Auto focus woes

[Anthonyexmouth]

My Nina/zwo eaf has started to play up after being solid for a year. Nothing changed as it's a permanent setup. Getting this error message which doesn't seem to correspond to the graph. Any ideas? I've lost a few nights because of this  

[Anthonyexmouth]

Or I get this error. 

[Spr]

Hi,

no expert here but I would say your atuofocus step size is too big, my experience has been looking at a total range of 3x of HFR, so 2 to 6 in your case.

This is mine, hope this helps with the error

Darren

[Anthonyexmouth]

Step size has been 50 since I installed the eaf last summer with no issues. Nothing changed.

Every run is a nightmare. This is the latest. 

[Gary Clayton]

If you have not changed any settings, I would first check for any loose grub screws on the ZWO focusers flex connector

[Anthonyexmouth]

7 hours ago, Gary Clayton said:

If you have not changed any settings, I would first check for any loose grub screws on the ZWO focusers flex connector

I did check that. Maybe I'll have to take it all off and reseat it all to make sure. Manual focus seems to be spot on though. Jogging back and forth the focus returns to the same eaf position. Manually can get to focus at HFR 2.2ish but auto seems to lose its mind and give wildly high numbers. Wonder if its a NINA issue. 

[Gary Clayton]

Are you using Nina to focus or the Hocus focus plugin?, I have found  that the light summer nights can have an affect on focus so I usually wait until after midnight.

Edited July 2, 2023 by Gary Clayton

[Anthonyexmouth]

18 minutes ago, Gary Clayton said:

Are you using Nina to focus or the Hocus focus plugin?, I have found  that the light summer nights can have an affect on focus so I usually wait until after midnight.

Hocus focus. Maybe I should try the default focus. I do remember there was a HF update recently that might have pooched it. 

[david_taurus83]

I had issues last year with AF. Turned out to be a slipping focuser so been sorted since but my graph did look like your wonky one above. When I sorted the focuser I looked at Patriot Astro youtube channel on how to set up the AF steps in NINA. Been solid ever since.

 

[Anthonyexmouth]

4 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

I had issues last year with AF. Turned out to be a slipping focuser so been sorted since but my graph did look like your wonky one above. When I sorted the focuser I looked at Patriot Astro youtube channel on how to set up the AF steps in NINA. Been solid ever since.

 

Was it your focuser body itself or the eaf slipping? Mine is a r&p, if it was my old crayford I'd suspect that was slipping. 

[david_taurus83]

3 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Was it your focuser body itself or the eaf slipping? Mine is a r&p, if it was my old crayford I'd suspect that was slipping. 

It was the Esprit fine focus that was slipping. I had a DeepskyDad AF3 on there. Changed to a Pegasus focus motor and that fits onto the course focus just like the EAF. It was around that time though that I watched that video above and setup the new focuser with correct backlash settings etc. If I was you I'd take the EAF off and inspect it for excessive play in the shaft before refitting. Hopefully that sorts it. What version of NINA are you on?

[Anthonyexmouth]

1 hour ago, david_taurus83 said:

It was the Esprit fine focus that was slipping. I had a DeepskyDad AF3 on there. Changed to a Pegasus focus motor and that fits onto the course focus just like the EAF. It was around that time though that I watched that video above and setup the new focuser with correct backlash settings etc. If I was you I'd take the EAF off and inspect it for excessive play in the shaft before refitting. Hopefully that sorts it. What version of NINA are you on?

Wherever the latest beta is. It hasn't updated in a while. If I get a clear patch I'll try the default focus instead of hocus ficus

[Anthonyexmouth]

Well, I reverted back to letting NINA do the focus and star detection and the autofocus worked, so looks like it's a Hocus Focus issue. I'll try again next time they update it.