How I've dealt with the spaghetti mess of cabling

[stevous67 (Steve M)]

These Power distribution boards are dead easy to make, including a fuse per line to suit your accessory, a LED, a volt meter, even a switch per line if the box had enough surface room. Here are some pre-fab units used for RC modeling:

http://www.rcaccessory.com/12vdcpowerstrip.aspx

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXUDR0&P=7

A simple one:

http://www.siriuselectronics.com/ind...roducts_id=453

[stevous67 (Steve M)]

Wow, now these power boards are nice:

http://aero-smith.net/cart/index.php...ort=20a&page=1

Now this is the one to get carried away with... The MFJ-1126

[DavidTrap (David)]

I was using banana plugs, but changed to a polarized plug to reduce the chance of blowing something up in the darkness.

DT

[stevous67 (Steve M)]

Good point David.

[ReaPerMan (Paul)]

I actually have the Mount Hub Pro from Hitec Astro and it's a great device it runs all the power you could want as well as a dew heater controller, Focuser and GPS. All in the one box. It has software control that allows you to individually turn accessories on and off and adjust the amount of power you want to go to your dew straps. I have it interfaced to EQMOD and alignmaster for the GPS and have had no problems since i got it.

all the best

Paul

[marki]

My solution is the same as Pauls, two wires leave the mount the rest is in one box, very neat.

[stevous67 (Steve M)]

The Mount Hub Pro is a very interesting product - mounting on the scope is an excellent idea.

[cventer]

Mount Hub looks good.

Some question for those using one.

1. Does it support Windows 7 ?
2. How do you power camera's like QHY that uses Mini Din and SBIG that use DIN from the HUB ?
3. Do Robofocus Motors plug directly to the mount hub ? ie dont need robofocus control box ?

[marki]

It is a marvel.

Q1. Yes it does, I have mine hooked up to a 64 bit win 7 system but you do have to download the latest mount hub pro software.

Q2. The din plug (S video Cable) on the QHY camera's run between the power box and the camera itself. (Quiy does it this way to keep the power board away from the camera to reduce noise). You must connect a standard 2.1 mm power plug into the power box to power up the camera. Luckily that is exactly the type that comes with the mount hub pro . I have no idea how you would get around the SBIG din cable setup.

Q3. Yes the robofocus stepper plugs directly into the mount hub pro and is controlled either by the included hand controller in manual mode or by the mount hub pro software in PC mode. I have one set up on my scope and it works a charm. It will also control the Moonlite stepper motors and any other variant that has the robofocus pinout. You do not need another controller to do it.

In short I love this device, Well worth the dollars.

Mark

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Mind if I ask some questions about that Mount Hub Pro also?

Focuser - I've read it will control my Moonlite focuser, but from the photos I've seen it appears there's 2 interfaces on the hub for focus control. One looks like a serial adapter and I assume that's for the hand controller? And one looks like a RJ11 phone type adapter, which I think the SkyWatcher motor focusers use. Is that right? So I'd need a RJ11 to small stereo earphone type jack that the ML focuser needs at its motor?

Power - I see different types of power connections. Some RCA, presumably for the dew heaters? And some 2.1 or 2.5mm 12V plugs, and it looks like they supply 4 cables with it. So what type are the remaining power connections?

[marki]

Originally Posted by troypiggo

Mind if I ask some questions about that Mount Hub Pro also?

Focuser - I've read it will control my Moonlite focuser, but from the photos I've seen it appears there's 2 interfaces on the hub for focus control. One looks like a serial adapter and I assume that's for the hand controller? And one looks like a RJ11 phone type adapter, which I think the SkyWatcher motor focusers use. Is that right? So I'd need a RJ11 to small stereo earphone type jack that the ML focuser needs at its motor?

Power - I see different types of power connections. Some RCA, presumably for the dew heaters? And some 2.1 or 2.5mm 12V plugs, and it looks like they supply 4 cables with it. So what type are the remaining power connections?

The serial conection is for the focuser itself. Robofocus and Moonlight steppers use serial connections, neither my robofocus or Moonlite have a stereo jack input??? Are you using the stepper motor or the other version? The focus function will only work with the stepper motors. The phone type adaptor is where you plug in the supplied hand controller for the focus function if you want to use it manually (there is a switch manual/PC control on the hub).

All the power conections (4 each side and three on one end) are 2.1 mm connectors, they supply 4 short cables with the hub which is what gave me the idea to mount it on board. That is fine as meade, celestron, QHY, FLI use the 2.1 jack for power supply. The four ports along each side of the hub are controlled by software. The RCA jacks are indeed for the dew heaters.
and these can be set via software or manually by using the pots on one end.

Mark