Bug in Synscan 3.21 upgrade

[SMR (Steve)]

Hi all

Just a warning: I upgraded my SynScan controller from 3.12 to 3.21 yesterday. Struck two problems:

- the new download program (V2.8) failed at high speed, though it gave no error message. It just reported "Download Complete". I switched back to the older program, and it worked at low speed. Thought I was a bit surprised that the download "completed" at around the 60% mark.

- the user catalogue feature was broken. The controller hangs after you select "1" for "RA-Dec" ... bummer. I need that feature, so I switched back to 3.20.

Steve.

[allan gould]

There is also a feature where the motors stop tracking in RA after a certain series of button presses when using the PC to motor feature (similar to EQMOD). Except that EQMOD works.
Also as stated elsewhere the code for GPS compatability is changed to that only skywatcher GPS units will work.
I wonder how the latter will fare if they were challenged under Australian consumer laws? ie disabling a feature so only their unit works - isn't that "unfair trading" or unfair competition?
Must ask some of my lawyer friends if they can be challenged here in Australia for such a practice as I still have the emails where they state they changed the code so only theirs works. Hmmmm - something to do on these cloudy nights.

[Craig_L]

Do you know if the Daylight Saving feature works for us now?

Craig

[Kokatha man]

Hi again Craig - I've read the comments in the other thread re the daylight saving but didn't comment in my reply on that thread: however, although as I've said I still haven't got round to installing any upgrades on my HEQ5 SynScan V3.0 (but I'm taking note, and my time, about your's, Alan's and others comments on different upgrade version points) but as someone who's still doing the EST zone thingy and adding half an hour to my times, I have been saying "yes" to daylight savings in my setup. (some people's comments about it being the wrong times of year in the display/program for us in the southern hemi doubly puzzles me - it asks for DST on my screen during the appropriate months!)

Got out there last night with the aim of sharpening my polar alignment/goto/tracking and managed a few hours before the clouds took over - punched DST in during setup (along with TMZone +10 and DST and did a 3 star alignment and found the goto working really well: must've been a reasonable polar align 'cos then I put it onto tracking Mars as I started packing stuff away (I view from a platform above the trees in my backyard) and when I came back a half hour later Mars had only moved off-centre by a smidgin - lvw 17mm giving 70 odd mags.

Work that out - I dunno, but I just do what I can, learn/absorb from others comments and build on my own but I can't comment on your question except to tell you my experience. Cheers, Darryl.

[Craig_L]

Thanks Darryl,

I tried it last night but the scope was a way off it's correct position on the first alignment star. Okay though once I corrected this. I will try again tonight with and without the DST. I'm using version 3.20 instead of 3.21. PHD Guiding is working fine - I think!

[Kokatha man]

Yes Craig - after I did the polar alignment I went for the 3 star align and it offered up Sirius, Achernar and Acrux in that order: Sirius was quite off-target and needed a fair slew, but the next 2 were pretty darn close. Must've punched a good few dozen "goto's" to check it out and the only ones that needed any pulling back into centrefield were the one in the north-western quarter - which was understandable seeing my alignment stars ranged from the zenith and into the SE quadrant. Tracking over the half-hour was excellent as previously stated.

If you're reading this Allan, you told me in a pm that you thought it well worthwhile to get the polar scope's reticle set up: I spent some time with it on Sunday arvo and was annoyed how adjustments to the allen head screws seemed to make the reticle "jump about" rather than move with a smooth transition - is this normal or possibly a fault with mine? I've left it (polar scope) alone and am just SCP'ing via the scope and laser pointer, but allways want to get to the bottom of various techniques.

Regards, Darryl.

[allan gould]

Originally Posted by Kokatha man

If you're reading this Allan, you told me in a pm that you thought it well worthwhile to get the polar scope's reticle set up: I spent some time with it on Sunday arvo and was annoyed how adjustments to the allen head screws seemed to make the reticle "jump about" rather than move with a smooth transition - is this normal or possibly a fault with mine? I've left it (polar scope) alone and am just SCP'ing via the scope and laser pointer, but allways want to get to the bottom of various techniques.

Regards, Darryl.

Darryl
Yes it can be a real pain, but what I did was to remove the PAS entirely and make a small stand that I could rotate it in (Two small blocks with V's cut out). Then slowly adjusted the PAS reticule so that it was in the centre of the scope when rotated. This worked for me. The way I align is a bit different now.
I use a compass and level to set the scope up initially. Then I set the home position for the mount as given in instructions for EQMOD (see their site). Then I look through the PAS and align the scope as best as possible, then I look through the 8x50 spotter scope and see OCTANS just in the field of view (The spotter scope and main scope are really well aligned). Then I look thru the main scope and see the "inverted #7" asterism and then use the alt/az adjustments to fine align. A quick check through the PAS and all is well. This takes me all of 10 min. and is the fastest way to polar align. Then If I'm going to do astrophotography I do a drift align.
Allan

[Kokatha man]

Hi Allan - thanks for responding: I think I'm reading your method as similar to my own - though I've left the PAS completely out of the equation apropos my previous comments; though I use a laers pointer (well aligned) to hit the octans area.

