eqmod game controller

[jaygpoo]

Please help me nail a problem thats driving me mad. I open eqmod and polar align. I mount my scope and connect a game pad controller to help star alignment. I open the controller congfig in eqmod and all defaluts are on and I see that the dec an Ra boxes show 0 and 3000 something which I know from experiance is half of what they should be. I press calibrate but nothing happens. I disconnect the usb end and reconnect, but  all is the same. The page now shows grey boxes for default etc so nothing now works at all. I shut it all down and start again. After doing this a few times suddenly all appears as it should and I calibrate the joystick. Now all is working but its taken me 30mins of pouncing about. When you open eqmod and all is connected should you press the controller initalise button? or do nothing at all or are you required to calibrate each time?  When it works its great but when I spend so much time setting it up I almost go to bed !!!!!! 

[Bizibilder]

I always click on initialise and then calibrate the controller at the start of every session.  The only time I've had a problem is with flat or ill-fitted batteries in the controller - ie my own fault.  I always take the batteries (I use rechargeables) out of the controller when it is not in use as they tend to go flat as there is no "off" switch on mine!

[kirkster501]

I also had nothing but issues with gamepads and EQmod - certainly under XP, I have not tried with Windows 7.  I gave up in the end and just use AstroTortilla which removes the need to alignment with an EP altogether.

[chrisshillito]

When you open eqmod and all is connected should you press the controller initalise button? or do nothing at all or are you required to calibrate each time? When it works its great but when I spend so much time setting it up I almost go to bed !!!!!!

You shouldn't have to initialise or re-calibrate every time you start EQMOD.

Most gamepads are self calibrating and don't need any external compensation such as provided by the EQMOD calibration routine (but because the are a few that require it we had to include it as an option). Once calibrated the values EQMOD calculates are stored in the ini file so will be automatically applied on subsequent startup - the calibration screen will however return to displaying its defaults so that should you ever perform a re-calibration you will see a change in number (a long winded way of saying don't worry about what the calibration screen shows!).

With regard to gamepad initialisation EQMOD automatically attempts this on startup and if a gamepad isn't found it will keep trying to initialse one until one appears. This is however only initialisation via the windows gamepad interface and doesn't involve any direct access of the gamepad hardware. It may be that some wirless gamepads require their own external initialisation sequence to pair the gamepad with its associated pc dongle and to establish the link between the two.

If you are having to recalibrate / reinitialise I would suspect there is an issue with your gamepad and its driver rather than with EQMOD. Is this a wired gamepad or a wireless one?

In over six years of use the only issue I've ever had with my gamepad (logitech rumblepad2) was due to low batteries. The gamepad does have an auto sleep mode but the press of any button will bring it back to life without resorting to any reinitialisation.

Chris.