----- Original Message -----

From: howard lazarus

To: ap-gto@...

Sent: Monday, July 05, 1999 1:00 PM

Subject: [ap-gto] Re: Fwd from Charles S.: New version of DigitalSkyVoice

Loaded setup3.exe....no problems and new functions seem to work fine ....

Derek Wong wrote:

To all DSV users, I have just relessed 2.02.05, please see the WEB site
for
full details and download it from the Transporter Room.

 -= Charles Sinsofsky

  www.digitalskyvoice.com

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Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Re: Expand the group?
Date: Mon, 5 Jul 1999 09:26:07 -0500
From: "Charles Sinsofsky"
To: "Derek Wong" <dawong@...>
References: <001401bec305$3fd614c0$f550030a@...> <377C37F3.7D3C0B09@...>

To all DSV users, I have just relessed 2.02.05, please see the WEB site for
full details and download it from the Transporter Room.

 -= Charles Sinsofsky

  www.digitalskyvoice.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Derek Wong
To: Charles Sinsofsky
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 1999 10:54 PM
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Re: Expand the group?

> >  Extra note, A/P and myself are building a substantial list of A/P mount
> >  owners who of course regisitered DSV with us. We should somehow get
them
> >  notifed of the listserve for the a/p mount and dsv...it definatly would
be
> >  an asset here.
>
> Charles:
>
> Can you do a "bulk e-mail" notifying them of the existence of the
> group?  Then, as people sign up, you can notify them one by one.
>
> You can have them subscribe by sending an e-mail to
> ap-gto-subscribe@...
>
> BTW I don't know if the egroups site will let you access it, but see:
> http://www.egroups.com/listman?method=display_templates&listname=ap-gto
> This will allow you to put a sign up box for the group right on your
> website!
> If this is restricted, please tell me and I'll get you the HTML code.
>
> On a different subject, I have some questions about the mount I'll ask
> you later.  I made a mount simulator, but I didn't take a couple things
> into account.  The idea was to see what was happening with the various
> alignment methods, and to teach myself something about the mount.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Derek Wong
> dawong@...
>

 

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I finally got a chance to get my 1200 goto up on my pier and now have
a chance to pose some questions. The power supply cord is about 4'
short of what I need to reach my 110v-12v convertor at the wall of my
observatory.
I can make do by moving but would like to take advantage of the conduits
I already have in
place below ground. Has anyone used some type of extension
to get a longer power cord?




Bobby Middleton

http://www.koyote.com/users/bobm/astro1.htm




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Bob,

Since you have in place below ground conduits, I would pull 3#12 wires
(THHN type, +110, netural, ground) through the conduit to a new outlet
above ground. I would also use GFI recepticles, for your protection.

I use my 1200 as a portable mount, so my power supply always come from
12v gel cell batteries.

Tim



--- Bobby Middleton <bobm@koyote.com> wrote:

I finally got a chance to get my 1200 goto up on my
pier and now have
a chance to pose some questions. The power supply
cord is about 4'
short of what I need to reach my 110v-12v convertor
at the wall of my
observatory.
I can make do by moving but would like to take
advantage of the conduits
I already have in
place below ground. Has anyone used some type of
extension
to get a longer power cord?




Bobby Middleton

http://www.koyote.com/users/bobm/astro1.htm

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Using an extension is no problem, the power line for the a/p mounts are
mearly carrying DC voltage, simply go to a hardware store and get a 'DC'
cable extension ie: cigrette lighter feamle in to cigereet lighter male out.
this will permit any usable length you want..I have run 50 foot lenghts in
the past.

- Charles

Hi Bobby;
Glad to see you got your 1200 mount...you will be pleased. As to extension
cords i can only tell you my experience. I had Roland make up for me the
length of power cord I required from my pier to the outlet...it was 30 feet.
I would suggest you call them ...it will be worth the money for atleast you
will know that you are getting the proper power connection for the unit
.....&#92;
Have fun
Howard L

Bobby Middleton wrote:

I finally got a chance to get my 1200 goto up on my pier and now have
a chance to pose some questions. The power supply cord is about 4'
short of what I need to reach my 110v-12v convertor at the wall of my
observatory.
I can make do by moving but would like to take advantage of the conduits
I already have in
place below ground. Has anyone used some type of extension
to get a longer power cord?

Bobby Middleton

http://www.koyote.com/users/bobm/astro1.htm

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I finally got a chance to get my 1200 goto up on my pier and now have
a chance to pose some questions. The power supply cord is about 4'
short of what I need to reach my 110v-12v convertor at the wall of my
observatory.
I can make do by moving but would like to take advantage of the conduits
I already have in
place below ground. Has anyone used some type of extension
to get a longer power cord?

