Installation
The Omegon EQ500-X Equatorial Mount driver is included with libindi >= 1.7.8. Install with:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mutlaqja/ppa
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install libindi1
Features
The Omegon EQ500-X Equatorial Mount driver supports:
- 4 Slew Rates (max, find, center and guide)
- Single sidereal tracking rate
- Goto coordinates (via software adjustment)
- Sync coordinates
- Abort movement
- Location configuration (used for initial sync)
- Pier side
- Simulation mode
- Timed pulse guiding
Operation
- Install the Omegon EQ500-X Equatorial Mount with its pad connected.
- Orient the right ascension axis towards the pole using either visual alignment or an external alignment tool.
- Rotate the right ascension axis so that the telescope is on top, and declination axis so that the telescope looks at the pole.
- Lock axes firmly.
- Power on the mount using the side button on the pad to select your hemisphere.
- Plug the USB cable from the pad to the host computer.
- By default, the pad is recognized as a serial adapter on port /dev/ttyUSB0 (9600 bauds, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit).
- Execute indiserver with driver
indi_eq500x using the method of your choice.
- When you connect the driver after powering up the mount, the initial position is synced to the local sidereal time of the location your client.
Issues
- To improve the precision of the goto feature, the driver provides software adjustment but the performance of the algorithm may suffer from high load on the host.
- The mount does not offer pulse guiding through LX200 Mg commands, instead a software timed guide pulse is used.
- Goto movements are expected to always go through the meridian opposite to the pole.
- However, neither the mount nor the driver will prevent manual movement or tracking through the pole meridian.
- The driver is unable to read the firmware version for compatibility verification.
