开云体育

So my Dec was making a creaking noise, and in my efforst to troubleshoot it, I removed the motor, gear box assembly, and made adjustments to the spring loaded worm, (SLW).

The issue turned out to be that the Delrin (?) coupler between the gearbox and the worm was dry, so a tiny bit of grease remedied that, for future use for anyone with a similar symptom. (Not why I am posting specifically..)

The question I have is this, and please know that I have worked pretty extensively with the mount and the adjustment of the SLW so not a rookie, but rather an informed, question.

The method for adjusting the worm in the Losmandy video documentation is to loosen the screw until the gears become stiff, and then tighten it slightly until the gears free up, HOWEVER...

There is a bit of a range of "freeing up" with tiny turns. My methodology has been to loosen the screw until the gears are still experiencing still a bit of friction, but not binding, in order to minimize backlash. I then run the axis through the range of its travel and listen to the motor. If the motor sounds like it is working harder at any point throughout the rotation, I will *very slightly* tighten the adjusting screw a bit, (thereby loosening the worm against the gear.)

It has been a bit since I looked for any updated info on this process, so...

-Have there been any refinements in the best practices for this adjustment beyond the initial adjustment video from Losmandy?

-If not, does anyone have any input on my methodology above? Does it even matter, or will PHD2 just deal with the backlash, regardless, in backlash compensation?

I run my Mount Computer in settings for:
Do not use power saving when plugged in. (And it is always plugged in at the mount in use)
Do not sleep when plugged in. (The display)

Also, no Automatic Updates from Windoze. That bit me once. It won't ever bite me again.
Nothing is more disgusting than Winderz screwing up your entire session at 18:00 hrs and there goes everything you had set up.

I let my indoor computer (always on, always ready) sleep after 3-4 hours of inactivity. And NO automatic updates.

--
SonnyE


(I suggest viewed in full screen)

Michael, Thanks for all?the wonderful info and I now think part (or most) of my problem maybe that I am using the latest Mac beta version of Polemaster. I did download and try the earlier version but that made no difference.I do not seem to have the same?breadth of settings you talked about. I will try your suggestions tonight. I just love 2-3 hour sessions trying to polar align! I am?attaching a picture of my setup for?you (and others) to see minus all the wiring and Raptor etc! My computer never froze or stalled so that is a positive. Thanks so much for your help. It is a wonderful feeling knowing?there a folks who will help a floundering neophyte!!? Tom

--- mherman346@... wrote:

From: "Michael Herman" <mherman346@...>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Losmandy_users_io] Pole master on G11 with Digital Drives
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2020 02:59:54 -0800

Hi Tom, et al,

I tried the Polemaster for the first time few weeks ago.

I found the QHY software difficult to use.? It has poor?explanations of its commands, and was frustrating at first.? As Brian said, there are settings in the QHY software.? I know that you just emailed that you found and used the Gain and other settings. with no benefit.? ? The software is?not friendly, though it?can work.? It is poorly explained by the online YouTube offerings I viewed.

So here are some notes about my experiences.??

1. The program frequently crashed or froze up with no mouse response.. For some reason I found that I had to move the mouse to different places on the program or completely off the program window to get response. ? I had to kill the program in Windows using control panel when it would freeze?up.? There was no benefit to restarting the computer.? The software seems as though it is not running the camera capture in a separate "thread"...so when the program is busy with a poor USB connection, it just hangs up waiting for its image to download.? ??That is poor user interface programming in the modern age of multi-threading.?

2. There is a Gain setting that the YouTube said to use.? I pushed up the?gain and this helped.? You already tried that and had no benefits.?

3. In the YouTube video I viewed, and in some online?email notes, people said "the focus is set at the factory so don't adjust it"? ?But?on my unit, the focus was not set properly.? The stars were blurred and therefore of low intensity.? I had to unlock the lens focus with the small allen wrench that comes with the QHY?camera.? Then I got the PoleMaster to focus by adjusting the focus on the stars until they were sharp.? When they were sharp, their intensity increased in the PC display, and then the other stars showed up.? I think this is what is causing the problem with your unit.?

4. There is a rotator slider for the pole star star pattern.? The horizontal slider is tiny, and you must move it with the mouse...very clumsy.? You can maybe more it with the left and right keyboard keys, but the mouse has to be over the slider to get those keyboard?keys to activate the rotation slider.? The horizontal slider has a left stop and a right stop of course.? So the star pattern can go around only so far in each direction.? This is somewhat aggravating.? The rotation gadget slider only has coarse rotation steps also.????

5. ?The star pattern magnification on the software display was affected when I adjusted the lens focus to get the stars sharpest in the video image,.? The change in magnification of the star circle target dots generated by the software on the screen is not adjustable in the present software.? So even when you rotate the star target dots rotated to match your sky pattern,? the star camera image dots don't necessarily go into the center of the software image target circles.? You might find that the real star camera points only go into the inner corner of the provided circle pattern.? This makes the hand fitting of the real star pattern to the software adjustable star target circles somewhat tricky.??

6. There is no "back" button on the software.? If you are at a software step, and want to go back ...I had to click the top right X and kill the program, giving a system crash error.? Then I had to start the program over several times.??

7. The last step is the "Monitor" step.? I found this also tricky, but necessary.? In that step the software is watching all the target stars.? You just try to get the polaris star, or the NCP target, in its target circle.??I turned on the Windows Magnifier applet and used that to really magnify the star and Polaris target, or the NCP target and the virtual NCP star created by the software (as it monitors all the stars around Polaris in the sky.? Since I'm Red-Green colorblind, the software generating the NCP target in Red made it hard for me to see.? Magnifying it helped a lot.??

Bottom line: the PoleMaster is a clever product.? But it's?software is rudimentary and weak... hard to use.? In the future ... everything is perfect, but we don't live there yet!.? ?I'd give it a C-?for the software.? However once you figure it out by running it a few times,?you can figure it out by its behavior.? ?I took the PoleMaster from a G11T to a separate? G11 and got polar aligned quickly on the 2 nd mount.? ?

