Keeping the wiring simple

Equipment Power Supply
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Andy Wray avatar
Andy Wray avatar
I thought long and hard about the benefits of buying something like a Pegasus Astro Powerbox and adding its weight to my OTA and eventually decided against it.  For me, it was only going to save one moving cable (as I don't use dew heaters) and was going to add extra weight to the OTA and cost me quite a lot considering my budget setup.  I thought I would share my wiring for anyone else who may be relatively new to this and who is trying to get a neat, cheap, wiring layout.  

It would be good to see what others have done.

FWIW:  The two cables to the mount are sheathed and that sheath is velcroed to the side of the mount, so effectively acts as one moving cable.  The same applies to the 3 cables to the OTA.  So, two sheathed moving cables; it can't be any less than that whatever I try.

If I was running this in the field, rather than in my backyard (where I have mains power), I would consider something like the Pegasus so that I wasn't wasting energy on power inverters.  If I did do that, I could leave the wiring just the same and just strap the Pegasus to the tripod leg rather than all the power supplies I currently have strapped on.
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deleted avatar
deleted avatar

​​​​​​This is my rig.  I don't have a filter wheel but the only thing that isn't obvious here is the Celestron dew heater ring that sits right on top of my corrector plate.  The Pegasus UPB is connected to an active USB 3.0 extension cable that goes to a PC elsewhere, and I use remote desktop to connect to that PC.
kuechlew avatar
kuechlew avatar
Andy Wray:
...

If I was running this in the field, rather than in my backyard (where I have mains power), I would consider something like the Pegasus so that I wasn't wasting energy on power inverters.  If I did do that, I could leave the wiring just the same and just strap the Pegasus to the tripod leg rather than all the power supplies I currently have strapped on.
...

That's exactly what I do with my mobile rig. 

Clear skies
Wolfgang
Mike Cranfield avatar
Mike Cranfield avatar
With apologies for cannibalising your diagram here is my set up (the ASIAIR does make life easy!)

Karl Theberge avatar
Karl Theberge avatar
A guy on one of my facebook page did something really nice.

Since he's using the polemaster instead of the  polarscope, he removed it and runned a power cable thru the hole.

So now, the power cable for the mount is comming from the polarscope, the dc plug on the mount is used to power the instrument on the OTA.
Basicaly, there is no dangling cable on any moving part of the mount.  I think its pure genius.  I just changed my mount so I dont need that anymore, but if I still had my NEW6, I would have done this mod. and add a USB 3.0 also.

I have the Micro Powerbox and I like it.  I should Have buy the bigger one with the USB hub.  USB is always usefull.

Karl
Timothy Prospero avatar
Timothy Prospero avatar
Here my small rig", 


Esprit 80mm with ZWO ASI 533MM + 7x36mm EFW, Primaluce Autofocuser, Mele Mini PC with Pegasus Adv2 power box , qhy miniguide  scope, and a secon 85mmSamyang lens with an ZWO ASI533MC. 

Mount is an EQ6-R...only a power cable is going down to ground to the battery, and USB + mount power ,  I used a self closing sleve "Green" to cover & protect the cables.
Alberto Ibañez avatar
Alberto Ibañez avatar
Hi Andy,

Simple wiring is one of the best things that I have done in my rig. I really encourage to everyone to put an eye on it. It not only reduced my setup time to a ridiculous 5 minutes, but also almost eliminated any random glitches that are very usual when things are spreaded all around.

I mounted all the stuff on a suitcase following this diagram:


This is the suitcase:




And this, the setup once wired:





I wrote a post on this forum giving a little more info:
https://www.astrobin.com/forum/c/astrophotography/equipment/article-astrohub-20-suitcase-cable-management-and-more/

The full article, with all the details (components, calculations, execution...) can be found on my web:
https://aiastro.wordpress.com/2020/01/04/astrohub-v2/

Hope it helps!

Alberto.
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Karl Theberge avatar
Karl Theberge avatar
Well thats mine.   I have a 365 telegizmo cover so i only need to plug 2 cable fro my OTA rig.

The OTA sleep in my bookshelf, away from moisture and stuff.

Karl Theberge avatar
Karl Theberge avatar
Alberto Ibañez:




Alberto.

I love the look of that power supply...  Just take my money!
Ed Dixon avatar
Ed Dixon avatar
Setup with WO GT71 and HEM27 mount.  Two external cables from tripod area:  one for power and one for USB data to a miniPC off to the side.


 https://www.cloudynights.com/gallery/image/157508-img-0900/ 


https://www.cloudynights.com/gallery/image/157509-img-0901/ 


Mount power supply does both mount and ZWO camera cooler.  USB carries EAF, guide scope, image camera, polar scope, filter wheel (not shown here), and mount hand controller.


All actual control is done from inside via a net connection to outside miniPC.  This is the case for both home setup and remote setup.
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