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Knowledge base for ASA mounts

maxmirot

By maxmirot
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lukepower Member

lukepower

Posted
Posted (edited)

Great Daniel,

I will try to insert it in the Balancing page. Could be great stuff. Or you could add it yourself  :)

 

EDIT: Christer, could you activate the following extension: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:YouTube?

With it, we can insert the videos directly in the wiki.

Edited by lukepower
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Corpze Member

Corpze

Posted
Posted

Have you looked at the video of me running a autopoint and calculating the pointingfile? I do not wan't to add something that might contain eny errors...
It worked for me that time but you never know with autoslew (especially on win10) :angry: 
Wen't back to win7 and everything was operating flawlessly within an hour.
Personally, as a newbe - the hardest thing for me to get the mount up and running was;

- How crucial the balance and tuning is. Best result did I get when i did a;

              Rough balance

              Autotune
              Manual tune

              Balance

              And to finish it off with a final servo tune.

- The second most important thing was to me in which order you have to set up autoslew the first time

              Power on
              Start Autoslew

              Motors on

              Homefind

              etc...

 

- The third most horrific experience was setting up the parameters for autofocus - but I think there was a quite good PDF on that subject.
 

We could also add what kind of USB-cables, extensions and USB-hubs we are using, i change brand three times before finding a 5m USb 2.0 Cable from Deltaco that worked for me; This one (For both the COM and the HUB) https://www.deltaco.se/produkter/deltaco/kablar-adaptrar/usb/usb2-a-ha-a-ha/USB2-10 (Swedish) - but you have the right part nr.
There is possibly tons of things i can think of, and i will be contributing from a total newbe perspective - which I think this wiki will be awesome for. 
/Daniel



 

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lukepower Member

lukepower

Posted
Posted (edited)

Daniel,

yes, maybe adding a "Tested Hardware" wiki page would be a nice idea. Could you start on that?

I will have a look at the videos later on as the next days are very busy ones for me (gonna do a big building work in a few weeks and need to finish all the preparations).

Maybe your other ideas could be summarized in some sort of Quick Start tutorial. The single points (like "Manual tune", "Balance" and so on) could link to the respective pages.

EDIT: I added a page with your suggestions here: http://asauser.cosmonorr.se/index.php?title=Quickstart_for_beginners

Edited by lukepower
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nakbrooks Member

nakbrooks

Posted
Posted

I think this is all a really great start.  Hopefully we will hear soon from ASA whether we can use their manuals as a basis for more content.

 

In the meantime I was wondering if the menu structure might need to be clarified a bit.  There seems to be some overlap between Software, Documents, Setup and Technology.  Maybe a structure something like this:

 

Main Page

News

Hardware

        Mounts

        Astrographs

        Cassegrain / RC

Software

        Autoslew

        Sequence

        ACC

Accessories

        Correctors

        Focusers

        Rotators

        GPS

        Other

Tutorials

        Quick start for beginners

        Polar alignment

        Collimation

        Mount tuning

        Pointing file

        etc, etc

Integration with 3rd party s/w

        MaximDL

        The Sky X

        ACP

        etc, etc

Technology

        Direct drive

        High res encoders

        Windows & drivers

        etc, etc

Interaction

        Recent changes

        Help

        Categories (what is this, do we need it?)

        Community portal (do we need this, or do we use the ASA Forum?)

ASA Users Group

        About

        Members

        Events

        Help

        Terms & Conditions

Administrators (only visible to admins)

        Various admin tools

 

 

I would suggest that all pages in the Hardware, Software and Accessories sections have a standard format that includes sub-sections for:

 

- Overview (what does it do)

- Specification (key characteristics)

- Installation (how to physically install and configure it)

- FAQs (common problems & gotchas, with answers)

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GeorgeCarey Member

GeorgeCarey

Posted
Posted

Would it be good to have a section on 'Common Errors'?

The dreaded never ending slews, errors due to balance, dodgy usb leads, interpreting the log files and so on.

I have first hand experience of the rising current problem which can only be fixed by sending the mount back to ASA.

I spent months trying to sort this out myself when the mount should have gone back immediately.

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nakbrooks Member

nakbrooks

Posted
Posted

Good idea. Maybe in the FAQ section that I suggested for each hardware or software page?

 

If things like this get too long then maybe they can be linked to their own pages, or put in the Tutorials section?

 

It's important we try and get the site structure right, otherwise we will end up with a random selection of pages that contain really valuable stuff but are hard to find/navigate.

 

This is turning into the most positive step for amateur ASA users in many years. ASA seem to be focussing on high end kit for professional users so we need to take this into our own hands.

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lukepower Member

lukepower

Posted
Posted (edited)

I created yesterday a page for 'Common Problems':  http://asauser.cosmonorr.se/index.php?title=Common_Problems

It could be a place to collect that information as George suggested.