Then I ran a test of Drift Alignment using PHD2's drift tool.? That showed very good polar alignment, that could be further perfected during a Drift Align.? That report is attached.? (I had notes from using PoleMaster but that report is on another laptop... 400 miles away. )? ?Polemaster got my mounts closer to correct polar alignment than I could get with the polar scope.? Still...I needed the Polar Scope to get close enough to run PoleMaster to get the field of stars it?was expecting.??

So I guess the best method for getting long FL imaging system ready for deep sky exposures, for a mount that has been moved, would be:

? Use the Polar Scope

? Then use PoleMaster

? (If really critical, then Drift Align with say PHD2)

? Then start your Deep Sky or other imaging.??

Chip mentioned that SharpCap has better software for this PoleMaster alignment.? I have not yet tried that. Chip always explains his very practical experience in these matters...so I have more to try.??

Best of luck, and stay well all,

Michael

(Off to bed at last...)

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:12 PM Brian Valente <bvalente@...> wrote:

if you are using polemaster, you can adjust the exposure and gain settings to be more sensitive. Not sure when?you are doing this, but I find earlier in the evening can be a challenge. it needs to be a little darker

If i was roughly pointed at polaris, very rarely have i only seen a few stars that fit the polemaster pattern, and usually that was when it was too light

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 9:07 PM Tom & Barbara Coverdale <tcoverda@...> wrote:

Robert, very timely post. I had a clear sky, level tripod and a good North alignment with my laser BUT I could never find more than 2 stars fitting the alignment pattern. I spent 2.5 hours trying every setting, releveling my tripod, and finally went home, frustrated and cold!! Do you or anyone have any suggestions on what I could be doing wrong? I am new to using my GM-8 but it is ridiculous to not be able to achieve polar alignment!!! Thanks for any suggestions!

--- robert.ian.taylor@... wrote:

From: robert.ian.taylor@...
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Losmandy_users_io] Pole master on G11 with Digital Drives
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:33:44 -0800

[Edited Message Follows]

Had a clear night tonight so tried the polemaster out. Very impressed with how quick this is to get good polar alignment.

--

Brian?

Brian Valente

portfolio

>>> Finally, I find that the target circles in my Polemaster display are not
perfect.? When the pattern is matched as well as possible, one or two
stars might be on the edge of a circle or even slightly outside it.? I
just adjust for best overall pattern match.?

yep - it's due to the distortion and somewhat imprecise polemaster camera/lens - and why we have circles and not dots to align the stars :)

but you nailed it. get it as close as you can, averaging out all the stars

that's why polemaster is at most 30arcsec accuracy. it just has some imprecision in there?

On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 5:44 AM Paul Goelz <pgoelz@...> wrote:

On 12/20/2020 1:02 AM, Tom & Barbara Coverdale wrote:
> My initial alignment was using my iPhone sitting on my level tripod
> point at due N and then I used my?green laser to check that?everything
> was?aimed at polaris. GM-8 set to 36 degrees (I am 90 miles N of LV). I
> guess I could have checked with my scope if I was on polaris but what a
> PITA!! I'll keep trying tomorrow night.? Tom

What's the chance that metal in your tripod caused an offset in you your
iPhone compass and you were in fact not pointing due north?

Or more likely, the magnetic deviation for LV is 11.41 degrees east,
which is almost the FOV of the Polemaster.? If you were pointed "due
north" without compensating for magnetic deviation, Polaris might not
have even been in your FOV.

Finally, I find that the target circles in my Polemaster display are not
perfect.? When the pattern is matched as well as possible, one or two
stars might be on the edge of a circle or even slightly outside it.? I
just adjust for best overall pattern match.? I have not tried turning on
refraction correction, but I am at latitude 42 so probably doesn't make
too much difference.

Paul

--
Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI? USA
pgoelz@...

--

Brian?

Brian Valente

portfolio

Michael...I'm interested in how you adjusted the focus. I just got my Pole Master and don't see any access for the focus adjustment. Where's it at? The first time I hooked mine up the stars were big and burry. After restarting, they popped into focus nicely. I don't see where it's necessary to refocus the camera but if there's a way I wantta know!

On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 6:00 AM Michael Herman <mherman346@...> wrote:

Hi Tom, et al,

I tried the Polemaster for the first time few weeks ago.

I found the QHY software difficult to use.? It has poor?explanations of its commands, and was frustrating at first.? As Brian said, there are settings in the QHY software.? I know that you just emailed that you found and used the Gain and other settings. with no benefit.? ? The software is?not friendly, though it?can work.? It is poorly explained by the online YouTube offerings I viewed.

So here are some notes about my experiences.??

1. The program frequently crashed or froze up with no mouse response.. For some reason I found that I had to move the mouse to different places on the program or completely off the program window to get response. ? I had to kill the program in Windows using control panel when it would freeze?up.? There was no benefit to restarting the computer.? The software seems as though it is not running the camera capture in a separate "thread"...so when the program is busy with a poor USB connection, it just hangs up waiting for its image to download.? ??That is poor user interface programming in the modern age of multi-threading.?

2. There is a Gain setting that the YouTube said to use.? I pushed up the?gain and this helped.? You already tried that and had no benefits.?

3. In the YouTube video I viewed, and in some online?email notes, people said "the focus is set at the factory so don't adjust it"? ?But?on my unit, the focus was not set properly.? The stars were blurred and therefore of low intensity.? I had to unlock the lens focus with the small allen wrench that comes with the QHY?camera.? Then I got the PoleMaster to focus by adjusting the focus on the stars until they were sharp.? When they were sharp, their intensity increased in the PC display, and then the other stars showed up.? I think this is what is causing the problem with your unit.?

