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EQMOD pulse guiding question.

Quatermass

By Quatermass
in Discussions - Software

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Quatermass

Quatermass

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I am using this set up at the moment see pic below.. and before that I used the other set up see other pic. My question is can I now use my webcam with EQMOD and AstroEQ to guide with? Tom said it is possible with Astro EQ as Ascom will relay my webcam to EQMODs pulse guiding set up but I have no idea how that would work. Any experts advice on how to do this would be gratefully received.

AstroEq+set+up+diagram.jpg

This was my old set up guiding with a webcam and the GPUSB adapter from shoe string astronomy, the skywatcher dual axis units has been replaced with AstroEQ but does not have an st4 port.

Guiding%2520set%2520up%2520complete%2520

Guiding%2520system%2520lay%2520out%2520o

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Quatermass

Quatermass

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I'm almost certain I can use the web cam in PhD without the shoestring gpusb adapter. But have lent the web cam to a mate got to get it back to try things out not sure if any one else has tryed this yet maybe a first

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
 

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astromerlin

astromerlin

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I'm almost certain I can use the web can in PhD without the shoestring gpusb adapter. But have lent the web can to a mate got to get it back to try things out not sure if any one else has tryed this yet maybe a first

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

That's right, you dont need the gpusb adapter. Plug in webcam and the AstroEQ start PHD and select the telescope dialog and choose EQmod Telescope. You might need to configure eqmod for AstroEQ comm port number. If EQmod interface pops up your connected. You then need to configure PHD brain for calibration.

FYI, if you have the mount connected to Carte du Ceil and Eqmod already Phd will connect to the open Eqmod once you select the Eqmod telescope driver in Phd.

I seem to be having problems with any guiding software and AstroEQ, there's a lack of RA movement. I have contacted Tom to see if this is "user error" or some other problem.

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Quatermass

Quatermass

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That's brilliant astromerlin I'm sure tom can help iron out any other issues but he told me eqmod and pulse guiding will do the job. Now all I need to do is get my webcam back and my finderscope sorted then install PHD. Eqmod and astroeq replace the shoe string adapter and the dual axis control box and most people know what I think of those grrr. ;-)

Plus this will mean I have the gpusb adapter ass a back up. However Toms astroeq is proving to be a great investment for those of us with an eq5 mount. I used to frown on go to systems but this is a joy to use and very effective. Will post back when I get my webcam sorted I know a web cam is not brilliant and you need a bright star to guide with but I did it before with good results so can do it again. :-) let us know how you get on QM :-)

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

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astromerlin

astromerlin

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Thanks for the offer, I have been busy upgrading my EQ6(old black type) with AstroEq and needed extended acceleration/deceleration in AstroEq for it to work well with the gear ratios. Tom has been very patient with my quiries and has honed the firmware.  Currently I have full goto, enjoying the rapid slewing from star to star. Pointing accuracy is execllent so I'm also at the point of getting the mount to guide. All the slew buttons work ok  in EQmod but when using the manual buttons in PHD or Metaguide there is no movement in RA. I'm sure I've missed a setting somewhere I'm just waiting for Tom to get back to me.

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Quatermass

Quatermass

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Good stuff, Its been sometime since I last used PHD but I remember it was pretty easy to get the webcam set up with it and once I had found a bright enough star it tracked very well giving me a full ten minute run on my target. I guess you can still just use the eqmod buttons though so that is not going to be a big issue, also toying with the idea of getting an xbox controller to move the mount gears instead of running back and forth to the laptop to move ra and dec axis when doing a 3 point alignment model in eq mod.

Most of the times I find it just as easy to do a one point alignment close to my target and then use backyard eos to centre my target with a few quick shots to get it lined up in the frame and focus section. Some targets could really benifit from being guided though so I can get longer exposure time. Most of my images are done with about 80 short subs unguided and I have been very surprised at how much detail I can draw out from them doing this. A good example would be the butterfly nebula in Cygnus done with only 50 second long exposures unguided. This was pretty cool I thought. 20 shots for each 4 frames all unguided and I managed to get this image from it. Guided would have been better still.

Butterfly+Nebula+master+image+2.jpg

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TCWORLD

TCWORLD

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Hi,

Just setup the 'PHD Guiding' software to test it out and see where the glitch lies. North/South manual output work fine, they cause EQMOD to send complete commands (speed, mode/direction, initialise movement). West/East don't seem to work though as you have found. It appears that when the RA direction is sent EQMOD doesn't send out complete commands - it issues a speed command, but not mode/direction and initialise commands.

Are you about Chris? This is a dump of what EQMOD is sending for both the West/East movement (left) and South/North movement (right). It seems that complete commands don't get formed?

WestEast.PNGNorthSouth.PNG

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chrisshillito

chrisshillito

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Hi Tom,

For small changes in movement rate, and provided the direction of movement change doesn't (which it never can when guiding RA with the rates we allow), the synscan controller is quite happy just to accept the rate change command and effectively shift speed on the fly. EQMOD simply takes advantage of this and it is I believe a rather useful feature as it minimises lags in applying the guiding pulse by reducing the number of messages, and the axis itself isn't stopped at any point.

Ideally you need to modify AstroEQ to mimic this synscan behaviour- hopefully that isn't too big a problem for you.

Chris

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Quatermass

Quatermass

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QM, the Xbox remote is a god send when aligning or just slewing, really worth the investment....just one click on its EQMOD icon and its up and running....

Cheers Tinker what connecter do you recommend for an xbox controller I have a spare wireless one but no way to connect it to my pc?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

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Tinker1947

Tinker1947

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Cheers Tinker what connecter do you recommend for an xbox controller I have a spare wireless one but no way to connect it to my pc?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

EQMOD is set up for  a wireless remote, i doubt it would work on a hard wired type....one of these......

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GC-002-MS&groupid=702&catid=288

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astromerlin

astromerlin

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I've just been testing the new revision of AstroEQ with PHD tonight, between cloud banks I managed to get a 5 minute window of excellent guiding. After a few tweaks of PHD settings the graph was quite flat in Ra and Dec, the best guiding I've seen from my mount ever.

A big thanks to Tom for AstroEq.

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