PrimaLuce Lab Eagle 4 Computer Upgrade - Beast Mode

[@ing.riccoskombar]

I can confirm that the eagle 4 with the celeron j4005 is extremly slow and i also was thinking about another mainboard which fits to the chassi, didnt had tine to research but you found a solution really cool modification thank you for your explaination of the internal electronics of the Eagle. Great

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

Yeah the Celeron is ok and manageable but the upgrade is soooo much better. Your very welcome.

[@nikaxstrophotography]

Fellow Liverpool supporter mate All I focused on for the first minute was the beanie lol

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

I'm rather proud of that beanie, I believe I purchased it from Anfield when I went to watch the Liverpool v Hearts game in the Euorpean Cup...I will have to check my scarf for the year lol, it was a bit of a blur that game.

[@davidemancini7853]

Now they have the new eagle 5 , ryzen processor, 32gb memory,2tb ssd💪Greeting from Perth😊

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

Greetings, I have seen that. It’s a beat beastly the new Eagle 5 that’s for sure. I’m not sure I would like to k ow the price of it though.

[@davidemancini7853]

@@StevenMorrisPhotography yes very expensive for sure 4500$ AUD ouch!

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

😮 ok, so my option is still cheaper lol

[@davidemancini7853]

@@StevenMorrisPhotography 🤣100%

[@karlfortner887]

The advantage of a M.2 SDD is that it interfaces directly with the system buss as compared to other devices that go through a peripheral interface ie usb. M.2 'bandwidth is only limited by the speed of the CPU buss speed. Since you're running an i7 there shouldn't be any hickups.

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

Thank you for that, makes sense to add the M.2 SSD then.

[@LogansAstro]

Looks like a fair bit of work there but sounds like a worthwhile upgrade for the Eagle - and a necessary one since you are now involved with triplets which can be very demanding.

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

So demanding mate as you would know with your own twin rig system. How are you getting along with the dithering side of things?

[@LogansAstro]

@@StevenMorrisPhotography Haven't been doing much dithering with the rig in twin mode as I've been switching between the scopes imaging their own targets separately. I need to get my focus offsets setup again before trying another session with the scopes imaging the same target at the same time.

[@SimonT65]

I've often wondered about sticking a faster NUC motherboard in my Eagle 4S and if it would work or not but unlike you I don't get any bottlenecks as I only run the one rig. Very happy that you can do it and well done for being the first to try Steve but I suppose in your case you had little to lose. I'm the guilty person that told you that I upgraded the WIFI card, its a lot better than the bog standard version. There's a new version of Eagle Manager out Eagle Manager X, it broadcasts both the standard IP and remote IP for field work at the same time as well as a better power usage graph. Great stuff Steve, thats one less nagging thought about the motherboard upgrade

[@SimonT65]

I also upgraded the SSD to a Samsung nvme drive, the SSD in the Eagle is only a cheapy. I also got rid of Windows 10 Enterprise and upgraded to Windows 11 Pro, I was having an issue with W10 Ent that couldn't be fixed without getting PrimaLuce involved as they lock down W10 Ent. W11 Pro works great - zero issues and highly recommend

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

I had noticed with the new Eagle it looked to be running a new manager, I haven't found where it is to download though and see if it will upgrade the Eagle 4 to it. I wish we could use the eye settings in NINA for the safety aspect to stop an imaging session. I also think the PrimaLuceLab should insert a IR camera to look out for clouds into the system.... that would be much better than some of the things they have added to the Eagle 5 unit.

