Help Needed

SB (Chris) · #1 07-06-2022, 07:54 PM

Hi Everyone,
Tonight (and after no problems all last night) the scope repeatedly slewed in the wrong direction on GOTO.

I'm using an ASIAir plus on an EQ6-R.

Diagnostics: I substituted the ASIAir with a AIRPRO and the same thing happened. I also then re-seated the RJ45 on the Mount and had success with GOTO, then immediately tried to send mount to NGC 3372 but scope went off to point to the ground.

All the correct Lat and Long and time info is correct and Syc to Mount was successful.

Scope does not return to correct home position.

Any ideas? I think I can exclude the ASIAir as the substitute demonstrated the same problem.

Could it be the EQMod cable?

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.

SB

Drac0 (Mark) · #2 07-06-2022, 08:15 PM

The mount was in the correct home position when you started? Try parking to home position, turn the mount off & position it in the correct home position manually. Turn back on & try again.

Doogs38 (Alex) · #3 07-06-2022, 08:27 PM

Chris, as a thought, can you try using a laptop connect directly to your mount, or even the HC, and see if the fault remains? Will help further isolate the culprit.

SB (Chris) · #4 07-06-2022, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drac0

The mount was in the correct home position when you started? Try parking to home position, turn the mount off & position it in the correct home position manually. Turn back on & try again.

Hi Mark
Thanks for that. Yes was in the home position at the start. I pulled the rig inside the house and set it up and of course GOTO worked fine (except no stars for plate solve of course!).

SB

SB (Chris) · #5 07-06-2022, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doogs38

Chris, as a thought, can you try using a laptop connect directly to your mount, or even the HC, and see if the fault remains? Will help further isolate the culprit.

Hi Alex,
Yes, might give that a go. Thanks. I hate intermittent faults!

SB

SB (Chris) · #6 08-06-2022, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doogs38

Chris, as a thought, can you try using a laptop connect directly to your mount, or even the HC, and see if the fault remains? Will help further isolate the culprit.

Hi Alex,
I connected Sky Safari to the mount which showed the home position to be on the Southern Celestial Pole.

Interesting that during this session on a couple of occasions executing Goto with Sky Safari the mount slewed to the correct position. I then plate solved with ASIAIR and it centered correctly on the Jewelbox Cluster. I then performed Goto with ASIAIR to nearby NGC3372 and the mount pointed to the ground.

SB

bojan · #7 08-06-2022, 08:53 AM

This looks to me as wrong Meridian flip...
Can you disable it?
Or/and wrong local time (kept in the mount?)

floyd_2 (Dean) · #8 08-06-2022, 09:18 AM

I don't know anything about the ASIAIR (just to qualify my next suggestion).
Is the ASIAIR set to the correct time, location and GMT offset? To me, it looks like it's set to the wrong time and is slewing to where the objects are accordingly. It would potentially explain why Sky Safari is ok but the ASIAIR isn't.

JoelRed (Joel) · #9 08-06-2022, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SB

Hi Everyone,
Tonight (and after no problems all last night) the scope repeatedly slewed in the wrong direction on GOTO.

I'm using an ASIAir plus on an EQ6-R.

Diagnostics: I substituted the ASIAir with a AIRPRO and the same thing happened. I also then re-seated the RJ45 on the Mount and had success with GOTO, then immediately tried to send mount to NGC 3372 but scope went off to point to the ground.

All the correct Lat and Long and time info is correct and Syc to Mount was successful.

Scope does not return to correct home position.

Any ideas? I think I can exclude the ASIAir as the substitute demonstrated the same problem.

Could it be the EQMod cable?

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.

SB

Hi,

Not sure how helpful this is, but I have seen this issue with my AZ-GTi in EQ mode using an EQDIR cable. It did exactly what you are describing and there wasn't really anything I could do to rectify it. Subsequent nights gave me no issue. I suspect it was either something to do with the EQDIR cable or an issue with the GPS position in my iPad.

I also use the ASIair with an EQ6R-Pro with a USB with no issue whatsoever, are you able to connect your EQ6R using USB rather than EDMOD?

