From: Dave Goodyear <dave@kb2networks.com>

Date: July 21, 2012 8:05:36 PM MDT

To: "Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com" <Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com>

Subject: RE: [Astro_IIDC] Re: Firefly MV cameras, NIB, on ebay


Wow!!

 

Hey Milton..  How does that heatsink work on the camera?  I just bought a Thermal take Slim x3 that I’m going to mount on my PT GH 2.8..

 

Dave Goodyear

KB2 Networks Inc.

214 Main St. #318                            

El Segundo, CA  90245

310-933-2436

 

Mail Attachment

 

 

From: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Milton Aupperle
Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 2:36 PM
To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: Firefly MV cameras, NIB, on ebay

 

 

Yes you are missing a few things.

1) As I said, cables become rods at -30°C or colder. Fewer cables have
less issues to deal with for guiding. And you have less tangle issues
and less cable breakage too. Have a look at my old winter operating
conditions:

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/Scope04.jpg

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/Scope05.jpg

That's 4 cables going to the mount form the Mac - now it's one cable.

2) ASCOM is not supported on the Mac - and likely never will be.

3) Pulse guide is not supported on HEQ5 / HEQ6 mounts - and I'm pretty
sure not on Celestron in general. That's "faked in software" via ASCOM
for those mounts. We already spawn individual preemptive threads for
doing this anyhow.

4) The ST4 ports are simple switches and give direct access to the
mount motors. No command interpretation needed by a slow Micro or
FPGA. You can use two pieces of wire to move the mount around via the
ST4 port.

5) USB to Serial port converters have very high latency rates (50 to
500 ms - we are talking 9600 baud communication) - as do the mounts
micros that interpret the commands. With the GPUSB, the latency is in
the 5 to 8 ms range for sending. With my GPIO to ST4 board over
FireWire, the latency is 0.125 milliseconds (that's 125 micro seconds)
between switching the motors on or off.

6) HEQ5 / HEQ6 and Celestron mounts in general have no means to move
the mount arbitrarily. You can't just say "move 2 pixels left and 1
pixels down", one has to get the current location in RA/DEC and then
send it a goto command to move it and wait for the response to be
accepted (I have already gone through why the Celeston protocol will
never work in the list) The only way to do this is via the ST4 port
for those mounts.

7) Astro IIDC can issue up to 6 corrections per second via the ST4
port (assuming the frame rate is 30+ fps) and can send corrections on
both axis at the same time. That simply isn't possible via serial
ports and will require at GPUSB or better direct connect.

HTH..

Milton Aupperle

On 21-Jul-12, at 2:26 PM, Dave Goodyear wrote:

>
>
> I have a question. Why would you use these devices? Just for st-4
> output? Is there an issue using the serial port and ascom and pulse
> guide? Is this for single cable to mount if not using serial mount
> control? If your already going to have a pc close, whats an extra
> cable? Maybe i'm missing something?
>
> Dave Goodyear
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jul 21, 2012, at 9:43 AM, "Milton Aupperle"
> <milton@outcastsoft.com> wrote:
>
>> On a side note. you can also build your own ST4 Guider board and then
>> use that instead of the GPUSB : cost would be less than $10 for
>> parts.
>>
>> http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/GPIOtoST4_InterfaceV3_MJA.png
>>
>> The FireFly MV and Chameleon has 4 GPIO pins via a BM07B-SRSS-TB
>> connector, so you could connect the BM07B-SRSS-TB to the ST4.
>>
>> Then you have one cable to the camera, and the camera connects to the
>> ST 4 Port.
>>
>> I use that all the time now. So I have one FW800 cable coming from my
>> Mac , which is connected to the Grasshopper 2 (it has 2 FW 800
>> ports),
>> and then I daisy chain a FW800 cable from the main imaging
>> Grasshopper
>> 2 to my guide camera (either a FW400 Flea or now my old Grasshopper 1
>> camera) and then the ST4 port is connected to the guide camera. So a
>> single cable to 2 Cameras and the mount for imaging, guiding and
>> mount
>> control. For me, this is especially important during the winter to
>> reduce the number of stiff cables I have to deal with (at -40°C all
>> cables are basically plastic rods).
>>
>> See page 109 and 110 of the Astro IIDC manual for more information on
>> Hardware modifications.
>>
>> HTH..
>>
>> Milton Aupperle
>>
>> On 21-Jul-12, at 10:14 AM, doobisary wrote:
>>
>> > You would connect the computer to the mount using a GPUSB from
>> > Shoestring Astronomy. They're reasonably priced, and you can get
>> > different cables for the various mounts that support ST-4 signals.
>> >
>> > -Tim.
>> >
>> > --- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, "-" <agrafoi@...> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Wonderful!
>> >> I have a Mac and I'm trying the try version of Astro_IIDC before
>> to
>> >> buy it. When arrive the two FireFly I've purchase i'll try to use
>> >> one of them for autoguiding my mount.
>> >> By the way, I should connect the camera to the computer and the
>> >> computer to the mount, shouldn't I? There's not any direct way to
>> >> connect the camera to te ST4 port, isn't it?
>> >>
>> >> --- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Milton Aupperle <milton@>
>> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> Dear Agrafoi;
>> >>>
>> >>> On 21-Jul-12, at 6:47 AM, - wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>>> Hi, everybody!
>> >>>> I presume you don't use FlyCapture to manage this camera, but
>> >>>> Astro_IIDC.
>> >>>
>> >>> Yes. FlyCapture does not run under OS X.
>> >>>
>> >>>> I ask: it works all right or you need some extra software?
>> >>>
>> >>> Yes, their USB 2 camera support the IIDC protocol so they work
>> >>> fine -
>> >>> all you need is a Astro IIDC on the Mac.
>> >>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Ciao
>> >>>> Agrafoi
>> >>>>
>> >>>
>> >>> HTH...
>> >>>
>> >>> FlyCapture
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------
>> >
>> > Yahoo! Groups Links
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>> Milton J. Aupperle
>> President
>> ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting
>> Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist
>> #1106 - 428 Chaparral Ravine View SE.
>> Calgary Alberta T2X 0N2
>> 1-(403)-453-1624
>> milton@outcastsoft.com
>> www.outcastsoft.com
>>
>>
>
>
>

Milton J. Aupperle
President
ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting
Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist
#1106 - 428 Chaparral Ravine View SE.
Calgary Alberta T2X 0N2
1-(403)-453-1624
milton@outcastsoft.com
www.outcastsoft.com