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Monday 28th 40F after a hard white frost.
Tried imaging all morning but the results were worse than yesterday.
I am sick of everything that is happening at the moment. Now I have unburdened myself on Beacon Hill's crap worm wheel sets on an astronomy forum. SGL. I should have shared my acute disappointment with their wares. If only to avoid others suffering similar problems.
Not to mention their law breaking indifference to customers and their consumer rights. This was back in August 2016. It seems they have found themselves a new machinist. The last one was supposedly an octogenarian working in an unheated shed. No doubt working for a pittance. But that is probably just me being cynical.
I worked for a while as a self-employed, clock restorer. All the antique shop owners wanted the work done for almost nothing. With lots of shortcuts thrown in for good measure. They would do house clearances to fleece recent widows. Then hike the price of the clocks to match their own insatiable greed. With the rest going into the nearest household furniture, auction house.
I had delusions of grandeur and wanted to do a full dismantle, clean, repair and rebuild. Followed by traditional silvering of the dial where appropriate. They just wanted to move product at lowest cost and maximum profit.
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4 comments:
Hi Chris,
I was searching for the AWR Ascom driver when I came across your interesting diaries / blogs. The most interesting was the post about poorly paid clocksmiths and their employers. It's very hard to find people who think like you. I thought my own similar thoughts were out of place / fashion and mere fantasies.
Anyway I would br greatful if you could give your won opinion about this driver please. I have AWR tech control system fitted to a vixen GP and would want to do PHD2 guiding with it. The vixen mount is a super light weight grab and go system with a good level of engineering in the base design,
Also let me know how I can download this driver or contact the seller of the driver if there is such a thing. I haven't seen it advertised on the AWRtech web site. Thanks and clear skies, Nalin.
Hi,
The AWR ASCOM driver costs £50 a year and it has NEVER worked for me.
AFTER SEVERAL YEARS NOT ONE GOTO HAS EVER HIT THE TARGET! NOT EVEN THE MOON OR SUN!
Mine won't even find its COM port now. Dead in the water!
Makes all my other ASCOM based items complain.
Multiple clicks just to get them to work from a cold start.
TOTAL WASTE OF TIME when you want to be imaging!
The ASCOM driver is the work of Tim Long of Tigra Astronomy.
He has now changed the name of his software company.
He is calling himself Tim-Tech now.
He has a Facebook presence if you really want to find him.
Ask for a guarantee of functionality or a full refund!
I stopped my annual payment for the driver last time around.
TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY!
At best, Tim Long is a deluded waste of space. IMO.
Why do ASCOM put up with him? He gives them a bad name!
He had my ASCOM[AWR] system on Remote Desktop for hours messing about.
He never even found the problem!
I am actively searching for an alternative drive system.
Good luck
Chris
Hi Chris,
Many thanks for coming back. Given your experience I’ll not touch it with a barge pole. I suggest reaching out to Astro-Gadgets.net. Them seem to have drive systems for many manual drives. Unfortunately they are based in Ukraine and we’re caught up in the cross fire. They have relocated and say they will have full production in about two months time. I am planning to ditch the AWR drives for Astro-Gadgets drives which are Ascom compatible out of the box A version of this control box is also available with FLO. But they are also low on stock.
I am surprised how people get away with this sort of thing in this country. The information on your web site is very helpful and my thanks and appreciation for it. Thanks. Clear skies.
Hi and thanks.
I had a look at Astro-Gadgets.net website but everything is out of stock.
Given the current problems that is hardly surprising.
I'll keep my eye on them.
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