sdufoer

Hello Robert, sounds very familiar. I can use the mount on a limited set of objects now. On snapshots I don't have the issue and when I do timeseries I loop nonstop between 2 objects with every 30min a platesolve+sync on a 3th object. The max exposure time is 90s. This way it's usable, but the objects where I need to stay for hours on the same position are out of my observation loop. 😞 I tried the "relax slew" method, but in CCDCommander on a timeseries object and then I experienced another crash after several hours. Which means, the mount needs to be slewing nonstop to have a workaround on this issue. However, I decided that my mount needs to return to ASA for replacement of bearings. I'm awaiting until they have time for disassembly in the remote hosting facility (E-Eye in Spain).

Thanks again Mark for your very useful reply! In meantime, I did some further experimentation. RA-Axis balance seems absolutely spot on in the balance tool. Even at 1A, it shows nice balance. DEC is further off. I can indeed ask local support to slide the counterweight 2mm upwards. I noticed that I get the crash mainly when the OTA is pointed more towards the horizon so I have to slide the weight bit upwards. I rather not touch the DEC balance, since balancing there involves moving the dew cover and that's not very easy on a scope that hanging free in the air, even when I do it myself. That imbalance can be result of refocusing the CCD-camera. I'm indeed trying now to do a platesolve+sync every 15 minutes. I don't use a far-away slew of multiple degrees yet but I can implement this easily in CCDCommander (which I use). A first try with the platesolve-sync workaround shows that it sometimes stops tracking, but then it's restored quickly. I have to further experiment on this. I placed my "relaxation" on 30 degrees. I try to tune also the manual PID's. I also asked ASA support if they have an idea what's happening with the logfiles. This is what their support writes me: The random-pointing model they talk about, is a dry pointingmodel run with simulated exposures with 1000 stars. It seems that just sweeping around the mount nonstop for over some hours could free the lubrication. But I already do this every night... This instrument is a work-horse. Sending the mount back to ASA is naturally a nightmare. The telescope has to be remotely disassembled and then it has to be assembled again. Because this would involve an expensive trip to Spain, and with these Covid19 lockdowns,.... this would naturally be my last option... 😞 Assuming the support in Spain can disassemble the telescope themselves. Assembly of the telescope is only something I can do myself.

