #21 02-10-2005, 03:21 PM

laptop, make sure it has a usb port and you will need the printer port as well when you flick the switch for long exposure!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #22 02-10-2005, 11:38 PM

David, as you have just recently gone through the learning curve I will probably pound you with questions.

No I don't have tracking. But some DSO objects are so bright from my site I should be able to capture some of them.

I may not need a lappy as my old pooter is in getting fixed (remember the one that blew up). I intended to give it to my boys, well now they will have a very good use for it, Toucamming!
That is unless I find an extremely cheap 'Toucam friendly' lappy.

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #23 03-10-2005, 12:01 AM

Bert,

I told my boys today that you are giving us the Toucam (had to explain what it is) and they were very excited and asked me to thank you. Harry has already named about 10 objects he wants to capture!
"Slow down boys, we have to learn how to use it yet!"

The boys and I even worked out and measured where we can place the scope in the back yard close enough to keep the pooter in the sunroom out of the dew!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #24 04-10-2005, 03:34 PM

Well, my TouCam from Bert (Avandonk) arrived today and I have been in deep conversation with David Pretorius how to set it all up! Thanks guys!

I will be snapping away ASAP. I have it working and the quality of images in the kitchen is astounding.

I will be hooking it up to my other pooter and taking it out to the sky when it gets back from the repair man but in the meantime it will be hooked up on this one.

Thanks Bert

davidpretorius · #25 04-10-2005, 03:38 PM

lookout mike!!!!

ken is armed and dangerous!!!!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #26 04-10-2005, 03:41 PM

hehehe, Look out space, here I come!

Striker (Tony) · #27 04-10-2005, 04:34 PM

You know what this means Ken.....you start with the toucam then you will be wanting a SBig ST-11000CM.

Enjoy your toucam....its lots of fun doing imaging.

TidaLpHasE · #28 04-10-2005, 04:35 PM

That's a gret gesture Bert, good luck with the learning Ken, we wanna see some pics real soon ya hear

avandonk · #29 04-10-2005, 06:12 PM

I am glad this all worked out.
Here are my reasons for disposing of the mod ToUcam.I bought the modified ToUcam in the hope of using it for autoguiding even though the unmodified one was OK, sometimes could not find a bright enough guide star.Anyway turns out the parallel port was already in use for my relay box so couldn't really use it. It does no one any good stuck in a drawer collecting dust.
So after a long run of cloudy nights and a run of cold beers

decided to do what I did, offer it for free on IIS, first come best dressed.The only condition I had in mind was that the recipient would have no current way to adequately image.

So I hope Ken and his boys have fun using it.

Bert

davidpretorius · #30 04-10-2005, 07:52 PM

oh ken, ken.....ken..... you're not playing with a new toy are u???

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #31 04-10-2005, 08:03 PM

How did you guess Dave. It works so well! I have already been told by the Boss "You are not taking this pooter out in the back yard, you can wait until the other one comes back next week".

Oh well, it was worth a try. The only thing that stops me from sneaking this pooter out the back is that we are forecast to have rain for the next week!!!!

Another thought too, I will have to get a CD burner added to my old pooter. When I do my pics outside I will have to save them on a disc and then transfer it to this pooter for posting in here unless there is a cable I can connect to send the info across from the other pooter to this one

davidpretorius · #32 04-10-2005, 08:08 PM

we might be able to sort something out, a couple of cheap network cards, maybe wireless and you can share the internet connection on the good computer with the other one.

windows 98 can be a pain sometimes talking to other computers, but maybe if the other one is XP, then we could sort it out.

how far away from snake valley are you, is it something we could sort out whilst at camp????

or you could get the Dell Latitude X1 ultra light laptop and the case of grange hermitage naglers of mick pinners as well!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #33 04-10-2005, 08:14 PM

Ummm, you lost me there Dave with the PC lingo.

Yeah the other one is Windows 98.
I am right in the middle of the town of Snake Valley. 1/2 a k from the General Store and 2k from the Camp.

What's a: Dell Latitude X1 ultra light laptop !

davidpretorius · #34 04-10-2005, 08:19 PM

instead of burning lots of cd's to transfer information ie pictures, we could get the two computers to talk to each other. This is called networking two or more computers. That way you can get your vid from the toUken and then process it and then trasnfer it to the internet from the old computer but via the good computer.

once the two computer can communicate to each other, then the internet connection on the good one can be shared with the old one. No more fighting with the wife for internet time!!!

If we can't sort it out over the forum, then some hands on work at your joint during the camp may be in order!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #35 04-10-2005, 08:22 PM

Sounds good. But is something like that expensive?

davidpretorius · #36 04-10-2005, 08:28 PM

non wireless network cards are now around $10 bucks, but i think i have some kicking around which you can have if i can find them. I would have some cable to physically connect them; again which you can have free.

wireless network cards do not need cables, are more flexible but are around $50 to $70. Check with your local guy if he can get you a price and we can check if he is being fair!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #37 04-10-2005, 08:31 PM

OK I will ring him tomorrow and ask him how much to load-up XP and how much for wireless network cards (will I need 2 of them? one for each pooter?)

davidpretorius · #38 04-10-2005, 08:37 PM

one network card for each computer either wireless or ones that are connected by cable. Windows Xp is good when it comes to talking to other computers, 98 can be a pig sometimes. Get his opinion. He should be able to do the non wireless ones for $30 in total, and then wireless for say $100 - $150.

let us know how you go!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #39 05-10-2005, 03:24 PM

David,

I rang my pooter man just then and he said:

Wireless - $200
Wired to 20m - approx $50
Put burner in other pooter - $50

He recommends putting a burner in the old pooter and leaving it as Windows 98. (to save costs) Do my astro pics outside on the old pooter, save on disc and then play with them inside on the good pooter.

He can do the wired set-up but the cable will have to run through 3 walls in the house and reach 20 metres.

Sounds like the Burner is the easiest so far. If I can give him an answer by the weekend he will set it up whichever way I want and get it to me next week.

davidpretorius · #40 05-10-2005, 04:23 PM

CD ROM as you will need it to load the toucam software onto your old computer anyway!

Make sure the old poota has 1 or 2 usb ports!!!!
I will want to know if you can load photoshop (photo editing), registax(for stacking) , astralimage (photo editing) and neat image (for cleaning noise on images) and winzip (for compressing the images for emailing to us for playing with etc onto you old poota. Also how much disk space will you have on your old poota. My 2minute video of a pass of the moon took up 900,000 kbytes or nearly 1 gbyte of hard disk space. Planets will compress right down ( don't worry i will talk you thru it)
If you can process your video happily on the old poota then you can simply transfer the finished job to the new one via cd rom. You will need a cd rom anyway to load the software for your toucam etc. so get the cd rom.
As a better option and i should have thought of it earlier, I will send you a memory stick for your belated birthday present (30th July) so you can save the photos to the memory stick, take it out of the usb port and walk it into the house for transferring to the good poota. This will work a treat