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Re: USB extender
Sonny Edmonds
Hi Luis,
I'm not sure I understand, but maybe if I run through how I do remote operation it can help. If not, just pull the handle and flush it. LOL! I have a powered hub mounted on my Telescope. Everything feeds to it (cameras, focuser, mount) and a single USB 3 cable runs down to my Dell 2-in-one Tablet/Laptop. The "Baby Dell" as I call it, then WiFi connects to my LAN through my router, and that gives me a virtual desktop on my inside computer so I can run my mount from inside just as if I were sitting in front of the outdoors mount computer (Baby Dell). For me, this has been my best and most reliable method to have fully functioning Computer and Display at the mount, and to run remotely as well. Brian has put up another way using an Ethernet router and cable connecting your mount and 30 m (meters?) should be easy. Here's a link:? There are two ways I know of. Running an Ethernet cable for me is not desirable. But WiFi works well for me, with my Windows 10 Baby Dell. Hope that helps. -- SonnyE (I suggest viewed in full screen) |
Re: Precision Worm
Sonny Edmonds
First Congratulations!
From what I've seen, I highly doubt you'd have anything to worry about. Everything from Losmandy is far more precision than other manufacturers are. You could email the Serial Number to Tanya@...?and see if she could share some history about your mount. Many other questions can be answered here.? I have this page, and others, bookmarked for references. Specifically, . So maybe it can help date your New-to-Me Mount. You found the best mount, and now you've found the best World Wide Website for help and knowledge about your lifetime mount. -- SonnyE (I suggest viewed in full screen) |
Re: Precision Worm
If the worm is brass color (so it is brass) and it is non-magnetic, it should?be the precision brass worm.? But of course, all worms slightly vary... Best, Michael On Mon, Dec 7, 2020 at 8:19 AM Tim Kimbler via <tkimbler=[email protected]> wrote: Folks, I bought a 3 year old G11 Gemini II. ? Can I tell if it has the precision worm? ?? --
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Re: NINA Controlling Losmandy G11. Coordinate are not the same. Why?
I downloaded NINA and having never used it before i took a stab at just "going for it" a couple hiccups in my settings but up and imaging within about 15 minutes.? if you know one imaging program, you kind of know them all? :)? On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 5:22 PM Brian Valente via <bvalente=[email protected]> wrote:
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Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
Re: Cleaning and lubing the worm and worm gear
Hi Bill glad you found that info - yes Gemini does much better at 15-18v you can use a voltage up-converter for that (i use a 15v version of this, but this 16.3v looks really good) ? For 12v battery i'm still a sucker for the inexpensive, high capacity (thought heavy) deep cycle battery. you want to avoid starter batteries? On Sat, Dec 5, 2020 at 10:40 AM Bill Tschumy <bill@...> wrote:
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Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
Re: Cleaning and lubing the worm and worm gear
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýSo I think I¡¯ve figured out the problem. ?It turns out that neither of my 12 V batteries were up to the task of driving the scope in the cold weather. ?They are both somewhat old so maybe it is time to replace them. When I ran the scope off my Pyramid AC/DC 12 V converter, everything was fine. ?I made sure to run it over the whole range of the worm gear and no problems. ?I then tried the same with both my batteries and had problems with both. Now I¡¯m sure I had issues before off the AC/DC convertor, but that was before I cleaned and lubed the needle bearings (one of which seemed frozen or at least hard to move).? Talking to Michael, it seems I also really need to start using a voltage convertor to up the voltage to the 15-18 V range. ?That really increases the torque the motors are capable of. Anyone have any recommendations for a new 12 V battery? ? I seems like LiPo may be the way to go now. Bill
--? Bill Tschumy Otherwise -- Longmont, CO |
Re: Newbie: GM811g Meridian Flip, How ?