I don't have any prolem recognizing sigma and getting to that #7 asterism - would I be correct in assuming from your reply that you don't think as highly of the PAS reticle alignment with the octans asterism versus the aforementioned alignment method(s)?

If such is the case I'll most probably dispense with bothering to set the reticle up, if it is less accurate than the methods I/you adopt!

On another issue, and I realize that having had your mount longer than mine may be a factor (I've hardly used the darn thing, what with all the darn clouds etc - hardly much more than out of the box in relative terms!) - what do you set the backlash of the gears to? The default position - is that the greatest or least compensation - and would/could that translate into a slight play in the Dec axis? Am loathe to fiddle with these sorts of settings without having some idea of their responses!

Regards, Darryl.

[Kokatha man]

Which specific EQMOD site Allan?

[allan gould]

Originally Posted by Kokatha man

Which specific EQMOD site Allan?

The home position is in the yahoo groups files as a PDF. If you pm me with an email address I can send it to you.
I use the PAS but really as a belt and braces, just to know the heavens are turning as they are supposed to. But I find the method of finding OCTANS in the finderscope and the the "seven" in the main scope works the best for me. A touch up using the drift alignment is the easiest for me.
Backlash etc I set to 0 - and I havent fiddled with the mount at all. Its as it came out of the box. The guiding is accurate enough to make my fiddling unnecessary, and anyway I'd just mess it up. Maybe one day but I do know my limits - I was about to flock the inside of my 8"SCT with that felt with a sticky backing but the first step of peeling a little back to get it in position was going so badly I just put the corrector plate back again and said sod it.
Allan

[whmacs]

Hi Guys,
Hopefully not too off topic, I've always had a lot of trouble with the initial alignment star if I put in my local date / time / DST offset and time zone. For example, last night after upgrading to v3.21 I took my HEQ5-PRO for a test run. I entered +10 time zone, local date time plus DST to 'Yes'. My Lat and Long was already set (Newcastle NSW). I had the scope roughly aligned to the SCP (Home position). When I selected the first alignment star (Sirius), the scope slewed and pointed to the ground. This isn't the first time its done this. It also use to do it with V3.12.

My answer to this issue is to power off the mount, reset the home position, then power on again. This time enter the UTC time (time zone 0) DST No. The Lat and long stay saved. Now it slews to within a couple of degrees of Sirius. The other alignment star is similar and all gotos end up in the middle of the eyepiece.

I was wondering if other people have had similar issues with the scope slewing towards the ground if they use local time / DST correction?

Regards,
Stephen
smacmillan@qvalent.com

[Terry B]

Originally Posted by whmacs

Hi Guys,
Hopefully not too off topic, I've always had a lot of trouble with the initial alignment star if I put in my local date / time / DST offset and time zone. For example, last night after upgrading to v3.21 I took my HEQ5-PRO for a test run. I entered +10 time zone, local date time plus DST to 'Yes'. My Lat and Long was already set (Newcastle NSW). I had the scope roughly aligned to the SCP (Home position). When I selected the first alignment star (Sirius), the scope slewed and pointed to the ground. This isn't the first time its done this. It also use to do it with V3.12.

My answer to this issue is to power off the mount, reset the home position, then power on again. This time enter the UTC time (time zone 0) DST No. The Lat and long stay saved. Now it slews to within a couple of degrees of Sirius. The other alignment star is similar and all gotos end up in the middle of the eyepiece.

I was wondering if other people have had similar issues with the scope slewing towards the ground if they use local time / DST correction?

Regards,
Stephen
smacmillan@qvalent.com

After I upgraded to version 3.20 (not the recent one) I found that it didn't want to keep my timezone of +10 hours. I would set it and start the alignment and it would do as you state and aim at the ground. If you cancelled the alignment and checked the info in the controller, it would say -10 hours. I reset it many times and finally it accepted the correct time zone. I don't remember what I actually did to make it accept it. Since then it has been happy and I haven't had this problem again.

[allan gould]

Originally Posted by Terry B

After I upgraded to version 3.20 (not the recent one) I found that it didn't want to keep my timezone of +10 hours. I would set it and start the alignment and it would do as you state and aim at the ground. If you cancelled the alignment and checked the info in the controller, it would say -10 hours. I reset it many times and finally it accepted the correct time zone. I don't remember what I actually did to make it accept it. Since then it has been happy and I haven't had this problem again.

