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Autoslew 5.2.1.9 documentation


photon

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Hi,

 

recently I upgraded to the newly released version 5.2.1.9 of Autoslew.

 

After making a new pointing file the tracking is now worse than before even the new "SuperFit" feature is used. Probably I did something wrong as there were never elongated stars on 5 minutes subs before.

 

To make it short, when can we expect an updated version of the documentation? Both the English and German docs are from 2012  :huh:

 

Also the official release notes are quite outdated (http://www.astrosysteme.at/images/Autoslew-History_D.pdf)

 

 

Best regards,

Gerald

 

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I agree. If you look back through the history of this forum you will find that this has been a continuing frustration for years. Promises have been made by ASA but none have been kept. Frankly I think most of us have given up hoping that proper manuals will ever be produced. I just do not understand this. No one doubts the quality of ASA hardware. But they are prepared to have their reputation damaged by inadequate documentation and communication with users. This has already happened. Some of the comments about ASA in general astronomy forums are simply scathing. In my view for a company to behave like this in such a small world as the astronomy community is utterly stupid and short sighted.

Ian

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Finally the pointing is fine again here and a test sub with 10 minutes was great with a new 150 point alignment.

 

There is also a current "release notes" in the program folder of Autoslew, where it is noted that the new version is incompatible with the old "Fourier only" configuration.

 

I also agree that the hardware is great. The function of the software is also great, but the user interface needs improvement. And as already said in the initial post, the documentation needs a complete rework.

 

From my point of view I still have the feeling that the complete software development, testing, release management, bug tracking, documentation, etc. is allocated to only one person. This would make me very nervous as a business owner, as there is also no 3rd party software to drive the mounts. Hopefully they have at least intern docs about all the math behind, but I doubt so to be honest.

 

An official issue tracking system like Jira would be great for all of us. 

 

- Gerald

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Hi Nigel,

 

You just had a dream.

 

The ASA2 software that was shown is just a in-house demo, with some ASA promisses that we all know how to interpret.

Today, this software is still "to be made".

 

Ian, I think ASA is afraid to be too successful, so they need to limit the customer interest to their products. They found a solution to this issue that works.

 

 

Best regards.

 

Bernard

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Photon,

 

I recently upgraded my mount (DDM 85XL) with absolute encoders. I really love my mount, it works so well it is unbelievable. I turn it on, slew to a star, synch, and I am rolling... 15 to 20 minute subs unguided and I know it can do even better.

 

But I gotta tell you, just like many stated above. The documentation is shit. It's not months behind, its years behind! We have been promised so many times over the past years that we would finally get updated and concise documentation and it never happens. The communication and updates are horrific.

 

I do like the owners and staff of ASA, but there is no excuse for this. Buying an ASA mount is like dating a hot looking women, you put up with her BS because the sex is good. She may not have any brains in her head, but she has a hell of a body....lol

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Hi Nigel,

 

Using absolute encoders in place of incremental ones is only a simplification of the system. Once the "homefind" is done, incremental encoders provide the exact same service.

 

So I don't think it is worth to change as it is not a real upgrade of the system.

 

 

Best regards.

 

Bernard

Edited by RamaSpaceShip
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Hi John,

 

Yes, the new absolute encoders have a better precision than the current incremental ones. But this additional precision will have nearly no effect on the performance of the mount. The only case where it may help is when the mount is used for some special professionnal operations.

For amateurs like us, the current mount performance is already optimal in terms of precision: do you need more than 20 minutes subs?

I don't think so.

 

Best regards.

 

Bernard

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:lol:

It's really bad but real: There is no usable documentation out there right now. Damn I was considering writing a short tutorial for new users, but honestly I can't see a real reason (besides being a helpful person) why we should bother and do ASA's job.  <_>

 

By the way, I found out that there are other mount manufacturers who are also using absolute encoders and - though they are NOT using direct drives - they also have incredible tracking performances. And also usable documentation  ;)

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Lukas and Bernard,

 

I have heard you guys talking about "Superfit". 2 Questions...

1. I have never used it. I just do a MLPT run and that's it. Tried to find it (superfit), but do not know where to begin? Do you guys like it?

2. If you think it is something we need to know, can someone please post some of the steps needed to get it going?

 

Thanks,

 

John Nemcik

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Hi John,

 

well, superfit is supposed to make an even better, smoother model of the telescope behaviour over the whole sky. I had quite good results with it and my Cassegrain, but had to revert to use guiding to get always accurately tracked images (with only MLPT, I had about 25% of the images with star trails).

 

If you do MLPT, you do not need Superfit. There was a time/version of Autoslew when it was actually counterproductive, as MLPT and SUperfit did corrections at the same time. This said, if you want to test it, simply make a good pointing file with Sequencer with enough measurements (dunno how many, though, I would start with 50-60), and do as you always did. You should find something like this then:

Screenshot_1.jpg

 

The SuperFIt correction values will change depending on your position in the sky :)

 

Hope this helps

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Lukas,

 

I have a similar position. But I would be happy to participate if they open their software as that would be a win-win approach.

 

Best regards.

 

Bernard

Good luck.

 

They own this forum and don't every drop by enough to monitor negative comments.

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