New complete sequence program - Prism

[Corpze]

Hi, i just stumbled upon a one hour presentation of Prism on the Astro Imaging Channel on youtube.

At one moment in the presentation given by the authour of the program he sais "i was running a direct drive mount in Chile with this program"

To me it sounds worth investigate, i can't find anything on the Internet though.

 

The program is complete, i mean everything. Sky chart, object chooser, weather, dome control, sequencer, editing... 499USD

 

Anyone know more if this supports DDMs?

 

/Daniel

[lukepower]

I tried it once, but wasn't too impressed with it.

But it was a while ago... 

[Corpze]

Good to know
My ear went pointy when he said that he controlled a Direct drive mount... maybe there are alot of different kinds out there?

[GeorgeCarey]

Don't we have a DDM user in Sweden you does variable star work in Chile by remote control?

[lukepower]

There are indeed a few direct drive mounts out there, besides ASA. There is a french product, and a german-russian one (Astelco). ANd on the bigger scopes, especially the fork-mounted (like PlaneWaves CDK) they are nearly a standard

[Josch]

Hi,

 

I am the one running a DDM in Chile doing variable stars.

I am using on my DDM85 however Autoslew, CCDCommander and MAXIM. Occasionally also the Sky V6 (e.g. to get info about comet positions which change every night).

 

I also know Prism. Indeed it contains everything you can imaging. It makes it also a bit more complicated. It comes with the NOVA direct drive mounts. We also have one in Chile but presently having problems with the scope.

I am impressed about the pointing acuracy of the Nova mount. My DDM85 is really getting a pain in this direction. I need a lot of plate solvings during night and still pointing is somethimes far off.

It is getting worse with time I have the feeling.

Of course I am not often doing a new all sky model (actually the last one was begin of 2015).

 

I am now installing a nw WIN10 PC. I checked it yesterday with simulator mode and it worked. Tonight WIN10 did a installation and today switching physically the PCs I could not get ASCOm to work.

IT took a couple of hours and the help of my son to get it working.

But now the DDM85 does not want to do what I want. e.g. homefind. It always stops.

I have tested it with a DDM85 from home in Belgium. Now Autoslew has the wrong serial code. Could that be the problem? How to change the serial code?

 

Regards,

 

Josch

[Jay]

 

I am now installing a nw WIN10 PC. I checked it yesterday with simulator mode and it worked. Tonight WIN10 did a installation and today switching physically the PCs I could not get ASCOm to work.

IT took a couple of hours and the help of my son to get it working.

But now the DDM85 does not want to do what I want. e.g. homefind. It always stops.

I have tested it with a DDM85 from home in Belgium. Now Autoslew has the wrong serial code. Could that be the problem? How to change the serial code?

 

Regards,

 

Josch

 

Hi Josch,

 

I've had quite a lot of problems with my DDM60 Pro ...never found out what caused the problems but after the service everything is working quite ok, however not perfectly. E.g after switching to Win10 the first "home find" fails every-freaking-time. When turning off Autoslew and trying it again, no problems what so ever.    

 

Changing the serial key:

http://forum.astrosysteme.com/index.php?/topic/766-new-serial-key-autoslew/

 

Regards,

Jay

 

P.S. Pointing accuracy problems might have something to do with the old sky model. I've never had problems with pointing accuracy, on the contrary, pointing has always been VERY accurate

Edited September 26, 2016 by Jay

[Waldemar]

It is very important to use the right serial key, Josch

The last 4 digits set the magnetic angle in the software. If they are not correct, your mount will not do what you expect it to do.

I am not aware of any method to get around that or find out which it should be.

Maybe better ask ASA for the key.

There is a serial number on your mount and no doubt they will have a file with all serial number - key code combinations 

 

If windows updated to the new anniversery version, some drivers may have been lost or relocated, but a re-installation of the drivers and/or software should fix that problem. I had some problems with the drivers for my SX cameras and filterwheel after updating, but that was fixed by re-installing them.

 

Waldemar

Edited September 26, 2016 by Waldemar

[Josch]

Hi guys,

 

by screening the different replies in the Software section I found the renoval of the license key and how to copy all settings to a new PC. Thanks to those who had poisted this. I could get the mount up and running last night. Now I will tackle the pointing as for many images it is close to perfect but for others 25 arcmin and more off.

 

To get ASCOM to work again was a pain in the neck. Probably the update was to their aniiversay edition as the look and feel is different to my Win10 home desktop.

Before the update it was the same. Anyway it was tunring in circles and only after putting an WIn10 image on the new PC and extrcting the necessary files Windows needed to unlock the Net.Framework 3.5 it worked.

 

I will prepare a new pointing model during the next night so that also pointing should be better again.

Thanks all of you for your swift help.

 

I should also mention that ASA reacted immediately to my mail sent to them this morning sending me a document explaining how to remove the serial key and to copy the settings from on to another PC. It was the same as already posted in this forum.

 

Regards,

Josch

Edited September 26, 2016 by Josch

[Denis Vien.]

For information

I have a MDD 85 that I use with PRISM V10 and no particular problems to report it works perfectly. The only problem I have is the update of Autoslew with Win10, impossible to launch Autoslew it stops at start and I do not have the control window .. The only version that works is the 5.1.1.6