[@Planetreefastro]

Hi Steven Luis from New York here. Wrote you about this upgrade you did. I would definitely upgrade the hard drive to an NVME and get the largest you can afford. Personally I prefer the 2tb ones. It will improve the speed of the system as the bottleneck will not be there as the drive interfaces with the board directly not through a separate cable or connector which can slow the data transfer down. Also the extra space will allow you to just save the files directly in a folder and there is no need for a usb stick externally. I wondered whether you had found a board that would fit directly with modding the case or doing any soldering. The new Eagle 5’s are nice but way too expensive and the besides the improvements in the power of the processor and using windows 11, the other “enhancements” don’t seem to justify the costs to me. I use a minicomputer and a Pegasus power box version 2 and a small router And it works well but still would love to see an Eagle on top of my rasa but I would not buy the Eagle 5’s. Great video and clear skies. Luis Mercado

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

G’day Luis, hope your well. Thank you, I will look into the upgrade. 2tb certainly sounds nice and handy with all that data I will be accumulating from the triplets. I do agree the new Eagle is a bit pricy and the new add ons don’t really justify it. I would like to see a cloud IR sensor built into them as well as the eye and this way you can close down imaging sessions if it gets to cloudy or pause them through NINA. The Pegasus equipment is excellent gear, I did think about going down that path once before.

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

Great upgrade mate think I'd be a bit nervous doing it but glad it's all gone well, as for filter wheels yeah I hear ya that's why I've stuck with OSC & dual band as I don't think the CGE pro could handle three 11's lol. Clear skies!!

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

Don’t worry I was a bit nervous myself doing the operation. Haha why not go three 11’s… I want to see it lol

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

@@StevenMorrisPhotography Think I'm gonna need a bigger dome!! 🤣

[@marklewis9265]

depending on what M2 bandwidth is available on the NUC board, it is always a speed upgrade for read/write (including less power draw if you're working on batteries in the field...) I would go for the fastest M2 your board could handle, no less than 512GB (to handle plenty of storage from the RASA's until you xfer it across to your main system)

[@marklewis9265]

i forgot to add, when out in a field, not n your home Wifi, if you look at the tP wireless Acess Point (runs off 5V DC - but will require the ethernet link to your NUC board), you can have it as a WiFi AP in the field, then also hook up your phone as a shared internet connection to the AP, RDP into the NUC and surf all night whilst drinking port.

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

I've never played around with M2 hard drives before. I still remember building my first computer a 323 with a 60mb hard drive connected up with IDE cables lol. I will have to look into the M2 option.

[@easyastroimages5818]

I did the m2 with my quieter 3. Followed patriot astros disk clone tutorial. If it works on this puppy you should really see a jump. Great work brother.

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

Yeah this is the second hard rive I’ve cloned. I had a 120gb in there originally then when to 240gb so I’ll look at that or larger for the M.2 SSD

[@paulmog666]

The new eagle manager x is on there site for downloading Good on u mate but don’t think I’d chance ripping my eagle apart be scared to death of it not working again

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

Thanks, I will go for a look and check it out. Yeah it was a bit scary, I was confident but not confident at the same time lol.

[@AlexN-Astro]

Im very strongly considering an Eagle 5s at the moment. At first, it seemed very expensive, but when I factor in what my micro PC cost, then a Pegasus Power Box Advance, then a suitable power supply to run the whole thing... Then a few extra dovetails/spacers and probably a new set of rings to allow space for the micro pc and powerbox etc... Before you know it, the Eagle 5 isn't too bad, and with a setup like mine, the Eagle 5 can go straight onto a dovetail, fit the rings directly to the eagle and piggyback the tiny little guider... It seems trivial. Do you know how much power the eagle draws when you're running one camera off it? At home, I'm not concerned, but out in the field I run off a 120AH LiPO battery, which at present, I can get about 3 nights of imaging on one charge - however, I usually just run a 12v lead from the battery out of my van to the mount - and in that situation, the battery is connected to a 200w solar panel via an MPPE LiPO solar controller - Thus far, my system can run indefinitely with the G11 Gemini, MicroPC, SBIG imager and a couple of dew heaters... Hopefully the EAGLE doesn't use too much more power, and if not - this may be my next purchase... (Though - the masses are screaming telling me to let the CCD go and move to a CMOS.... (NOT HAPPENING!)).

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

I couldn’t tell you exactly how much power the eagle pulls when one camera is running off it, but I think you’ll be fine. I’d want to make sure your regulating the power through the eagle though. Sounds like you have a great setup there. Next time I power up the system I’ll have a look and see what power it’s drawing.

