I just noticed that Affinity Photo is available at a steep discount for a short time, putting the purchase (not lease) price at $25.? I have been using it for final post processing as a replacement for Photoshop, which I can no longer afford. You still need something on the front end for calibration, registration, and stacking.?

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Edward

Thanks soo much,? I currently have ASA filament on the printer. I will try that with 100% infill.
I will let you know how it works and post pictures showing the setup when I get it working.
It looks really great!

Thanks again

Brent

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Hi Brent -

The weather did not cooperate last night, so I was unable to star test the thing, but I did play around for a couple of hours in the daylight.? I'm pretty confident these things will work as they should.? I don't feel any added resistance or misalignment, at least on my mount.? It seems to fit pretty well.? If you encounter any slight misalignment, hopefully the fix is as simple as widening the holes just a touch, but for me, it seems a good fit.? If you do try these brackets, please let me know if the fitment was off at all.? And if you have any other suggestions, I'll try and incorporate them.???

I used M3x16 cap screws to mount the stepper motor.? To mount the bracket to the mount I used #6-32 x 1-1/2" cap screws, and to mount the cover use a single #6-32 x 1" cap screw.? The bearings were 625zz, and the shaft was 5mm x 50 to 60 mm long.? The 60T pulleys I used (44mm OD) just clear the housing cover by a fraction of a mm.?? You can turn the pulley down to gain clearance if you need it.

Any questions, let me know.?

Thanks,
-Tony

To close this thread, I switched guiding from TSX to PHD2 on my G11.

Same movement thresholds, same camera orientation, different guiding software.

No more trailing issues.

Go figure.

Here are my notes on Gemini-1 divisor values from the early 2000's:
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The RA divisor indicates how often Gemini advances the RA motor one step forward. The actual number used for this will depend on the mount, gear ratio, number of gear teeth, etc. From the mounts supported by Gemini Level 3, here are the default rate divisors for Sidereal tracking rate:

GM-8	? 56096*
G-11	56096
HGM-200	56096
MI-250	56096
CI-700	56096*
Titan50	37398
Titan	37398**

*Note: since Gemini stores divisor rate as a 16 bit number, GM8 and CI700 actual divisor of 112192 is too large to store, so Gemini, instead, uses and reports the divisor value divided by 2, i.e., 56096.

**The same applies to the Titan divisor value: Titan (not Titan50) has the divisor value of? 74794. Again, due to the 16 bit limitation of Gemini, this value has to be entered as divided by 2, or 37398.

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Regards,

? ? ? ?-Paul

Well now this screenshot is too cropped, so I have no idea what is the amplitude of your errors.
I don't remember what was my before vs after 76s error.? Except that the mod cut it down to a third or less.? The next biggest problem is 32 s from the gearbox.
The temporary software fix for your RA periodic error is to set the guiding exposure time to 1 s or less.? Do not set it higher because the the mount will not respond fast enough to cancel out the periodic error.
There is a small amount of DEC backlash due to the two big aluminum gears that offset the motor.? That alone is worth about 1+ second.? My post also explains this error and how to test for it.? Go ahead and increase the TVC value until something bad happens.

oh I forgot to mention the Gemini 1 was 16 bit, so the max 16 bit value was 2^16 = 65,536.?? The titan divisor has a "pre-scaler" computation of "2" to bring the divisor value below the 16 bit limit.??

This is the same for Gm8 and CI-700. ? Its a maths trick to fit the divisors.

The Gemini 2 is a 32 bit controller so it doesn't suffer this yet probably for ease many of the function are probably converted to 16 bit for ease.?? Like the divisors.? The Ra/DEC controllers are 16 bit DsPICs.

Rene' would be best to comment.??? I'd have to use a a logic analyser like sigrok to see.

cheers


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Brendan

David,

Sorry to hear about your continued issues. I am sure you want to get the mount operational ASAP. As per the other replies, the 76 seconds error is always due to the bearings and the way they are loaded. If you review the Losmandy videos on worm adjustments. you will see about the need to compress the right block towards the left by squeezing together before tightening the worm block screws. This action might solve your problem and the error could be reduced or go away (as per Henk and Chip).

Potentially the bearings could be mis-inserted or misaligned as they sit inside the blocks and the ball bearings are not riding inside the races at the right angle. You might ask for new bearings and blocks to rule out that possibility. Then there is what you may want to try on your own or have the factory redo. But that is between you and Losmandy on what they cover or recommend.?

