From: "centurion40tim" <urgent40@cybertrails.com>
Date: September 26, 2007 8:52:36 PM MDT
To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: autoguiding primer?
I got the cable in the box along with my Celestron 9.25. It's a CG-5 mount. The cable
looks right - it's flat with the colored wires (BYGRBW) all separate and hooking into the six
contacts.
The only button that works is the Right and it seems to move in the right direction. I
thought at first the Up was working but it either stopped working or I misperceived. I
juggled and fumbled with the plug ends to no avail.
Yes I upgraded to the Astro 3.02. per advice here.
I figure if one direction moves, then it could be a contact problem. I looked briefly at the
plugs and I could do a little surgery. Will look closely at my mount contacts as well when I
have a chance.
That is unless you can think of something else. Could it be the GPUSB? I noticed that they
had a diagnostic tool on the Shoestring website but it is made for PCs. I don't suppose
there is a compatibility problem with my mac.
thanks!
--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Milton Aupperle <milton@...> wrote:
Hi Tim;
On 23-Sep-07, at 10:47 PM, centurion40tim wrote:
Right. Sorry about that. OK. Got all set up. Got a bright star on
the monitor, made
adjustments like 4x4 binning and black point. Focused pretty well.
All seemed fine until I
tried to calibrate. The message I get is something like: "No motion
detected. Problem with
USB, GPUSB or motors not working."
Then it's not seeing any motion when it tries to calibrate on the
horizontal axis, so it tries it a few times until it exceeds 30
seconds of time and then gives up. That's consistent with your
observation that only 2 buttons work. If Astro IID detects any USB
hardware issues, error messages will also show up in the console.log
window.
The sticky buttons work, or a least two of them - Up and Left (or
was it Right?) So I am
confused by the message. I mean the sticky buttons wouldn't work if
there were a
connection problem, right? But then, all four should work instead
of just two. hmm
Yep - hmm. Next time can you confirm which buttons do move the mount
and which directions it does move it. For example, if the left button
works, does it move left or right? You can test this in the daytime
and just need a distant object.
If only two buttons work then it will never work for guiding and
there is either a problem with the GPUSB, the plugs / connectors or
the cabling. That's why I recommend people make sure all 4 buttons
(or left/ right if you are only doing RA correction) work before
guiding.
Three questions and comments:
1) Where does your GPUSB to Mount cable come from? You can't use say
an Ethernet cables as they are twisted pairs and the cable has to be
straight through. By straight through I means the wires are connected
to the same pins on both male plugs (pin 0 to pin 0, pin 1 to pin
etc. etc.).
2) Did you try wiggling the cable plugs on both ends to make sure
they are seated properly? This has happened to me in the past.
3) You may want to try bending the GPUSB connector pins down a bit so
they make better contact with the male plug on the cable. The unit i
received had a similar issue and I bent the pins a bit down to make
better contact. After that i had no more issues ever since.
My setup:
ASGT 9.25/ Firewire webcam/ AstroIIDC 3.0/ iMac 500mhz/OS10.3/GPUSB
using USB port
on the mac to Autoguide port on the mount.
Two questions.
1) What mount is this on?
2) You are using Astro IIDC 3.02.01, right? There was a hardware
change made with GPUSB (there is an old 16 button HID version and new
2 button HID version) and we had to make some pretty gnarly changes
in Astro IIDC 3.02.x to accommodate it.
Thanks in advance..
Milton Aupperle..