4. There is a rotator slider for the pole star star pattern.? The horizontal slider is tiny, and you must move it with the mouse...very clumsy.? You can maybe more it with the left and right keyboard keys, but the mouse has to be over the slider to get those keyboard?keys to activate the rotation slider.? The horizontal slider has a left stop and a right stop of course.? So the star pattern can go around only so far in each direction.? This is somewhat aggravating.? The rotation gadget slider only has coarse rotation steps also.????

5. ?The star pattern magnification on the software display was affected when I adjusted the lens focus to get the stars sharpest in the video image,.? The change in magnification of the star circle target dots generated by the software on the screen is not adjustable in the present software.? So even when you rotate the star target dots rotated to match your sky pattern,? the star camera image dots don't necessarily go into the center of the software image target circles.? You might find that the real star camera points only go into the inner corner of the provided circle pattern.? This makes the hand fitting of the real star pattern to the software adjustable star target circles somewhat tricky.??

6. There is no "back" button on the software.? If you are at a software step, and want to go back ...I had to click the top right X and kill the program, giving a system crash error.? Then I had to start the program over several times.??

7. The last step is the "Monitor" step.? I found this also tricky, but necessary.? In that step the software is watching all the target stars.? You just try to get the polaris star, or the NCP target, in its target circle.??I turned on the Windows Magnifier applet and used that to really magnify the star and Polaris target, or the NCP target and the virtual NCP star created by the software (as it monitors all the stars around Polaris in the sky.? Since I'm Red-Green colorblind, the software generating the NCP target in Red made it hard for me to see.? Magnifying it helped a lot.??

Bottom line: the PoleMaster is a clever product.? But it's?software is rudimentary and weak... hard to use.? In the future ... everything is perfect, but we don't live there yet!.? ?I'd give it a C-?for the software.? However once you figure it out by running it a few times,?you can figure it out by its behavior.? ?I took the PoleMaster from a G11T to a separate? G11 and got polar aligned quickly on the 2 nd mount.? ?

Then I ran a test of Drift Alignment using PHD2's drift tool.? That showed very good polar alignment, that could be further perfected during a Drift Align.? That report is attached.? (I had notes from using PoleMaster but that report is on another laptop... 400 miles away. )? ?Polemaster got my mounts closer to correct polar alignment than I could get with the polar scope.? Still...I needed the Polar Scope to get close enough to run PoleMaster to get the field of stars it?was expecting.??

So I guess the best method for getting long FL imaging system ready for deep sky exposures, for a mount that has been moved, would be:

? Use the Polar Scope

? Then use PoleMaster

? (If really critical, then Drift Align with say PHD2)

? Then start your Deep Sky or other imaging.??

Chip mentioned that SharpCap has better software for this PoleMaster alignment.? I have not yet tried that. Chip always explains his very practical experience in these matters...so I have more to try.??

Best of luck, and stay well all,

Michael

(Off to bed at last...)

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:12 PM Brian Valente <bvalente@...> wrote:

if you are using polemaster, you can adjust the exposure and gain settings to be more sensitive. Not sure when?you are doing this, but I find earlier in the evening can be a challenge. it needs to be a little darker

If i was roughly pointed at polaris, very rarely have i only seen a few stars that fit the polemaster pattern, and usually that was when it was too light

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 9:07 PM Tom & Barbara Coverdale <tcoverda@...> wrote:

Robert, very timely post. I had a clear sky, level tripod and a good North alignment with my laser BUT I could never find more than 2 stars fitting the alignment pattern. I spent 2.5 hours trying every setting, releveling my tripod, and finally went home, frustrated and cold!! Do you or anyone have any suggestions on what I could be doing wrong? I am new to using my GM-8 but it is ridiculous to not be able to achieve polar alignment!!! Thanks for any suggestions!

--- robert.ian.taylor@... wrote:

From: robert.ian.taylor@...
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Losmandy_users_io] Pole master on G11 with Digital Drives
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:33:44 -0800

[Edited Message Follows]

Had a clear night tonight so tried the polemaster out. Very impressed with how quick this is to get good polar alignment.

--

Brian?

Brian Valente

portfolio

Brian...Interesting about using the Pole Master camera with sharpcap. Any tricks needed to know in order to do that?

Stu

On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 10:37 AM Brian Valente <bvalente@...> wrote:

Michael i'm so sorry. that is easily the worst user experience story i've heard on polemaster

I agree the documentation (and I use that word lightly) is terrible. Is there even any documentation? lol

FYI in sharpcap - you can actually use the polemaster camera in sharpcap, which makes both easier to use.?

On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 3:00 AM Michael Herman <mherman346@...> wrote:

Hi Tom, et al,

I tried the Polemaster for the first time few weeks ago.

I found the QHY software difficult to use.? It has poor?explanations of its commands, and was frustrating at first.? As Brian said, there are settings in the QHY software.? I know that you just emailed that you found and used the Gain and other settings. with no benefit.? ? The software is?not friendly, though it?can work.? It is poorly explained by the online YouTube offerings I viewed.

So here are some notes about my experiences.??

1. The program frequently crashed or froze up with no mouse response.. For some reason I found that I had to move the mouse to different places on the program or completely off the program window to get response. ? I had to kill the program in Windows using control panel when it would freeze?up.? There was no benefit to restarting the computer.? The software seems as though it is not running the camera capture in a separate "thread"...so when the program is busy with a poor USB connection, it just hangs up waiting for its image to download.? ??That is poor user interface programming in the modern age of multi-threading.?

2. There is a Gain setting that the YouTube said to use.? I pushed up the?gain and this helped.? You already tried that and had no benefits.?

3. In the YouTube video I viewed, and in some online?email notes, people said "the focus is set at the factory so don't adjust it"? ?But?on my unit, the focus was not set properly.? The stars were blurred and therefore of low intensity.? I had to unlock the lens focus with the small allen wrench that comes with the QHY?camera.? Then I got the PoleMaster to focus by adjusting the focus on the stars until they were sharp.? When they were sharp, their intensity increased in the PC display, and then the other stars showed up.? I think this is what is causing the problem with your unit.?

