Some more G11 questions

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Aloha, since my EQ6 is still MIA, I have myself an IIS second hand G11 with Gem 2.
So far the assembly has gone according to plan and I aim to test the resilience of these legendary beasts with gusto- I have already piled on to it my venerable TSA 120 & and an FS 60 with Losmandy plates and rings (ain't the slimmest), later I decided to push for a Gold medal and put an ADM side by side on it and then placed carefully my C11 XLT. (see pic)
My questions are

1. I am used to the CGEM start dialogue so when Gem 2 came up with time and date and then civil time plus offset I was bemused - I assume (correct me please) that civil time is my local time, usually for me looking at the lappie clock. Offset would be 11 hours including DST which there is no facility to add? so just bung in there 11 hrs?
And then the little clock in the corner is my local time but the big numbers are UTC?
2. By the time I finished assembling all the clouds had rolled in so I just entered a star at random (though would be visible sans clouds) and tried to see the G in action- it slewed the wrong way- i.e towards the NW when it should have gone SE (to Aldebaron) - I thought I put my lat and long in correctly - negative -42.53 for South Lat and 147.17 East for Long.
Maybe because I didn't align it initially (no stars) then it doesn't have an internal map about where to - which reminds me of this most important point....
3. I have decided to go Side By Side so I changed the orientation of the saddle by 90' . There were two hex bolts in the saddle but they didn't seem to want to move so I assume it is just a move it- then align it and tell the Gem where you are type thing. Which is cool- just need to check with experienced G11 folk.
4. I got the handbox up and running and scrolled through, then decided to check my balance by doing a fast slew- so I chose slew and then pressed an arrow button.
I got about 2 seconds of slew then a beep then it stopped-why?
When I chose the star it slewed ok. no issues with bounce or overweight as far as I could judge.

5. Home position and park position.
I had to move my refractor back to get balance - so now the back end is very near the wall of my obs in my standard- point South park position. So can you set up a custom home /park position? it doesn't have any indicators about where to start from so I assume (again) you get your alignment done, then you find a place to rest it, then you mark it as your home- please tell me.
6. Maxim Dl connections with Gem 2- ? straight USB?
7. Thats all I think.
Thanks for listening and pondering.
Graham

[blink138 (Pat)]

hmmmmm..... side by side setup!
i have gem 1 and been through the hand controller many times but admittedly have not seen how to accomplish this, and i have not seen it in my manual
the beep i think means you have reached the eastern or western limit possibly laid down by factory settings or previous owner
i set my mount to GMT and programme +8 hours in the timezone
there must be a function for rotating the head 90deg
pat

[scagman (John)]

Hi Pat, I have my G11 G2, setup in a side by side config and havnt changed/seen any settings in the G2 to reflect this.

Hi Greame congrates on the new/used mount. I'm still learning how to use mine properly but like it very much, and cant give you to much advice re its operation.

Have you tried connecting it via the network, this makes setting the various settings a lot easier. I use this method when playing with the mount inside, but just connect via usb when in the field.

Yes you can connect to Maxim via USB and again works very well via this method. I also have the SkyX connected at the same time.

Have you seen this site http://www.gemini-2.com/ ? Plenty of helpfull info there.

Yes you can set a home pos. to suit your needs. If you connect via your network, you can set a home pos. from http://www.gemini-2.com/web/web-functions.php.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Originally Posted by blink138

hmmmmm..... side by side setup!
i have gem 1 and been through the hand controller many times but admittedly have not seen how to accomplish this, and i have not seen it in my manual
the beep i think means you have reached the eastern or western limit possibly laid down by factory settings or previous owner
i set my mount to GMT and programme +8 hours in the timezone
there must be a function for rotating the head 90deg
pat

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Thanks chaps
John that looks like I was looking for- cheers matey
Graz

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

So the Gem 2 timing thing - am I correct about the offset (10+DST =11) and Civil time being my local time?
I haven't found how you can set it for GMT/UTC - where is that ?

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by graham.hobart

So the Gem 2 timing thing - am I correct about the offset (10+DST =11) and Civil time being my local time?
I haven't found how you can set it for GMT/UTC - where is that ?