That is a VERY useful explanation Mark. Thanks a lot for your time !!! I was especially puzzled by this important paragraph you’ve written. Last night I had this issue again. The telescope observed the evening snapshots for almost 2,5 hours long, These were around 35 objects, so an equal amount of slews without issues. Then the telescope started to run a long timeseries around midnight. The first 16 minutes were fine, then startrails. Which means: my frame taken at 00h18 was fine. The frame taken at 00h20 had startrails. It finally crashed around 00h40 and I found the instrument this morning pointing somewhere off and stalled. It parked without issues... The Autoslew logs show the following: -------------12:42:21 AM------------ Axis RA/AZ reported the following Problem: Position Error Position Error during slewing autocorrected by ClServo Position Error correction failed -------------12:41:01 AM------------ Axis RA/AZ reported the following Problem: Position Error Position Error during slewing autocorrected by ClServo Position Error correction failed -------------12:40:40 AM------------ Axis RA/AZ reported the following Problem: Position Error Position Error autocleared by ClServo ….(INSERT SAME POSITION ERROR here 10x )……. -------------12:28:42 AM------------ Axis RA/AZ reported the following Problem: Position Error Position Error autocleared by ClServo -------------12:21:11 AM------------ Axis RA/AZ reported the following Problem: Position Error Position Error autocleared by ClServo -------------9:29:57 PM------------ DE/AL calibrated OK ! -------------9:29:46 PM------------ RA/AZ calibrated OK ! -------------9:26:50 PM------------ Then when I look into the CI Motor logs I see the first issue around 00h21. (PS: I enabled dithering in the hope it would “reset” possition error more easily). 00:20:58.852: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+02.1A MagAng:+309° PosErr:-00.04arcsec 00:20:59.426: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+16447.86arcsec 00:21:05.130: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+02.2A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 00:21:05.600: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+17430.12arcsec 00:21:09.640: Axis 1 Error: Position Error 00:21:09.655: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect tracking error 00:21:10.944: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+02.3A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.12arcsec 00:21:12.078: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+12.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+150.04arcsec 00:21:17.052: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+02.1A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.04arcsec 00:21:18.166: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+1115.10arcsec 00:21:23.231: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+02.1A MagAng:+309° PosErr:-00.02arcsec … 00:28:33.549: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+00.9A MagAng:+309° PosErr:-00.06arcsec 00:28:38.609: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+17692.50arcsec 00:28:39.660: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.0A MagAng:+309° PosErr:-00.02arcsec 00:28:40.681: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect tracking error 00:28:45.122: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+471.84arcsec 00:28:45.631: Axis 1 slewing to -96.08 00:28:45.656: Axis 2 slewing to -13.72 00:28:46.076: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+00.5A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+15.25arcsec 00:28:48.169: Axis 1 slewing to -96.08 00:28:48.194: Axis 2 slewing to -13.72 00:28:48.793: Axis 1 slewing to -96.07 00:28:48.828: Axis 2 slewing to -13.72 00:28:50.836: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+9017.56arcsec 00:28:52.229: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.2A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 00:28:56.924: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+9986.29arcsec 00:28:58.328: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.5A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.00arcsec … 00:29:46.015: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+17798.43arcsec 00:29:47.618: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.1A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.02arcsec 00:29:48.084: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect tracking error 00:29:51.579: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+324.18arcsec 00:29:53.522: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+00.9A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.04arcsec 00:29:57.688: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+1296.35arcsec 00:29:59.590: Axis 1 slewing to -95.77 00:29:59.615: Axis 2 slewing to -13.72 00:29:59.651: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+00.8A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+03.20arcsec 00:30:02.147: Axis 1 slewing to -95.77 00:30:02.172: Axis 2 slewing to -13.72 00:30:02.771: Axis 1 slewing to -95.77 00:30:02.797: Axis 2 slewing to -13.72 00:30:04.030: Axis 1 Pos:-098.48° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+9919.69arcsec 00:30:05.924: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.4A