Mesu e200

[old_eyes]

Did anyone finally sort out the meridian flip settings?

Due to the glorious weather we have been blessed with, this is the first night I have been live with the new Mesu 200.

Under cloudy skies I was able to get my head round the settings required for the meridian flip, and convinced myself that that was working OK.

Tonight we actually have a few hours of clear sky, so after having gorged myself on the Saturn Jupiter conjunction with my Dob, I started an imaging run on something familiar (all right M33! Because it would cross the meridian before clouds were expected to roll in).

So my software control is SiTech.exe, PHD2, and just to be awkward - NINA.

The meridian flip happened OK and NINA recentered the target, then both RA and Dec started heading off to the horizon. Aborted the sequence, restarted, but the same response.

I looked at this thread and tried mucking about with the settings in SiTech.exe and PHD2, but could not find the magic combo. In the end I set it back to where it was originally:

• Reverse Guide Mode when Looking East (Dec) and Reverse RA Guide Mode when Looking East (RA) both checked in SiTech.exe
• Reverse Dec Output after Meridian Flip unchecked in PHD2

I redid the PHD2 calibration and everything was fine (until clouds). There are no settings in NINA that I could find that have any bearing on this guiding issues, so I assume the problem lies with the SiTech.exe/PHD2 combination.

I will eventually need to sort this out, but for tonight I decided that a few frames in the hand were worth more than a theoretically obedient mount in the bush.

Presumably, when I start imaging with the scope looking east again I will have the same problem and will need to recalibrate. However, with the weather we have been having I expect that will not be until February at the earliest.

If anyone has got a definitive answer, I would be very grateful.

 

[tooth_dr]

10 hours ago, old_eyes said:

Did anyone finally sort out the meridian flip settings?

Due to the glorious weather we have been blessed with, this is the first night I have been live with the new Mesu 200.

Under cloudy skies I was able to get my head round the settings required for the meridian flip, and convinced myself that that was working OK.

Tonight we actually have a few hours of clear sky, so after having gorged myself on the Saturn Jupiter conjunction with my Dob, I started an imaging run on something familiar (all right M33! Because it would cross the meridian before clouds were expected to roll in).

So my software control is SiTech.exe, PHD2, and just to be awkward - NINA.

The meridian flip happened OK and NINA recentered the target, then both RA and Dec started heading off to the horizon. Aborted the sequence, restarted, but the same response.

I looked at this thread and tried mucking about with the settings in SiTech.exe and PHD2, but could not find the magic combo. In the end I set it back to where it was originally:

• Reverse Guide Mode when Looking East (Dec) and Reverse RA Guide Mode when Looking East (RA) both checked in SiTech.exe
• Reverse Dec Output after Meridian Flip unchecked in PHD2

I redid the PHD2 calibration and everything was fine (until clouds). There are no settings in NINA that I could find that have any bearing on this guiding issues, so I assume the problem lies with the SiTech.exe/PHD2 combination.

I will eventually need to sort this out, but for tonight I decided that a few frames in the hand were worth more than a theoretically obedient mount in the bush.

Presumably, when I start imaging with the scope looking east again I will have the same problem and will need to recalibrate. However, with the weather we have been having I expect that will not be until February at the earliest.

If anyone has got a definitive answer, I would be very grateful.

 

I did finally get it sorted. I’ll get you a screen shot of my settings later.

[old_eyes]

On 21/12/2020 at 07:34, tooth_dr said:

I did finally get it sorted. I’ll get you a screen shot of my settings later.

I think I have it sussed.

• Reverse Guide Mode when Looking East (Dec) and Reverse RA Guide Mode when Looking East (RA) both unchecked in SiTech.exe
• Reverse Dec Output after Meridian Flip checked in PHD2

Exactly the reverse of the defaults. 

That seemed to fix the problem - at least on the first trial.

It was made slightly difficult by clouds rolling over just as the meridian flip was made, but they were moving fast and PHD2 quickly picked up a guide star again and once things settled down, the guiding was good.

No sign of any instability or 'heading to the horizon'. I will have to wait for another clear spell to prove it works repeatedly, but encouraging.

[tooth_dr]

2 hours ago, old_eyes said:

I think I have it sussed.

