Meade DSI - Deep Sky Imager

The Meade DSI was first shipped in late 2004; I purchased one in March 2005 having seen the good images that others had posted on the internet. The imager is in another league to the Meade LPI which was a good buy when it was first released. The Autostar software suite has also had a major uplift giving again a total package with impressive performance for the price. If only installation and operation was as easy......

I had my LPI running under Windows XP Home on the 500MHz PC in my dome. Meade do not give you access to the new drivers for the DSI so I had to re-install the complete AutoStar suite from fresh which lost my settings and even worse did not then drive either camera. The LPI drivers were not loaded despite clicking the option. This installation is not good and seems to have been thrown together without proper testing. If you look around the web and do a search on Google you will find lots of others with installation problems. I did get it installed after many attempts: if you get into problems try these..

Install software out of the box then go to Meade website and download the latest software updates - at present they are on http://www.meade.com/autostar/update/index.html - this overcame the PC rebooting when I opened the DSI software.

If LPI drivers are not installed, i.e. when you plug in the LPI Windows cannot find the drivers, then back out of the hardware installation and find a program called LpiDriver.exe (C:\Program Files\Meade\AutostarSuite\LPI\Driver\LpiDriver.exe) and run it. LpiDriver.exe installs the drivers for the LPI that I could not get the Autostar installer to do. The DSI drivers are in a similar sub-directory with a choice of operating system.

My DSI would not run from any USB1 port whether via powered hub with 500mA or direct into PC port. Luckily I had a USB2 card installed and the DSI worked in that. I had to buy a new long USB2 cable to reach the telescope from the PC.

Whilst you go through these efforts to get the system operational do not take the option of installing the GSC catalog - watching the GSC copy to disc take longer than it takes to make a coffee and drink it is not good for your body. After 4 or 5 attempts caffeine takes you over. Get it working, remember what you did then go back and re-install with the GSC if you want it.

After all that I found I could get both the DSI and LPI running at the same time and found the DSI and new Autostar good value.

The DSI is a solid chunk of metal - it has no active cooling and relies on convection from its large rear surface for cooling - much like the cooling on old 386 and early Pentium processors. No doubt the accessory companies will soon launch PC fans for attachment to the block to help the cooling. The 1¹/₄" nose unscrews to reveal a IR filter which is loose and easily removed. Further, the nose has a standard thread on the DSI end: the nose is shorter than that on my Starlight Xpress MX7C so is useful to be used in exchange for the longer nose on the MX7C.

The DSI comes with USB cable (not very long and probably needs replacing with a longer cable by most users) and a serial plug and cable for connecting PC to Meade telescopes for autoguiding, focussing, etc.. The Autostar software provides support for these functions as well networking support for remote control.

Under construction....more to come....

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