[@GregMcCall]

I’m wondering if the primaluci board has a 12v to 19v converter to power the NUC.

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

I’m not sure, I guess I could put the multimeter on the board power and see what power it’s putting out. But it works…. For now lol.

[@BadYossa]

Interesting vid Steve. I had a look at the PrimaLuce website and was pretty shocked at the prices of the kit. Almost £1K for Celeron based rig with 4Gb of slow RAM and a paltry 120Gb drive. Sure it has GPS, power outputs etc, but it is woefully underspec'd for the price. I get that it has the dew control, GPS, a plethora of USB and everything in one box, but it comes at a price that would make Al Capone blush. The next model up does have a few nifty features, but is over £1.3K, which is frikkin' crazy, given the actual specs. We're talking a PC with 8Gb RAM and a 250Gb SSD - a decent one, admittedly, but still nothing special TBH. I'll definitely be sticking to my mini-PC and add-ons. I have actually run Battlefield 2042 on it and was pleasantly surprised at how it managed. It handles Nina etc flawlessly and I have an Android emulator that makes controlling my AsiAir Plus a doddle - I have 2 setups, because, er, reasons. It also blasts through Pixinsight tasks, as I use it in my workshop at night, going through tutorials, whilst having a beer, as there will never be a cloudless night again in the UK. Ever. Well, feels like it anyhoo 🙂 I can see the benefits of the Eagle, but the pricing is completely out of whack mate.

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

I completely agree, in remember in my teens them saying that computers will only get cheaper as technology goes on. I feel it’s almost the other way around and in terms of the eagle it’s a great device and something I had been looking for, for such a long time so it suited my needs at the time but I needed an upgrade and it made sense to do that than buy another eagle which are very expensive. The new model I see only really suits remote observatories I feel and isn’t really a game changing upgrade. If the new model could have cloud IR sensor and shut down an observatory session that would be interesting or communicate wifi with a rain cloud sensor and have dual wifi. Either way what you’ve done is also very smart and I’m sure you’ll get some clear skies soon mate… we’ll I hope so anyway.

[@StarlancerAstro]

@@StevenMorrisPhotography Yup just too much money, I bought a N100 Mini PC which blows it away in specs for $140 all I need is a hub and a power distribution and I'll have the same thing far cheaper, yes I don't get the fancy software but I can make do.

[@Plaay1983]

@@StarlancerAstro How would you do the power? With a new PegasusAstro Powerbox v3? Isn't the fan of the N100 vibrating / interfering too much with the telescope when imaging (like some cameras have with their fans near the imaging train?)? I am also looking for a cheaper solution than the Eagle 5 S for remote observatory with a ScopeDome 3M with rain/could sensors already available and they can automatically close the dome over their cloud/rain sensors regardless of the mini-pc. But then also, maybe just the Eagle 5 S would be the best solution...

[@siegfriednoet]

Very interesting Steven, but what a bunch of work. But I guess a whole lot cheaper than the new Eagle Xtreme 🙂 So if I get it right the Intel NUC's in the Eagles work pure on 12 Volts ? Or is there a converter in between that converts the 12 volts into 19 volts ?

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

I’m not sure regarding the converter but currently through my regulator into the Eagle I am running 14 volts due to the voltage drop off when everything is running. I’ve found that the alto motors need a consistent amount of voltage otherwise they drop out.

[@stxe34]

which version of nuc for the upgrade?

[@StevenMorrisPhotography]

It depends on what board you have in your Eagle. I would try and get the same generation if you can or you will need to do a bit of alterations to make another board from a different generation. Before looking at new boards I would try everything else first like ram upgrades to speed up the system. If that’s all been done then the last thing is the board. Be careful if you choose to change it.

[@stxe34]

Hi Steve, thanks for the reply. I have done all the other stuff and now looking to swap out the nuclear for a faster unit. It would be good to do processing direct from the unit. I know it would still be pretty slow. Thanks