MagAng:+309° PosErr:-00.12arcsec 00:30:10.168: Axis 1 Pos:-098.48° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+10896.34arcsec 00:30:12.042: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.5A MagAng:+309° PosErr:-00.02arcsec … 00:30:52.895: Axis 1 Pos:-098.48° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+17695.18arcsec 00:30:54.774: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.2A MagAng:+309° PosErr:-00.02arcsec 00:30:54.963: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect tracking error 00:30:58.405: Axis 1 Pos:-098.47° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+311.92arcsec 00:31:00.358: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.1A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.00arcsec … 00:31:59.687: Axis 1 Pos:-098.47° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+17661.86arcsec 00:32:01.554: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.5A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 00:32:02.773: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect tracking error 00:32:05.196: Axis 1 Pos:-098.47° Curr:+12.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+152.64arcsec 00:32:07.154: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.1A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.04arcsec 00:32:11.309: Axis 1 Pos:-098.47° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+1122.07arcsec … 00:38:40.717: Axis 2 Pos:-013.72° Curr:+01.5A MagAng:+309° PosErr:-10.15arcsec 00:38:43.783: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect tracking error 00:38:45.187: Axis 1 Pos:-098.47° Curr:+02.4A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+07.86arcsec 00:38:47.154: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.9A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.02arcsec 00:38:51.314: Axis 1 Pos:-098.46° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+965.76arcsec … 00:40:35.901: Axis 1 Pos:-098.46° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+17609.00arcsec 00:40:37.963: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.8A MagAng:+309° PosErr:-00.02arcsec 00:40:38.967: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect tracking error 00:40:42.364: Axis 1 Pos:-098.46° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+312.53arcsec 00:40:44.381: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.5A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.06arcsec 00:40:48.521: Axis 1 Pos:-098.46° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+1291.77arcsec 00:40:50.479: Axis 2 Pos:-013.73° Curr:+01.5A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.02arcsec 00:40:54.695: Axis 1 Pos:-098.46° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+2274.07arcsec 00:40:54.929: Axis 1 slewing to -93.03 00:40:54.954: Axis 2 slewing to -13.72 00:40:56.652: Axis 2 Pos:-013.72° Curr:+02.9A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.22arcsec 00:40:58.061: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect error and slewing again to -93.03 00:41:01.842: Axis 1 autocorrect slewing error failed 00:41:01.876: Axis 1 Pos:-098.46° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+00.10arcsec 00:41:02.032: Axis 12 Tracking errors within 60 seconds, giving up 00:41:02.986: Axis 2 Pos:-013.72° Curr:+01.8A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.08arcsec 00:41:08.190: Axis 1 Pos:-098.47° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 00:41:09.139: Axis 2 Pos:-013.72° Curr:+01.8A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.00arcsec … 00:42:04.501: Axis 2 Pos:-013.72° Curr:+01.8A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.02arcsec 00:42:09.740: Axis 1 Pos:-098.47° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 00:42:10.684: Axis 2 Pos:-013.72° Curr:+01.8A MagAng:+309° PosErr:+00.02arcsec 00:42:12.006: Axis 1 Error Cleared 00:42:12.017: Axis 1 turned off Motor 00:42:12.042: Axis 1 turned on Motor 00:42:12.047: Axis 1 turned on Motor 00:42:13.147: Axis 1 slewing to 7.61 00:42:13.172: Axis 2 slewing to 96.46 00:42:16.228: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect error and slewing again to 7.61 00:42:20.913: Axis 1 autocorrect slewing error failed 00:42:20.943: Axis 1 Pos:-098.46° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+00.08arcsec 00:42:20.973: Axis 2 Pos:-008.17° Curr:+01.3A MagAng:+285° PosErr:+02.07arcsec 00:42:21.102: Axis 12 Tracking errors within 60 seconds, giving up 00:42:27.091: Axis 2 Pos:+025.36° Curr:+01.0A MagAng:+019° PosErr:+00.02arcsec 00:42:27.276: Axis 1 Pos:-098.47° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 00:42:33.230: Axis 2 Pos:+025.36° Curr:+01.1A MagAng:+019° PosErr:+00.02arcsec Now, when I look into the currents and how they evolve, I see the voltage indeed slowly increasing. As the following excepts lines show. 00:01:28.128: Axis 1 Pos:-102.92° Curr:+01.4A MagAng:+171° PosErr:-26.19arcsec 00:01:34.361: Axis 1 Pos:-102.90° Curr:+02.0A MagAng:+171° PosErr:-00.04arcsec 00:01:58.950: Axis 1 Pos:-102.80° Curr:+02.3A MagAng:+172° PosErr:+00.12arcsec 00:04:51.066: Axis 1 Pos:-102.08° Curr:+02.7A MagAng:+180° PosErr:+00.04arcsec 00:09:26.731: Axis 1 Pos:-100.93° Curr:+03.3A MagAng:+193° PosErr:+00.02arcsec 00:13:01.025: Axis 1 Pos:-100.03° Curr:+03.8A MagAng:+203° PosErr:+00.04arcsec 00:13:56.106: Axis 1 Pos:-099.80° Curr:+04.0A MagAng:+205° PosErr:-00.12arcsec 00:18:44.865: Axis 1 Pos:-098.60° Curr:+04.2A MagAng:+218° PosErr:-00.02arcsec 00:18:57.087: Axis 1 Pos:-098.55° Curr:+04.9A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+07.17arcsec 00:19:09.279: Axis 1 Pos:-098.51° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+96.08arcsec 00:19:33.772: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+2817.23arcsec What puzzles me is that there are some (3) outliers up to 12V !! 