4. There is a rotator slider for the pole star star pattern.? The horizontal slider is tiny, and you must move it with the mouse...very clumsy.? You can maybe more it with the left and right keyboard keys, but the mouse has to be over the slider to get those keyboard?keys to activate the rotation slider.? The horizontal slider has a left stop and a right stop of course.? So the star pattern can go around only so far in each direction.? This is somewhat aggravating.? The rotation gadget slider only has coarse rotation steps also.????

5. ?The star pattern magnification on the software display was affected when I adjusted the lens focus to get the stars sharpest in the video image,.? The change in magnification of the star circle target dots generated by the software on the screen is not adjustable in the present software.? So even when you rotate the star target dots rotated to match your sky pattern,? the star camera image dots don't necessarily go into the center of the software image target circles.? You might find that the real star camera points only go into the inner corner of the provided circle pattern.? This makes the hand fitting of the real star pattern to the software adjustable star target circles somewhat tricky.??

6. There is no "back" button on the software.? If you are at a software step, and want to go back ...I had to click the top right X and kill the program, giving a system crash error.? Then I had to start the program over several times.??

7. The last step is the "Monitor" step.? I found this also tricky, but necessary.? In that step the software is watching all the target stars.? You just try to get the polaris star, or the NCP target, in its target circle.??I turned on the Windows Magnifier applet and used that to really magnify the star and Polaris target, or the NCP target and the virtual NCP star created by the software (as it monitors all the stars around Polaris in the sky.? Since I'm Red-Green colorblind, the software generating the NCP target in Red made it hard for me to see.? Magnifying it helped a lot.??

Bottom line: the PoleMaster is a clever product.? But it's?software is rudimentary and weak... hard to use.? In the future ... everything is perfect, but we don't live there yet!.? ?I'd give it a C-?for the software.? However once you figure it out by running it a few times,?you can figure it out by its behavior.? ?I took the PoleMaster from a G11T to a separate? G11 and got polar aligned quickly on the 2 nd mount.? ?

Then I ran a test of Drift Alignment using PHD2's drift tool.? That showed very good polar alignment, that could be further perfected during a Drift Align.? That report is attached.? (I had notes from using PoleMaster but that report is on another laptop... 400 miles away. )? ?Polemaster got my mounts closer to correct polar alignment than I could get with the polar scope.? Still...I needed the Polar Scope to get close enough to run PoleMaster to get the field of stars it?was expecting.??

So I guess the best method for getting long FL imaging system ready for deep sky exposures, for a mount that has been moved, would be:

? Use the Polar Scope

? Then use PoleMaster

? (If really critical, then Drift Align with say PHD2)

? Then start your Deep Sky or other imaging.??

Chip mentioned that SharpCap has better software for this PoleMaster alignment.? I have not yet tried that. Chip always explains his very practical experience in these matters...so I have more to try.??

Best of luck, and stay well all,

Michael

(Off to bed at last...)

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:12 PM Brian Valente <bvalente@...> wrote:

if you are using polemaster, you can adjust the exposure and gain settings to be more sensitive. Not sure when?you are doing this, but I find earlier in the evening can be a challenge. it needs to be a little darker

If i was roughly pointed at polaris, very rarely have i only seen a few stars that fit the polemaster pattern, and usually that was when it was too light

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 9:07 PM Tom & Barbara Coverdale <tcoverda@...> wrote:

Robert, very timely post. I had a clear sky, level tripod and a good North alignment with my laser BUT I could never find more than 2 stars fitting the alignment pattern. I spent 2.5 hours trying every setting, releveling my tripod, and finally went home, frustrated and cold!! Do you or anyone have any suggestions on what I could be doing wrong? I am new to using my GM-8 but it is ridiculous to not be able to achieve polar alignment!!! Thanks for any suggestions!

--- robert.ian.taylor@... wrote:

From: robert.ian.taylor@...
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Losmandy_users_io] Pole master on G11 with Digital Drives
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:33:44 -0800

[Edited Message Follows]

Had a clear night tonight so tried the polemaster out. Very impressed with how quick this is to get good polar alignment.

--

Brian?

Brian Valente

portfolio

--

Brian?

Brian Valente

portfolio

Dear Stu,

The PoleMaster parts are shown on this website:

From there, I grabbed this photo.? This is the view of the unit with the outer protective black cylinder still attached.? You can see the lens is below the front surface.?

You must unscrew the outer black protective barrel to get to the front lens screw adjustment.??

The website never shows how to unscrew the front barrel, but it just unthreads normally with right-handed threads.??

Once that front cylinder is removed, you have access by hand to adjust the lens focus.??

You just screw in or out the front lens barrel, until the stars in the PC display are in focus.??

Again, I use the Windows Magnifier app to get a good microscopic view of the PC screen pixels and see the star's focus.

After that adjustment, put the protective barrel back on, and that focus will stay put.?

I also use the PC Magnifier app to see the overlap of the NCP and NCP Target markers once you get to the last "Monitor" phase of the Polemaster software steps.??

The notes from earlier users where their unit just happened to be in focus... saying "don't touch it because it is perfect from the factory" was only good advice if someone just happened to get their perfectly?adjusted unit.? Maybe at that time, QHY was testing and adjusting the focus on each unit.? But when a product gets to be a hot seller, manufacturing groups often drop?these niceties.? They had time when the sales were slow, but won't have time to test and adjust each unit when they have to ship thousands of units.? The notes from the company should say: "If you don't see all the stars, please try to adjust the focus of the camera lens, and here is how..."? Instead it just says: "downloads are from this website" on a form paper slip included with all their products.?

