Hi the ZWO Team and the CAA awaiting or already users. 🙂
First of all, thank you for the product at a price that is more than twice lower than the competitors have set. This predicts big sales.
It appears that I am among the first CAA users, excluding the few reviewers. I already checked it with my ASIair Plus and with NINA, with and without a 7x2" EFW. I have some thoughts after the first run at home and outside and I'd like to list them below with a hope that the ZWO Team could take a stance.
I'm a user of both 2600MC and 2600MM cameras. Originally they are equipped with an M42 tilt-adjusting plates. I think many other cameras in the market also have the M42 thread. Before I pre-ordered the CAA I realised that there is a problem, so I ordered an M54 plate. It's not expensive and I'm happy that you offer it but other camera manufacturers don't offer this solution at all. I know, you can say "We don't care about others..." but some users can buy your great CAA to use it with NINA while you seem to forgot about them. You could solve the problem by equipping the CAA with an M42 plate or just make and sell them as an option.
I already have a hand controller (HC) which I bought together with my first EAF. First of all, I'd like to thank you that you thought about it, it's a great idea to use the existing solution. It works very well. I've run the CAA at home, under a control of the ASIair Plus and with the HC. Did I miss something or there is no link between the ASIair Sky Atlas and the current position of the CAA set by the HC? It would be really helpful to see this feature deployed.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm the user of one of the biggest EFWs (if not the biggest one). It's really difficult to manage cables to avoid a mess which may lead to serious damage to the hardware. A gearing at the CAA is very strong and can tear out sockets from their circuit boards. The CAA has a fixed zero position and it's OK. If I request e.g. a 120° angle it turns the camera counterclockwise. Really, I expected that it would turn it clockwise if I request a -120° angle which in fact is 240° but it doesn't, it performs nearly full revolution to get a 359° position. Well, am I the only one? It would save the stress and we could avoid the mess if the camera with all the cables connected turns counterclockwise for <=180° angle and clockwise for >180° angle. I attached a simple example of my meaning. The Telescopius.com telescope simulator shows the suggested angles in a way that I took as obvious. It would be very nice to see this feature deployed. If I can suggest, it would depend on a software switch and behave up to users' preferences.
.
I hope you understand my feelings.
Thanks in advance,
CS, Martha