00:14:33.162: Axis 1 Pos:-099.65° Curr:+04.1A MagAng:+207° PosErr:+00.02arcsec 00:14:39.315: Axis 1 Pos:-099.62° Curr:+11.4A MagAng:+207° PosErr:-01.35arcsec 00:14:45.529: Axis 1 Pos:-099.60° Curr:+04.2A MagAng:+207° PosErr:+00.10arcsec Or: 00:21:12.078: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+12.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+150.04arcsec 00:21:18.166: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+1115.10arcsec 00:21:24.254: Axis 1 Pos:-098.50° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+219° PosErr:+2083.69arcsec Or: 00:31:53.503: Axis 1 Pos:-098.47° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+16678.17arcsec 00:31:59.687: Axis 1 Pos:-098.47° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+17661.86arcsec 00:32:02.773: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect tracking error 00:32:05.196: Axis 1 Pos:-098.47° Curr:+12.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+152.64arcsec 00:32:11.309: Axis 1 Pos:-098.47° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+220° PosErr:+1122.07arcsec To further answer on your questions: Most of my wires go though the mount. There is 1 external cable, but this one never blocks anything. If it would block something, it would show errors during the slews while taking the snapshots. Yes, it occurs at random at different objects in the sky, when I take a long timeseries and the mount has to track for a long time. But the amount of errors is higher in the East side of the sky (where objects rise). Sometimes while a slew, but very rare. This occurs most of the time, let's say 95%, during longterm tracking. I attach Autoslew to planetarium program CartesduCiel and then I can click on different objects and it slews happily around without many issues. I can see this on the camera. I have to do this during night because the instrument is installed under a roll-off roof and I’m worried about passing the sun and hence destroying the CCD. This slewing around works fine. It's same principle as taking the snapshots. It’s a 40cm ODK Cassegrain, not a newton with camera’s mounted at the side. Only “inbalance” is bit a mounthubpro on top, a 30mm finder mounted on top + cables. I have around +-60kg of counterweights. 2X20kg, 1x10kg, 2x5kg on different positions on counterweight bar. I use the 10kg counterweight to do the RA-balance. See here for a picture: http://www.astronomie.be/sdufoer/equipment/odk16.jpg I have chosen this setup especially because it would be as balanced as possible. I even opted for a FLI centerline filterwheel because of the orthogonal balance symmetry. It’s basically a round tube, with FLI atlas focuser, FLI centerline FW and CCD camera. I’m after your explanation inclined to think the issue would indeed still be balance. I checked the balance again this morning. The ASA manual states that both axis need to be horizontal. Which means there are basically 4 positions to do balance: -telescope west, scope pointing north horizon. -telescope west, scope pointing south horizon. -telescope east, scope pointing north horizon. -telescope west, scope pointing south horizon. I did a check on the balance on these 4 different positions. Each position was a bit different and had slightly different behaviour. Probably this is because there is still some assymetry in the OTA (finder, mounthubpro, cables)… I need the support of staff of the remote observing facility that can do the physical actions for me while I look on the screen. They charge a small fee for this. I balance the mount on RA axis using the 10kg weight that slides bit east/west. On the DEC-axis I have the dewcover that I can push a bit forwards/backwards. I think my next action will be to work further on the balance and do trail&error. Bit to the left, then try another night, bit forward, then try another night... I have some more questions: -In the balance it seems DEC is pretty "point on", more than RA that behaves more different at different balance positions. Is it possible this position error issues in RA can still be due to DEC balance issues? -Is there an ideal balance position to be chosen? I found that this error occurs mostly in the East part of the sky (because that’s where the timeseries objects naturally rise). -I still wonder if there is some parameter tuning I can do in the motor tuning window? What sliders can I work on to go to a more "relaxed" state? -What exactly happens in the Servo Setup window Position error axis RA/DEC. Would it help if I disable “ignore”, or “motor off” ? The sliders are now at RA:5degrees; DEC:20degrees, but I found that when I goo too sensitive I get more position errors, too relaxed sensitivy I have too much failed frames with startrails. What would be the ideal value here?