• Reverse Guide Mode when Looking East (Dec) and Reverse RA Guide Mode when Looking East (RA) both unchecked in SiTech.exe
• Reverse Dec Output after Meridian Flip checked in PHD2

Exactly the reverse of the defaults. 

That seemed to fix the problem - at least on the first trial.

It was made slightly difficult by clouds rolling over just as the meridian flip was made, but they were moving fast and PHD2 quickly picked up a guide star again and once things settled down, the guiding was good.

No sign of any instability or 'heading to the horizon'. I will have to wait for another clear spell to prove it works repeatedly, but encouraging.

Apologies for not getting back to you.  I concur that these are my settings too, however I still dont fully trust it yet!  Never had these reservations with my EQ6

[tooth_dr]

I've bought a new PC and tonight I decided to swap over to it.  I was anticipating problems - POTH is no longer supported on ASCOM so I'm using the new DEVICE HUB.

 

Keep getting this message, any help appreciated:

 

[symmetal]

It's saying it can't find a config file, so what happens if you click continue. It may then create a default config file to work with. I'm assuming you've just installed the ascom driver. It's bad programming to create this error situation though. See if the config file actually exists where it's looking.

Perhaps you need to install the Ascom driver using 'Run as 'Administrator' to overcome permission requirements for writing to C:\Program Data\ which is protected like C:\Program Files\ 

Alan

Edited February 24, 2021 by symmetal

[david_taurus83]

Can you not look on your old PC at that location for the file and copy it over?

[tooth_dr]

8 hours ago, symmetal said:

It's saying it can't find a config file, so what happens if you click continue. It may then create a default config file to work with. I'm assuming you've just installed the ascom driver. It's bad programming to create this error situation though. See if the config file actually exists where it's looking.

Perhaps you need to install the Ascom driver using 'Run as 'Administrator' to overcome permission requirements for writing to C:\Program Data\ which is protected like C:\Program Files\ 

Alan

Cheers Alan. I’ll try these later. I packed in at midnight after wrestling with everything. I dont like the new Device Hub interface compared with POTH. 

[tooth_dr]

7 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Can you not look on your old PC at that location for the file and copy it over?

Good idea, I did have the old pc running beside the new PC and was copying all the information over. I didn’t think to look for that file!

[OJ87]

I’m following your post, I’m waiting the MESU to come also. The Meridian flip may be one of the biggest problems then

[tooth_dr]

20 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Can you not look on your old PC at that location for the file and copy it over?

David this worked.  There were 12 files missing in the new folder!

[Xsubmariner]

On 24/12/2020 at 21:13, old_eyes said:

That seemed to fix the problem - at least on the first trial.

 

On 24/12/2020 at 23:38, tooth_dr said:

I concur that these are my settings too, however I still dont fully trust it yet!

Both Mesu’s did a brace of MFs last night using the same settings, with only one anomaly. One of the Mesu’s initiated the MF before an SGP image had finished, so SGP carried on then attempted shutdown siting the guide star was lost, I may have inadvertently configured a telescope setting wrong in SGP and will compare the 2 PCs. 

[old_eyes]

On 25/02/2021 at 09:40, OJ87 said:

I’m following your post, I’m waiting the MESU to come also. The Meridian flip may be one of the biggest problems then

Hi OJ87.

I had problems with the Mesu meridian flip at the beginning. Mostly due to me not having a clear picture in my mind about how the Sitech controller on the eMesu 200 works.

From a post I put  on the Mesu-Mount group chat:

"The SiTech controller has two important settings - the meridian limit and the track past meridian overlap.

If you are tracking an object as it crosses the meridian, the mount will continue until it reaches the sum of the meridian limit and the track past meridian overlap. It will then stop.

If your session management software tries to execute a meridian flip before crossing the meridian limit, the mount is within its safe space and the Go To instruction does not trigger a flip. If you wait until the mount has exceeded limit plus overlap the mount will be stopped for safety reasons and won't flip.

You have to execute the flip Go To in the gap between the meridian limit and meridian limit plus overlap.

Took me a while to understand it. I reduced the meridian limit to 1 degree, increased the overlap to 5 degrees, and adjusted the minutes past meridian setting in Voyager to land in the gap even if a new exposure had just started as it reached the meridian limit. It now works as expected.

The SkyView tool in SiTech.exe helped me to visualise what is going on and Jose, another Mesu owner pointed out where I was going wrong."