New GM811g w/Gemini-2 Hand Controller, sometimes Skysafari Pro
RAEXT is installed, I guess that makes a difference. Thanks Brian, The flip worked fine tonight after following your instructions. ? ? FireCapture, ZWO ASI178, gain 150, exposure .036 second, gamma = 50? |
Re: Cleaning and lubing the worm and worm gear
Hi Bill, I get "Motor Lags" from time to time...you can look for imbalance in the scope load.? The lags messages are a minor concern...the mount will still work ok.?? However, "Motor Stalled" means a severe imbalance or jammed worm gear.? ?A jammed worm gear can be caused of course by getting too aggressive in worm adjustment pushing it too firmly into the ring gear.? You can get a cable snag too, like a dew heater cable ... lots can go wrong in the dark. ?I suppose with the severely cold weather of winter, lubricants can also freeze up.? That's why folks recommend the SuperLube product, that stays slippery to very low temperatures. You can have a motor go bad over time too.? Apparently they can lose their strength with age.? Today, Losmandy sells a newer HiTorque motor for ~$225.?? Yet, there is a way to get more torque from any DC motor: use a Gemini supply voltage of 17-18 volts, not 12 volts.? The drive servo motors are DC motors, and their torque is directly proportional to the motor voltage.? If you are home, you could just get a 17 volt DC power source and help your motors get 42% higher torque. If you are using a 12V car battery, say in the field, you need a way to boost the voltage up.?? For that reason, I make a nice 12V in to 17 V out unit with ammeter and voltmeter to show you how much current the Gemini and it's motors are taking.? That allows you to use the motor current reading to balance the load ...you out the counterweight bar horizontal, then do a fast slew in opposing directions.? The current draw should be the same? if the load is mechanically balanced.? I'll send a photo of the power booster unit on this email.?? Always a lot of details to discuss! Best of luck, Michael? On Fri, Dec 4, 2020, 8:37 PM Bill Tschumy <bill@...> wrote:
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Re: Cleaning and lubing the worm and worm gear
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýMichael, Thanks again for the helpful information. ?Can the bad diode cause the ¡°motor stalled¡° messages? ?Last week I also got a ¡°tracking stopped¡± message when I was observing the Sun and didn¡¯t do any GoTos. ?In both cases there was noticeable play in the RA axis. This mount has been a bit of an albatross ever since I got it. ?It wasn¡¯t my primary mount so I didn¡¯t obsess over it. ?But now it has become totally unusable. ?Possibly I had a marginal board from the very beginning. If you are pretty sure it is the board, I can send it to you for repairs. ?What do you charge for this service? --? Bill Tschumy Otherwise On Dec 4, 2020, at 9:12 PM, Michael Herman <mherman346@...> wrote:
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Re: Cleaning and lubing the worm and worm gear
Dear Bill, I repair Gemini-1 units.? Let me know if you want yours evaluated and repaired. Now some details: Once the Gemini-1 boots up and reads data from the SRAM, the 3V battery is not used. The system runs off of a 5V power supply that is inside the Gemini-1.? So the faulty behavior of your Gemini-1 is not the battery (unless the SRAM data is corrupted). The problems can be caused most often by: ? ?damaged SRAM chip? ?You get corrupted data. ? ?damaged CPU chip? ? ?You get corrupted behavior. ? ?damaged serial port chip... if it won't talk to the PC properly, or won't autoguide properly.? The problem is not really the 3V battery, per se.? If the battery measures 3V while it is in the Gemini-1 then it should work perfectly fine.? But a degraded D1 chip causes the SRAM to become damaged and damage the CPU.? Why do the SRAM and the CPU chip ever fail?? The Gemini-1 is only on briefly during its life of operation.?? The problem in Gemini-1 is a part labelled D1 on the board. That part is a dual diode in the battery path.? The diode has (as all diodes do) a diode "drop".? The diode drop is causing trouble to the SRAM when that D1 wears out. And when D1 wears out, it causes the CPU chip to fight with the SRAM chip, wearing both of them out. I revitalize the Gemini-1 units by ? ?replacing D1 ? ?installing a transistor circuit that bypasses D1 There is another?small chip that regulates the bootup of the unit, and when the units start to spontaneously reboot, that chip is likely the problem.? I fix those too. Stay well, Michael On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 7:13 PM Bill Tschumy <bill@...> wrote:
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Re: Cleaning and lubing the worm and worm gear
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýDecided to go ahead and measure the battery while the mount was still cold. ?It read 3V, which is somewhat lower than the nominal voltage of a 3V battery. ?Any thoughts if that could be low enough to cause problems?
