I am having problems with my nightcrawler rotator going to the proper angle for my target when trying to center. The scope slewed correctly to the target but the rotator seemed to get lost. I imaged a few nights ago with no issues. I manually did a meridian flip. I then tried to resume my sequence only to realize clouds prevented me from focusing and plate solving. I called it a night. Two nights later I went back to the same object and when I tried to center on the target the rotator failed to go to the correct angle. It was quite cold (5 degrees F) so I thought maybe that was an issue. I replaced USB cables and troubled shot to no avail. I redownloaded the ASCOM drivers. The next day I reinstalled the ASCOM platform. That night I tried again and had the same issue. The auto focus worked fine but the rotator just couldn’t seem to find where to stop. I have attached a link to a folder. It has my SGP sequence, the first night of imaging that went fine, followed by the next two nights where the rotator failed. Hopefully someone can help me out.
I did talk to Ron at Moonlight and after doing a couple of tests we determined the rotator was working properly. So is it something in SGP?
Thanks for any help. Pat
We can take a look, but that Dropbox folder is empty.
See here for easier ways to get us logs:
More information here How to Submit Logs in SGPro - SGPro Support - Main Sequence Software
Support requests go in this category #sequence-generator:sgpro-support
You probably need to check the “reverse rotation” checkbox in the Moonlite ASCOM Driver. Then do some tests in sgp to make sure the device is rotating the correct direction for small rotations.
Thanks,
Jared
Sorry about that. Not sure what happened. I just added the files. They should be in the drop box now.
Thank you.
Thanks Jared. I’ll look at that. I am traveling for a few days so will not be able to test it out.Thanks again for replying.
Pat
Just got back today from two weeks of traveling. I made sure the “reverse rotation” box was checked. I then set various angles for the rotator to rotate to through SGP and is seemed to be spot on each time. I’ll give it a go the next clear sky opportunity.
Thank you for your help Jared.
Pat
Just confirming I have night crawler with an OAG. I Check the reverse box in Ascom driver. Here is where I am confused. So if ask rotator to go 30 degrees. Should the night crawler go forward or backwards? If the OAG is turned off and I wanted to do unguided imaging with my Mach 2. Then do I go back to regular mode and uncheck reverse box?
Thank you
Peety G
I’m uncertain what you mean by “forward or backward”. SGPro only deals with absolute positions so if you ask to go to a mechanical positional angle of 30 deg, the driver will make the decision on which way to move. In the interaction, SGPro’s part is just “please move to 30”, but does not provide any input as to how.
What I am saying if you check the driver box to be reversed then rotator would go reverse. But in order to platesolve with rotator and OAG in SGP you have to check reverse in order for it to work properly. Is this correct.
Peter Gottstein