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I 3D printed a bracket that clamps on to the DEC axis and has a vixen shaped column on the western side onto which I clamp a 5lb ADM accessory dovetail counterweight. Purpose of this is to have the western side of the mount slightly weighted. When I had the mount perfectly balanced I would notice a bit of backlash while guiding so this is an attempt to correct. I’ll post an update of the guiding here once I get a clear night (yeah good luck with that) from this SoCal marine layer. Rainy winter -> May grey -> June gloom.
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G11 RA Ring Gear Cover removal
5
Good evening, Had some worm/ring interface chatter that was growing worse over time (with worsening guiding) and I had a couple of spare hours today so I decided to clean and regrease my RA axis (DEC to follow this weekend). I followed the videos for the the cleaning/grease kit from Losmandy but it really only covered the needle bearings and didn't go into the removal/cleaning of the ring gear. I managed to get those three small cap screws off the backside of the RA axis that hold the ring gear cover to the front of the mount but that bottom one sure was annoying, especially getting it tightened back in... Is there a trick to that one? Are people removing the RA Axis from the altitude adjustment block? Thanks Ryan Noonan
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excessive play in center transfer gear
4
The center transfer gear on the RA axis (from motor to worm) on my G11T has a lot of tilt play even though the screw is tight. I tried to add a washer but that just prevents the gear from rotating. Is the tilt play normal?
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RA clutch slip?
7
Been struggling with RA movement recently (a few nights). PHD2 calibration settings are calibration expert defaults. 12 steps for both RA and Dec. Using PHD2 Calibration Wizard tool to slew and calibrate, the first calibration of the night can take 25-50 steps for RA, then 12 for Dec. I have re-calibrated with the wizard, and the step count for RA remains very high. Last night it started at about 15, then 14, then 13, which I finally accepted. The subsequent GA run showed about a 20” PA error. I’m usually 1-5” off at worst. other nights 30-50 steps, and after tightening clutch, checking snags, etc etc, takes >10 calibration runs to get acceptable RA. I’m looking for “most obvious thing that is going wrong” Oil on clutch surface “Newer” wavy washer on RA axis PEMPro 2 cycle analysis performed, and PEM on while calibrating. Should it be off? Clutch too tight Clutch too loose Guidescope 210mm FL, with ASI290 camera, binned 2, giving ~5.4”/px (I think) Guide scope flexure? Is rigidly bolted. Guidescope/camera frame orientation probably well off RA/Dec alignment (don’t think this is ever a problem though, is it?) Guidescope focus? Gain? Other? Thanks much, Dale
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I was wondering whether anyone had any ideas what is going on with my guiding graphs or even if anything at all is going on with them. With PEC on or off, my guiding graphs look toothy/jagged. There are some areas that are smooth, but otherwise, it is a jagged appearance rather than the curved lines I see in images of other people's graphs. Obviously, if I change the scale these look much flatter. Would an overly tight RA worm gear cause this or could it be the result of poor seeing? I recently adjusted my worm gear and I have little idea of what is too tight. My unguided graphs look the same, so this isn't issue an issue with the PEC itself. Guided: Unguided: George
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G11T Gemini 2 L6 safety limits
3
I have the safety limits set for my G11T. I woke up this morning to find the mount on the east side of the pier after a meridian flip way past my safety limit and against the pier. This was the first night I have let NINA run a sequence with this mount. I have NINA set to meridian flip 5 min past the meridian. This is within my safety limits. I don't know why the mount would flip, go past the safety limit and crash the scope on the east side of the pier. Any idea what may have happened?
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Level 6 upgrade instructions
4
I finally have a Pic3 programmer in hand (and the eclipse is over so less worry about bricking my mount) ... I do not have the official Losmandy kit which appears to be backordered now, anyway. I am trying to find DIY instructions for upgrading to Level 6. I saw that Paul posted some links to this group on Feb 6, but all of those seem to reference the home page of Gemini 2 now. Is there a standard spot where instructions are posted or can anyone who already went the DIY route direct me to instructions and firmware downloads? Thank you! -- Edward
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I didn't get anything last night, but here is a shot of the massive sunspot that is causing all the spectacular light shows.
