Pulsar Dome- Degrees off after Calibration

[carlosgib]

Hi Group,

 Having complete the installation of my Pulsar Dome observatory and have the drive automation unit installed and program as well, I managed to calibrate the drive after changing magnet so that the encode could read it better and after a single rotation it  was calibrated. I am using both Park and the Home position at the same angle of zero degrees (basically pointing polarize). The dome shutter window center points to Polaris (already done a polar alignment), so my mount is at zero degree before I started the calibration.

 However when the calibration was completed the drive panel screen showed 358 degrees and is spot-on the center of the shutter window, if I instruct the dome to move at zero/360 degrees it will move away from the shutter center.

 When I originally installed the Drive and the encoder, I am pretty sure that I place the encode wheel to zero degree and the shutter window was centered to the mount/telescope position.

So, the question is, does it matter being a few degree out when I eventually slew to a target, or I can compensate somehow when setting up the Slave parameters, say on the North offset.

Any suggestion will be appreciated.

Carlos

[sloz1664]

Hi Carlos,

I use Levesdome software for dome control in my Pulsar and in the setting parameters it defaults to 2 degree tolerance on the dome position. have a look at the setting parameters on your dome automation to check. BTW 2 degrees equates to around 35mm movement, so it shouldn't worry you in the slightest,

Steve

[carlosgib]

Thanks  Steve, Pulsar software unfortunately does not have a tolerance field, but SGP as one, and as well a synchronization fields  (like a telescope sync) allows you to correct the angle that your dome is reporting. For instance if your dome is pointed due north (0 degrees like in my case) but is reporting 350 degrees, you can use “Sync” and input 0 to correct this. The dome will then be synced to 0 degrees at its current position.

Thanks again

Carlos

 

 

 

[sloz1664]

Hi Carlos,

Have you added a home position to your system. This will sync your Dome every time it passes.

Steve