Chris
Maybe you already did, but did you try with the “Reverse guide out put after meridian flip” in PHD2?
Would that fix the issue?
Regards,
Alfredo
That may fix the guiding but sgp would still call the flip failed and abort the sequence as the side of pier is not behaving as expected.
Jared
Makes sense
Let’s hope the new firmware release fix it.
Regards
Alfredo
I did try the reverse guide output after flip setting but it didn’t work. PHD2 is also not getting the correct pier info and doesn’t know that it flipped.
Also, during the pause waiting for the mount to do the flip, SGP expects guiding to continue. When the mount flips, PHD2 stops and then SGP gives an error. I don’t see a setting to stop guiding and restart it for the next target. In PHD2, should I uncheck the setting to stop guiding when a mount slews?
Chris
Sgp will stop PhD prior to the flip and restart guiding after the flip has succeeded. It may be that sgp isn’t waiting long enough and is issuing a slew. Regardless sgp will start up guiding after the slew.
Thanks
Jared
What happened was this:
I was imaging the Horsehead Nebula and set the sequence to stop 15 minutes before meridian. My exposures were 10 min so there was plenty of delay.
The mount did a meridian flip without problems.
A duplicate Horsehead target was set to start 15 minutes after meridian. However, once the mount started it’s slew, PHD2 stopped guiding because it detected the slew. SGP then failed stating that the sequence required autoguiding and that none was available. This was still before it was supposed to start the next target.
I manually restarted guiding and because the calibration did not flip, DEC started to go way off. I recalibrated before the next sequence started and it then proceeded to start the sequence at the correct time.
Hopefully all of this won’t be an issue once iOptron releases the new firmware and ASCOM driver.
Chris
Hi Chris
Were you guiding through ASCOM or ST4?
Regards
Alfredo
ASCOM guiding.
Chris
Just to let everyone know, I programmed 3 targets east of the meridian last night. The mount was set to continue 15 deg past meridian. I set the stop time for each target about 10 deg past meridian and this morning I found that it had done all of them correctly and parked the mount as it was supposed to.
Chris
Very good Chris
To fully understand, the mount continued after the meridian from 15 deg, after having imaged continously through 10 deg past meridian on the same target?
Did you have to modify any settings for this?
Regards
Alfredo
I have the mount (using the hand control) set to stop at 15 degrees past meridian so that I could image a target a bit longer. That is the maximum the CEM60 will track past meridian. My SGP Rosette Nebula target was timed to stop about 10 degrees past meridian (figured out using Stellarium), just to give it some safety margin. SGP continued to image the Rosette across the meridian (auto flip was disabled) until it hit 10 degrees (actually the time it reached it - 1 am). SGP was then set to start on the Leo Triplet (which was low in the east) as soon as it stopped the Rosette. It slewed at the appropriate time, centered and restarted guiding. All of my targets started east of the meridian and because a flip was never initiated or performed by SGP or the mount, the pier side problem did not come into play.
For tonight I will just move the times a bit earlier.
Chris
As of this morning, firmware upgrade v141229 is available for the CEM60 on the iOptron site. In the release notes it says it fixes pier side. ASCOM v3.2 should be released soon. I hope to test it tonight.
Chris
The v141229 firmware updates went without problems. Scope control seems fine but side or pier is not yet working. Reading the iOptron release notes again I think it will also need the new ASCOM driver.
Under bug fixes:
“Side of Pier not reported correctly. (Need to work with iOptron .NET ASCOM 3.2, which will be released
soon).”
Chris
I had thought these were going to be coming out together…maybe that was not the case. Their support did mention that it would need both so maybe their ASCOM driver isn’t ready yet.
Jared
I am new to SGP and have not yet attempted to use it with my CEM60 mount because of the pier side issue. iOptron just released the ASCOM Driver 3.2. I have listed the release notes below.
I am anxious to know if this update has solved the pier side reporting issue described in this thread.
Fred
Here is a summary of the release Notes:
2015-01-16
3.20
iOptron Remote Control Center has been renamed to iOptron Commander.
Bug fixed:
Sometimes the driver reports incorrect SideofPier.
Sometimes the iOptron Commander will freeze during the auto-guiding.
Improvement:
The default behavior of direction button in iOptron Commander has been changed to agree with some customers’ request. You may change the behavior in the Preference button.
New features:
Added support for iEQ30 Pro.
Multi-instance of ASCOM driver now shares the same value of TargetRightAscension, TargetDeclination, SlewSettleTime, Elevation and IsPulseGuiding.
PulseGuide and IsPulseGuiding now supports guiding simultaneously in both North-South and West-East directions.
iOptron Commander now displays Local Sidereal Time and Side of Pier.
Added meridian settings in iOptron Commander.
You beat me to it. I have it installed and am planning some indoor testing tonight since the sky is completely clouded over.
Chris
I am having similar SideOfPier issues with SGP and the CEM60. I can confirm that the CEM60 is reporting SideOfPier backwards: saying it is west when it should be east and vice-versa. I modified an app I wrote to report SideOfPier directly from the ASCOM driver in order to investigate this.
However, the language used in this thread does not give me confidence that SGP is handling SideOfPier correctly either. Posts above talk about “which side of the pier the scope is on”. Understandable, I suppose, given the name of the property, but wrong. Which side of the pier the scope is on refers to an RA movement. The SIdeOfPier property refers explicitly to a Declination movement. Now the ASCOM standards are a bit wooly about which is east and which is west, referring instead to declination ranges greater than or less than 90 degrees. But SideOfPier is definitely a declination-based property, not an RA-based property.
Standing facing the pole, PierEast refers to a counterclockwise motion of the dec axis, and PierWest refers to a clockwise motion of the dec axis.
I know that the CEM60 is doing this backwards, but it is at least doing it based on the dec movement. The wording of discussion above suggests that SGP might be interpreting SideOfPier as an RA movement.
Keith