All the best,

Michael

On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 8:53 AM Stu Beaber <wd4sel@...> wrote:

Michael...I'm interested in how you adjusted the focus. I just got my Pole Master and don't see any access for the focus adjustment. Where's it at? The first time I hooked mine up the stars were big and burry. After restarting, they popped into focus nicely. I don't see where it's necessary to refocus the camera but if there's a way I wantta know!

On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 6:00 AM Michael Herman <mherman346@...> wrote:

Hi Tom, et al,

I tried the Polemaster for the first time few weeks ago.

I found the QHY software difficult to use.? It has poor?explanations of its commands, and was frustrating at first.? As Brian said, there are settings in the QHY software.? I know that you just emailed that you found and used the Gain and other settings. with no benefit.? ? The software is?not friendly, though it?can work.? It is poorly explained by the online YouTube offerings I viewed.

So here are some notes about my experiences.??

1. The program frequently crashed or froze up with no mouse response.. For some reason I found that I had to move the mouse to different places on the program or completely off the program window to get response. ? I had to kill the program in Windows using control panel when it would freeze?up.? There was no benefit to restarting the computer.? The software seems as though it is not running the camera capture in a separate "thread"...so when the program is busy with a poor USB connection, it just hangs up waiting for its image to download.? ??That is poor user interface programming in the modern age of multi-threading.?

2. There is a Gain setting that the YouTube said to use.? I pushed up the?gain and this helped.? You already tried that and had no benefits.?

3. In the YouTube video I viewed, and in some online?email notes, people said "the focus is set at the factory so don't adjust it"? ?But?on my unit, the focus was not set properly.? The stars were blurred and therefore of low intensity.? I had to unlock the lens focus with the small allen wrench that comes with the QHY?camera.? Then I got the PoleMaster to focus by adjusting the focus on the stars until they were sharp.? When they were sharp, their intensity increased in the PC display, and then the other stars showed up.? I think this is what is causing the problem with your unit.?

4. There is a rotator slider for the pole star star pattern.? The horizontal slider is tiny, and you must move it with the mouse...very clumsy.? You can maybe more it with the left and right keyboard keys, but the mouse has to be over the slider to get those keyboard?keys to activate the rotation slider.? The horizontal slider has a left stop and a right stop of course.? So the star pattern can go around only so far in each direction.? This is somewhat aggravating.? The rotation gadget slider only has coarse rotation steps also.????

5. ?The star pattern magnification on the software display was affected when I adjusted the lens focus to get the stars sharpest in the video image,.? The change in magnification of the star circle target dots generated by the software on the screen is not adjustable in the present software.? So even when you rotate the star target dots rotated to match your sky pattern,? the star camera image dots don't necessarily go into the center of the software image target circles.? You might find that the real star camera points only go into the inner corner of the provided circle pattern.? This makes the hand fitting of the real star pattern to the software adjustable star target circles somewhat tricky.??

6. There is no "back" button on the software.? If you are at a software step, and want to go back ...I had to click the top right X and kill the program, giving a system crash error.? Then I had to start the program over several times.??

7. The last step is the "Monitor" step.? I found this also tricky, but necessary.? In that step the software is watching all the target stars.? You just try to get the polaris star, or the NCP target, in its target circle.??I turned on the Windows Magnifier applet and used that to really magnify the star and Polaris target, or the NCP target and the virtual NCP star created by the software (as it monitors all the stars around Polaris in the sky.? Since I'm Red-Green colorblind, the software generating the NCP target in Red made it hard for me to see.? Magnifying it helped a lot.??

Bottom line: the PoleMaster is a clever product.? But it's?software is rudimentary and weak... hard to use.? In the future ... everything is perfect, but we don't live there yet!.? ?I'd give it a C-?for the software.? However once you figure it out by running it a few times,?you can figure it out by its behavior.? ?I took the PoleMaster from a G11T to a separate? G11 and got polar aligned quickly on the 2 nd mount.? ?

Then I ran a test of Drift Alignment using PHD2's drift tool.? That showed very good polar alignment, that could be further perfected during a Drift Align.? That report is attached.? (I had notes from using PoleMaster but that report is on another laptop... 400 miles away. )? ?Polemaster got my mounts closer to correct polar alignment than I could get with the polar scope.? Still...I needed the Polar Scope to get close enough to run PoleMaster to get the field of stars it?was expecting.??

So I guess the best method for getting long FL imaging system ready for deep sky exposures, for a mount that has been moved, would be:

? Use the Polar Scope

? Then use PoleMaster

? (If really critical, then Drift Align with say PHD2)

? Then start your Deep Sky or other imaging.??

Chip mentioned that SharpCap has better software for this PoleMaster alignment.? I have not yet tried that. Chip always explains his very practical experience in these matters...so I have more to try.??

Best of luck, and stay well all,

Michael

(Off to bed at last...)

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:12 PM Brian Valente <bvalente@...> wrote:

if you are using polemaster, you can adjust the exposure and gain settings to be more sensitive. Not sure when?you are doing this, but I find earlier in the evening can be a challenge. it needs to be a little darker

If i was roughly pointed at polaris, very rarely have i only seen a few stars that fit the polemaster pattern, and usually that was when it was too light

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 9:07 PM Tom & Barbara Coverdale <tcoverda@...> wrote:

Robert, very timely post. I had a clear sky, level tripod and a good North alignment with my laser BUT I could never find more than 2 stars fitting the alignment pattern. I spent 2.5 hours trying every setting, releveling my tripod, and finally went home, frustrated and cold!! Do you or anyone have any suggestions on what I could be doing wrong? I am new to using my GM-8 but it is ridiculous to not be able to achieve polar alignment!!! Thanks for any suggestions!

--- robert.ian.taylor@... wrote:

From: robert.ian.taylor@...
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Losmandy_users_io] Pole master on G11 with Digital Drives
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:33:44 -0800

[Edited Message Follows]

Had a clear night tonight so tried the polemaster out. Very impressed with how quick this is to get good polar alignment.