Hi Bobby, the power cord does seem to be very short for use in the field.
I extended mine with a simple cigarette lighter extension cord which has a
male on one end and a female on the other. You can buy these from auto
parts stockists. The only problem is that the cable is rather thin and
coiled, so I replaced it with a heavy duty cable to ensure minimum volts
drop across the cable. There's not that much available in terms of simple
two core cable with ultra low resistance. In the end I used heavy duty
speaker cable that has pure copper rope conductors. This has the lowest
resistance of anything I could easily find - you can use 4ft or more of it
and you'll see virtually no difference in working voltage under load.
Although the insulation is not spec'd for this kind of application, 12v
will not present any problem at all provided that you don't treat it too
roughly. Just don't use it to carry mains voltage! :-)

Regards
--Philip

Philip Perkins - philip@astrocruise.com
Wiltshire UK & Luberon France
Astrocruise - http://www.astrocruise.com

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Hello everyone, What type of microphones and computer combinations have you found to work best with the DSV. My desktop is a Pentium II 350 with 128MB RAM, and my laptop is a Pentium 120 with 48MB Ram(was only 16) with a dual scan screen. There was up to a four fold improvement when I added the extra 32MB RAM. AS expected the built in mic. in the laptop had terible recognition. The desktop mic. worked fair with the laptop. At Staples I tried a Andrea NC50 for $15. It would not work with either computer. Their was too much background noise according to the set up wizard. I returned it and bought a Labtec C-315 Headset/Boom Microphone for same price and it was the same style as the Andrea. The Labtec works with both computers. It has higher recognition than the desktop type microphone. Labtec makes a couple of microphones that are more suited for voice recognition which are in the $30 to $50 range. My recognition is not 100%, so a better microphone should help and at the same time I need to work on speaking more distinctly. Also the dual scan is fair for showing the display. Sincerely, Stephen Russell

---

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Using an extension is no problem, the power line for the a/p mounts are
mearly carrying DC voltage, simply go to a hardware store and get a 'DC'
cable extension ie: cigrette lighter feamle in to cigereet lighter male

out.

this will permit any usable length you want..I have run 50 foot lenghts in
the past.

- Charles

Thanks Charles and thanks for the other responses. That's "sort of"
what I had in mind but I will really need a male and female of the other
smaller
end in order to be able to thread it through my 3/4" pvc conduits. The
cigarette
lighter plug-in will be too big to pull through the pipe. I would hope that
radio shack
will have something close to what I need........I will check as I get time.

I did get time to work on rough polar alignment tonight and set up my
location cooridinates and local time. The mount is beautiful.......a real
work of
art.


Bobby Middleton

http://www.koyote.com/users/bobm/astro1.htm



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----- Original Message -----

From: sjruss55@...

To: ap-gto@...

Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 1999 9:06 PM

Subject: [ap-gto] Microphones for DSV

Hello everyone, What type of microphones and computer combinations have you found to work best with the DSV. My desktop is a Pentium II 350 with 128MB RAM, and my laptop is a Pentium 120 with 48MB Ram(was only 16) with a dual scan screen. There was up to a four fold improvement when I added the extra 32MB RAM. AS expected the built in mic. in the laptop had terible recognition. The desktop mic. worked fair with the laptop. At Staples I tried a Andrea NC50 for $15. It would not work with either computer. Their was too much background noise according to the set up wizard. I returned it and bought a Labtec C-315 Headset/Boom Microphone for same price and it was the same style as the Andrea. The Labtec works with both computers. It has higher recognition than the desktop type microphone. Labtec makes a couple of microphones that are more suited for voice recognition which are in the $30 to $50 range. My recognition is not 100%, so a better microphone should help and at the same time I need to work on speaking more distinctly. Also the dual scan is fair for showing the display. Sincerely, Stephen Russell

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Bobby Middleton wrote:

Using an extension is no problem, the power line for the a/p mounts are
mearly carrying DC voltage, simply go to a hardware store and get a 'DC'
cable extension ie: cigrette lighter feamle in to cigereet lighter male

out.

this will permit any usable length you want..I have run 50 foot lenghts in
the past.

- Charles

Thanks Charles and thanks for the other responses. That's "sort of"
what I had in mind but I will really need a male and female of the other
smaller
end in order to be able to thread it through my 3/4" pvc conduits. The
cigarette
lighter plug-in will be too big to pull through the pipe. I would hope that
radio shack
will have something close to what I need........I will check as I get time.

Could you cut off one end and rewire it after pulling it through?