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My G11G seems to 'wobble' at the scope level and mount level and I am curious to know if this is the reason my PA is always off by 5+ arc minutes everytime I check it. My mount is permanently installed in my observatory and I noticed that if I do an extreme tightening of the ALT 4 bolts, it does help but the wobble is still there. I've been ignoring this for a while but having a hard time trying to understand why my PA is always off. My mount is on a 20" wide, concrete filled sonotube that is buried 5' feet in the ground with another 5 inches above the ground in my observatory. My pier is a PT2 and I literally was trying to rock that yesterday and using a digital level, there is no movement in it (it is an adjustable pier but I have not moved it in over a year and it is at its lowest position and has remained there). I have a SW120ED scope installed and an Losmandy RA extension tube and I have verified all bolts throughout the system is very tight. Any advice would be apprecicated. Hopefully the video I attached here (along with ALT picture) goes through.
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Guiding Comment and Question RE: L6.2
2
OK... so I believe I have upgraded everything required for the L6.2 upgrade. I installed the L6.2 firmware on the circuit board, updated the HC to latest, updated Gemini driver to latest, update ASCOM to latest, and flashed my servo chips with the PIC kit with the latest .hex file. I'm running an Edge 14 on a Losmandy Titan mount, using an ONAG, so with the 0.7X reducer, my guiding F/L is 2737mm. After the firmware upgrades, I tried getting away with not having to re-calibrate PHD2..... no way. So, I started re-calibrating, and the first few attempts wound up in failure. But, I wasn't seeing movement of the star for each calibration step. So.... I increased the number of pixels per step, saw movement, and got a pretty good calibration. The number of steps per axis were both in the teens, expected rates for both RA and DEC were extremely close, and orthogonality was OK.... previously with L5 I had a calibration of 1.0 or less, this time I got 2.9.... the axes looked perpendicular to the naked eye, but the value was a little high. I can probably try again and do better for orthogonality. But, my comment is that for each time I ran a calibration, and it was probably more than 5 times, the plots of the steps were exactly on the axes.... no deviation. Makes me kind of wonder if that relates to the encoder resolution improvement. My real question is this: I recently ran PEMPro with L5, and uploaded a nice PEC curve to the mount. My thinking was that the gears have not changed with the L 6.2 upgrade..... so would the improvement in encoder resolution necessitate my re-running PEMPro, or it would not make a difference? I do have the newest version of PEMPro that handles L 6.2. Thanks so much. Dan
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I am going to disassemble my G11G off my permanent pier tonight and check and see if the bolt between the pier and G11G base is a little loose. I don't like the fact the whole assembly seems to wobble and my PA is always off by 5 arc minutes everytimeI check it. I believe the base of the G11G has a single hole in it for as mounting hole for a bolt from a pier. Is this correct? Drawing or picture would be appreciated.
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Level 6 performance
3
A related question... I'm one of many who has had the upgrade done (by Losmandy) but not tested it out fully; it works, but I don't know what aspects of performance are improved. Are people in fact getting smoother tracking or other improvements in performance?
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Pempro purchase?
8
I have been putting off purchasing Pempro for the past year while waiting for the Losmandy version (Gempro??). Are there any updates on that yet?
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Level 6 review
13
I went to the Losmandy store today to purchase the Level 6 upgrade, but saw I could only do add to Wishlist. So in the meantime I would like to hear some feedback for those that have done the upgrade. 1.) If you did it yourself, how was it? Simple and easy, or did it take a lot of time and problem solving? 2.) Most important question is what if any changes or improvements have stood out for you? I plan to do this upgrade + purchase Pempro sometime this summer (I assume Gempro is just not coming out or will not be for some time).
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I am resetting my guiding after some upgrades and a couple of months of inactivity. I am running an ES 127 with a 180mm guide scope and a ZWO 2600C mounted on my GM811G. I have the latest PHD2 and have upgraded my Gemini 2 to V6.2. My first runs were marked by a strong DEC drift that did not respond to guiding pulses. I've had this problem before. Since it had been a couple years since my last maintenance, and I just got the cleaning and lube kit from Losmandy, I decided to take both the Dec and RA axis apart and clean and lube. I also opened my DEC SLW gear box and cleaned, lubed and retightened. Had to watch Scott's video on this several times to get it set, but it seemed to slew well last night, though the DEC drift was still present in guiding. Tonight I am I am working through my notes from my conversations on guiding and recurrent DEC spikes/drift that I had with Brian and you all a couple years ago. As I do a careful rebalance, and a careful PA and in prep for another a calibration (bumping north first), I want to be sure I have my PHD2 set right. Attached are screenshots from my calibration last night (PA was not careful and seeing was poor), and the Guiding and Algorithms pages in PHD2's Advanced settings currently in place. In particular, what about the "Use Dec Compensation" and "Reverse Dec Output after Meridian flip" options on the Guiding page and the "Declination" and "Backlash Compensation" options on the Alogrithms page? I'd be glad for any suggestions.
