Another Nyx in Switzerland and a few questions

[RobertGanter]

Hello,

Please allow me to shortly introduce myself:
my name is Robert, I live in a suburb of Basel and have been interested in astronomy since ages.
By profession I am an electrical engineer running a small company mainly in the field of functional safety applications (e.g. railway).
I am a member of the local astronomical society of Basel where I am responible for the telescope workshop (ATM, mirror making, maintenance of equipment).

Beginning of August my Nyx-101 finally arrived. I could not resist to do a first bring up test. Despite of a few quirks with WiFi (no "spaces" allowed in WiFi password...) I could successfully connect it with Unity on a Windows PC and Sky Safari on IOS devices.
As I intend to use my equipment as far away from civilisation (i.e. light polluted areas) I need to add some equipment like 12V power source, etc. Weather in the mean time has been unsuitable for any observation so I do have time to work on this. An astroberry system is working already, at least with basic functionality. Next step will be to add a GPS module to the Raspberry Pi.

Now to a few questions and problems which I stumbled across during setup and planning for mobile accessories. I refer to manual version 1.6 - 2023-07-01:

1. Power supply reqirements / absolute maximum ratings. On page 8 "Technical Data" requirements are specified as 12V- 14V (unregulated). What are the maximum ratings? 14V would be rather tight as e.g. a lead acid of LiFePO4 battery can reach more than that during recharge. I assume this is uncritical but would suggest to clarifiy this point in the manual. I am shure there are quite a few folks around making their own mobile power sources. It would be unfortunate to deal with damaged mounts due to this.
2. For some reasons (LX200 communication protocol?) no spaces and # character are allowed in WiFi passwords. This is not mentioned in the manual, only in the NYX-101 Firmware Update web page. As I always use pass phrases in natural language (which include spaces) this means there is no way to connect the Nyx to my WiFi network. Maybe there is a workaround with escape characters which might circumvent this limitation. For the moment (and later in a field application with a dedicated router) I can live with that but this is an annoying problem which should be addressed.
3. Fixed, not changable IP address for Nyx WiFi hotspot: seriously? I have not done much development lately with ESP32 systems but I can't remember this was ever an issue. As with the second question/issue I can live with this right now but it should be possible to change this IP address through Unity software. More than one Nyx nearby and the fun starts . A good candidate for this scenario could be a an amateur astronomer's meeting. This point should be addressed as well IMHO.

Oh, and then there is the question: what to do with all these small hardware parts (screws, etc.) which have to be unmounted when the mount is stored in its case?
Have a look :

nyx6.jpg (117.86 KiB) Viewed 2626 times

My wife is an avid sewer and therefore I asked her to make some suitable bags out of softshell fabric. Folded all hardware is securely stored and fits perfectly on top of the mount:

nyx7.jpg (84.06 KiB) Viewed 2626 times

Same for the tripod hardware:

nyx8.jpg (124.68 KiB) Viewed 2626 times

Now everything is neatly stored and protected. The unused M12 knob has been stored away at home. The "normal" M12 knob is secured to the tripod using the adapter nut during transport.

All in all I am very excited about the Nyx. Everything perfectly manufactured, setup so far was rather straightforward (let's see how it works with astroberry) and mounting/unmounting is easy as well. I am looking forward to use it out in the wild


Best regards Robert

[RobertGanter]

Hello,

I'd like to correct question/point 3 of my post. I could have edited my post but think it is better to specifically clarify it here:

As long as two routers/hotspots are not connected to the same LAN they can indeed present themselves with the same local IP address without causing trouble.
Otherwise WiFi networks with different SSIDs but identical local IP addresses would wreaking havoc each other.
So question/point 3 is obsolete.

This means that more than one Nyx nearby should work without problem with their hotspot functionality enabled. Sorry for the confusion.


Best regards Robert

[RobertGanter]

Hello,

question 1 has been answered by Evans from Pegasus (thanks a lot). I take the liberty to quote the relevant part of it here as it may be helpful for others as well:

The absolute maximum of our electronic design is close to 18V. You will be fine with up to 15V. There is a protective TVS diode for levels up to 16V.

This means that the mount can be directly connected (through a adequately dimensionsed fuse!) to the battery. A properly designed charger for LiFePO4 batteries will not exceed 14.5V so there is still some headroom.
If You are part of team "better safe than sorry" You can add an additional 16V TVS diode after the fuse.

Best regards

Robert