23 replies to this topic

[kocki]

Hello,
has anyone an idea how to find / track satellites like international space station ISS?

I didn't find a selection of ISS in any menu of my MySky.

Can anyone help?

kocki

[tfrisvold]

You must load the ISS information into the MySky memory card using the update program on your computer.  I have loaded the ISS and 17P comet information and I did finf the comet but I have not yet tried the ISS.  I will let you know how I do soon and we get clear sky in Minnesota again.

[kocki]

Hello,
datas about ISS are on my SD-Card in the file satellites.db, but i haven't found a possibility to select ISS via the MySky menus.

[KI6IWX]

First - for those that dont know how to get there - choose the "Solar System" menu, then choose "Events". this will bring up Satellites, Meteors and Eclipses. Choose "Satellites" and scroll down to "ISS (ZARYA)" just past mid-way down the menu. Press the center round "Star" button and a menu will pop up with rise and set time and altitudes. Press the "track" selection and the MySky will guide you to the rise point. On top of the screen it will count down in seconds the time to when it rises - a really cool feature.
ISS rises here in San Diego just before 4 in the morning, so I havent seen it yet - but I've been able to track various other satellites with ease.

[kocki]

Thanks,
I have found it.

It's a very nice feature.

kocki

[kocki]

There is a big problem, when the counter is reaching 0 sec. 

In this moment - the satellite rises - my MySky freeze. No key is functionable and the display is frozen. I must switch off and switch on to reset the MySky.

Has anyone the same experience or can someone test it?

kocki

[KI6IWX]

Hmmm - this has not happened to me yet. I say YET because my unit freezes exactly the same way during the "Tonights Best" tour about 75% of the time. Saturday night was the only night we've had here that has been clear enough to play. I tried to find Comet Holmes, and the MySky pointed to exactly where it should be, but I could not see it - even with binoculars. Either it had reduced apparent brightness, or light pollution in the city is affecting my being able to see it. Hopefully tonight will be clear enough, and I'll focus on satellites to see if I can reproduce your problem.

[rmklaw]

Check my posting on wrong GPS time.  If your GPS time is DST it will show the wrong location.  Off by one hour.  That is what I am experiencing.

[kocki]

Hello KI6IWX,
try to point the MySky to the star Mirphak, the comet Holmes is near by this star. So I have found the comet and could see him through my binocular.

You can check the actual position on the german website

http://www.komet-nea...17p.htm#aktuell

kocki

[KI6IWX]

Found the comet last night easily. I guess the light pollution or haze prevented me from finding it the other night.

BUT, I found another potential problem last night with satellites - fired up the MySky and went through the satellite list looking for potential targets - saw two rising at 8:40 and 8:42 pm. It was only 6:30, so I shut the unit down and went out at 8:30. Turned the MySky on again, and allowed the unit to go through the GPS routine again (even though I did not have to). Went back to the satellite list, and found that the satellites I had picked out no longer had 8:40 rise times, but were instead a completely different time! I should have had only 5 minutes to wait. So this time I went through the list and wrote down all rise times for every satellite. Shut the unit off and back on again to discover the times completely different once again! In the end I found nothing - there was never a satellite rising within an hour every time I fired the unit up, so now my repaired MySky seems to be useless for tracking satellites. The only good thing about the night is that the MySky never froze up. I ran the "Tonights Best" tour three times with no problems and perfect pointing accuracy.

[KI6IWX]

KOCKI - Your problem is confirmed - every time I tracked a satellite the MySky locked up when the counter reached zero, and I had to power the unit off and then back on. I think the whole satellite tracking program is full of bugs in this software version.
Never once did I actually see a satellite - either because of city light pollution, or the MySky is giving the wrong rise and set information (more likely).

I guess a call to Meade is in order...

[kocki]

Hello KI6IWX,
a problem call is not yet in order. I have only found a service telphone number on the Meade homepage, not an email-address. By the last Meade call via telephone in USA they told me, that I have to contact the german dealer. The MySky isn't available at this time in Germany, it is announced early 2008.

Do you  know an email support address or can you open a call by Meade?

You wrote, that you can switch off the unit after freezing, I have to remoe the batteries to reset the unit.

Your problem whith different rise and set times is not confirmed. I have tested 3 satellites after 20 and 40 minutes. the diiference is max. 1 minute. I switched off the unit directly after each test.

[KI6IWX]

I will put in a call to Meade today and report the results here. Unfortunately they do not have a customer service email address (as they should).

When My unit locked up during the Tonights Best tours I always had to shut down by removing the batteries. I was quite surprised that the power button actually worked when the MySky locked up during the satellite search.

[kocki]

Hello KI6IWX,
thanks for your efforts.

kocki

[KI6IWX]

Just got off the phone with Meade and listed all the problems I've encounterd as follows:

Q: When performing the Tonights Best tour I get lockups that only battery removal will resolve.
A: That sounds like a bad unit - send it in.

Q: Satellite rise times change when I power down the unit and re-start minutes later.
A: That sounds like a bad unit - send it in.

Q: The satellite count-down timer causes the unit to lock up when it reaches zero for several of us.
A: No answer - need to send it in.

Q: When I sync the unit to GPS the time displayed is an hour off.
A: After being put on hold for 10 minutes - Can't answer that question.

Q: And Finally - Does anybody from Meade Engineering monitor these Forums to find out what the customers really think about the products, and maybe answer some questions - because I've seen no evidence of it.
A: I don't Know - I don't think so - Maybe Scott - I'm not sure.

After explaining that I just waited a month to get this MySky back from repair (which I was told should not have taken so long since they do not repair them - they just send out a new replacement), and in the month and two weeks that I've been in posession of it, I've got to use it exactly one week - the Rep arrainged to have UPS pick up my unit and I would have a replacement within two weeks. So at least I don't have to pay for shipping again.

Do I feel that my problems are over? - No, because I believe that all these symptoms are caused by the software version installed (2.1q), and since I just got this one back from them with the latest software - nothing will be different with the replacement. Unless Meade has come up with a new rev to the software that is.

[kocki]

Hello KI6IWX,
I also think that the posted problems are software problems. There are no signs of a hardware damage of the unit.
Do you want to send back your MySky to Meade? If you do so, let's see which software version is installed after getting back your MySky from Meade.

Has anyone an older software version than 1.2q available to test the error situations?

kocki

[KI6IWX]

Got the MySky back from Meade in record time - sent it in on Thursday, and got the replacement today. The satellite and time problems still persist though - just as I thought they would. But it's pointing accuracy is just as good as the other two I had, and, for the first time I connected it to the LX200 and had a ball pointing the scope around the sky at everything I selected through the MySky. I'll report my results back to Meade, and I'm sure a future software update will take care of the problems.

[rmklaw]

What is your software version???

[kocki]

Hello rmklaw,
my SW version is 1.2q. What is yours?
kocki

[KI6IWX]

The Latest Software Version is 1.2q