All, I experience the last months some very troublesome issues with my DDM85 mount that is installed on a remote observing facility in Spain. The mount is an incremental encoder version. The mount is used for automated variable star surveys and has a 16”F6.7 Corrected-Dall Kirkham mounted on it. It sweeps from object to object, takes snapshots and it’s mixed with some long timeseries where it stays on the same object for several hours. Hence, the telescope is slewing around a lot. The nature of the problem is that I get a multitude of “position errors”. Most of the times this happens in RA-axis, but sometimes it also happens on DEC-axis. I wake up and see in the log a lot of position errors, mostly he could correct himself. Sometimes (a lot) he cannot correct the error and then the mount stalls and I find it crashed. Very dangerous because when it would start to rain the autopark from cloudwatcher will NOT work because mount is crashed. Other times he just stops tracking for several hours, but doesn’t show a “position error”. Because I sleep during the night and the telescope doesn't snow much issues when doing snapshots in the beginning of the night, I'm not around when it happens. Usually it happens from 2-5am orso, when the telescope is busy with taking a long timeseries on an object. Last night it was quite bad. I woke up around 5am and found the mount pointing upwards and has been crashed. Stop-start motors and trying to park the mount resulted in a series of uncorrectable position-errors. I had to stop-start motors again and again to move the mount even a bit. I park the mount horizontally (under a roof), and just before parking even the slightest move on the RA-axis would result in a crash. I retried and retried. I can only close the roof when mount is in park-position. Motor on/off, then autoslew on/off and also power to the mount on/off. Almost 20 times until finally during one of these attempts autoslew itself crashed and windows reported error and killed autoslew. When I restarted autoslew after that crash the mount slewed around happily like nothing happened. 😕 This makes me wonder if the problem is software? When I do the motor calibration (when you power on the motors for first time), it most of the time shows a sinus wave, but lately these sinus waves are bit irregular and smaller and far away from each other. I tried aproach after aproach after aproach to correct this: -Rebalance several times. (Using help from the guys from the remote site.) -New motor tuning. Fast & high performance mixed. -Manual motor tuning. Usually the high performance auto tuning gives the best results and nothing weird to see there... -New mount model, then different pointing models with different settings. -Do homing position routine every night. -Place the flexibility of position high (up to 30 degrees). But even then it crashes, when I place it low (1 degree), it shows a train of position errors. Nothing seems to help. What is weird is that these kind of errors sometimes are gone away for some nights, then slowly it becomes worse and worse. Some motor-ci error logs: 04:58:10.164: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.4A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+04.86arcsec 04:58:12.347: Axis 1 slewing to -38.21 04:58:12.371: Axis 2 slewing to -109.89 04:58:12.981: Axis 1 slewing to -38.20 04:58:13.006: Axis 2 slewing to -109.89 04:58:13.220: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+14946.64arcsec 04:58:16.326: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.2A MagAng:+335° PosErr:-00.02arcsec 04:58:19.382: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+15921.74arcsec 04:58:22.489: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.4A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 04:58:25.525: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+16899.64arcsec 04:58:28.667: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.4A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 04:58:31.608: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+17867.23arcsec 04:58:32.636: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect tracking error 04:58:34.963: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.2A MagAng:+335° PosErr:-00.02arcsec 04:58:38.100: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+645.13arcsec And bit later during crash itself. 05:00:22.588: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+6527.77arcsec 05:00:25.555: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.2A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:00:28.685: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+7498.19arcsec 05:00:31.646: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.2A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:00:34.773: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+8467.02arcsec 05:00:37.395: Axis 1 slewing to -37.59 05:00:37.420: Axis 2 slewing to -109.89 05:00:37.760: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.3A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+08.06arcsec 05:00:39.957: Axis 1 slewing to -37.59 05:00:39.983: Axis 2 slewing to -109.89 05:00:40.591: Axis 1 slewing to -37.59 05:00:40.616: Axis 2 slewing to -109.89 05:00:40.921: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+17175.15arcsec 05:00:43.943: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.5A MagAng:+335° PosErr:-00.14arcsec 05:00:47.158: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect tracking error 05:00:48.457: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+00.1A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+00.40arcsec 05:00:49.516: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.1A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.08arcsec 05:00:54.690: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+968.47arcsec 05:00:55.629: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.1A MagAng:+335° PosErr:-00.04arcsec 05:01:00.787: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+1938.87arcsec 05:01:01.726: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.1A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.02arcsec 05:01:06.870: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+2906.74arcsec And still bit later: 05:01:44.495: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.1A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:01:49.758: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+05.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+9731.88arcsec 05:01:50.613: Axis 2 Pos:-109.90° Curr:+00.1A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.02arcsec 05:01:51.406: Axis 1 slewing to -37.28 05:01:51.431: Axis 2 slewing to -109.89 05:01:53.963: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect tracking error 05:01:55.277: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+00.1A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+00.26arcsec 05:01:55.326: Axis 1 slewing to -37.28 05:01:55.351: Axis 2 slewing to -109.89 05:01:57.494: Axis 2 Pos:-109.89° Curr:+01.6A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.36arcsec 05:01:57.580: Axis 1 slewing to -37.27 05:01:57.604: Axis 2 slewing to -109.89 05:01:59.093: Axis 12 Tracking errors within 60 seconds, giving up 05:02:01.200: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:02:03.308: Axis 2 Pos:-109.89° Curr:+01.2A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:02:07.393: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:02:09.474: Axis 2 Pos:-109.89° Curr:+01.2A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.02arcsec 05:02:13.564: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:02:15.633: Axis 2 Pos:-109.89° Curr:+01.3A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:02:19.728: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:02:21.785: Axis 2 Pos:-109.89° Curr:+01.3A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.00arcsec And then when it finally crashes: 05:02:58.780: Axis 2 Pos:-109.89° Curr:+01.3A MagAng:+335° PosErr:-00.02arcsec 05:03:02.885: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:03:04.957: Axis 2 Pos:-109.89° Curr:+01.3A MagAng:+335° PosErr:+00.06arcsec 05:03:08.519: Axis 1 Error Cleared 05:03:08.527: Axis 1 turned on Motor 05:03:08.532: Axis 1 turned off Motor 05:03:08.568: Axis 1 turned on Motor 05:03:09.057: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+01.9A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+01.81arcsec 05:03:09.751: Axis 1 slewing to 0.05 05:03:09.776: Axis 2 slewing to 0.22 05:03:11.224: Axis 2 Pos:-108.55° Curr:+01.6A MagAng:+352° PosErr:-00.60arcsec 05:03:13.527: Axis 1 trying to autocorrect error and slewing again to 0.05 05:03:18.252: Axis 1 autocorrect slewing error failed 05:03:18.281: Axis 1 Pos:-042.35° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+00.02arcsec 05:03:18.311: Axis 2 Pos:-101.14° Curr:+01.5A MagAng:+351° PosErr:+30.07arcsec 05:03:18.445: Axis 12 Tracking errors within 60 seconds, giving up 05:03:24.439: Axis 2 Pos:-067.17° Curr:+00.7A MagAng:+085° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:03:24.628: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:03:30.557: Axis 2 Pos:-067.17° Curr:+00.8A MagAng:+085° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:03:30.745: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:-00.02arcsec 05:03:36.708: Axis 2 Pos:-067.17° Curr:+00.8A MagAng:+085° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:03:36.898: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:-00.04arcsec 05:03:42.836: Axis 2 Pos:-067.17° Curr:+00.7A MagAng:+085° PosErr:-00.02arcsec 05:03:43.026: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:03:48.999: Axis 2 Pos:-067.17° Curr:+00.7A MagAng:+085° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:03:49.178: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+00.00arcsec 05:03:55.141: Axis 2 Pos:-067.17° Curr:+00.7A MagAng:+085° PosErr:-00.02arcsec 05:03:55.331: Axis 1 Pos:-042.36° Curr:+00.0A MagAng:+204° PosErr:+00.00arcsec These are the motor settings nowadays: [Tuning Parameter of Axis 1] Velocity Proportional Factor KP=1800 Velocity Integral Factor KI=100000 Position Proportional Factor KP=20 [Fast Tuning Parameter of Axis 1] Velocity Proportional Factor KP=600 Velocity Integral Factor KI=30000 Position Proportional Factor KP=4 [Filter Parameter of Axis 1] Filterfrequency of velocity measurement=2000 Filter Gain of Current=1 Filter numerator of Current Tz=0 Filter dunmerator of Current DZ=0 Filter numerator of Current Wz=3553058 Filter denominator of Current Tp=1 Filter denominator of Current Dp=7540 Filter denominator of current Wp=3553058 [Autofind Parameter of Axis 1] No Hall measuring time (ms)=25 No Hall step size (degree)=12 No Hall test current (A)=1.30000000819564 [Tuning Parameter of Axis 2] Velocity Proportional Factor KP=2355.138460584 Velocity Integral Factor KI=180000 Position Proportional Factor KP=19.8 [Fast Tuning Parameter of Axis 2] Velocity Proportional Factor KP=850 Velocity Integral Factor KI=39000 Position Proportional Factor KP=4 [Filter Parameter of Axis 2] Filterfrequency of velocity measurement=2000 Filter Gain of Current=1 Filter numerator of Current Tz=0 Filter dunmerator of Current DZ=0 Filter numerator of Current Wz=3553058 Filter denominator of Current Tp=1 Filter denominator of Current Dp=7540 Filter denominator of current Wp=3553058 [Autofind Parameter of Axis 2] No Hall measuring time (ms)=22 No Hall step size (degree)=12 No Hall test current (A)=1.72799998894334 Anybody who can give my ANY insight is greatly appreciated ! What ARE these position errors exactly ?

