Astromeccanica Upgrade DA1

[slice of heaven]

Cool .
What version is it?

[Striker (Tony)]

Version 2.04

[Jules]

Hi Tony,
I know from another thread that you ended up returning the kit.

My GP-DX is suffering from an intermittant RA drive - I suspect the stepper IC in my Vixen DD-1 controller is cactus...

I was considering the DA-1 as a replacement but when I came across your post about returning the kit, I'm not so sure now.

Can you tell me what the problem was?

Thanks,
Julian

[Striker (Tony)]

HI Julian,

Firstly I found the Astromeccanica kit is more designed for the experienced user and on top of that they really didn't design the kit to be used in the southern hemisphere...this may have changed by now but I had problems with software and getting any real accuracy with goto functions.

But the real problem was the RA drive would just stop after around half an hour which again was software related in the kit itself.....this also has been fixed through a firmware update but at the time I had had enough and returned the system....the customer service from Poala in Italy was very good and he always returned my emails.....

For my use after having the opertunity to use both this kit and the Skyscan I most definetly would go for the skyscan but from all reports the Astromeccanica kit is better....my opinion would not be so bias if i didn't have all the problem associated with the kit.

[Jules]

Thanks for the info!
I don't know if the SkyScan will work with my Vixen GP/DX. Guess I'll have to hit the web to see...

My other alternative is the WinCTC controller from http://www.coaa.co.uk/winctc.php but it seems to be larger and require more bits to setup in the field before you can get going.

Regards,
Julian