Newforestgimp

Some nice new cables, ooh exciting 😂

Re-cables with Lindy Cromo cables and colour coded to use the same ports each time.

I think I’ve told mcafee to leave commander alone, fingers crossed 🤞

I’ve just discovered that McAfee seems to think that “Ioptron commander port checker.exe” is a virus and quarantined it each time I’ve tried to connect to mount before reinstalling, do you think this could be why commander will only connect once directly after a fresh install ?

Thanks chaps I shall try this tomorrow, it’s hard to get it set up when you can’t get any stars in view !!! Centred scope on vega and it only appeared as a moon shape at edge of frame on OAG, I literally just guessed it might still be vega and tried to focus on it. any help with gain and exposure ? I’m using an ASI120MM, I’m finding it quite demanding stepping up from a refractor.

Hmmm looks like something isn’t right with mine, seem to struggle getting stars to focus on let alone guide on. maybe I’m a bit conservative how far the prism is pushed into the light path ?

Hi all, is it normal to have 1/2 moon shaped stars when using OAG with a large dia RC ? getting focus is busting my balls.

Last night with a short window I thought I’d finally get the big rig focussed. everything was left connected as before, the only change was to put a high quality cable (Lindy USB 3 hopefully @David_taurus83 will approve 😜 it was bloody expensive ! ) between laptop and hub, same usb socket used on laptop. Didn’t connect !!! tried the ascom diagnostics, didn’t seem to do anything? reinstall commander, connected. The fix works, but I think it just needs a way of resetting everything as if commander is being used for the first time ?

finally I have focus on the big rig !!! Just need to dial in the OAG (loose use of the word just) 😂

I will definitely give this a try before the uninstall/resinstall merry go round, thanks.

Interesting, do I do this with mount connected and powered on or just set it now and it will remain for next time I connect to mount ?

I cant 100% say what the issue was/is only that in desperation I unloaded commander, reloaded commander and with everything connected as it was it worked ???? I sat staring at it for a few minutes dumbstruck, I felt brave so i pulled the USB out and connected via a USB Hub and it connected again. But then I got way too adventurous and i connected the cameras and focuser to the USB Hub only to find the connection to the mount had dropped 😞. So I then shut everything down re-cabled the power cables for the cameras/focuser into a deep sky dad power hub thus avoiding any USB or DC connection to the GEM45 other than the USB into the RA axis, connected all data cables via the USB Hub as before, unloaded and reloaded commander and it connected again,. The other thing I noticed on these successful connections it didn't give any option to select how I wanted to connect or by which port it just went straight to the next screen where you have comms stats, firmware version & where you can select if you want to use mount controls etc. Regard to cables its the only different colour i have from black and its nice and short, not sure what a high quality USB should look like, it came from Kenable. The others used are the ZWO Flat ones which seem a bit flimsy to me. Regard to labelling ports are we talking physical labelling like stickers or tagging ports in device manager or something ?

Update 3: Cheered by my success at Update 2 i decided to plugin the cameras and focuser, connection dropped and couldnt reconnect. so this time I switched everything off, connected all the devices to the hub, uninstalled Commander 7 AGAIN, Re-installed it AGAIN, switched everything on, fired up commander Et Voila ! mount connected, and all other connections made successfully in NINA. So it looks like any kind of connection/cabling change whatsoever requires an uninstall and re-install of Commander, totally absurd and no idea why that didnt work when i first tried but maybe i changed a cable at same time ? who knows, i didnt think i was taking part in the krypton factor (for those of a certain age)

Update 2: So out of boredom a few minutes ago I uninstall and re-install iOptron Commander 7 for a second time. IT WORKED AND IM CONNECTED VIA COMMANDER 7 !!!! Now I'm so surprised that it did work in a fit of peak I even powered off mount connected mount to USB Hub and tried again, and it connected again !!! new record for me, but now I'm scared lol, I need to understand what I need to do now to make sure it works again tomorrow and the next day, and the next day etc !!

Oh I hear you trust me, it was a sad day when my many many years old Mackbook went OOS.

Well precisely, because it was the first time i simply do not remember, but i have cleared everything i can from the laptop and restarted mount and laptop several times. In any case you shouldn't have to remember which cable goes where TBH it sucks.

UpDate: Cleared all unused USB devices from device manager. Connected Jackery 12v supply to GEM45 and nothing else Direct USB connection to laptop via quality USB cable https://www.dropbox.com/s/k28htc68k0fa7no/Screenshot 2021-11-09 10.26.50.png?dl=0 No iOptron Devices Available !!!!! 😞 Andy

at this moment ill use & try anything to just get it working reliably.

Ive uninstalled all the greyed USB Devices and will check tomorrow if that clears things up, there were a LOT of devices !

ooh now that could be something, i did notice on commander it was offering COM5 in addition to the auto detect option, didnt work but it offered it 😉

I think i will try this tomorrow, and go back to a quality hub. Do you think i should connect the mount via a separate USB cable to the laptop, and the other bits via the hub ? Also just looking at the serial cable option from USB to RS232 to connect via the handset, will have a chat to FLO about that tomorrow. Thanks

Well i dont know, but there was no handset in sight last night when it worked just fine. Ive written to FLO for help as i purchased from them, maybe they will suggest the correct method.

My love hate relationship with my new GEM45 mount is tipping toward a hate hate one ! Now the mount wont connect to anything !!!! APT, NINA, CdC, Stellarium, i simply cannot get past the iOptron Commander app, it just says no ioptron devices available! ummm think youll find there is, right there ! i have the mount directly connected via a USB cable to the laptop via the USB port on the RA base, i have connected the guide camera and focuser to the rear of an ASI071MC (new as of yesterday) and the ASI071MC is then USB cabled to the onboard ioptron 'USB through port' on the DEC saddle. and it all connected ok last night and i was able to use everything fine, couldnt focus but not because of computer issues, everything worked fine. FFWD to this afternoon i wanted to test out some focusing routines (i thought focusing was my only issue) and i cannot get the mount to connect at all, yet the ASI071MC, ASI120MM & ZWO EAF all get detected and connect to APT & NINA fine. Ive uninstalled and reinstalled the ASCOM, Commander, FTDI app/drivers, no joy. I cant update mount firmware as i dont have the cable, another frustration. Surely the connection of a mount should be THE most reliable and simple step, it certainly was on my old skywatcher mount, it just WORKED. Think ive spent more time just trying to get things working than i have actually imaging. Any Ideas ? Andy H

Really struggling to focus RC8 with EAF, what’s the simplest way to get rough focus with RC8 asi071mc so that the EAF can then take over and fine tune ? I can’t seem to get APT with asi071mc to display any kind of live image I can work with to focus manually or using EAF. This is the first time using dedicated Astro camera so the settings are bit of a mystery particularly for focusing. I always think it’s working but the EAF seems to start the focus routine when there is just the bloated image of the optical tube and mirror, so I’m close , really close, but without a realiable live view from the asi071mc I seem to be suffering from premature focusing 😂 Settings for ASI071MC ? Focus settings in APT ? Approach ? I don’t even want to think about OAG focus until I can nail the main camera. regards Andy

That looks worthy of a council complaint tbh, totally unnecessary to have lights mounted so high up on a house, and besides nobody wants to look at that hideous conservatory, I bet that’s comfortable in summertime 😂