G11/Gemini safety limits

tlgerdes (Trevor) · #1 14-12-2009, 12:00 PM

I found that I ran into the motor on Saturday night when trying to find Tuc47.

I thought this might be a northern hemisphere thing that didnt carry over, so intially set both to 114deg but it still ran into the motors.

I have now changed the default 114deg west to 99deg west and 124 east to 110 east.

What safety limits for movement do people run.

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #2 14-12-2009, 12:06 PM

ummm not sure...I have just set mine...by eye.

I'll have a look at the settings & get back.

edit:
Mine with ED80...118° 38' East; 91° 26' West. My settings depends upon dovetails & rings & scope used & DEC position of the scope.

multiweb (Marc) · #3 14-12-2009, 01:03 PM

Hi Trev, before you define your safety limits you need to set your CWD (counter weight down) and HOME positions. Then slew manually to the E & W limits and select SET LIMIT. There is also a value defaulting to 90 if I recall somewhere on the gemini that you can modify so that if you have very restrictive limits you can still image at the zenith. Once the Gemini has a valid HOME/CWD position it will pick up correctly which side of the meridian to slew to. Otherwise it'll happiily run into the tripod leg or the RA motor at worst.

tlgerdes (Trevor) · #4 14-12-2009, 02:06 PM

In GCC you can define the safety limits of the mounts for RA. Now I have it set at 99deg west, it will beep at me when I get within 5 minutes of the limit and stops all together at the limits (about 10mm from motor), but still lets you recover by reversing out without jamming up the system and causing a restart.

As long as you start at CWD then it knows where to stop.

multiweb (Marc) · #5 14-12-2009, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tlgerdes

As long as you start at CWD then it knows where to stop.

Yeah, boot/start in CWD is safest. Gotta be careful when syncing to a start after a warm start though. If you pick the wrong star it could rebuild the model with a new reference and slew over the limits. Can't remember if I pressed reset or sync but I remember it slewing into the tripod with OTA pointing at the grass.

cfranks (Charles) · #6 14-12-2009, 04:59 PM

My limits are 94 deg E, 95 deg W. Last night I Cold started with CWD properly aligned, Synched on a Rigel, and 'additional aligned' on a couple of others. Went to Fomalhaut and it ran into the RA motor! Crunch wasn't nice to hear. The worm now sounds under stress so it's maintenance time again.

Charles

multiweb (Marc) · #7 14-12-2009, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cfranks

My limits are 94 deg E, 95 deg W. Last night I Cold started with CWD properly aligned, Synched on a Rigel, and 'additional aligned' on a couple of others. Went to Fomalhaut and it ran into the RA motor! Crunch wasn't nice to hear. The worm now sounds under stress so it's maintenance time again.

Charles

Ouch! I doubt you'd damage the worm, but you can get a new gearbox. Likely the plastic backing rivets popped. Nothing that can't be fixed.

Logieberra (Logan) · #8 29-03-2011, 12:36 PM

Guys

Can someone pls help me with the same question.

G11, Gemini 2, w' Maxons...

I know how to set the HOME position, is this the same thing as the CWD position? I can't see where to change CWD...

And East / West? Is this in relation to you behind the mount with the scope pointing away from you?

Thx guys.

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #9 29-03-2011, 01:00 PM

CWD is the counterweight at it's lowest position (RA), with the scope facing the SCP (southern hemisphere).

If you cold boot the Gemini then this CWD position is set at boot.

Home position park can be any position you want...aka: Scope is horizontal for easy storage and closing a roll off roof Obs.

Just ensure when you cold boot that the counterweight is down as the Gemini uses this as a reference position.

CDKPhil · #10 29-03-2011, 03:59 PM

I have been on the Gemini 2 user groups and they were saying that the alignment, PEC and limits were no working as yet. They said that firmware for the controller was still under development and being beta tested.
I hope they have this sorted out before I get my Titan.

I don't know if this helps.

Cheers
Phil

TrevorW · #11 29-03-2011, 04:15 PM

I'm really peeved by this you pay nearly $5k for a mount and are not told of these limitations,

I probably would have not brought it knowing there were issues and the mount was not fully functional

I waited over a month for the mount and was under the impression the delay was software related.

I had the mount runaway on a goto twice the other night and I'm not sure if the DEC head saddle hit one of the motors

CDKPhil · #12 29-03-2011, 04:53 PM

Yeah I don't know if I would have ordered my mount if I had known this earlier. I am paying 8.5k AUD for mine. Maybe I should have got something different, something that is not still being beta tested!

Very unsure
Phil

Logieberra (Logan) · #13 30-03-2011, 09:14 AM

Thanks guys

I spent ALL NIGHT with the latest version of GeminiTelescopeController.

I feel much better now. I have set the limits, enabled the fancy voice warning / alerts and other jazz. It’s working perfectly now. A powerful piece of software

FYI - when using the new hand controller, if you depress a directional arrow and slide your finger off that arrow (anywhere on the screen) it enables SLEW LOCK. The only way to stop this is to touch the same directional arrow. Scared me at first, thought I had a broken hand controller until Peter Ward explained the feature to me. This SLEW LOCK is replaced by a double tap on the virtual hand controller within GeminiTelescopeController.

Hope this helps a noob out there. It's a great system, you'll just need to spend an evening with it

Logie

TrevorW · #14 01-04-2011, 11:35 PM

We'll I got the mount to work with Sky 6 and Alignmaster tonight and this was a lot easier than the fight I had with the EQ6, having adjustment knobs for ALZ and ALT that work when the mount is fully loaded makes a world of difference, although my alignment was not 100% it is close enough for guided AP.

The time out error only appeared once then the mount would slew to every object selected through Sky

I must say it does slew nicely with the Maxon motors.

Now I did set limits through the USB connection and web interface but they are still not working through the HC, although Tom on the user group said I shouldn't trust them just yet until new firmware is available.

Cheers

Logieberra (Logan) · #15 05-04-2011, 08:38 AM

I'm very happy with the Gemini 2 software so far. No major issues here. Limits are rock solid (I set them through Gemini Telescope Control / ASCOM).

Goto is spot on (after running several iterations of Alignmaster).

Overall, very pleased. Imaged for two straight nights on Friday & Saturday, and no bugs / glitches to speak of. I forgot about the mount and focused my attention on the camera / capture side of things. A good sign.

Logie.