Hi Thomas,
when I wrote the equatorial alignment instructions, I was focused on my mount that is of fork type, so no meridian flip is required. For german equatorial mount any motion crossing the meridian obviously needs the meridian flip. This is your case. But even if you perform the meridian flip, you need to point at the same DE = 0. The 180 degrees of rotation of DE axis combined with the 180 degree of rotation of the polar axis done by meridian flip, keeps DE unchanged. DE intended as celestial coordinate. In any case, I will add a note for GEMs in the alignment instructions.

Fabrizio

Hi Fabrizio, 

OK, understand, and thank you for the clarifications. I tried that and it seems to basically work (that is after the two syncs, I did a goto to Arcturus and it was fairly close). When tracking see a fairly large amount of drift (approximately 1 min of arc in 1 minute of time). Does the tracking come from the mount or from EKOS?  I also saw a few times where I did a move with a joystick or the SW mount control, and then the mount kept moving after the move command from me stopped.  Is version 0.8 the correct one to be using or should I download the latest? 

Thanks again, 

Tom 

Hi Thomas,

do not mix motion commands from the telescope mount SW with motion control by celestron aux driver. The driver is not aware of commands coming from any other sources than an indi client like Kstars, do anything wrong can happen. To move the telescope, use the virtual hand control of Ekos instead. It integrates with the celestron aux driver.
As you can seen few posts above, Jockym, the main driver developer, has reworked the tracking part of the driver and suggests to use his last version 0.9. Download instructions also above.

Fabrizio

Hi Fabrizio, 

Yes, I think I'm doing as you say. I move the mount thru:
1. A joystick on EKOS
2. The EKOS mount control
3. Kstars goto commands. 
I see now that the 348 WIP is the one to use. I'll install that next! 

Thank you


Tom

Any idea yet when this may be incorporated in to the official Indi release? Would like to use it but have been unable to compile it. (not that familiar with linux etc)
Gary
 

Hello Fabrizio, 

I can now build the 0.9 code and have that running on my Celestron CGEM DX and Astroberry. After two alignment stars, and a goto operation, the mount completely settles down and it tracks pretty well (about 15 seconds after the mount stops moving, the stars slowly drift, then the stars stop moving. The issue I see now is a mismatch between Kstars and the mount. The attachment shows what I have immediately after a goto to Arcturus. The mount positioned correctly, but somehow the Kstars location before goto and the Kstars location after goto don't agree!
 

Hello Thomas,
just to see if I have understood well, your operations are
1. two stars alignment;
2. a goto, using Kstars goto, I suppose;
3. when goto slew ends there is a 15s small drift then tracking is ok
The position mismatch appears now or after a further goto?
Remember that the joystick motion is not yet supported by the driver.

Fabrizio

Hi Fabrizio, 

OK, I am using the joystick, because it seems to work just fine. I'm using it in exactly two ways: to do the   -3 HA  0 DE positioning, then the +3 HA   0  DE position, and in the alignment where I do a goto, then joystick movement to find the star exact position, then push Kstars "align".   Should I be using the GUI mount control on EKOS instead? How are they different?  It is very challenging physically to stare thru the guidescope while moving the mount with a GUI(where I have to look to see the touchscreen buttons). Is it OK to move the mount manually? (unlock the clutch, position, lock the clutch)?

Yes, for your 1
Yes, for your 2, yes, with Kstars
Yes for 3, the star drifts for 15s, then tracking is good.
And yes, immediately, I see that back on Kstars, I have a mismatch on the star on which I just did a "goto"

Thanks

Tom


 

Hi!

Arriving late at this party.... I recently got a CGE to play with. Is this indi_celestron_aux expected to work with the CGE? I have the mount connected via the PC port, an RJ45-cable and a serial-to-USB-converter, connected to a Raspberry running Stellarmate nightly. Nightly has the driver, so I can use it. It all connects niecly, but alignment does not work, the scope points in all interesting directions, and when slewing, it jumps all over the map. So: is there something wrong with my connection, or does it simply not work with this mount?

Magnus

Hi,

Does the Celestron AUX driver have any hidden slew limits?

On initial connection, I cannot manually slew more than approximately 20-30 degrees east of North. I have no slew limits set and no problems slewing west of North.

My initial mount setup has the RA and Dec set to the index marks and counterweights pointing North. The hand controller is disconnected as suggested. I am using the SkyQ WiFi module.

After much trial and error, I found a partial work around. I initially position the telescope on the East side of the mount, counterweights facing West.

I could then manually slew to any part of the sky, but KStars was still confused as to where the mount was pointing even after a dozen plate solves. Any Goto command would point the scope to the wrong part of the sky.

So, maybe someone out there has experienced similar issues and can offer some suggestions.

Thanks

Try to use the "Nearest Alignment" plugin instead of default, I think this might help. I think it ought to be the "Default" alignment algorithm.

I was able to get in some testing last night.

I tried the "Nearest Math Plugin" with no success. The default is "Inbuilt Math Plugin".

Just to verify my setup, I went back to the old Celestron CGEM driver (indi_celestron_gps) with the hand controller and RS 232 cable. Everything works with no issues.

Then I verified the SkyQ WiFi module without Ekos using the Celestron SkyPortal app. Again, everything worked as expected with no issues.

So back to testing the Celestron AUX driver. Before every test I reset the mount to the initial configuration: EQ North with RA/Dec set to the index marks. I also reset the driver (purge configuration).

I even tried the Celestron AUX driver using the serial interface. No matter what steps or math plugin I use, the mount does not know where it is pointing. I also tried both manual and plate-solving to sync.

For example: I reset my mount configuration and the driver. Power up with the hand controller connected. With the mount pointed towards Polaris, I use the hand controller to slew to a bright star and sync Ekos with the RA and Dec coordinates. I repeat this with at least 6 stars added to the alignment set size. Then I use Kstars to goto a new star close to where I was last pointing. The mount slews far in the opposite direction.

If you would like me to test any specific procedure, just let me know.

Thanks for the help...