--? Bill Tschumy Otherwise -- Longmont, CO |
Re: Cleaning and lubing the worm and worm gear
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýJust came in from another failed session. ? I¡¯m now suspecting an electrical problem rather than mechanical. ?I may be that the battery in the Gemini 1 unit has gotten too low. ?I think I replaced it around 2.5-3 years ago but have not used the mount much since then. ?I will check it in the morning.I successfully slewed to 6 different stars (3 on each side) for alignment. ?That all went perfectly. ?Then I went to an object near the first alignment star. ?Partway there I got a "Motor Stalled R¡± message. ?I didn¡¯t see an A after the R. ? I tried to GoTo a couple more times and got the same message. ?I checked the play in the RA axis and the counterweight bar wiggled with maybe 1/8th inch of play. ?Shouldn¡¯t be getting a stall. I power cycled the mount and did another cold start. ?This time when I did a GoTo, rather than saying ¡°Slewing¡¡± it kept scrolling the mount info on the screen that you see after a cold start. ?Power cycled again and saw more weirdness on the hand controller display. What is the symptom when you have a low battery? ?I thought it displayed a low battery message, but maybe I¡¯m misremembering. It was around 30?F when I was using it. ?Like my last session, it worked fine for 15-20 minutes and then problems started. ?That¡¯s why I thought it might be a low battery. ?The cold and initial use may have drawn it down too low. The mount has been stored in a dry location at all times so I doubt it is water incursion or anything like that. Bill
--? Bill Tschumy Otherwise -- Longmont, CO |
Re: Newbie: GM811g Meridian Flip, How ?
Hi Bill the mount doesn't flip on its own, something has to tell it to flip - your imaging program (if it supports automatic meridian flip) - you via gemini - you via hand controller if you are imaging planetary, probably the easiest to do for now is the third option, doing it manually via hand controller.? you need to wait until it's past the meridian then from hand controller choose Menu->Goto->solar system? and choose mars again. if your limits and planet check out, it will automatically do a flip when you initiate that goto. just make sure it's well past the meridian and you can in fact reach it via the other side of pier if you are having trouble here, another way you can do it is be manually slewing to somewhere in the western sky (or pick a target that is obviously in western sky) and then do the goto mentioned above. Gemini prefers to stay on same side of pier when possible, so you kind of force it to prefer western sky in this regard.? On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 4:35 PM bbillp <b.bill.p@...> wrote:
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Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
Re: NINA Controlling Losmandy G11. Coordinate are not the same. Why?
Jim that difference points to a completely different range of possible issues Also i am going through nina setup now.? do not use?NINA-to-telescope if you are referring to when the telescope is first connected.? Part of what may be messing things up (and Paul alluded to this) is you have potentially multiple settings information: date/time/location etc. you should have this set in one place, preferably Gemini. then turn off any 'update on connect' in Gemini Telescope.net and also anything that sounds like that in NINA (Telescope->Nina should be used). On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 3:59 PM Jim Waters <jimwaters@...> wrote: Just checked the framing of a target with respect to TheSkyX.? The 30 arc-seconds above is closer to 20 arc-minutes. --
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
Re: USB extender
Hi Luis,
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I'm still not sure I understand, but it sounds like there are two serial devices on your USB extender that are allocated the same COM port, did I get that right? If that's the case, you'll need to find a way to change what port is configured for one of them. Virtual pass-through port in Gemini.NET will not help this. Regards, ? ? ?-paul On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 11:52 AM, Luis Barneo wrote:
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