I had essentially the same experience, however Ive gone back to version 3.12 and use a StarGPS unit and not had the problem since. Sometimes it used to throw a fit and put in -10hr instead of +10 hr (Both versions of software) and thats what makes it point 180 degrees out. Sometimes it still gets a brainfa@t and does it with a planetarium program but NEVER when I run EQMOD, scope and planetarium program. As far as Im concerned they have left so many little loose ends in their programming code that as they try to implement more "features" the code starts to unravel. Version 3.21 is just dopey - doesnt even tell you if its updated the databases just tells you to force an update - so if you re-install a less buggy version of their software (ie 3.21 to 3.12) are the databases left intact with the corrected positions for double stars etc from 3.21? or do you revert to the old incorrect databases?

[whmacs]

Hi Terry,
Yes, I noticed the same thing, it seemed to want the time zone to be -10 hours (which would explain why it was pointing to the ground!). I'll see if I can get it to stay at +10.

Regards,
Stephen

Originally Posted by Terry B

After I upgraded to version 3.20 (not the recent one) I found that it didn't want to keep my timezone of +10 hours. I would set it and start the alignment and it would do as you state and aim at the ground. If you cancelled the alignment and checked the info in the controller, it would say -10 hours. I reset it many times and finally it accepted the correct time zone. I don't remember what I actually did to make it accept it. Since then it has been happy and I haven't had this problem again.

[dluth]

Hi, I can't get my Synscan (V3.21) to work with my EQ3-2 mount and it's frustrating the heck out of me. The problem is that after I enter all the info and try to do an alignment, the telescope doesn't slew at all. It seems to try to move then gives up and after that even the directional keys won't work manually and I have to turn it off and on again to use them.
I enter all the details first (ie. Lat 144.40E, 38.20S; Time Zone +10:00; Date 03/24/08; Time 21:00:00; daylight savings? YES) and then it says the following on the screen:
Polaris HA = 05:17
Clock = 03:21

Begin Alignment?
I choose YES and choose 3 star.
First star choice is Sirius which I select.
The telescope then clicks as I said but doesnt move at all. The screen says briefly Slewing... 00:00 00:00 on the screen, then "Use dir. keys to centre object". But at this point the directional keys don't respond (they do normally).
I then press enter and it says choose 2nd star? Achernar. I select that and the screen says:
000º00' +16º42'
I then get "Use dir. keys to centre object" on the screen again but again the directional keys don't respond. I press enter and it says choose 3rd star? Alpha Centauri. I select that and the screen says:
000º00' +16º42'
"Use dir. keys to centre object"
I press enter as the keys don't work (by the stage the telescope has not moved an inch).
The screen then says: "WARNING RA OFFSET > 45º"
Pls. check time and location settings
Alignment failed.

Does anyone know what any of this means and what the problem could be? It also ocurred when I had V3.12 which is why I upgraded to V3.21 but the problem is exactly the same.

Thanks in advance!

Daniel

[White Rabbit]

Dluth.

I'm having the exact same problem with mine tonight, to the letter. I've tried to reinstall the V3.21 and V3.20 but both stop at about 60% then say "Update Complete".

I've only had mine a week, and this is the first time he sky has been clear enough to get out and properly test it.

I though maybe I'd fried it or something so I'm quite relieved that someone else is having the same problem. I'm thinking it must be software now as we both have the same issue.

I'm going to see if I can find an older download program and see if that will upload the software better. When you updated did you watch to see if it reached 100%?


Thanks

[Kokatha man]

Have the HEQ5 Pro with Synscan: have not encountered this at all.

Not much I can say except - the bit about RA offset greater than 45 degrees, I presume you've done a geo South alignment and set the polar axis to at least a rough approximation of you latitude?

Can you get it to slew by skipping through initialization and just setting the slew rate and operating the mount?

[White Rabbit]

Nope, it's a dead duck, even when you skip the alignment process it it will not move.

I'm reinstalling the firmware at a slower speed (and boy is it slow) and hopefully that will help. Otherwise it's back to Bintel tomorrow.

Thanks

[Terry B]

Originally Posted by White Rabbit

Dluth.

I'm having the exact same problem with mine tonight, to the letter. I've tried to reinstall the V3.21 and V3.20 but both stop at about 60% then say "Update Complete".

I've only had mine a week, and this is the first time he sky has been clear enough to get out and properly test it.

I though maybe I'd fried it or something so I'm quite relieved that someone else is having the same problem. I'm thinking it must be software now as we both have the same issue.

I'm going to see if I can find an older download program and see if that will upload the software better. When you updated did you watch to see if it reached 100%?

Thanks

Are you using a real serial port or a fake (USB) one? On the EQ6 group other have had this problem with updating but it seems to work if you use a computer with a real serial port.

[White Rabbit]

A real one. I just tried the update on Lo but that failed as well.

GGGRrrrrr!!