Setting a different home position on an nEQ6pro and ASIair with EQMod cable

[evltoy (Wayne)]

Hi All,
I hope someone here can help me out. I’m currently in the process of designing a DIY obs and due to my height limitation, I need to have my mount “homed” as low as possible for when the roof comes on.

I have read as few posts around on the net and they say to do the following steps;
- Unlock the clutches and manually move your mount in the desired parked position
- Turn mount on
- Turn on ASIAir
- Sync your device (Date/time/position) to mount
- Slew mount to normal home position to prepare for Polar Align
- Polar Align mount

Now this is where things go wacky for me. If I tell the ASIair to go to a target (ie m42) the mount slews almost in the opposite direction and points into the ground. If I was to tell the ASIair to go to “Home” it will slew perfectly to the home position I require.

So what I’m I doing wrong?

Other than this little issue the Air/EQMod/nEQ6Pro have been working flawlessly in every other way.

[I.C.D (Ian)]

Hi Wayne you could give this a go, do your polar alignment when you have done this manual drive the mount to the place you want use as park ,then in eqmod select park scope here or something like that . Then select a star go to it, when their ,select park and if all is well the mount should go to the place you pick as park, see how goes it has been a long since I did it
Ian

[evltoy (Wayne)]

Hi Ian,

I think I may have chosen the wrong words. I'm not using EQmod software, but using a EQDirect cable between the mount and ASIair for communication.

My goal is to get the ASIair (Plus) to understand a different home/park position while still being able use the goto feature effectively.

Cheers

[I.C.D (Ian)]

Hi Wayne I have a similar set up to yours, I plug my mount into the mini computer which is on the telescope using a EQ direct cable. I don't thing the problem is with the ASIair but with Eqmod setting.


Ian

[evltoy (Wayne)]

EQMod settings?

I have always used the mounts hand controller with the ASIair up until recently where I bought the EQDirect cable to plug the mount straight into the ASIair (removing the HC). I have never used the EDMod software in the past.

Are you saying that I need to plug my mount into a PC with EDmod and hard code/configure the mount, then turn everything off and startup the mount with the ASIair??

Cheers

[I.C.D (Ian)]

Hi Wayne let me see if I have got it right, all your gear (camera, focuser, mount, guiding filter wheel) all plugged into the ASIAIR PRO. How do you see what is happening on the ASIair pro is connected to a compute by cable or Wi-Fi. And what program are you using N.I.N.A, SG Pro or some other programme.
All my gear and operating programs are connected to a nuc box (Mini computer same as the AISair Pro) on the telescope it is then WI-IF via Anydesk to my Laptop .These programs are N.I.N.A, Cartes du Ciel.PHD2, EqMod and Eq direct, Ascom .Does the ASIair pro do the same thing.

[evltoy (Wayne)]

Hey Ian,

The ASIair unit has their own ZWO APP on a mobile device. The ASIair purposes is to eliminate the use of a computer with many software and be mobile (offsite) friendly. The ASIair APP has PHD2, live stacking/Viewing does plate solving and any position PA etc all built in.

I used to use APT, PHD2 with ASCOM.. blah, blah, blah...with my DSLR on a laptop. It was ok to use as I got it, but the ASIair just simplifies the whole setup & acquisition process to 3 basic steps in 1/4 of the time and hassle.

Check it out.

[AdamJL]

Usually if a mount goes off in the opposite direction, it can mean a problem with the mount time (I've heard the ASI AIR devices can sometimes have the wrong time)

Double check your times are correct and lat/long as well.

[evltoy (Wayne)]

Thanks Adam. Part of my steps is to - Sync my device (Date/time/position) to mount. In this case my iPad.

I'll have to give it another go... just need some avg skies to test with.

I'm very surprise no others have hit my issue before.