--

Brian?

Brian Valente

portfolio

--

Michael Herman
mobile: 408 421-1239
email: mherman346@...

Michael...I'm interested in how you adjusted the focus. I just got my Pole Master and don't see any access for the focus adjustment. Where's it at? The first time I hooked mine up the stars were big and burry. After restarting, they popped into focus nicely. I don't see where it's necessary to refocus the camera but if there's a way I wantta know!

On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 6:00 AM Michael Herman <mherman346@...> wrote:

Hi Tom, et al,

I tried the Polemaster for the first time few weeks ago.

I found the QHY software difficult to use.? It has poor?explanations of its commands, and was frustrating at first.? As Brian said, there are settings in the QHY software.? I know that you just emailed that you found and used the Gain and other settings. with no benefit.? ? The software is?not friendly, though it?can work.? It is poorly explained by the online YouTube offerings I viewed.

So here are some notes about my experiences.??

1. The program frequently crashed or froze up with no mouse response.. For some reason I found that I had to move the mouse to different places on the program or completely off the program window to get response. ? I had to kill the program in Windows using control panel when it would freeze?up.? There was no benefit to restarting the computer.? The software seems as though it is not running the camera capture in a separate "thread"...so when the program is busy with a poor USB connection, it just hangs up waiting for its image to download.? ??That is poor user interface programming in the modern age of multi-threading.?

2. There is a Gain setting that the YouTube said to use.? I pushed up the?gain and this helped.? You already tried that and had no benefits.?

3. In the YouTube video I viewed, and in some online?email notes, people said "the focus is set at the factory so don't adjust it"? ?But?on my unit, the focus was not set properly.? The stars were blurred and therefore of low intensity.? I had to unlock the lens focus with the small allen wrench that comes with the QHY?camera.? Then I got the PoleMaster to focus by adjusting the focus on the stars until they were sharp.? When they were sharp, their intensity increased in the PC display, and then the other stars showed up.? I think this is what is causing the problem with your unit.?

4. There is a rotator slider for the pole star star pattern.? The horizontal slider is tiny, and you must move it with the mouse...very clumsy.? You can maybe more it with the left and right keyboard keys, but the mouse has to be over the slider to get those keyboard?keys to activate the rotation slider.? The horizontal slider has a left stop and a right stop of course.? So the star pattern can go around only so far in each direction.? This is somewhat aggravating.? The rotation gadget slider only has coarse rotation steps also.????

5. ?The star pattern magnification on the software display was affected when I adjusted the lens focus to get the stars sharpest in the video image,.? The change in magnification of the star circle target dots generated by the software on the screen is not adjustable in the present software.? So even when you rotate the star target dots rotated to match your sky pattern,? the star camera image dots don't necessarily go into the center of the software image target circles.? You might find that the real star camera points only go into the inner corner of the provided circle pattern.? This makes the hand fitting of the real star pattern to the software adjustable star target circles somewhat tricky.??

6. There is no "back" button on the software.? If you are at a software step, and want to go back ...I had to click the top right X and kill the program, giving a system crash error.? Then I had to start the program over several times.??

7. The last step is the "Monitor" step.? I found this also tricky, but necessary.? In that step the software is watching all the target stars.? You just try to get the polaris star, or the NCP target, in its target circle.??I turned on the Windows Magnifier applet and used that to really magnify the star and Polaris target, or the NCP target and the virtual NCP star created by the software (as it monitors all the stars around Polaris in the sky.? Since I'm Red-Green colorblind, the software generating the NCP target in Red made it hard for me to see.? Magnifying it helped a lot.??

Bottom line: the PoleMaster is a clever product.? But it's?software is rudimentary and weak... hard to use.? In the future ... everything is perfect, but we don't live there yet!.? ?I'd give it a C-?for the software.? However once you figure it out by running it a few times,?you can figure it out by its behavior.? ?I took the PoleMaster from a G11T to a separate? G11 and got polar aligned quickly on the 2 nd mount.? ?

Then I ran a test of Drift Alignment using PHD2's drift tool.? That showed very good polar alignment, that could be further perfected during a Drift Align.? That report is attached.? (I had notes from using PoleMaster but that report is on another laptop... 400 miles away. )? ?Polemaster got my mounts closer to correct polar alignment than I could get with the polar scope.? Still...I needed the Polar Scope to get close enough to run PoleMaster to get the field of stars it?was expecting.??

So I guess the best method for getting long FL imaging system ready for deep sky exposures, for a mount that has been moved, would be:

? Use the Polar Scope

? Then use PoleMaster

? (If really critical, then Drift Align with say PHD2)

? Then start your Deep Sky or other imaging.??

Chip mentioned that SharpCap has better software for this PoleMaster alignment.? I have not yet tried that. Chip always explains his very practical experience in these matters...so I have more to try.??

Best of luck, and stay well all,

Michael

(Off to bed at last...)

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:12 PM Brian Valente <bvalente@...> wrote:

if you are using polemaster, you can adjust the exposure and gain settings to be more sensitive. Not sure when?you are doing this, but I find earlier in the evening can be a challenge. it needs to be a little darker

If i was roughly pointed at polaris, very rarely have i only seen a few stars that fit the polemaster pattern, and usually that was when it was too light

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 9:07 PM Tom & Barbara Coverdale <tcoverda@...> wrote:

Robert, very timely post. I had a clear sky, level tripod and a good North alignment with my laser BUT I could never find more than 2 stars fitting the alignment pattern. I spent 2.5 hours trying every setting, releveling my tripod, and finally went home, frustrated and cold!! Do you or anyone have any suggestions on what I could be doing wrong? I am new to using my GM-8 but it is ridiculous to not be able to achieve polar alignment!!! Thanks for any suggestions!

--- robert.ian.taylor@... wrote:

From: robert.ian.taylor@...
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Losmandy_users_io] Pole master on G11 with Digital Drives
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:33:44 -0800

[Edited Message Follows]

Had a clear night tonight so tried the polemaster out. Very impressed with how quick this is to get good polar alignment.