 

I would also recommend to work a bit on the first/main page, maybe giving it a logical approach which would make sense for a fresh owner of a mount, like:

1) Setup

2) Quick Start

3) Common problems

 

and so on...

 

@Christer: Thanks, I inserted one of Daniel's video's here: http://asauser.cosmonorr.se/index.php?title=Balancing#Example_Video

Seems like the plugin works fine. 

@Daniel: The video is nice, but could you (when you find the time) do it with a video capture like you did on the other videos? 

Edited by lukepower
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nakbrooks Member

nakbrooks

Posted
Posted

i have had the following response to my email asking ASA if we can use their documentation and logo on the wiki:

 

------------------

 

Dear Nigel,

 

we check the possibilities, but I think we will find a solution for a WIKI.

 

Our forum admin is on vacation the next two weeks, then we talk about a solution.

 

Best regards,

Dietmar

 

---------------------

Looks like we will have to wait a couple of weeks for an answer.

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Waldemar Member

Waldemar

Posted
Posted

i have had the following response to my email asking ASA if we can use their documentation and logo on the wiki:

 

------------------

 

Dear Nigel,

 

we check the possibilities, but I think we will find a solution for a WIKI.

 

Our forum admin is on vacation the next two weeks, then we talk about a solution.

 

Best regards,

Dietmar

 

---------------------

Looks like we will have to wait a couple of weeks for an answer.

 

That is quite a positive reaction! 

 

Maybe it would be nice to have a section with proven to work accessories, like hubs, cables , extenders a.s.o.?

This kind of peripherals tend to give a lot of problems if not chosen the right ones. ASA mounts seem to be very particular about that.

I wish I could attribute more, but you guys are more experienced then I am, obviously...

 

Waldemar

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ChristerS Member

ChristerS

Posted
Posted

i have had the following response to my email asking ASA if we can use their documentation and logo on the wiki:

 

------------------

 

Dear Nigel,

 

we check the possibilities, but I think we will find a solution for a WIKI.

 

Our forum admin is on vacation the next two weeks, then we talk about a solution.

 

Best regards,

Dietmar

 

---------------------

Looks like we will have to wait a couple of weeks for an answer.

 

Hmm if ASA starts a Wiki will there be two wikis??  I asume they could be complementary, I think we continue with this one until we hear any more from ASA.

I will register asa-users.org if I dont hear anyone complain.

/Christer

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lukepower Member

lukepower

Posted
Posted

Christer, go for it.

Even if ASA would put up their own wiki, who would write the contents? If it's the same guy writing the documentation it will stay empty for a long time...

On the other side, the Wiki you put up is being molded by the community and in my opinion can become very complete in a short amount of time. 

And it wouldn't rely on ASA, so no access from them/no blocking/whatever.

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RamaSpaceShip Member

RamaSpaceShip

Posted
Posted

Hi all,

 

 

we check the possibilities, but I think we will find a solution for a WIKI.

This does not necessarily mean that ASA wants to create a WIKI. It may also mean that they can allow their intellectual property usage in a WIKI, providing that it fulfils some conditions like explicit copyright notice where appropriate. The "solution" they are looking for could be that list of conditions.

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nakbrooks Member

nakbrooks

Posted
Posted

Dietmar has emailed me again to clarify.

 

ASA would be willing to host a wiki alongside the existing Forum (content to be provided by users) or alternatively they seem to have no objection to a User Group maintaining our own wiki. They agree there should not be 2 wikis.

 

It is not clear what technology an ASA hosted wiki would use (I don't think the hosted platform ASA uses for the Forum has a wiki capability).

 

No reply yet concerning whether we can use their existing documentation.

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nakbrooks Member

nakbrooks

Posted
Posted

We should continue to build our own WiKi for now.  If ASA agree to host a WiKi themselves that the users can help, maintain then we can migrate ourt content over to that WiKi if we wish.  However we need to maintain the momentum so we should continue with our WiKi until ASA offer a definite proposal (this waits for the return of their Forum admin from holiday).

 

How does everybody feel about the revised menu structure I suggested a couple of days ago?  Are we happy for Christer to make that change to the menu?

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nakbrooks Member

nakbrooks

Posted
Posted

I've just been sent these 2 new Autoslew Beginners Guides by ASA.  We can't put them on our WiKi yet as we are still waiting for permission to use their documentation, however they have said I can put them on this Forum.

 

I do not know if this is the start of a new comprehensive set of documentation (I wish) or just the latest manuals they are issuing with new mount sales.

 

 

AutoslewSoftwareManual2016-beginners guide - incremental.pdfAutoslewSoftwareManual2016-beginners guide-absolut.pdf

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