Eagle 5S Setup and Review - Easy to Use Mini Computer for your Telescope!

[@samchasingstarlight]

Food for thought: Eagle5S has i3-1115G released in 2020 with PC Mark score of 6,148; Eagle5Pro has i5-1135G7 released in 2020 with PC Mark score of 9,912; Eagle5XTM has Ryzen 5 5400U released in 2021 with PC Mark score of 11,523. Price of Eagle between $1,500-$2,700 during sale. I bought a Beelink with Ryzen 5 5560U released in 2022 with PC Mark score of 15,092 for $260 on Amazon. I own an Eagle 3S and personally will never buy one again. They are convenient but have old CPU's in them. They do not use industrial-rated USB controllers rated for freezing temps like Gearmo USB powered hubs and if you open one up can see the power supply to the higher amp 12V outputs use very small solder fab boards which if exposed to continuous freezing and warming can easily break. Another option is to buy a tough series laptop. Dell makes one that's rated down well below freezing and can be bought for around $2k. Much more robust.

[@paulyoung4817]

I agree, these days if you buy a Beelink I5 iteration (wth Win11 pro) call it £400), a Pegasus Ultimate power box £580 ish and a SQM, probably close price wise in the UK. Then you have pwr consumption to consider, great when plugged into 110/240v at home/obsi. Then the added cost of the proprietary cables to feed the extras, kind off puts it out of reach of the average capacity of of a poor Astro photographer?

[@davewilton6021]

One reason for buying the 5XTM is to future-proof the computer and extend its useful life. When I get a new computer, I tend to buy much more processing power and storage than I need so that I'll be able to run the programs I need in four or five years in the future. Whether or not this is worth the additional outlay of money depends on one's individual finances. I plan on buying an Eagle when my own finances permit.

[@SimonT65]

Hey Antoine, the Eagle is great, I have the Eagle 4S but I switched out the old i3 NUC the Eagle came with to a 12th gen i7 NUC, increased the RAM and installed a larger SSD. I had an issue with Windows Enterprise so installed Windows 11 Pro which works great - a lot faster than stock. I went with an i7 NUC as I have PixInsight installed so can do some processing on the fly. There’s an update to Eagle Manager X the latest being 1.2.5 - you have the old version. I would also run the power ports to the rear of the rig as it’s a lot easier to balance and you don’t have cables running all over the place. The Eye SQM lens can be placed either side of the Eagle, it just unscrews by hand. Great video. Cheers Simon

[@stxe34]

please share which version of i7 nuc you used.

[@CosmicCaptures]

I have had a few issues acquiring GPS information with my Eagle 4s. What has solved the problem is using high-quality, properly shielded USB cables, and as an additional measure, I have attached ferrite beads to the cables. Since then, I have had no issues with the GPS. I know you don't need it, but it can be handy for some.

[@GalacticHunter]

Interesting, thanks for the tip and hopefully others will see it!

[@CarpeNoctem42]

I have The Eagle 4S, but have upgraded it. It now boasts 64GB RAM, a fast i7 and a fast 2TB NVMI harddisk which gives it even more power than the XTM. Reason is that I also use it to post-process. Too bad I can't do anything with the GPU, if it was possible I would have put a NVIDIA GPU in it with CUDA. That was a total gamechanger on my main PC.

[@Daniel_DP83]

Hey Antoine, i am using the Eale 4Pro for a year, with the Celestron AVX and in future with the ZWO AM5.

[@craiglowery4427]

Great video. I love my Eagle 4 Pro. I'm a planetary imager and I need a fast processor and large, fast SSD.

[@Rob_1472]

Just installed my 5s the other day and connecting is dead simple. Only really needed a monitor for one thing…setting up WiFi. Only thing for me is mirroring the settings for all the various softwares. Building my model failed today with error message sync to coordinates failed in model creator 2 😮

[@beatsntoons]

Keen to hear if you have any troubles with your QHY in future. PLL are going to send out a new version of their software to deal with the QHY power problem (known issue on Eagle 4, and I've encountered it with Eagle 5). I'm currently beta testing. It's not really a PLL problem, it's definitely down to how QHY implement their power draw. It's really bad. My ZWO camera has no issues, it's just QHY.

[@GalacticHunter]

Hmmm interesting. I'm using a ZWO camera with the Eagle so I guess I'm lucky. My QHY camera is on the other rig which is using a Nuc.

[@The1-Wolf1]

I just purchased the Eagle 5 XTM and I am trying to configure it. I can remotely connect to the Eagle, but if I just ry to plug in the monitor to the HDMI port, it doesn't recognize it. Is there something one has to do to with from remote desk, to direct PC mode? BTW nice video!

[@paulwood6729]

How do you connect in the field? Do you simply type the Eagle's IP address into a PrimaLuce app, use remote software like Any Desk or some other process?

[@derekbaker3279]

Merci Antoine! I am considering getting an Eagle or two to run my rigs (..but not not at a remote observatory..), so I appreciate your demonstration of the Eagle 5S's functions! 1. FWIW, the only reasons I can imagine for getting the Eagle 5XTM are (a) you can also use it for analyzing & processing the images. Perhaps it could be a second computer for a person....and the only computer they take when they travel to a distant location? (b) high-speed photometry, or perhaps other 'research' applications which require very frequent image acquisitions & many objects imaged every night, and (c) simultaneously running two or more imaging set-ups that are on the same mount. 2. I do have a couple questions, if you don't mind: (a) One concern I have is how quickly & precisely the plate-solving is done. How has the Eagle 5S performed with plate-solving? (b) Have you had experience with the Eagle LE or Eagle 4 (basic level)? I am curious regarding situations where the slower processor & minimal RAM in the LE or 4 significantly slowed down the process of pointing the telescope/plate solving & performing all functions for capturing images/flats/darks, etc. Thanks! Derek

[@GalacticHunter]

a) Plate Solving is super fast, maybe a second or two (similar to the laptop I use when I go on the field), I'm using ASTAP. b) No this is my first Eagle so I haven't tried the others!

[@liviulazar9387]

I expected you to show us how is it working with its own Program, cause it is very less known compared to ASIAIR or NINA. Anyway, good luck!

[@GalacticHunter]

I never use it and never heard of anyone using it now that NINA is so big, but hopefully there are some in-depth videos about PLAY on KZbin if you need one!