Help - Indi -EqMod

[wornish]

Help! - 3 nights of failure, what am I doing wrong.

I am running KStars/Ekos on my RPi and up till now it has worked superbly well.
I have an AZ-EQ6-GT mount and connect to it using the Indi EQMOD driver in Ekos.
When doing a Polar Alignment and using GOTO to go to anything to the East of the Meridien it works superb. Platesolving works and I can get my targets spot on, this has worked for many months.

This week I thought I would try some new targets while we have a few nights of "clear" skies in Cheshire but its been a total disaster.  I wanted to target SH2-101 but I could not get my mount to point there.  I even tried Vega but again no joy.  The nearest I can get when I plate solve is always over 2' out!

Am I missing something in the Indi EqMod driver settings. Anything to the west of the Meridien is just way out.

My scope is polar aligned and the mount is levelled but any target over the Meridian is just off.

[JamesF]

Do you have it configured to refine the alignment when you hit "capture and solve" in the "target" tab?

James

[JamesF]

It's the "slew to target" option, checking through the manual.

James

[don4l]

Do you  sync the mount after you platesolve?

After a meridian flip I am always well out - often about 2 degrees.  A quick platesolve and mount sync sorts everything out.

There is an option in the Indi EQMOD settings to use just one alignment point.  This is recommended by Patrick Chevally who produced the Indi EQMOD driver.

(Forgive my arrows - I don't know how to do proper ones)

 

[JamesF]

In my case I've kept away from the whole "syncing" thing in Ekos, as I've not yet found any decent documentation on how it works.

James

[don4l]

8 hours ago, JamesF said:

In my case I've kept away from the whole "syncing" thing in Ekos, as I've not yet found any decent documentation on how it works.

James

I guess that Ekos communicates with EQMOD in the same way as CCDCiel.  That should be a function of the Indi specifications.  Patrick has recommended doing it "nearest point", so I tried it - and it works absolutely fine for me.  If you are happy platesolving when you are near, or at your target, then I don't think that there is anything to lose by trying it. 

Edited October 30, 2019 by don4l

[wornish]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

When I do Capture and Solve  I have it set to slew to target, it moves once towards the target then  but it just goes in a loop and plate solves but does not move.  It seems to think it is actually on the target.

If I select Sync after solving it just moves the mount display icon on the screen to where it solved the last time.  

I haven't tried the points setting in the align tab - will do.

The mount isn't doing a Meridien flip perhaps that what the issue is.  

Interestingly if I use the mount simulator it works fine .

I am determined to fix this, can't just target the Eastern sky:)

[alacant]

22 minutes ago, wornish said:

can't just target the Eastern sky

Hi

Park the mount and purge the mount configuration from the telescope tab as below. restart kstars and you should now be able to slew anywhere.

If that fails, move the database at ~/.local/kstars/userdb.sqlite to say, userdb.sqlite.old and restart kstars. 

If that fails, repeat the above and also remove the EQMOD configuration at ~/.local/.indi

Otherwise I'm sure the devs would gladly teamview in and fix it.

Good luck.

Edited October 30, 2019 by alacant

[wornish]

Update, I tried clearing everything and purged the configuration then  I tried some simple stuff indoors this morning.  Starting from Park  I Unparked and did a EqMod - GoTo to an Object (Nekker)  in the East then another to an object (Merak) in the West.  The mount went to both objects in turn and seemed OK, it did do a Meridien flip so that's good news.  The only thing I couldn't do was the plate solving and let the mount do the final positioning.  Need clear skies to give that a go.  

I have a feeling somehow  the configuration got messed up.  But lets see what happens with plate solving doing the final alignment bit.

Once again big thanks for all the suggestions. This place is amazing.

Edited October 30, 2019 by wornish

[Ouroboros]

Interesting to read all this as I have recently started using KStars + EKOS. I've not had this problem, but it's useful to know what might work if I do. 

When starting or restarting alignment I was never sure whether to click Clear Model or Purge mount configuration. The latter sounded a bit drastic so thus far I clicked Clear Model because that sounded most like the right action. What do each do and what's the difference? 

[david_taurus83]

I have had a few problems like this. Sometimes pressing park would return the mount to a funny position, not the home position. As Alacant has said, return the mount to its home position and clear the model and try again. Usually works fine afterwards.

[stash_old]

As always make another copy of your working SD - that way you can always go back to the base line. SD cards are notorious at having problems (even the newer Samsung etc). For the sake of approx £20 get 2 and then have Grand F,Dad and son backups. Or at least backup your images to a PC by date.