Question about G11

[scagman (John)]

Hi Guys,

I purchased a G11 w/G2 in Nov and have had a few nights out triing to get my goto's working. There WAY off.

I have marked out true Nth/Sth using solor-noon as my guide. I have the tripod setup with one leg pointing South and the mount set for 37+ Deg.
I have cheched the Lat./Long. and have them entered correctly I believe.

I have tried the Align procedure but the error gets bigger with each star I goto.
I downloaded Alginmaster to see if I fair any better but still get similar results.

Last night when I was setting up I removed the caps from where the polar scope would go so I could try and line up the line I had on the ground as my N/S marker, and I noticed that I had to turn Dec shaft 1/4 turn or so to get an unobstucted view thru the polar scope hole, but this of coarse points the scope well away from south and doesnt sound/look right.

So basicly, if the telescope is pointing Sth, I couldnt put a polar scope in the hole.
Could someone confirm if this is correct or have I got a problem somewhere and this is my problem with my gotos and alignment.
Or am I just not doing somthing right?

[mill (Martin)]

Hi John.

To see thru the polar scope you have to turn the scope to see thru it so that is correct.
After polar alignment you can turn the scope back again.
What firmware are you running at the moment?
You can look it up by opening a webpage and type in 192.168.0.111 but you have to be connected to the mount with a laptop.
Open the page "sram/firmware" on the mainpage.
The latest firmware for non beta users is 23 October 2011 and that has good pointing.
I don't know if you are a member of the Gemini-II Yahoo group but here is a link to it.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Gemini-II/

At the moment we are testing the latest Dec 14 main firmware and Dec 12 hand controller firmware.
Rene is busy implementing PEC so that will be tested soon.
After a polar alignment it is best to drift align to get a better alignment.
After you have build a model you just have to warm restart the next night if nothing has been moved and just sync on one star and off you go.
From your sig it looks like you are in Kinglake so that is not too far from me.
If you need any help i can come over and help you.

Martin.

[scagman (John)]

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the info, its good that there's nothing wrong with the mount. So the prob is me.

I checked the firmware and I think it was 4/11 so I updated it to the 23/11 using the program by Stephen Mounioloux which worked great.
I'll give it another go with the new FW when the clouds disappear.
Unfortunatly I don't have a perm. setup yet,(one day), so its a cold start each time.

Thanks for the offer of help, I may take u up on that.