Bob Kuberek


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->> Thanks Charles and thanks for the other responses. That's "sort of"

what I had in mind but I will really need a male and female of the other
smaller
end in order to be able to thread it through my 3/4" pvc conduits. The
cigarette
lighter plug-in will be too big to pull through the pipe. I would hope

that

radio shack
will have something close to what I need........I will check as I get

time.

Could you cut off one end and rewire it after pulling it through?

Bob Kuberek

Bob,
That would be a usable option with one of the male/female cigarette
plug-ins, but I will try to find a manufacture cord out there somewhere
first. If I can't, then your idea will work ok. Thanks.

Bobby Middleton

http://www.koyote.com/users/bobm/astro1.htm



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Hi all,

I'm posting this to both the GOTO group and the AP
group.

Here is data on tracking errors for my AP600 from the
other night. Subject was M101. The data consist of
six image sequences of ten 30-second exposures each.
The errors are measured in arcsec. It's track and accum.,
so there's about a 20 sec. delay between each exposure.

dec ra
0.00 0.00
1.71 3.42
1.71 3.42
1.71 -1.71
3.42 -6.84
3.42 -11.96
5.13 -13.67
5.13 -11.96
5.13 -5.13
5.13 -1.71
0.00 0.00
1.71 -5.13
3.42 -8.54
3.42 -13.67
3.42 -15.38
5.13 -13.67
5.13 -10.25
5.13 -5.13
5.13 0.00
5.13 1.71
0.00 0.00
1.71 3.42
1.71 6.84
1.71 13.67
3.42 17.09
3.42 18.80
3.42 17.09
3.42 13.67
5.13 8.54
5.13 6.84
0.00 0.00
0.00 8.54
1.71 11.96
0.00 15.38
1.71 15.38
3.42 10.25
3.42 6.84
3.42 5.13
3.42 3.42
3.42 6.84
0.00 0.00
0.00 5.13
1.71 6.84
1.71 6.84
3.42 0.00
3.42 -1.71
1.71 -6.84
1.71 -5.13
3.42 0.00
3.42 5.13
0.00 0.00
0.00 1.71
1.71 -1.71
1.71 -5.13
1.71 -8.54
3.42 -10.25
3.42 -6.84
3.42 -3.42
3.42 3.42
3.42 8.54

Bob Kuberek



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It has happened sporadically over the course of the past few months, but
this morning, I just couldn't get the keypad to power up! Any ideas?



thanks!
-Todd

Boston Meteorologist Todd Gross
toddg@weatherman.com
http://www.weatherman.com
(617)725-0777



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Hi Todd;
This has happened to me several times. If you have the 600 which I think you
do, this occurs due to how the computer box is placed on the tripod and the
position of the power cord.
You may note that the power cord located in the computer box is bent at a
sharp angle with the rest of the power cord going to your battery setup. The
solder points on that plug come inder stress and as a result the power
becomes at first on and off and then eventually off. I got a new power cord
at no expense from AP and wrapped the connect end that goes to the computer
box in black tape for support.

The second problem area is the contacts themselves IN the computer box. You
will note that the receiving inlet for the power plug is a fork shaped
contact...sometimes due to wear these contacts ccome closer together thus
making poor contact with the power cord.
Take a small head screw driver and slightly ever so slightly spead the fork
contact and then plug in your power cord. Roland is aware of this problem
and the solution is what I have given you.

Man , I sure hope this was of some help.......have not heard much from the
group and since my set up is in Florida and I am still in the process of
moving I sure miss the use of the GOTO and hope I do not forget how to use
it. BTW the Meade 10' although not tested came in perfect as far as a visual
inspection is concerned.

Regards
Howard Lazarus

Todd Gross wrote:

It has happened sporadically over the course of the past few months, but
this morning, I just couldn't get the keypad to power up! Any ideas?

thanks!
-Todd

Boston Meteorologist Todd Gross
toddg@weatherman.com
http://www.weatherman.com
(617)725-0777

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Howard.. this is very helpful, and exactly why we have this group. I have a
feeling it is the
in-box problem that is plaguing me. I'll play with it, and then I will call
A/P if it doesn't
help. Anyone else have a sporadic power problem?

It's a good thing I was doing other things this
morning, like checkingout the new 22mm Nagler, or I would have been REALLY
mad.
The Nagler is absolutely perfect, it is an astounding eyepiece.

Since I couldn't get the mount going and no ccd-ing, I visually observed
the GRS briefly. I visually confirmed in the 18"... the very odd S-shaped
dark feature just following the GRS. The GRS is very light this year,
lighter than ever.

