Power*Star

Power*Star Pro Tips: Bad Connector Choices

 in Blog  tagged audio / connectors / jack / plug / Power*Star / RCA / short circuit / tips

Before getting into this edition of “Pro Tips”, a little update on what’s been happening at Wa-chur-ed Observatory:  We’re moving!  The original observatory (located in Vancouver, WA) was in the backyard of my home there, which has been sold.  We’re now in Santa Fe, NM, but don’t yet have a home here, which means I’m largely unable to ship any products, and even somewhat hampered in supporting existing customers.  Hopefully, things will be back to normal by April.  After getting settled in and caught up, work will begin on the new observatory. A Power*Star customer recently asked me about connecting […]

Power*Star Pro Tips: Oops!

 in Blog  tagged Auto Dew Control / Auto On / bug / Ghost Rider Nebula / Power*Star / Pro Tips / Sh2-132

Before getting into the latest edition of Pro Tips, I want to remind you of the nebula pictured above, Sh2-132.  When I first shot this about 5 years ago I immediately saw a motorcycle and ghostly rider, which made me think of the “Ghost Rider” movie.  Some people refer to this as the Lion Nebula (which I don’t see at all), but there is some disagreement about that name, so I’m trying to get it changed to the Ghost Rider Nebula.  To that end I am re-shooting this, and plan to collect at least 20 hours. Back to Pro Tips:  […]

Power*Star Pro Tips: Fault Detection

 in Blog  tagged Fault Detection / Fault handling / Faults / Power*Star / Pro Tips

One of the most valuable features of Power*Star is something you might never have to deal with, its fault detection and protection system. The first protection mechanism is the reverse polarity protection. When the input voltage is connected “backwards” (with reversed polarity) a large power transistor blocks the voltage from reaching either the internal circuitry or the connected devices. This can easily save you from a very expensive mistake, although when using the standard PowerPole connectors at both ends of the cable and a (carefully) prewired power source, there is very little chance of it ever happening. The only downside […]

Power*Star Pro Tips #2

 in Blog  tagged control lock / port name / Power*Star / Pro Tips / verify disable

My first tip today is very simple, and very useful:  Each of the power outputs, dew heaters, and USB ports can be assigned a name so that you don’t have to remember where each device is plugged in.  In the setup menu simply click in the field under “Change Name” and type in the name you want.  Usually this would be the name of the device, such as “ASI1600”, or “Filter Wheel”, but you can use any text you want (as long as it’s not too many characters).  For example, you could enter “LEAVE ON!”, which kind of leads to […]

Power*Star Pro Tips

 in Blog  tagged Auto On / Close Options / Disconnect / Power*Star / Pro Tips

  While all Power*Star users are quite experienced astrophotographers, there are quite a few small features that may be overlooked or misunderstood, so I’ve decided to do a few blog posts to explore them.  The first topic is one that comes up frequently in my own use of Power*Star, the “Close Options”. When you are ending an imaging session you may shut down some or all components of the system.  For use in the field we usually turn everything off to conserve battery power, but in an observatory with AC power some things may be left on for various reasons.  […]

It’s Back!

 in Blog  tagged back in stock / P*S / Power*Star

Almost 2 years ago I built the first batch of 100 Power*Star units, and except for 1 that I use myself and 1 that failed quality control, all of them were sold (about 85% of them to a wholesale customer). This is good, but I could have sold many more if I had been able to build them. Supply chain issues have made it impossible to source several key components. However, I was recently able to find enough parts to build 10 more units, and they are now available to my direct customers. The shortage of parts, and inflation made […]

Customized Power*Star

 in Blog  tagged custom / customization / enclosure / Intel / LattePanda / Lenovo / NUC / Power*Star / Raspberry Pi / SBC

One of the early customers for Power*Star is planning to use it with a single-board computer (SBC) at the telescope, and asked me to customize the enclosure to allow mounting the SBC on top of P*S.  It is more than worth noting here that where to locate the host computer is an important question.  Some competitive products to P*S have a built-in processor (ranging from small Raspberry Pi boards to full-blown Windows machines with high-end Intel processors), while others take the same approach as P*S, providing only the features specific to astrophotography.  While it is sometimes convenient to have everything […]

Introducing Power*Star

 in Blog  tagged announcement / distribution / hub / new product / power / Power*Star / usb / USB3

If you’ve been following this blog you already know that I’ve been working (for what seems like years, but was really just 10 months) on a new product, which I have named ‘Power*Star’.  In my earlier posts I told you about the process of designing and manufacturing the product, and now that it’s almost ready to ship it’s time to tell you what Power*Star is all about. The core functionality of Power*Star (abbreviated P*S) is quite simple:  It provides a central distribution point for both the power (mostly 12VDC) and data (USB) typically needed for astrophotography.  In the most basic […]