EQ8 Tracking via EQMOD

[AstroManDan]

Hi,

What a time I am having with this EQ8, shame it's not a good one.

I used the handset to perform the 2 star alignment, then went through the polar alignment routine on 2 different stars, about 3 times each. I  got the polar alignment pretty close by using my Atik camera on the PC monitor. The mount continued to track well with the handset, I parked, turned off. Connected EQMOD cable, powered up, unparked, resync'ed encoders and then went to find Capella to sync on to start building my points list in EQMOD.

Well once I got to Capella and the Sidereal rate was on, the stars were zipping past on the PC monitor - but hadn't I just polar aligned successfully via the handset? But it felt like the tracking wasn't even on in EQMOD even though it said it was.

Has anybody come across this problem?

Thanks

Daniel

[Zakalwe]

Try deleting the EQMOD.ini file and restarting EQASCOM.

There was a similar issue reported on the Yahoo group and it was a corrupt EQMOD.ini file.

[Zakalwe]

Why did you re-sync the encoders when you went into EQMOD? If you parked with the handset then the mount will mark where it's pointed. EQMOD will then pick this up. You should only need to resync if you have moved (manually) the mount when it was parked. Or if you've fitted something like a side-by-side bar.

[AstroManDan]

Thanks,

One question the sidereal rate in EQMOD is set to:

SIDEREAL_RATE=15.041067

Should this be different due to the different gears in the EQ8 compared to the EQ6?

[chrisshillito]

You shouldn't have to do anything special for EQMOD to work with an EQ8. EQMOD reads all the mount specific parameters from the mount controller and handles them internally. EQMOD does contain some advanced parameters for those using non-standard mounts or mount with modified gearing ratios, but you don't need these.  You can force EQMOD to its default state by  deleting the ini file (which forces a new one to be created with defaults assigned).

Chris

[AstroManDan]

Thanks for everyone's help.

I deleted my EQMOD INI files and it sorted out the problem.

I then went onto drift align with PolarAlignMax, which was OK. But last night I used 'Alignmaster' for the 1st time, and it is brilliant.

After about 4 refinements, I tried some unguided tracking at 5 mins (300 sec) with no star trailing. I think it could do even more!

Brilliant. Now I am worried that autoguiding may upset the mount.

[Gio]

Hello, where do I find the Eqmod.ini file? I cannot find it. Do I need to remove the file entirely or keep the file and remove its content?

Thank you

[Zakalwe]

16 hours ago, Gio said:

Hello, where do I find the Eqmod.ini file? I cannot find it. Do I need to remove the file entirely or keep the file and remove its content?

Thank you

All user settings for EQMOD applications are stored using text files with a .ini extension. They are stored in the "application data" directory - each user has their own application data so different users can have different settings. To find the application data location type %appdata%\eqmod into the explorer address bar (makes sure you can see hidden files).

[MattJenko]

You can remove ini files using the EQMOD tools as well, as well as back them up/restore etc if you don't want to root around in filesystems deleting stuff manually.