Hi Todd;
This has happened to me several times. If you have the 600 which I think you
do, this occurs due to how the computer box is placed on the tripod and the
position of the power cord.
You may note that the power cord located in the computer box is bent at a
sharp angle with the rest of the power cord going to your battery setup. The
solder points on that plug come inder stress and as a result the power
becomes at first on and off and then eventually off. I got a new power cord
at no expense from AP and wrapped the connect end that goes to the computer
box in black tape for support.

The second problem area is the contacts themselves IN the computer box. You
will note that the receiving inlet for the power plug is a fork shaped
contact...sometimes due to wear these contacts ccome closer together thus
making poor contact with the power cord.
Take a small head screw driver and slightly ever so slightly spead the fork
contact and then plug in your power cord. Roland is aware of this problem
and the solution is what I have given you.

Man , I sure hope this was of some help.......have not heard much from the
group and since my set up is in Florida and I am still in the process of
moving I sure miss the use of the GOTO and hope I do not forget how to use
it. BTW the Meade 10' although not tested came in perfect as far as a visual
inspection is concerned.

Regards
Howard Lazarus

Todd Gross wrote:

It has happened sporadically over the course of the past few months, but
this morning, I just couldn't get the keypad to power up! Any ideas?

thanks!
-Todd

Boston Meteorologist Todd Gross
toddg@weatherman.com
http://www.weatherman.com
(617)725-0777

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thanks!
-Todd

Boston Meteorologist Todd Gross
toddg@weatherman.com
http://www.weatherman.com
(617)725-0777



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Yes, I have a 900 GOTO on order. However I don't like
the idea of a telescope slewing to a target when I can
move the scope myself. I know this can't be done with
the GOTO or it will lose its place in the sky.

Can DSCs like the JMI DSCs be installed on the GOTO
versions of the 900 mount?

Unless I am out by myself I can't see ever using the mount
in GOTO mode. I prefer star hopping. But it may be nice to
use a computer find some objects, but not via GOTO. I'm getting
the GOTO because if for some reason I find a use for it later it is cheaper
to get it installed prior to taking ownership of the mount. Yes,
I did have a choice since I ordered it before you could only
get the 900 with GOTO.

Yes, I could call AP and get my question answered but this list
seemed a little slow lately. ;-)

Thanks,
Rich

On Wed, 21 Jul 1999 21:39:49 -0700, Rich N. wrote:

Yes, I have a 900 GOTO on order. However I don't like
the idea of a telescope slewing to a target when I can
move the scope myself. I know this can't be done with
the GOTO or it will lose its place in the sky.

Can DSCs like the JMI DSCs be installed on the GOTO
versions of the 900 mount?

Rich

Why not use the hand controller to manually move the scope. That way
you can still star hop without the GOTO function, and you won't lose
the reference as you would manually moving the scope.

-David

Yes, I have a 900 GOTO on order. However I don't like
the idea of a telescope slewing to a target when I can
move the scope myself. I know this can't be done with
the GOTO or it will lose its place in the sky.

Can DSCs like the JMI DSCs be installed on the GOTO
versions of the 900 mount?

Rich

Why not use the hand controller to manually move the scope. That way
you can still star hop without the GOTO function, and you won't lose
the reference as you would manually moving the scope.

-David

Oh! Not a bad idea. Thanks!

Rich

IIRC, you can use DSC's like the NGC-Max with the 900 GTO, but you have to
buy AP's encoders for both axes, since the goto uses the motors, not
encoders on the shaft, for position info. The motor info isn't accessible to
the DSC's.

Regards,
Paul Gustafson

Rich,

Yes, if you move the scope/mount manually the mount wont know where
youre pointing. What I do, when I manually use the scope/mount, is to
first computer align the scope, then point it to a bright star that
won't set for a while such as Altair. After which I manually move the
scope/mount anywhere until I want to use the goto features. To regain
goto capabilities, you manually point to the star that you last used
the goto on, then center with the hand controller, press Rcal, and your
back to goto-in.

Tim


--- "David A. Silva" <dasilva@scsconsult.com> wrote:

On Wed, 21 Jul 1999 21:39:49 -0700, Rich N. wrote:

Yes, I have a 900 GOTO on order. However I don't

like

the idea of a telescope slewing to a target when I

can

move the scope myself. I know this can't be done

with

the GOTO or it will lose its place in the sky.

Can DSCs like the JMI DSCs be installed on the GOTO
versions of the 900 mount?

Rich

Why not use the hand controller to manually move the
scope. That way
you can still star hop without the GOTO function,
and you won't lose
the reference as you would manually moving the
scope.

-David

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