I would like to send my AM5 mount to its home position at the end of a sequence. I cannot see how to do this. I can see how to park, but the AM5 park position is not where I want it, and the park position cannot be changed.
Any hints?
smjt7331,
Look in the ‘Telescope’ module, to the right of ‘Park’ is a button called ‘Set Park’
Move your mount to the position in RA & DEC where you DO want it to park using the nudge controls in Control Panel→Telescope. Then hit the ‘Set Park’ button. You will be greeted with a confirmation box but the end result will be, every time you or SGP ‘Parks’ your mount will be sent to this custom position.
What I would love to see…….
ASCOM has the option to set User defined position for the Park position ‘AND’ the Unparked position.
I am currently considering a roll off observatory build but planning say I cannot go above boundry fence height. This means I can not even go to a full height shed as most people would.
If I can get my scope to park in a position where the DEC is horizontal with weights to the left, scope to the right with the scope also laying horizontal to the ground, I can get this to work, SGP’s ‘Set Park’ does a good job of sending the scope to that orientation which is great. In ASCOM, I also have this position set for park. In ASCOM though, I have ‘UNPARK’ set to move the scope to the conventional position of weights down, scope up and the scope vertical looking up.
I really wish SGP could use ASCOM’s user defined positions for Park and Unpark…..That would be great and i’m sure many people could benifit from it.
Paul
The AM5 does not allow customers to define park positions, so this will not work. Currently, the only way to get to the ‘point to Polaris’ position is to tell the mount to Find Home.
what won’t work? Setting SGP’s “park" position, then telling SGP to “park" the mount? Have you tried it?
Paul,
I don’t see how this would benefit anyone in a meaningful way. Setting the park position is SGP is normally a one-time effort. If it used ASCOM park position, you’d simply by replacing the SGP park one-time effort with an SGP ASCOM one-time effort.
What’s the advantage of having the mount move on unpark? Especially if SGP slews the mount to an object after an unpark, which is typically what happens?
Yes I have tried this. The park position remains the same. This is a well known problem with the AM5 and why it would be nice to be able to have SGP be able to send a Find Home command at the end of a sequence.
I understand.
I wonder if you can use an end-of-sequence script to send the mount somewhere?
That would be fine, I just don’t know how to do that. In the Control Panel under telescope control there is the ability to to manual position the telescope. One of the options is Home. A script after the last event to Find Home would be perfect.
I promised myself I would stop tweaking things until 4.5 was released but apparently I can’t be stopped.
This is great! But now I realize that what I really wanted was also a ‘Home the mount’ at the end of an event as well. So I can do my flats and darks and then end the sequence at Home.
Are you saying in the middle of a sequence you want to home the mount at the end of an event, then I assume do something with the mount homed, then go to the next event which will or will not slew the mount?
Can you give a use case for this? There may already be a way to do what you want.
When I have finished taking lights for the evening, I often take dark frames or flat frames. I would prefer to just Home the mount before I take the first dark frame. This way I know the mount has stopped tracking and is in a safe position. The darks/flats are the last event of the evening.
To be clear, the reason I asked for the Find Home is that the AM5 does not report that it is parked after receiving the command from SGPro (or NINA). If the AM5 was fully compliant, I could use the Park feature like I do with other mounts.