Tag Archives: dwarf2

Dwarf 2 BUG – Incorrectly supports bidirectional charging (In/Out ports suck power OUT of the Dwarf)

Posted on by
Reply

Update: Firmware 2.0.04 appears to fix this issue.
Last night I ran into an issue where my Dwarf 2 smart telescope was stacking images (running the beta software in 1×1 binning mode, so requiring a lot of CPU power) and as soon as I plugged in a USB powerbank, the Dwarf would freeze up and need to be rebooted.
I finally figured out that my powerbank was sucking power OUT of the dwarf, and combined with the load from the CPU doing stacking, this was causing a low voltage situation that caused the Dwarf to crash.

It appears that the USB-C PD chip in the Dwarf is incorrectly programmed to allow power to flow OUT of the dwarf via bi-directional charging. I confirmed this with a USB power meter. This only happens with USB-C PD powerbanks that have “in and out” ports, which can be used to either charge a device OR charge the powerbank, depending upon if the other end is a source or sync of power.

It appears that when turned on, the Dwarf2 advertises the ability to export power, and does so. Workaround: If you plug the powerbank into the Dwarf when it is turned off, the power flows in the correct direction (from the powerbank TO the Dwarf). Even after you turn the dwarf on, this direction remains correct, so it appears to be necessary to plug in the dwarf before you turn it on. I’ve seen this behavior before testing the Beta firmware and App, but I confirmed it most recently with firmware version 2.0.03 and App 2.0.0 B665.

Video demonstrating the problem:

Dwarf Lab Dwarf 2 vs ZWO Seestar S50 Solar shootout

Posted on by
Reply

I took my Dwarf Lab Dwarf 2 and my ZWO Seestar S50 smart telescopes outside and imaged the sun.  Here is a 1:1 pixel side by side comparison of the results (click for full sized image):

Side by side shots of the sun by both the Seestar S50 and Dwarf 2 smart telescopes.

Unlike in the daytime lunar shootout, the Seestar automatically acquired the sun, giving it both the image quality and ease of use wins.    Here are the two videos showing my procedure and the GUI for each smart telescope’s phone app:

Dwarf Lab Dwarf 2 vs ZWO Seestar S50 DAYTIME lunar shootout

Posted on by
Reply

I took both of my smart telescopes outside this morning and shot some images of the moon in the daytime. I have a video that outlines the session (Dwarf2 won for user experience, SeeStar won for image quality) here:

Here they are side by size at 1:1 pixel size (click for full size):
Side by Side images of the moon shot in the day time by the ZWO Seestar S50 and Dwarf 2 telescopes.

And here are two of the raw images for you to look at as you would like:

Dwarf 2 image of the moon in daytime

Dwarf 2 image of the moon in daytime – click to see the raw/full sized image.

Seestar S50 image of the moon in the daytime

Seestar S50 image of the moon in the daytime – Click to see the raw/full image