Good luck,

John

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On Sun, Jun 20, 2021 at 05:49 PM, Brian Valente wrote:

I highly recommend you follow the baseline guiding setup for your first PHD use. it will give you a baseline of your guiding and mount performance. (I also recommend after step 8 in the process you add a 30-45 minute guiding assistant run to characterize your mount performance)

Absolutely! Planning an entire week of getting this mount all setup so that I get stable results. I'm not generally a tweaker so that would be a last resort

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I guess my next question would be about setting limits. If I set the limits of my RA so it can’t go more than 90 degrees from vertical, will that eliminate the problem of the mount going to very inconvenient positions when using the goto?

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I set the limits to go about 110 degrees from vertical on both sides of the RA. I was wondering if I always have to slew the RA back to vertical rather than releasing the clutches and pushing it by hand. Does moving he RA by hand mess with the the limits I set, or doesn’t it matter??

So you are saying that I can manually move my mount to the other side to point to my target and the pointing accuracy will still be good??

On Sun, Jun 20, 2021 at 07:26 PM, Brian Valente wrote:

>>> I did start a ticket with support but never got a reply back.

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David we have no record of a support ticket from you (we have a ticketing system too).

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please make sure you email techsupport at losmandy dot com

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Email sent June 3rd

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On Sun, Jun 20, 2021 at 2:22 PM David Malanick <malanick@...> wrote:

Thanks for all the help so far. I went out Saturday night and tried Pempro. Really less intimidating than I thought. Was actually hoping to train a full seven worm cycles, however the random clouds moving across the sky really did not help at all.
Hopefully I can try Pempro again and get some good PEC runs Monday night.
I really appreciate the help on the 76 second error, however the mount is brand-new and under warranty and I really don't want to start tearing it apart yet.
On a night I had really excellent seeing, shooting 30 second subs, I could really tell where the 76 second error showed up. It was like lucky imaging, couple good subs couple bad subs, throwing out about 30% to 40% of subs.
Tried 60, 120 and 300 second subs, that little RA jump really adds up, unacceptable imaging.
If anyone with spring-loaded worms could give a shout out on how they got their final setting tuned in, please let me know.
I'm interested in getting that 1400 to 2500ms backlash toned down a bit. Doesn't affect guiding that bad, just annoying that other people can get it so low.
Wondering how to adjust that back off screw next to the spring. If that is what is needed.
Hope hope the weather will be clear enough soon that I can do another proper PHD2 long guided and unguided run for data.
I seem to have the worms adjusted a lot better than they came on delivery, probably that bumpy FedEx truck and that dandy driver that tried carrying four boxes in one trip and joked about "Looks like they might not make it all to the front porch without falling off the hand truck" when I took delivery.

Has anyone ever gotten an official fix or statement about the 76 second error.
I did start a ticket with support but never got a reply back.
$4000+ is a lot of money to spend if I have to do a do-it-yourself repair and hope that cures it.
Starting to wonder if I'll have to send the mount back to have new bearings and the worms "properly and correctly" adjusted.
Maybe it's just a glitch when the mount was assembled, something out of alignment or too tight or loose.

Thank you,
David Malanick

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Brian?

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Brian Valente

portfolio

On Sun, Jun 20, 2021 at 01:10 PM, Nick Ambrose wrote:

Does this mean the min-move for both axes in PHD2 should be set to 0.56" (converted to pixels of the guide cam ?)

You should only be using the new profile wizard and the guiding assistant to set your min-move

I highly recommend you follow the baseline guiding setup for your first PHD use. it will give you a baseline of your guiding and mount performance. (I also recommend after step 8 in the process you add a 30-45 minute guiding assistant run to characterize your mount performance)



You only have to do this once and it's a really good idea to do this as a baseline before you start thinking about fiddling with anything.?

Brian

OK so to summarize "Don't worry just go image" :)
My mount is due to arrive tomorrow and honestly with my Bortle 6 skies and 2.22 arcsec/px scale on a 60mm refractor, I could probably guide the thing by hand.?

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Just trying to understand more about how this stuff works

Your photos show exactly what I mean. I can’t complain about my G11T too much. The more I get used to it the slicker it is to use. I guess I thought the Gemini 2 software would be at least as clever as the Celestron software. I just have to pay more attention when my mount slews so I don’t start hitting hard parts.