Help! Problem with ASIAir/AM5

[The Admiral]

At last, the weather gave a bit of time to get some imaging done last night. It didn't exactly go smoothly, and cloud curtailed the evening.

Apart from the usual difficulties doing PA with the all-sky feature, though that's another story, two issues cropped up which I hadn't seen before.

1. When I had pointed the scope to the southern skies, I did a quick image to see what stars there were that I could focus on, but clearly, tracking was off. This was despite the little 'fly-out' for mount control showing that tracking was supposed to be on. I went in and switched the tracking on, but I found that it wasn't sticky. Sometimes it appeared that it held for a while, other times it would flick back off within a few seconds. In desperation I slewed to my target and started guiding, and then it seemed to stay on. Surely it's not dependent on guiding being active? It hasn't been before.
2. When I first started the night up, I sent the mount to home (it was actually already there from the previous session). This it did in the usual way, by slewing, and then back-tracking at slow speed to line up. When I sent the mount to home after the imaging session, it did the normal slew to just past the home position, and then back-tracked, but this time it kept on moving. I cancelled the home request, and repeated it. Once again it it continued to slew on the back-track. Never had that before.

Anyone got any ideas? I plan on imaging again this evening if the weather obliges. I power the mount and ASIAir separately, using 2 x 5-amp Lynx Astro power bricks. They should be OK. I had 2 dew heaters running off the ASIAir but they weren't drawing anything excessive, and of course the power demands from the ASI533 for cooling were minimal.

Ian

[The Admiral]

Addendum. I've just operated the mount through the ASI Mount app, connecting via the handset. Seeking the home position worked without problem. Interestingly, the mount tracking was set to OFF. Not sure why that should be, but I've now set it to SIDERIAL.

I've also connected the mount up to the ASIAir Plus and operated it that way. Tracking appears to be sticky and it moves to the home position as it should.

So why should it have behaved erroneously last night?

Ian

Edited January 17, 2023 by The Admiral

[StevieDvd]

I  had a minor issue with the AM5/AsiairPlus last night. It did not want to solve in PA for some reason complaining about possible fov issues or obscured stars. The preview windows was showing a lot of stars in focus, I noticed the tracking was off then. I started that and re-input the focal length/set it to zero a few times, and eventually got the solve working (in preview mode) so was then able to do the PA.

There hae been a few bug reports on the app lately, my suspicious mind is putting this down to the change of internal hardware causing bedding in issues with the latest software.

 

[david_taurus83]

Have you updated to the latest ASIAir version? I seen it announced a few nights ago on Facebook followed by multiple comments saying they had issues. I don't intend to update for a while myself as everything was working fine last time out.

[StevieDvd]

38 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

Have you updated to the latest ASIAir version? I seen it announced a few nights ago on Facebook followed by multiple comments saying they had issues. I don't intend to update for a while myself as everything was working fine last time out.

Not knowingly, I wondered why I had not seen an update recently.

[knobby]

Maybe the dew heaters ? a 5 amp power brick might struggle to actually supply 5 amps reliably ?

[The Admiral]

1 hour ago, david_taurus83 said:

Have you updated to the latest ASIAir version?

Well, like Stevie, not knowingly. I normally see an automatic update when I first start up and I haven't seen one for a while. I'm on v. 2.0.10.46 I think, and I'm not sure how one would go about preventing an upgrade.

17 minutes ago, knobby said:

Maybe the dew heaters ? a 5 amp power brick might struggle to actually supply 5 amps reliably

The total current draw doesn't seem as though it would stress the power pack. Only about an amp for both the dew heaters, the ASIAir itself, and the camera and cooling. The latter was minimal, as I'm running at -5°C, and the external temperatures were low. IIRC it was only at a few percent of of max.

Thanks both for your inputs.

Ian

[jpoulette]

Thank you for posting this. 😀

I'm trying to settle on my first EQ mount - and so far it's a tossup between the AM5 and a the AZ-EQ6.

I really like the ASIAIR Plus "compatibility". The only scary part is it's <30% of the weight. Maybe it's my imagination, but that seems very light.

Jim

[The Admiral]

Don't be put off by its low weight. It has the high torque of a harmonic drive, and can shift heavy-weights about without a problem. I think the real question is, is weight a necessary representation of ability? And, what weight are you able to manage? A more modern approach to manufacturing can help to keep weight lower. I think that there are two issues you need to consider, the weight and focal length of the scope that you are going to put on it, and the guiding limit of current harmonic mounts. Some folk like to use a pier or a heavier tripod to add stability, particularly with heavier gear. The AZ EQ6 has 3x the head weight, and has a tripod 3x the weight, and performance is really not directly comparable.

I think that the issues I've found are really a problem with the software of the ASIAir, not the mount, but I haven't got to the bottom of it yet.

Ian

 

[Elp]

Don't worry, I've started a thread on this brilliant update: