EQMOD Arrgghhh

[MarkS]

Pretty close to giving up with EQMOD.

Mount is switched on and scope is pointing at Vega.  I started up Cartes du Ciel and connected to mount.  EQMOD says Az=1 Dec =89 i.e. close to Polaris.  I right click on Vega in CdC and select Sync to current object.  Dialog comes up asking to confirm I am pointing at Vega.  I say yes.  EQMOD still says Az=1 Dec=89 and if I show scope position it shows something near Polaris.  But I've just confirmed it's pointing at Vega.  That's pretty unintuitive! 

What am I doing wrong?

[Carole]

My procedure is to switch on looking at Polaris, then slew to Vega, centre it then sync.  Are you sure you haven't pressed sync instead of slew? 

Carole

[Mike]

I usually start by clearing the sync points from the previous session before I start. But for a permanent setup it shouldn't be necessary to do that unless you've changed the orientation of the mount.

[MarkS]

When CdC and EQMOD fired up, they assumed the scope was pointing at Polaris.  I cleared the sync points, slipped the clutches and manhandled the scope to point at Vega and told CdC to sync to Vega.  But EQMOD still insisted it was pointing at Polaris and "Show scope position" in CdC showed Polaris.

It probably would have worked if I did what Carole suggests.  But I don't see why the above method shouldn't work. 

I'm using the handset now - I'll have a play with EQMOD on the second pier tomorrow.

[Carole]

Yes I think moving the scope manually has caused the confusion.  CdC/EQMod still thinks it's looking at Polaris as the mount didn't move.  Hope this makes sense.

Carole

[RobertM]

It's one of my frustrations with eqmod - it always wants to start with counterweight down.  Try setting that position, slewing to vega then manually positioning.  That's the only way I've managed to get syncs to work.

Robert

[Rocket Pooch]

Mark,

The EDMOD park allows you to create an entry to park to (custom entry), so you can define the ALT/AZ to park to, this way the software knows where it starts from.  This is from the guy who helped write the software;

Here's the procedure for defining  park.

1. Use the EQMOD slew controls to move you "mount" to the desired park position.

2. Click the add park button (not the resynch!)

3. Select a slot form those available - type in a descriptive name and hit the set button. The displayed dials should reflect your chosen position

4. Park to home

5. unpark

6. Select your new park position from the park mode drop down

7. Hit the park button - the simulator should trundle off to your custom position.

The resync encoders button is only ever used when EQASCOM has lost synchronisation with the mount (i.e. it was powered off withouth parking). The idea is that if you can define a park position that you can accurately reproduce (perhaps by bubble levels or using the flats on the worm ends as indicators) then you can get everything back in synch placing the mount t that position and then selecting the defined park position from the park mode dropdown followed by hitting the resynch encoders button.

I think what your trying to do is just stop the mount and disconnect it and think its going to remember where it was.  If you think about it the reason why it works at home (polaris) is because the software knows where you have parked, by pointing it at Vega and disconnecting it, the software will not have a clue where it is.  By defining the park position the mount software does know where it is.

Chris

[The Thing]

Your custom park position is not being remembered by the mount so it is initialising in thinking it's in the standard Home position. Check the settings, it may be worth searching the Yahoo group for it e.g. http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/EQMOD/conversations/messages/35621. Likewise sync points being saved - they won't if the correct Park command isn't being issued. I know lots of people do these successfully as I read the group postings all the time. Make sure you have 1.27i from the Files section of the Yahoo group, it's a lot newer than the more readily available "release" version.

CdC will point where the telescope does if it's being reported correctly by ASCOM (assuming Track Telescope is on in CdC) otherwise CdC starts wherever you last told it to save settings (I have it set to always do it on exit). So it follows on from the above that when you connect the scope it shows the last saved position until you select Track Telescope (which it doesn't persist between sessions). Also you should be on at least version 3.9-svn2565 which you can get from (actually there is a newer build now!). This has significant improvements and faster screen redraws.