What are the settings to use in order to continue autoguiding when a pier-flip happens? I see there are several autoguider settings: 1) In Autoslew: automatically do a flipx and flipy. 2) in maxim: auto pier flip. 3) in maxim: reverseX, reverseX, nothing, reverseX&Y. Whatever setting I try: successful calibration and autoguiding on E-side and then after median flip; one of the stars starts to drift. I use Poth as an interface to all my applications. Maximv5. OAG with lodestarX2. What settings do i use?

I have also question about this. When you make an autopoint file for east-side, and another one for west-side (you have now 2 pointing files). How do you read them in together and calculate the corrections?

After 3 years... did you have a response on this? I'm having the same issues. I'm trying to write a small script to do this; but it doesn't work. It doesn't trigger an error, but I don't hear the fans working. Option Explicit On Error Resume Next Dim scope Set scope = CreateObject("AstrooptikServer.Telescope") scope.Action "Telescope: StartFans","10" Set scope = Nothing

Basically the only thing we need to know is how to talk with the mount. Then we should be able to write INDI drivers ourselves. Or even get the bugs out of Autoslew. It's indeed amazing to see how INDI is becoming an alternative for the outdated ASCOM. Pretty much all my equipment today have INDI drivers... except for the ASA. It's still a very small market. But EKOS is free, and I think it has even more features than SGP. Still doesn't have the flexibility of CCDcommander.

1) Does anybody know if it's possible to script these features? -Execute the homefind. -Set the new homeposition. I found these code snippets somewhere on the internet. Is it possible to use this "action"-method to call these autoslew functions? Is there any list of usable strings/commands we can use with the "action"-method? myDDM160t = new Telescope("AstrooptikServer.Telescope"); myDDM160.Action("Telescope:SetMotorsOFF", 0); myDDM160.Action("Telescope:UpdatePolarAxisAz", az.ToString()); Yes... it's for automation purpose. 2) I have also found using this driver the methods commandblind, commandbool and commandstring. ddm85.CommandBlind("aaaaa", false); ddm85.CommandBool("bbbbbb", false); ddm85.CommandString("ccccc", false); and there is also this method SetupDialog... ddm85.SetupDialog(); Anybody knows what they do?

I just read the (online) manual for Prism. I'm planning an online setup and it's time to investigate some of the more "modern" software. I think Prism still can't match software like CCDcommander in terms of flexibility and planning. Like you want to loop though a series of variables using different filters and adding checks and constraints. Something that also SGP suffers from. You just can do a dumb sequence of images and there it stops.

DDM85 and ODK16 on it. I'll do the installation myself. I want to have the setup working here in Belgium and then go install it.

I hope to go operational there in May. Have already reserved my spot. Still waiting for my OTA.

Thanks for the tip, Robert. I borrowed a multimeter from a family member. These are my results. Maybe somebody can use this data in the future... RA DEC yellow yellow green green red red blue blue purple grey brown brown black pink orange white

Hello Robert, You received probably the data cables with an ethernet UTP head already attached to the cable? I received 2 data cables. One for the RA axis, one for the DEC axis. Both have at one end the DIN-plug to screw it on the mount connectors (RA and DEC sides respectively). The other ends of the cables are just 8 pieces of wire that stick out of the cable, with each a different color. Like you have when you buy a cat7 ethernet cable. Because the colors of the 8 wires are different for the RA and DEC cable, I have to guess what wire that goes in at the RA side goes to which cable at the DEC side. That is mainly my problem. There was no documentation delivered with those cables. Sjoerd

All, I have ordered the data cables (I & H) to work though an ASA DDM85. I intend to have an UTP network connection run though the mount to connect via ethernet to my Apogee camera. Problems is the colors are different... RA: Green, Blue, Black, Yellow, Orange, Purple, Blue, Red DEC: Green, Brown, White, Yellow, Grey, Pink, Blue, Red What cable fits where ? I have looked everywhere to find documentation, but I didn't find it. By the way: on the DEC axis I can slide an UTP head over the 8 tiny copper cables, but the cables on the RA axis are too thick for an UTP head. Somebody knows if a standard solution exists without too much hassle? Thanks, Sjoerd