From: "KirkusMcGurkus" <kirk@stenvall.net>

Date: October 5, 2008 4:24:45 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: Custom drive ratios disrupt tracking?


Alberto,


Thank you for this post. It's comforting to know that I'm not the only

one who seems to have this particular problem. I'll be curious to know

how your 909 box works. After a short storm front moved through, I'll

be able to set up tonight and test a few things. As soon as I receive

my new unlock key, I'll throw version 4 of AstroIIDC into the mix and

see if that corrects the problem. I'll post my findings here.


Thanks again!


Kirk



--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, albe albo <richter1956@...> wrote:


Hello Kirk,

i guess i had problems similar to yours.

Milton an me had a very long and intense brainstorming about my

LXD75 (autostar 497)  testing some changes in the serial port command

sequence but until now i'm not been able to guide with my LXD75 (belt

transmission).

The calibrations always seems to succeed but the response of the

guiding seems exaggerate  both in number of corrections than  in

amount of corrections, while, leaving the star unguided, it is stiff

into the center slowly moved only by the PE (approx +10 -10 arcsec on

10 minutes for my mount).

Milton suppose that almost surely it is a problem of my particular

LXD75 configuration.

Now i ordered a 909 box and i will try using the shoestring

interface instead of the serial interface.

Who knows maybe i will solve.

Alberto





----- Original Message ----

From: KirkusMcGurkus <kirk@...>

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:35:08 AM

Subject: [Astro_IIDC] Re: Custom drive ratios disrupt tracking?



Milton,


Thanks again for all your help.


I've just ordered an upgrade to version 4. Along with that, several

minor adjustments I made to my mount, and drift aligning (I've avoided

doing that, I suppose because I'm lazy), hopefully I'll be able to get

more than 30 second exposures. :)


It may just be that my lower-end LXD75 simply isn't capable of doing

more.


Anyway, thanks again for your support.


Kirk


--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogro ups.com, "Milton Aupperle" <milton@> wrote:


Hi KirkusMcGurkus;


I would seriously doubt that has any influence at all.


During the Calibration process, we measure how much and what direction

it moves for the 4 axis. We make no assumptions like "RA +ve should

moves an onscreen star to the right", and actually measure it.


The reason we make no assumptions is because we don't know how the

Camera is oriented, don't know if you've enabled one of those

controller switches that reverse movement directions (E is W , S is

N), don't know if your using a prism or flip mirror, don't know if

your using a Off Axis Guider, and you might be using "Flip Horizontal"

or "Flip Vertical" in Astro IIDC too. All of the above things can

cause all sorts of reversals of left / right / up / down, so we

measure rather than guess.


Hope That Helps..


Milton Aupperle


--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogro ups.com, "KirkusMcGurkus" <kirk@> wrote:


Milton,


Here's a quick question for you. Because I went from gears to belt,

the actual direction of the gear ratios in my Autostar have been

reversed. "+'s" are now "-'s" and vice versa. I'll bet this is

what's

going on.


AstroIIDC is giving the mount commands to move, but because I'm

using

belts instead of gears, the motors turn in the opposite

direction then

what they used to. AstroIIDC is saying move the motor in direction A

but because of the belts as opposed to gears, direction A moves the

mount in the opposite direction.


Doesn't that sound about right?