AZ-EQ6 GT mount jumps back and forth whith EQMod

[Siegfried]

I have my Skywatcher AZ-EQ6GT mount now a little over a year.
No night I manage to follow an object well. Sometimes after a few minutes or sometimes after an hour, the mount jumps back and forth.

My setup is an AZ EQ6 GT with GSO RC-10, controlled via USB cable Hitech.
Everything is controlled via EQMod (latest version).
The mount itself is perfectly polar aligned.

I've tried various USB cables (HiTech, Pierre Astro and even a Chinese cable)
The tracking camera is a ZWOptical 120MC. The tracking telescope is a ED-80 (480 mm). Guiding software is Meta Guide or PHD Guiding. To find objects, I use Stellarium which guides the mount by EQMod and Meta Guide.
This works but after a few minutes my mount jumps again back and forth.

After more than a year misery I bought me last week the Lacerta MGEN II and controlled the mount via the supplied ST4 cable. Searching for objects and slewing to them is still made through Stellarium and EQ Mod. After a few minutes guiding the montage starts again to get cures.
In desperation I removed all USB cables with only a connected Synscan. The guiding works fine then, even after one and a half hours guiding.

Some examples: NGC 7023 through EQMod and Lacerta, guided for one and a half hours with EQMod.
http://geryl.be/astro/irisnevel.mp4

Capella guided with SynScan only for one and a half hours.
http://geryl.be/astro/capella.mp4

PS: The picture quality is not good because there was some wind and clouds.

Anyone whith an idea what I am doing wrong?

[russp]

Not a problem I've had with my EQ-AZ6 but I don't use stellarium - It kinda sounds like your guiding is fighting with stellarium for control of the mount - maybe try disconecting stellarium once you have aquired the target and just rely on the guiding? 

[jsmoraes]

I don't use stellarium. I use PHD2 and Carte du Ciel. I don't use Synscan, I control my EQ6 by direct mode.
One thing isn't clear to me:

Quote

 

Guiding software is Meta Guide or PHD Guiding. To find objects, I use Stellarium which guides the mount by EQMod and Meta Guide.

My setup is an AZ EQ6 GT with GSO RC-10, controlled via USB cable Hitech.
Everything is controlled via EQMod (latest version).

 

Who is guiding the mount ? PHD or Stellarium ? Both will use an intance of EQMOD to send pulses for correction.

With my set:
PHD2 creates an instance of EQMOD. Carte du Ciel creates another instance of EQMOD. My Carte du Ciel doesn't act as guider. It only works as goto. PHD2 works as guide.

If I am with PHD2 guiding and try to change the target by Carte du Ciel, I will have double EQMOD instance trying to control my EQ6 mount.
I need to stop PHD2 guiding task to change any thing with Carte du Ciel.

 

note: when PHD2 is guiding, if I will do a long session I can close Carte du Ciel (or its EQMOD instance) to have more free computer ressources. For guiding I don't need Carte du Ciel (or its EQMOD instance) running. I can restart Carte du Ciel (or its EQMOD instance) at any time, if it was need... without any change in guiding task. If I start EQMOD inside Carte du Ciel , Carte du Ciel will show the telescope at the position of the target.

Edited January 31, 2016 by jsmoraes

[chrisshillito]

EQMOD is designed to act as a hub and PHD2, CDC, or whatever else is in play should all be attaching to a single instance EQMOD. If you are physically seeing two EQMOD user nterfaces appear then you have a problem as when the first starts it will take ownershp of the mounts communications port and so the the second instance will not be able to perform any control. If two EQMODs do appear this is usually because the applicaitons PHD2, CDC, stellarium etc. have be granted different windows rights - most likely one is runing as administator whilst others are not. To fix htis you need to force them all to run with the same rights.

Chris.

 

[Siegfried]

I think this is my problem: two instances who are trying to guide (Stellariuam and PHD) and are interfering each other.

I use Stellarium as GoTo and at the same time to check my telescope position.  I start Stellarium by Stellariumscope and 'Go To' my desired object.  Once slewed to my object, it's better to shutdown Stellarium?

Siegfried

[chrisshillito]

You really shouldn't need to close stellarium.  Once the goto has been issed there is nor reason for stellarium/stellarium scope to be sending any futher commands to the mount other than occasionall polls for mount position, and that isn't going to interfere with any guiding.

Chris.

[spaceman_spiff]

I guide using a Synguider but I target using Stellarium. In my experience, they do not interact, Stellarium seems to ignore the guiding corrections when displaying the position of the telescope on the screen.

From your picture, it looks like the problem is only in one axis, if Stellarium was interfering with PHD, I would expect erronous corrections in both axes.