Sequence Generator Pro and Parking

[SSG Caldwell]

Having an issue with Sequence Generator Pro and End of Sequence Park. For some reason that I have as yet to figure out, when SGP sends the park command to the mount via EQMOD at the End of Sequence, the mount parks itself pointing South at 42 degrees altitude instead of North 42 degrees (NCP my location). EQMOD flashes mount is parked, if I simply click the unpark button and immediately click the button to park, the mount slews to the North and parks pointing correctly at NCP. When EQMOD is used in conjunction with Carte Du Ceil alone to control the mount, it Parks itself pointing to NCP without problem. SGP does not have any problems accurately slewing to targets. I have checked user defined location in SGP and it is correct, Epoch settings are the same across CDC and EQMOD platforms. Made sure EQMOD set to Dialog not Append on Sync. This issue may have been going on for some time since I babysit the rig and until recently always aborted the End of Sequence action to park and manually parked the mount. I am now trying to achieve greater automation and this came to light. I know that SGP simply sends a park command to EQMOD and EQMOD should do the rest not SGP, but EQMOD seems to be working correctly. My mount is a Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro, I am running the current EQMOD platform, ASCOM driver for mount and SGP. Any insight would be most appreciated

[chrisshillito]

It could be that your ASCOM Park position is not the same as your chosen EQMOD Park position. Whilst form its own interface EQMOD provides multiple park positions - ASCOM only has the one PARK method and that simply says "park" it doesn't set the position to park to - this has to be done using an ASCOM "SetPark" command. So to set the position the mount will move to when an ASCOM Park is issued you must first move the mount to that position and issue an ASCOM "SetPark" command - the current position is then stored by the driver (EQMOD) and the mount will return to that position on all subsequent ASCOM initiated parks.

Try this:

• Use EQMOD to Park the mount
• Unpark
• Look on the windows start menu, in the EQMOD group, for the  "Set ASCOM Park Position" script
• Run the Script

Chris.