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I love my Paramount ME.
I've heard that the first production run of the MX has already completely sold out and some people will have to wait for the second production run. Amazing.
Why aren't you guys using the built-in T-point auto-mapper in TheSkyX? It works quite well in my experience.
I don't have a permanent observatory. The horizons in my backyard are very bad! I envy you guys with permanent observatories. I have to set up on an Astro-Physics portable pier (or Rob Miller tripod if the ground is very unlevel), even when in my own backyard. I car camp with my ME.
The PE on this mount is so good it's almost not worth bothering programming the PEC. But I did anyway. I used CCDsoft to collect the data and the built-in PEC curve fitting in TheSkyX.
I find polar alignment via T-point to be quicker and easier than drift alignment. I do three or four freshly synced 25 to 30-point automated runs, tweaking the knobs as directed after each run, then do a 150-200 point run for good pointing (~10 arc-seconds RMS with the supermodel). I like being able to kick back in my lounge chair after dusk while the mount does all the real work. The pointing really is 10-arc seconds too. Objects land right on CCDsoft's cross-hair box in the center of the CCD image. This is with a C-14 EdgeHd operating at FL=3911mm (almost four meters) with the mirror lock knobs engaged. I use a TCF-Si for focusing. I sure do like that new t-point supermodel feature!
When you're doing automated T-point mapping runs, you might as well bin 3x3. It's faster and it won't hurt your pointing accuracy one iota. I actually bin 4x4 with the QSI-583wsg.
In my experience you can't use ProTrack effectively without a good model mapping a large number of points. About 150 or more seems to work well for me.
The pointing does not change with power cycling. It takes an equipment change to affect the pointing. Minor equipment changes you should do a short mapping run (at least six points with some on each side of the meridian and at least two at high declinations) to maintain pointing accuracy. Major equipment changes you should probably do another full pointing run.
Because I usually don't have Internet access (and no cell phone service either) where I set up, I use a GPS receiver with 1PPS as a stratum-1 time source in NTP. This works extraordinarily well.
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