When it asks for the TZ offset say 0. I use GMT on my G1 because DST is an artificial concept designed to confuse everyone at least twice a year, and my StarGPS gives it the right time.

As for rotating the dec axis for a SBS plate, when you cold start it assumes CWD position with the OTA pointed at the pole. The encoders are not absolute so it assumes you have pointed it where it expects.

Also when you cold or warm start the slew limits are relative to where it believes the OTA is pointing. So do not cold or warm start without orienting it as expected. If you warm restart the mount must be exactly where it was when turned off/lost power.

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Andrew- So if I want to I can use GMT/UT - just TZ at 0, civil date the same and civil time = gmt/UTC?
or will this confuse the issue as it has already been given a time zone on the location screen (lat and long and time zone 10?
can't bloody wait to get my Star GPS adaptor so I can this instead of all the faffing around
Or would you put your location and time zone normally but just tell the handbox to use GMT on the next screen?

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by graham.hobart

Andrew- So if I want to I can use GMT/UT - just TZ at 0, civil date the same and civil time = gmt/UTC?
or will this confuse the issue as it has already been given a time zone on the location screen (lat and long and time zone 10?
can't bloody wait to get my Star GPS adaptor so I can this instead of all the faffing around
Or would you put your location and time zone normally but just tell the handbox to use GMT on the next screen?

Graham, that's getting a bit G2 specific for me. Wait a bit and one of the G2 owners will chip in. I'd go for supplying the right lat/lon and set the TZ offset to zero everywhere.

Have you joined the G2 Yahoo! group? http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Gemini-II/ but there seems to be some problem with the site at the moment while they are doing updates.

[midnight (Darrin)]

Graham,

My understanding of the Gemini 2 controller is that the local time and timezone is not used in the calculation for slewing etc. Ignore daylight saving for now. Gemini 2 uses UT so this must be set accurately. For me being in WA, I am UT +8hours. So when it is 6PM in Perth where Perth is UT + 8hrs, UT therefore = 10AM the same day. This is the same time in the UK where the UK is UT +0 (ignoring daylight saving). If Perth had daylight saving, then it's time would be UT +9hrs.

This means Gemini (to my understanding) can calculate where it is based on the UT and your longitude.

The civil time is more for convenience if this understanding is correct as it looks more "normal" I suppose to see a local time displayed on the lower right corner of the Gemini 2 controller than the UT. Some people prefer to use UT only and don't worry about the timezone because many charts and references are in UT so it makes it easier to use UT as your local or civil time from that point of view.

As for your slewing problem. Please check the following esp after a cold start.
1. Your mount type is set to G11. I find after a cold start, it defaults to a Titan.
2. If I forget step 1 but I have placed my mount in the polar home position (before powering up), I find the DEC reading on handcontroller immediately after booting up shows -45:00. This is obviously wrong. And this will be one possible explanation for the incorrect slewing. Make sure the DEC is reading -90:00 after boot up when your scope in the polar home position.
3. Make sure the UT is correct. It is the time in the UK (without daylight saving). A GPS connected to Gemini 2 will assist with this.

Ensuring the above has meant a trouble free start to a night with my G11 but it took me a few weeks to see these simple little features like the mount default and polar home co-ordinates.

I hope someone can confirm the above or correct me as this has been my experience. Good luck but remember Gemini 2 needs a little time to understand the way it does things. Coming from Autostar, I found Gemini 2 frustrating at start but now understand more about it.

Good luck Graz!

Darrin...

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Midnight- thanks for that
so If I understand you correctly there is a way to enter UTC and it knows it's UTC - by entering the UTC (GMT) time and not adding or subtracting any time difference?
So with my UTC plus 0, plus location details I can set up accurately?

I use UTC for my cgem so I have a watch set for that time which I always wear when observing.
I think I have this straight!
As far as home position - I get the impression you have to polar align first then do a cold start to start a model of your sky?
Then after that you can mark the axis and create a park position/ home position and also a CWD position for start up?
Thanks again for your help.