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Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

ioptron CEM120

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ioptron CEM120 was created by Derek

Well, after 1 year of procrastination I've finally pulled the trigger and bought a CEM120...

It will replace my CPC1100 fork mount. Looking forward to getting it plugged into my indi setup.
Last edit: 4 years 8 months ago by Derek.
4 years 8 months ago #40683

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Replied by Derek on topic ioptron CEM120

Mount arrived yesterday. First impressions are that its rock solid, very heavy and well built.
Haven't installed it in the observatory yet. Tonight I'll try connect to INDI and EKOS as a test. Not sure if I plug the computer into the handset or the mount. Will try the mount first.
4 years 8 months ago #40895

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Replied by Picard on topic ioptron CEM120

Hi,

great ! please, could you post some photos. And i have a question : why choose the cem120 rather an eq8 for example ?
4 years 8 months ago #40908

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Replied by Chris Ryan on topic ioptron CEM120

You plug the computer into the mount. You've got 4 choices for this: USB, Serial, Wifi, Wired Ethernet.

I've got a CEM120EC2. I've had a play around with it inside the house, but I'm not quite setup in the dome to go for real.

As far as I could tell, I didn't have issues with INDI/EKOS.
4 years 8 months ago #40924

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Replied by Derek on topic ioptron CEM120

Yes I connected it up last night inside the house. USB cable into the mount.
All seems to work so far with INDI + EKOS. Slew, Park, power-cycle then UnPark, slew again. All works great. Only thing left to test is the 'sync' after a plate solve and meridian flip behaviour.
One tiny thing is that I have to set a custom park position in the CEM120 handset and INDI to the same ALT-AZ location (roughly) Otherwise what was happening when I park from INDI is that it first went to the INDI custom park position, then went to the handset's park position which was a totally different location.

Cristian, I'm creating a shared album of photos here photos.app.goo.gl/cVpJG3dgdWRyE5QA9
Also some photos of the de-forked CPC1100.
I'm bringing the mount to the observatory on Friday/Saturday. Will add more photos then.

The main reason for a CEM120 over an EQ8 was that its newer really. Newer design. I've also seen some good impressions from people on forums of the CEM120
4 years 8 months ago #40925

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Replied by Chris Ryan on topic ioptron CEM120

What version of the firmware do you have installed on your mount? There was a fix in a recent version to do with park positions - maybe a more recent version might fix your problem?

I'll also keep it in mind when I get to play with it all again.
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4 years 8 months ago #40926

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Replied by Derek on topic ioptron CEM120

Thanks for the firmware tip lazjen. I haven't updated it yet. I need an RS232 to USB adapter before I can update the handset so I'll get one of those. I'm currently connecting the PC to the mount via the USB socket on the base of the mount.

Moved it to the observatory yesterday. There's my dad doing some cable work below...
The through the mount cabling and internal usb hub works perfectly. I've 3 devices plugged into the saddle and 1 usb cable coming from the mount to the PC
Also it provides 2x12v power outlets on the saddle for camera & filter-wheel. This is really useful. Its coming from the main power going to the mount base. Although this won't allow powering just the CCD but thats no big deal.


No clear sky yet for polar alignment and first light. Will update again
Last edit: 4 years 8 months ago by Derek.
4 years 8 months ago #40969
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Replied by Chris Ryan on topic ioptron CEM120

There's a Google Groups area for CEM120 owners if you're interested: groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ioptron-cem120-user-group

Also, I should be getting the last of the dome work done tomorrow so I'll be in for real testing during the next week or so.
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4 years 8 months ago #40975

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Replied by Derek on topic ioptron CEM120

I had some clear(ish) skies on Friday night and polar aligned using EKOS. I got it to within 20 arc seconds of the pole... The Ekos polar align is a bit quirky though. For some reason it couldn't slew the mount between images so I had to manually slew which is fine. Also you need to have polaris in the frame which can be initially tricky with 35" field of view. Also a bit dangerous, at one stage the mount was going to crash into itself but I unlocked the RA worm just in time. So take care when polar aligning. The polar adjustment on the CEM120 is very smooth.
4 years 8 months ago #40992

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Replied by Wouter van Reeven on topic ioptron CEM120

I occasionally start my polar align without Polaris in the fov and that works just fine. You bet a popup asking if you want to slew to Polaris but I always click No and then the alignment proceeds and it works.
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4 years 8 months ago #41000

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Replied by Derek on topic ioptron CEM120

Thanks!! thats good to know.
4 years 8 months ago #41002

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Replied by Jasem Mutlaq on topic ioptron CEM120


The PAA tool uses motion control buttons to go East/West. Do these work fine if you trigger them in the INDI control panel? Any slew speed properties?
4 years 8 months ago #41007

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