AT or stick with handset

[Shelster1973]

Mount is AVX and has the very useable 2+4 allignemtn process.  Have got used to using this but have been doing some reading while being busy in work and have been looking at Astrotortilla.

Would usig this be a simpler affair than plugging arouind with the handset?

As far as connections go as I understand it I will still need the USB>serial adaptor in line and plugged into the bottom of th handset so as to be able to drive the mount?

Also, the workflow would be somehting like

1 - FLash up BYN for camera control

2 - Flash up AT

3 - Flash up Stellarium

4 - Connect to mount in Stellarium and issue a got command

5 - Set At off on a few iterations of plate solving to see where it is

6 - Issue all my goto commands from Stellarium and also restart BYN so as to remove any AT scripts that have been issued

7 - Image away

[Shelster1973]

Well.....last night was a very frustrating evening (as are most in this hobby when trying new things)

My gudecam had turned up and all was clear so I thought....why not give it all a go and see what you can do.

Had everything set up and all was looking good.

Started BYN followed by AT.  AT connected fine to the mount so  'winner winner chicken dinner' I thought.  Then started Stellarium so as to do the slewing and this is where things started to be a pain.

Stellarium would not connect to the mount and issue goto commands.  Went into the configuration and confirmed it was on serial connection and the correct com port, but still nothing.  So as to fault find, I closed AT and went back into Stellarium.  This time it connected fine and slewed the mount.  From what I have gathered so far it seems I cant have the two connected at the same time.  Does anyone else have this issue and if not, how have you managed to get around it?  Have the latest ASCOM driver for my AVX installed too.

That was only the start of my woes last night......

Managed to get my QHY5L-II working with PHD2 (latest version) initially but due to the fact that the app on my phone that gives a 'North' direction appears to be off by 30 degrees, the mount was woefully out of PA (I know I know I should have alligned but it was really just a test run and freezing and all I wanted to do was see if things worked) and as such PHD2 coujld not keep up with the errors.

Now having a very nice view of the North, East and South skies I can see Polaris from my yard so shifted the mount to point as North as I could get it.  Tried to get PHD2 working again and then it informs me there isn no camera........the one it had been talking to 2 mins earlier and with no cables disconnected in the move.  Did managed to get it to recognise the cam but then it crashed everytime you went to loop view......grrrrrrr.  Restarted computer and al l went well, until the calibration.  The first one was merrily calibrating past 52 steps on the first move, so I cancelled and restarted.  This one kept merrily ticking up for while unitl the dreaded 'Could not calibrate as star did not move enough'.  Stopped the cal and sat and watched the stars on a loop and they were deffo moving.  Had tried moving from the 'on camera' guiding I had originally used to the bog standard serial connection, but still no joy.  By this point it was approaching midnight and the mercury was on the wrong side of the zero mark, so packed up and came in.

Has anyone else had issues such as this when doing what should be a fairly simple task?

And to top it all off....when I tried to do a 2+4 star allignment with the handset, it wanted to give me stars that were blocked by my house on every go.  Have the clearest view of the Plough that I have ever had and not once did it offer me any of the stars there......grrrrrr.  May reset the mount to defaults and start again.

Is looking like it is going to be clear again tonight, so may get out early evening and try again.

Clear skies all

PS - apologies for the wall of text and rant

[jgs001]

I don't know your setup, but assuming you get a decent PA, and your mount is tracking at normal sidereal rate, then you should be able to get PHD to calibrate. Typically, the error your seeing is down to the calibration step in the brain (settings) being too small. I can't remember the default value, but it's quite low. For an ST80 (400mm) I had to set it to something like 3000. For a guidescope which is an even shorter focal length, the calibration step is going to need to be higher. I can't advise on a value, but I'd suggest start at 3000 and see how you get on. If 3000 isn't high enough, increase it by maybe 1000 and try again. I've not seen PHD2, I'm using the original PHD, but I'm working on the basis that it's similar.

[Shelster1973]

Cheers John

My guidescope si the bog standard one that came with the OTA.  Will have a look in teh brain and make those changes you talked about and see what that does to my situation.

Busy Googling now to see if I can find a solution to my multiple mount control problem too.....

[IanL]

ASCOM mount drivers come in two flavours. Basic drivers will only allow one application to connect at a time. Other drivers will function as a hub and take multiple connections at once. If yours is a basic driver there is a solution. The ASCOM installation comes with a Plain Old Telescope Handset driver (POTH).

What you do is fire up POTH first and connect that to your mount driver. You then connect all the other applications to the POTH driver, which functions as a hub. Google POTH for instructions.

[Uplooker]

I would amend your workflow slightly:-

1 - Flash up Stellarium

2 - Connect to mount in Stellarium

3 - FLash up BYN for camera control

4 - Center bright star in camer sensor (use Live View, if possible)

5 - Focus star(using FWHM or Bhatinov mask)

6 - Flash up AT

7 - Issue a goto command

8 - Set AT off on a few iterations of plate solving to see where it is (have you downloaded the correct files and setup At as per the excellent guide found here:-http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/193470-my-tutorial-for-installing-setting-up-and-using-astrotortilla/

9 - Issue all my goto commands from Stellarium. -

Not sure why you are doing this  - also restart BYN so as to remove any AT scripts that have been issued

10 - Image away

Ian

[Shelster1973]

Seems I have resolved my multiple connection issue.

Downloaded and installed Stellarium Scope and that has fixed it all.

New workflow is going to be as follows

1. Start Stellarium Scope and connect to mount with that.

2. Start Stellarium from within Stellarium Scope

3. Start BYN and connect to camera

4. Start AT and connect to mount with that

5. Issue GOTO from Stellarium

6. Plate solve with AT using 'Resync Scope' and 'Reslew to target' options for a few iterations

7. Image away

8. All goto commands to come from Stellarium

The restart on BYN was down to something I read in a guide that said that BYE, which BYN is heavily based on, held script settings that were issued by AT for setting the ISO and exposure length.  Will see if this is still the case in BYN.  If it is will add 'Restart BYN' in between 6 and 7....sort of a 6.5.

Also think my guiding issues may be down the active USB extension cable that I had the cam plugged into.  Going to get a USB3 short extension and see if that clears things

[alexjj67]

I had the same issue with PHD2 and a QHY5L-ii talking to an AVX mount.

I got it working by starting PHD2 and selecting late ascom camera for the QHY5L-ii and the selecting 2 x binning and on camera connection.

It then calibrated in 20steps.  

I hope this helps if you need more detailed help i can take screen grabs of the setting 

Alex

[Shelster1973]

Cheers Alex. Will give that a try and see what I get

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