SB (Chris) · #10 08-06-2022, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoelRed

Hi,

Not sure how helpful this is, but I have seen this issue with my AZ-GTi in EQ mode using an EQDIR cable. It did exactly what you are describing and there wasn't really anything I could do to rectify it. Subsequent nights gave me no issue. I suspect it was either something to do with the EQDIR cable or an issue with the GPS position in my iPad.

I also use the ASIair with an EQ6R-Pro with a USB with no issue whatsoever, are you able to connect your EQ6R using USB rather than EDMOD?

Hi Joel,
Thanks for this. Sounds like an identical problem.

I just set up the kit back outside and it slews correctly from asiair and SkySafari. Its a puzzle!

BTW my mount is the model without the USB port, hence the Serial to USB cable. Are these known to be problematic?

SB

SB (Chris) · #11 09-06-2022, 01:41 PM

... just a thought, is it necessary to upgrade the firmware on an EQ6-R from time to time? Ive never done that. I’m getting such good guiding normally Im reluctant to poke sticks in bees nests!

SB

Nikolas (Nik) · #12 10-06-2022, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SB

Hi Everyone,

Scope does not return to correct home position.

Any ideas? I think I can exclude the ASIAir as the substitute demonstrated the same problem.

Could it be the EQMod cable?

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.

SB

If the scope returns to the wrong position for home then manually return the scope to home and do the go to from there and see what happens
are you connectring directly to the mount or through the handset?

Startrek (Martin) · #13 10-06-2022, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SB

Hi Joel,
Thanks for this. Sounds like an identical problem.

I just set up the kit back outside and it slews correctly from asiair and SkySafari. Its a puzzle!

BTW my mount is the model without the USB port, hence the Serial to USB cable. Are these known to be problematic?

SB

I’ve had 2 x EQ6-R mounts for nearly 4 years , one in Sydney connected direct via USB cable and the second on NSW south coast in my Dome connected via EQ Direct cable ( Shoestring ) to handcontroller port
Both have performed flawlessly
I run EQMOD as the driver and use Ascom Stellarium as my Nav and Goto via Laptop adjacent and connected inside the house via Car 5e cable to main PC
Mount with USB uses baud rate of 115200
Mount with EQDirect cable uses baud rate 9600
All above runs off Window 10 Pro ( All apps run as administrator )

Cheers
Martin

gb44 (Glenn) · #14 10-06-2022, 02:55 PM

Another idea.
I had an error report from my camera saying the power wasnt 12v. Luckily it was a one off thing, a while back.

Maybe the mains power voltage went a bit low for a while at the wrong time.
Maybe we need more regulated PSUs.

GlennB

SB (Chris) · #15 10-06-2022, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gb44

Another idea.
I had an error report from my camera saying the power wasnt 12v. Luckily it was a one off thing, a while back.

Maybe the mains power voltage went a bit low for a while at the wrong time.
Maybe we need more regulated PSUs.

GlennB

Hi Glenn,
That certainly did cross my mind. I currently run from a 7A unregulated power supply. I’ve often looked at the regulated power supplies from Andrews. Maybe I might revisit that!

Since this issue occurred everything has worked fine. I did get another backup cable just in case however.

SB

SB (Chris) · #16 10-06-2022, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikolas

If the scope returns to the wrong position for home then manually return the scope to home and do the go to from there and see what happens
are you connectring directly to the mount or through the handset?

Hi Nik,
Thanks. Im connecting straight from the ASIAIR to the mount.

SB

ReidG · #17 11-06-2022, 01:38 PM

There is a recent 08-06-2022 update for the EQ6-R

They acknowledge a southern hemisphere problem they claim to have fixed.

I just installed it and am hoping to find out it is great tonight.

Last night was dismal, after a three star alignment it could not even find the stars used for alignment. A one star alignment was so far off guessing would have been better, it was pinning the tail on the donkey time.

Doogs38 (Alex) · #18 15-06-2022, 07:37 AM

Hmmmm interestingly, my AZEQ6 did the same thing a few nights ago, ie. pointed at the ground. It did it twice but corrected itself after I rebooted everything and reset the GPS dongle. Alex

Addos (Adam) · #19 15-06-2022, 05:40 PM

Hello, have you tried clearing out stored alignment points in EQMOD?