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Not a good start with G11T
Got a new G11T yesterday, unfortunately they forgot the female dovetail adapter on the dec axis to attach it to the RA.. This isn't some small detail they overlooked, this is totally unusable. I'm sure they will send me one but I am a little bit confused/angry.
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Gemini 2 for sale
I have a Gemini 2 for sale for those interested. It is brand new, atleast in use. I bought it from Losmandy in Sept 2023 and have used it one time. Very soon after I bought it, I realized what was wrong with my Gemini 1 and fixed it. Not wanting to get into something new and to late to return it, it's up for sale. Asking $900.00 for it. It includes the computer, handbox and the cord...No motors included, Losmandy said I could use my existing motors. Please respond directly to wd4sel@... if interested. Pictures upon request. Regards, Stu Beaber
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Hi Everyone, I would like to ask for your suggestions, as I bought a second hand G11 with Gemini I and I would like to do astrophotography with it. This particular unit has spring loaded covers for AR and DEC, but they were not made by Losmandy. Apparently, it was a "European version" of a spring loaded system, from somebody called HAS, but can't really get more info about it. I find it very similar to the Losmandy solution and I can adjust them in the same way that Scott's youtube videos show. Pics attached. When testing the Guiding Assistant in PHD2, I found an RA peak-to peak of 17.7 arcsecs, and a suggested maximum exposure time (due to drift) of 0,6 seconds due to very high gradients in the curve. Pic attached. From my understanding, this would be a good example of an old style worm (silver looking). But to my surprise, when I opened the worm cover, I found the goldish looking High Precision Worm! I would expect a smoother RA tracking behaviour for a brass worm... Any comments here? Prior to this test, I dissasembled and regreased the DEC and RA shafts, but not the worms and dented wheels. Would it be a good idea ot clean and regrease them? Would this step be your first suggestion? I don't mind to dissasemble components and get some replacements purchased for this mount. Regarding backlash, I managed to reduce it a bit, but not able to remove it below 6 seconds drift when changing directions (on a terrestrial object, with no sideral movement and a guiding speed of 0,5x) I found the DEC gearbox to have a loose cover (the plastic box), so I'll order a replacement, as I guess that DEC backlash is due to this. Thanks in advance for your suggestions! best regards from Spain! Juanma Rivero
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Folks, Gemini L6.02 firmware and Hand Controller v1.61 firmware are now out of beta test, and available to everyone. This version enables full use of PEC with L6 and with PEMPro. In addition, it addresses some issues reported by the Southern hemisphere users, and adds a few new serial commands that make Gemini controller even more powerful. Steps to update 1. Update Gemini firmware using the latest GFU utility, v1.0.31 https://gemini-2.com/GFU-download.html. Update HC version also if yours is older than v1.61, by checking the HC checkbox near the top of GFU window. 2. If you use PEMPro, install v3.10.07 or later that's compatible with Gemini L6.02 from here: https://www.siriusimaging.com/PEMProV3/PEMProV3_Release_v3.10.07.exe. Follow instructions by Brian Valente for using PEMPro with L6: /g/Gemini-II/files/Gemini%20L6.02%20beta%20files/Losmandy_PEC_Primer_for_L6.pdf 3. If you use ASCOM, you may want to update your version to the latest driver (v1.1.25): https://gemini-2.com/ASCOM.html 4. Latest serial command documentation is available: https://gemini-2.com/web/L6V02serial.html NOTE 1: If you can't use GFU, you can still update the firmware to L6.02 by using the combined firmware file from here: https://gemini-2.com/firmware1/combined602.zip and update Gemini using Gemini web pages or by copying the appropriate files directly to the microSD card through FTP or by removing the SD card. NOTE 2: Remember to also update PIC controllers to v3 firmware to get the 4x encoder resolution if you are upgrading from L5. You should see this in the Gemini web pages after the update: Regards, -Paul
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Hello support group I can’t seem to find the link to download the latest gemHC download in order to drop it into the hand controller box on the GFU as my version is 1.160 not the latest v 1.61 what’s the latest HC version and where is it in the file section? Thanks Ron
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Sat 8:39am
Sat 8:39am