--

Brian?

Brian Valente

portfolio

Michael i'm so sorry. that is easily the worst user experience story i've heard on polemaster

I agree the documentation (and I use that word lightly) is terrible. Is there even any documentation? lol

FYI in sharpcap - you can actually use the polemaster camera in sharpcap, which makes both easier to use.?

On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 3:00 AM Michael Herman <mherman346@...> wrote:

Hi Tom, et al,

I tried the Polemaster for the first time few weeks ago.

I found the QHY software difficult to use.? It has poor?explanations of its commands, and was frustrating at first.? As Brian said, there are settings in the QHY software.? I know that you just emailed that you found and used the Gain and other settings. with no benefit.? ? The software is?not friendly, though it?can work.? It is poorly explained by the online YouTube offerings I viewed.

So here are some notes about my experiences.??

1. The program frequently crashed or froze up with no mouse response.. For some reason I found that I had to move the mouse to different places on the program or completely off the program window to get response. ? I had to kill the program in Windows using control panel when it would freeze?up.? There was no benefit to restarting the computer.? The software seems as though it is not running the camera capture in a separate "thread"...so when the program is busy with a poor USB connection, it just hangs up waiting for its image to download.? ??That is poor user interface programming in the modern age of multi-threading.?

2. There is a Gain setting that the YouTube said to use.? I pushed up the?gain and this helped.? You already tried that and had no benefits.?

3. In the YouTube video I viewed, and in some online?email notes, people said "the focus is set at the factory so don't adjust it"? ?But?on my unit, the focus was not set properly.? The stars were blurred and therefore of low intensity.? I had to unlock the lens focus with the small allen wrench that comes with the QHY?camera.? Then I got the PoleMaster to focus by adjusting the focus on the stars until they were sharp.? When they were sharp, their intensity increased in the PC display, and then the other stars showed up.? I think this is what is causing the problem with your unit.?

4. There is a rotator slider for the pole star star pattern.? The horizontal slider is tiny, and you must move it with the mouse...very clumsy.? You can maybe more it with the left and right keyboard keys, but the mouse has to be over the slider to get those keyboard?keys to activate the rotation slider.? The horizontal slider has a left stop and a right stop of course.? So the star pattern can go around only so far in each direction.? This is somewhat aggravating.? The rotation gadget slider only has coarse rotation steps also.????

5. ?The star pattern magnification on the software display was affected when I adjusted the lens focus to get the stars sharpest in the video image,.? The change in magnification of the star circle target dots generated by the software on the screen is not adjustable in the present software.? So even when you rotate the star target dots rotated to match your sky pattern,? the star camera image dots don't necessarily go into the center of the software image target circles.? You might find that the real star camera points only go into the inner corner of the provided circle pattern.? This makes the hand fitting of the real star pattern to the software adjustable star target circles somewhat tricky.??

6. There is no "back" button on the software.? If you are at a software step, and want to go back ...I had to click the top right X and kill the program, giving a system crash error.? Then I had to start the program over several times.??

7. The last step is the "Monitor" step.? I found this also tricky, but necessary.? In that step the software is watching all the target stars.? You just try to get the polaris star, or the NCP target, in its target circle.??I turned on the Windows Magnifier applet and used that to really magnify the star and Polaris target, or the NCP target and the virtual NCP star created by the software (as it monitors all the stars around Polaris in the sky.? Since I'm Red-Green colorblind, the software generating the NCP target in Red made it hard for me to see.? Magnifying it helped a lot.??

Bottom line: the PoleMaster is a clever product.? But it's?software is rudimentary and weak... hard to use.? In the future ... everything is perfect, but we don't live there yet!.? ?I'd give it a C-?for the software.? However once you figure it out by running it a few times,?you can figure it out by its behavior.? ?I took the PoleMaster from a G11T to a separate? G11 and got polar aligned quickly on the 2 nd mount.? ?

Then I ran a test of Drift Alignment using PHD2's drift tool.? That showed very good polar alignment, that could be further perfected during a Drift Align.? That report is attached.? (I had notes from using PoleMaster but that report is on another laptop... 400 miles away. )? ?Polemaster got my mounts closer to correct polar alignment than I could get with the polar scope.? Still...I needed the Polar Scope to get close enough to run PoleMaster to get the field of stars it?was expecting.??

So I guess the best method for getting long FL imaging system ready for deep sky exposures, for a mount that has been moved, would be:

? Use the Polar Scope

? Then use PoleMaster

? (If really critical, then Drift Align with say PHD2)

? Then start your Deep Sky or other imaging.??

Chip mentioned that SharpCap has better software for this PoleMaster alignment.? I have not yet tried that. Chip always explains his very practical experience in these matters...so I have more to try.??

Best of luck, and stay well all,

Michael

(Off to bed at last...)

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:12 PM Brian Valente <bvalente@...> wrote:

if you are using polemaster, you can adjust the exposure and gain settings to be more sensitive. Not sure when?you are doing this, but I find earlier in the evening can be a challenge. it needs to be a little darker

If i was roughly pointed at polaris, very rarely have i only seen a few stars that fit the polemaster pattern, and usually that was when it was too light

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 9:07 PM Tom & Barbara Coverdale <tcoverda@...> wrote:

Robert, very timely post. I had a clear sky, level tripod and a good North alignment with my laser BUT I could never find more than 2 stars fitting the alignment pattern. I spent 2.5 hours trying every setting, releveling my tripod, and finally went home, frustrated and cold!! Do you or anyone have any suggestions on what I could be doing wrong? I am new to using my GM-8 but it is ridiculous to not be able to achieve polar alignment!!! Thanks for any suggestions!

