[g__day (Matthew)]

Diffraction Limited stated they had no way of testing things out in the Southern Hemisphere - which is half the world. You think such a long track company with global sales would have tested things in both hemispheres with a simple check of alignment with no offset between dome and mount pivot point, with only an East offset, with an North East offset, with a North offset, with a North West offset, with a West offset with a South West offset, with a South offset and with a South East offset. That's 9 offsets * say 12 compass points * 3 elevations - where you are just doing slew then check. I would estimate that you could easily do all that in a day then certify your gear works - or in their case reveal the sign for East / West was wrong.

I presume most folks mount their domes directly over their mount pivot points or with no East / West offset in our hemisphere. Searching on Diffraction Limited's technical support boards there were no other posts on dome mis-alignment. Maybe everyone just solves it for themselves.

I am kinda stunned I was the guinea pig that spotted the cause of the error. When I called Sirius labs today to update them of the solution - the first thing Alan said was he was going to write Diffraction Limited immediately to say why wasn't this tested properly and stress they need to update their Southern Hemisphere documentation.

Hopefully now there is this thread here, plus the detailed version on Diffraction Limited's own MaxDome forums and plus one entry on Cloudy Nights on fixing dome alignment other folks won't be challenged by this to the degree we faced! I hope you get a chance to see if this simple switch of parameters corrects your set up.

One last thing I noticed. After correcting the slaving parameters in each of POTH, ASCOM Maxdome driver and MaximDL - the standalone Diffraction Limited ASCOM driver alone didn't at all align the scope and the mount - ever - it was 40 degrees out for reason unknown - whereas POTH and MaximDL were spot on every time; something weird is happening there.