Celestron Powerstar and autoguiding

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miamichillin99
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Celestron Powerstar and autoguiding

Post by miamichillin99 » Fri Jun 20, 2014 10:22 pm

Hi all. First and foremost I would like to thank all the mods and admins of this great forum for helping the astronomy community. I am a newbie in Astronomy and I have an older Celestron C8. The Powerstar is a late 80's model. It was the first DC powered Celestron model. I would like to do some AP with autoguiding.
My telescope, mount and controller is this exact model:
http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/de ... _id=603761

I am guessing that since I do not have a standard ST-4 port (ethernet plug) that I might need to mod the controller. Does anyone have any experience with this model telescope, mount or controller. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

miamichillin99
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Re: Celestron Powerstar and autoguiding

Post by miamichillin99 » Mon Jun 23, 2014 11:09 pm

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Okay maybe this will get people talking. Here is my controller. Inside it seems to be a DMD-2 with extra circuitry. Do I need relays or can I just wire the GPUSB directly to each of the 4 pads (DEC+, DEC-,RA+, RA-)?

If relays are needed which schematic from the PDF is needed? Can I Get power from any source? What DC voltage should it be? I seem to have 9v and 5v.
http://www.store.shoestringastronomy.co ... idance.pdf

Or can I just do this mod without relays?
http://www.store.shoestringastronomy.com/eq_mod.pdf

Thank you all.

dpanderson
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Re: Celestron Powerstar and autoguiding

Post by dpanderson » Tue Jun 24, 2014 7:31 pm

From the looks of the bottom side of the board, these are DPST switches, so you would need to use the GP2 schematic shown in the "Guidance" document.
Doug Anderson
Shoestring Astronomy
http://www.ShoestringAstronomy.com

miamichillin99
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Re: Celestron Powerstar and autoguiding

Post by miamichillin99 » Tue Jun 24, 2014 9:31 pm

Thanks Doug. I will buy the parts and report back.

Geo
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Re: Celestron Powerstar and autoguiding

Post by Geo » Sun Oct 26, 2014 6:05 pm

Have you made the modification yet? If so, how did it go? I have the same mount and would like to perform the same mod. I'm an idiot with electronics, but my brother-in-law is an EE and can help me out.

miamichillin99
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Re: Celestron Powerstar and autoguiding

Post by miamichillin99 » Mon Oct 27, 2014 1:05 pm

I didn't go through with it due to budget constraints. I really wanted to get into astrophotography, but the investment in equipment was too much. I'll be happy help if you need advice though.

rgillis
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Re: Celestron Powerstar and autoguiding

Post by rgillis » Thu Jan 26, 2017 4:13 pm

I have the same scope and hand controller. There appears to be one power wire for the red central wire to the Dec motor and two wires for each Dec button controller. Same with Ra . How does this match up with the USB diagram or does the two wires equate to the two switchable
different speeds.

rgillis
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Re: Celestron Powerstar and autoguiding

Post by rgillis » Fri Jan 27, 2017 2:27 am

I think I can see my problem. The motor control board is in the hand control and so I suppose I need to access the dec +- switch wire prior to passing through the control board for the motor. I will need to talk to an motor electronics person to sort out the wiring required. Luckily I think I know a retired motor designer.

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