Once I understood the meridian flip instruction MUST happen between Meridian Limit and Track Past Meridian Overlap. Everything worked well. 

I have now had several meridian flips under the control of both NINA and Voyager (I don't use SGP). Everything seems stable and OK. If I wanted to do very long exposures (my limit is usually 300 sec), I would need to create a bigger gap between the two limits to allow for an exposure that started just before the mount passed the meridian.

You will like the mount once you have understood how the controller works. It's great.

 

[tooth_dr]

4 minutes ago, Xsubmariner said:

 

Both Mesu’s did a brace of MFs last night using the same settings, with only one anomaly. One of the Mesu’s initiated the MF before an SGP image had finished, so SGP carried on then attempted shutdown siting the guide star was lost, I may have inadvertently configured a telescope setting wrong in SGP and will compare the 2 PCs. 

Would you mind sharing those findings Martin?  I changed to a new PCs couple of days ago, and still trying to get all the settings just right.  Do you use Shelyak in SGPro or work off POTH/DEVICE HUB?

 

Thanks

Adam

[OJ87]

On 26/02/2021 at 11:57, old_eyes said:

Hi OJ87.

I had problems with the Mesu meridian flip at the beginning. Mostly due to me not having a clear picture in my mind about how the Sitech controller on the eMesu 200 works.

From a post I put  on the Mesu-Mount group chat:

"The SiTech controller has two important settings - the meridian limit and the track past meridian overlap.

If you are tracking an object as it crosses the meridian, the mount will continue until it reaches the sum of the meridian limit and the track past meridian overlap. It will then stop.

If your session management software tries to execute a meridian flip before crossing the meridian limit, the mount is within its safe space and the Go To instruction does not trigger a flip. If you wait until the mount has exceeded limit plus overlap the mount will be stopped for safety reasons and won't flip.

You have to execute the flip Go To in the gap between the meridian limit and meridian limit plus overlap.

Took me a while to understand it. I reduced the meridian limit to 1 degree, increased the overlap to 5 degrees, and adjusted the minutes past meridian setting in Voyager to land in the gap even if a new exposure had just started as it reached the meridian limit. It now works as expected.

The SkyView tool in SiTech.exe helped me to visualise what is going on and Jose, another Mesu owner pointed out where I was going wrong."

Once I understood the meridian flip instruction MUST happen between Meridian Limit and Track Past Meridian Overlap. Everything worked well. 

I have now had several meridian flips under the control of both NINA and Voyager (I don't use SGP). Everything seems stable and OK. If I wanted to do very long exposures (my limit is usually 300 sec), I would need to create a bigger gap between the two limits to allow for an exposure that started just before the mount passed the meridian.

You will like the mount once you have understood how the controller works. It's great.

 

Thank you old_eyes for the information,

i would like to join the MESU group chat. How can I join it?

 Best regards,

 

[old_eyes]

9 hours ago, OJ87 said:

Thank you old_eyes for the information,

i would like to join the MESU group chat. How can I join it?

 Best regards,

 

https://groups.io/g/Mesu-Mount/topics

[Neil27]

Thanks @old_eyes that will be useful when I receive my Mesu mount.

[old_eyes]

The Mesu group is not very busy, but there are knowledgeable people there.

You will also need the Sitech group https://groups.io/g/Sitechservo.

This is livelier and covers all uses of the Sitech controller system, so you need to dig for Mesu info, but it is full of people who really understand the Sitech in detail. The company use the forum so you can ask anything and get an authoritative answer pretty quickly.

[Neil27]

4 minutes ago, old_eyes said:

The Mesu group is not very busy, but there are knowledgeable people there.

You will also need the Sitech group https://groups.io/g/Sitechservo.

This is livelier and covers all uses of the Sitech controller system, so you need to dig for Mesu info, but it is full of people who really understand the Sitech in detail. The company use the forum so you can ask anything and get an authoritative answer pretty quickly.

Thanks and now saved in bookmarks 👍😊

[manoss27]

Hi,

Very informative topic, thank you all. 
As my mount is on the way I learned a lot of things here. 
May I ask if finally you have resolve the meridian flip problems and reverse settings problems?
May someone post the “working settings” of PHD, SGP and Sitech?
 

Thank you

Manos