Stellarium won't slew iOptron CEM70C

[Viktiste]

I have a strange problem with Stellarium and my new iOptron CEM70C. It connects fine in Stellarium but refuses to slew.  When select something in Stellarium and hit 'Slew' nothing happens.

Troubleshooting steps:

CEM70C connects and slews ok in NINA.

Connected my HEQ5 pro to Stellarium. That connects and slews ok (in Stellarium, as it always has).

Dowloaded Cartes du Ciel. CEM70C connects and slews to targets just fine there.

Google... Some people at Cloudy Nights reports that lowering the displayed detail in Stellarium helps with iOptron slew problems. So: Disabled meteor showers, artificial satellites and exoplanets in Stellarium. CEM70C still will not slew.

 

Then I  discovered (pretty much by accident) that the mount slews if I minimize Stellarium. Then when I bring the Stellarium window back up, the mount has slewed to the correct position (it looks like, I'm testing indoors) and the scope reticule is in the correct spot.  Just briefly minimizing and reopening the Stellarium window initiates the slew and the reticule and mount moves to the selected target.

 

Any other iOptron owners out there that has a seen this?

 

Software:

Windows 10.

Stellarium 0.21.2

iOptron Commander 7.00

Ascom plattform 6.5 / ASCOM.iOptron2017.Telescope

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by Viktiste

[malc-c]

A quick google and it seems a common issue example here - some workarounds such as downloading the ASCOM .NET Driver 2.4 and reconfiguring TELESCOPE to ASCOM and choose ASCOM telescope to iOptron Telescope .NET

It seems to bypass the  iOptron Commander - but the guy could live with that

[Viktiste]

Thanks malc-c, I saw that tread too.  I suppose I can live pretty good with minimizing and restoring the Stellarium window also. Anyways, that and the other suggestions on Cloudy Nights are workarounds rather than solutions. It surprises me that this is an issue with iOptron, which I (perhaps wrongly) assumed was in a league a little above SkyWatcher. 

[malc-c]

I don't think the issue is the mount, after all you've stated it works fine with other software, just not with Stellarium.  Maybe post on the Stellarium user group seeing the issue is unique to that bit of software.  If it were the mount not responding to the protocol then you would have the same issue with CdC etc, which you have stated works.  After all the command to slew will be the same code.

[Viktiste]

I agree with that. It's probably Stellarium, and not really a big issue, but strange.

Some other thoughts I just have to vent about this mount (so far):

It seriously annoys me that a £ 3000 mount does not come with the cable needed to upgrade the FW in the hand controller.  The manual suggests some DIY solutions. Seriously??!! Also the mount parking options are a bit strange, there is no button to park to the celestial north pole, but lots of other parking options, all of which are mm's away from colliding the RA axis on itself. Which would need a few Cognac's and possibly stronger medication stuff to watch without pulling the power cord. I have already managed to have the RA axis move noisily against the body of the mount.

Two waterproof limit switches are ordered from eBay!

It is fair to say that the  CEM70C has not been love at first sight....

Perhaps she will grow on me, I hope so. I have not really used her as intended yet...

[newbie alert]

Why do you need stellarium to slew the mount, when you can frame, slew and platesolve in nina.. you can use the new scripts to do everything you want 

[Viktiste]

I don't really need to. But it should still work. And it surprises me that is doesn't. 

[malc-c]

25 minutes ago, Viktiste said:

 But it should still work. And it surprises me that is doesn't. 

The strange thing is that you can get it working if the app is minimalised and then maximised...   This suggests a bug in the Stellarium code - Again, I would suggest posting on their forum or raising a ticket - especially as NINA and other applications don't suffer this same issue and work perfectly