--- robert.ian.taylor@... wrote:

From: robert.ian.taylor@...
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Losmandy_users_io] Pole master on G11 with Digital Drives
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:33:44 -0800

[Edited Message Follows]

Had a clear night tonight so tried the polemaster out. Very impressed with how quick this is to get good polar alignment.

--

Brian?

Brian Valente

portfolio

--

Brian?

Brian Valente

portfolio

Hi Tom, et al,

I tried the Polemaster for the first time few weeks ago.

I found the QHY software difficult to use.? It has poor?explanations of its commands, and was frustrating at first.? As Brian said, there are settings in the QHY software.? I know that you just emailed that you found and used the Gain and other settings. with no benefit.? ? The software is?not friendly, though it?can work.? It is poorly explained by the online YouTube offerings I viewed.

So here are some notes about my experiences.??

1. The program frequently crashed or froze up with no mouse response.. For some reason I found that I had to move the mouse to different places on the program or completely off the program window to get response. ? I had to kill the program in Windows using control panel when it would freeze?up.? There was no benefit to restarting the computer.? The software seems as though it is not running the camera capture in a separate "thread"...so when the program is busy with a poor USB connection, it just hangs up waiting for its image to download.? ??That is poor user interface programming in the modern age of multi-threading.?

2. There is a Gain setting that the YouTube said to use.? I pushed up the?gain and this helped.? You already tried that and had no benefits.?

3. In the YouTube video I viewed, and in some online?email notes, people said "the focus is set at the factory so don't adjust it"? ?But?on my unit, the focus was not set properly.? The stars were blurred and therefore of low intensity.? I had to unlock the lens focus with the small allen wrench that comes with the QHY?camera.? Then I got the PoleMaster to focus by adjusting the focus on the stars until they were sharp.? When they were sharp, their intensity increased in the PC display, and then the other stars showed up.? I think this is what is causing the problem with your unit.?

4. There is a rotator slider for the pole star star pattern.? The horizontal slider is tiny, and you must move it with the mouse...very clumsy.? You can maybe more it with the left and right keyboard keys, but the mouse has to be over the slider to get those keyboard?keys to activate the rotation slider.? The horizontal slider has a left stop and a right stop of course.? So the star pattern can go around only so far in each direction.? This is somewhat aggravating.? The rotation gadget slider only has coarse rotation steps also.????

5. ?The star pattern magnification on the software display was affected when I adjusted the lens focus to get the stars sharpest in the video image,.? The change in magnification of the star circle target dots generated by the software on the screen is not adjustable in the present software.? So even when you rotate the star target dots rotated to match your sky pattern,? the star camera image dots don't necessarily go into the center of the software image target circles.? You might find that the real star camera points only go into the inner corner of the provided circle pattern.? This makes the hand fitting of the real star pattern to the software adjustable star target circles somewhat tricky.??

6. There is no "back" button on the software.? If you are at a software step, and want to go back ...I had to click the top right X and kill the program, giving a system crash error.? Then I had to start the program over several times.??

7. The last step is the "Monitor" step.? I found this also tricky, but necessary.? In that step the software is watching all the target stars.? You just try to get the polaris star, or the NCP target, in its target circle.??I turned on the Windows Magnifier applet and used that to really magnify the star and Polaris target, or the NCP target and the virtual NCP star created by the software (as it monitors all the stars around Polaris in the sky.? Since I'm Red-Green colorblind, the software generating the NCP target in Red made it hard for me to see.? Magnifying it helped a lot.??

Bottom line: the PoleMaster is a clever product.? But it's?software is rudimentary and weak... hard to use.? In the future ... everything is perfect, but we don't live there yet!.? ?I'd give it a C-?for the software.? However once you figure it out by running it a few times,?you can figure it out by its behavior.? ?I took the PoleMaster from a G11T to a separate? G11 and got polar aligned quickly on the 2 nd mount.? ?

Then I ran a test of Drift Alignment using PHD2's drift tool.? That showed very good polar alignment, that could be further perfected during a Drift Align.? That report is attached.? (I had notes from using PoleMaster but that report is on another laptop... 400 miles away. )? ?Polemaster got my mounts closer to correct polar alignment than I could get with the polar scope.? Still...I needed the Polar Scope to get close enough to run PoleMaster to get the field of stars it?was expecting.??

So I guess the best method for getting long FL imaging system ready for deep sky exposures, for a mount that has been moved, would be:

? Use the Polar Scope

? Then use PoleMaster

? (If really critical, then Drift Align with say PHD2)

? Then start your Deep Sky or other imaging.??

Chip mentioned that SharpCap has better software for this PoleMaster alignment.? I have not yet tried that. Chip always explains his very practical experience in these matters...so I have more to try.??

Best of luck, and stay well all,

Michael

(Off to bed at last...)

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 9:12 PM Brian Valente <bvalente@...> wrote:

if you are using polemaster, you can adjust the exposure and gain settings to be more sensitive. Not sure when?you are doing this, but I find earlier in the evening can be a challenge. it needs to be a little darker

If i was roughly pointed at polaris, very rarely have i only seen a few stars that fit the polemaster pattern, and usually that was when it was too light

On Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 9:07 PM Tom & Barbara Coverdale <tcoverda@...> wrote:

Robert, very timely post. I had a clear sky, level tripod and a good North alignment with my laser BUT I could never find more than 2 stars fitting the alignment pattern. I spent 2.5 hours trying every setting, releveling my tripod, and finally went home, frustrated and cold!! Do you or anyone have any suggestions on what I could be doing wrong? I am new to using my GM-8 but it is ridiculous to not be able to achieve polar alignment!!! Thanks for any suggestions!

--- robert.ian.taylor@... wrote:

From: robert.ian.taylor@...
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Losmandy_users_io] Pole master on G11 with Digital Drives
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:33:44 -0800

[Edited Message Follows]

Had a clear night tonight so tried the polemaster out. Very impressed with how quick this is to get good polar alignment.

--

Brian?

Brian Valente

portfolio