Sky Watcher AZ GTi - New Firmware Available V3.31 is out

[AstroNebulee]

2 hours ago, Desmond said:

I had much better success last night so I'll record here for others what I did just in case it's helpful...

I set up just to try and troubleshoot guiding and with that in mind I sent NINA to M31 and got it to centre the image but not start any imaging.

I then went to PHD2 and set it looping and calibrating manually (I usually had NINA get this going from the Sequence tool)

This time, calibration worked (without me fiddling in any settings).

Once Calibration was good, back to NINA to initiate an imaging session just to check it's all OK.

NINA was set to slew to target, centre target and start guiding.

This all worked perfectly!

So it could be the interface between NINA and PHD2 that went wrong for me - not sure, but I'm going to adapt my workflow for this now.

I did have one runaway though which I caught. Stopped PHD2 manually and set it off again - no further issues.

Funnily I managed to get over 4 hours of guided imaging at 300s per sub after this.

The interesting part?

I had not polar aligned at all!

I was running a test to I plonked the setup down and just let it go.

Maybe I got lucky?!

So for me the findings are:

NINA > PHD2 might have had issues when NINA is waiting on calibration (it just kept stopping and restarting for about 40 mins).

So I'll get PHD2 happy first, on target, then start NINA imaging sequence.

No calibration wait seemed to keep everything happy - fingers crossed...

Hope that might help someone else  

 

Pleased you got it sorted this time and much better success with imaging, great work 👍

[raadoo]

4 hours ago, Desmond said:

I had much better success last night so I'll record here for others what I did just in case it's helpful...

I set up just to try and troubleshoot guiding and with that in mind I sent NINA to M31 and got it to centre the image but not start any imaging.

I then went to PHD2 and set it looping and calibrating manually (I usually had NINA get this going from the Sequence tool)

This time, calibration worked (without me fiddling in any settings).

Once Calibration was good, back to NINA to initiate an imaging session just to check it's all OK.

NINA was set to slew to target, centre target and start guiding.

This all worked perfectly!

So it could be the interface between NINA and PHD2 that went wrong for me - not sure, but I'm going to adapt my workflow for this now.

I did have one runaway though which I caught. Stopped PHD2 manually and set it off again - no further issues.

Funnily I managed to get over 4 hours of guided imaging at 300s per sub after this.

The interesting part?

I had not polar aligned at all!

I was running a test to I plonked the setup down and just let it go.

Maybe I got lucky?!

So for me the findings are:

NINA > PHD2 might have had issues when NINA is waiting on calibration (it just kept stopping and restarting for about 40 mins).

So I'll get PHD2 happy first, on target, then start NINA imaging sequence.

No calibration wait seemed to keep everything happy - fingers crossed...

Hope that might help someone else  

 

Is this maybe one of those bad-ish polar alignment is good type of situations I've heard of? I think the thinking behind this was that guide pulses tend to be a bit higher in value and some mounts respond better that way?

I've always been a stickler for as-good-as-possible polar alignment (I don't quit until I get it under 0.5") but then again my guiding experience has been frustrating to say the least (aka spike-a-delic).

[Desmond]

I have always worked to get 'Excellent'/'Good' in SharpCap - where it flip flops between the two usually due to seeing conditions I'm told.

Now I'm wondering about all that effort  

Some experimentation I think...

 

[raadoo]

1 hour ago, Desmond said:

I have always worked to get 'Excellent'/'Good' in SharpCap - where it flip flops between the two usually due to seeing conditions I'm told.

Now I'm wondering about all that effort  

Some experimentation I think...

 

Something to do while I wait for CEM40s to come back in stock. 😁

[LaurenceT]

I have just bought this mount as part of a bundle with A 127Mak. My main use for this setup is for lunar and planetary observation and photography. I know that I can change the firmware to convert it into an EQ mount and I would like to use this mode with my very basic lightweight wide field DSO kit.  Age and physical infirmity is making my use of my Skyguider pro very difficult and I'm looking for an alternative to give me remote control of the mount and guidescope/camera.

 I have read that the firmware upgrade means that it turns the left handed mount to a right handed one so that if I wanted to use it in AZ mode the new positioning of my Mak's RDF would make it impossible to use. I understand that the Synscan Pro app has the option to control the mount in AZ or EQ mode. If I selected "use in AZ mode" would that  mean the Mak could then revert to left handed use?

[AstroNebulee]

1 hour ago, LaurenceT said:

I have just bought this mount as part of a bundle with A 127Mak. My main use for this setup is for lunar and planetary observation and photography. I know that I can change the firmware to convert it into an EQ mount and I would like to use this mode with my very basic lightweight wide field DSO kit.  Age and physical infirmity is making my use of my Skyguider pro very difficult and I'm looking for an alternative to give me remote control of the mount and guidescope/camera.

 I have read that the firmware upgrade means that it turns the left handed mount to a right handed one so that if I wanted to use it in AZ mode the new positioning of my Mak's RDF would make it impossible to use. I understand that the Synscan Pro app has the option to control the mount in AZ or EQ mode. If I selected "use in AZ mode" would that  mean the Mak could then revert to left handed use?

Hi

I think you can download the other 3.36 firmware upgrade not the right arm one and the should keep the rdf in a more manageable position (left hand) but I'm not to sure as I use mine in right arm eq mode with my sw 72ed. 

If you use the right arm firmware in az mode it'll still be right arm mounted. 

Maybe you could purchase a raci finderscope to attach to your mak and still be able to use it in right arm mode. 

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by AstroNebulee

[AstroNebulee]

Version 3.37 is now out! 

This update fixes a bug with certain boards. 

[powerlord]

great changelog.. as if user has any idea if they have a GD MCU or not!

 

[Albut]

On 20/11/2021 at 12:37, powerlord said:

great changelog.. as if user has any idea if they have a GD MCU or not!

 

Agree, I thought all az-gti’s had same boards.