Hope that all helps.

Duncan

[MarkS]

Duncan, Chris, Carole,

I understand perfectly that I may have confused it so it doesn't know where it's looking.  That's why I'm trying to tell CdC/EQMOD where it actually is looking.  What I don't understand is that it completely ignores my attempts to tell it.

I've checked there are no sync points (I've cleared them) and so I then right click on Vega in CdC and tell it to sync to Vega which is where the scope is pointing (unparked and with tracking on).  A dialog comes up to ask me to confirm I'm pointing at Vega, I click OK and then nothing changes.  Also this sync point is not added to the list of sync points.

Can sync be used in this way?  Or am I forced to manhandle the scope to point at where EQMOD thinks it is and begin at that point? (Which is what Robert appears to be doing)

If I am using sync correctly then maybe I've mangled the install.  I'll try re-installing both CdC and EQMOD following Duncan's advice below.

[MarkS]

Actually I've now found the answer here:
http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/82285-help-eqmod-doesnt-save-any-alignment-points/

Apparently, EQMOD totally ignores a sync point if the point you are syncing is more than 45 degrees away from where it thinks it is pointing.

But it doesn't tell you it is ignoring it, let alone tell you why.  Perhaps such info appears in an obscure log file somewhere?

Not very helpful.  All I was trying to do was perform a fast 1 star align!!

So the answer appears to be, yes, you are forced to manhandle the scope to a position close to where EQMOD thinks it is, then slew from there to a sync point.

[Mike]

This is why the modern mounts are fitted with encoders so even with manual handling the software still knows exactly where the mount is pointing.

Perhaps submit the alert as a feature request on the EQ-MOD forum?

[Rocket Pooch]

Blimey

[The Thing]

If you have unparked and then use cdc to slew to the target, centre it on you ccd then sync in cdc you should be ok. Sync does not sync to an object but to a point in the sky. It is not alignment in that eqmod doesn't associate the data it stores with an object, it's an offset to a point on a static sphere I believe so enables pointing correction not object locaction. Eqmod Chris has posted good explanations and I think there is a YouTube video . One of the fist things I did with EQMOD is watch all the videos (a contemporary take on RTFM?).

[MarkS]

Finally got EQMOD set up last night and with a park position but there are a few "gotchas":
1) If you haven't run the setup (so it doesn't know the COM port for EQDIR) the EQMOD window just keeps flashing up momentarily and disappearing.  This also happens if the COM port changes because you plug everything together differently next time so the COM port changes.
2) If you haven't switched the mount on, the EQMOD window just keeps flashing up momentarily and disappearing.
3) If you try to sync to an object (e.g in Cartes du Ciel) that is too far from where it thinks it is (for one reson or another), EQMOD silently ignores the sync.
4) If you try to sync or slew to an object when tracking is off, you get an OLE Exception error window.
5) EQMOD replaces the handset by a computer keyboard - this makes it extremely impractical to look through the finderscope while making adjustment slews to the mount.  I'll buy myself a USB numeric keypad.  If I buy a wireless one there's probably a danger I'll accidentally slew the wrong pier!

The other annoying "gotcha" is related to the HiteAstro EQDIR thingy itself.  Mine (brand new from FLO) came in a polythene bag with no instructions whatsoever.  I plugged it into the USB port but, of course, whatever I did, it wouldn't work and EQMOD couldn't find it.  I eventually discovered that I needed to download a driver from the HitecAstro site.  Maybe that's because I'm running Windows XP, maybe for other versions of Windows it is Plug'n'Play.

It is certainly not beginner friendly.  It wouldn't be difficult to give sensible error information to the user in situations 1-4 above.

That said, I think it will be very powerful now that I have set it up.  

[mickw]

Using Joypad instead of a keyboard would be an advantage I think, also as with the keyboard idea, one wireless and one wired would make life simpler