i am just getting started with a EG8 using egmod. I want the mount to find its home position and there are no controls for doing that. When I turn my mount off and come back to it later it does not retain it home position. I does not know where it is relative to the home index. I turn it off when I slew it to a position where it clears the roof on my observatory. So it is not in the home position. What am I doing wrong.... Bruce

Hi Bruce.

The procedure for Home Position for EQ8 mount is not yet implemented in EQMod, I have a post here about that..
indilib.org/forum/mounts/265-indi-and-eq8.html

Br.
/Markku

Thanks Mark!
It seems it has been a year and no movement on this topic. I can't believe given the number of mounts out there, that this issue has not been solved. They must be using the connection through the hand controller and manually doing this when they power on. I want to do this remotely,,,, Bruce

I have an Orion HDX110 (EQ8) that I would like to control remotely as well. I'm willing to help test code on the mount.

Well, I think Jean-Luc maybe missed my post and other developers are too busy but I'm pretty shure it will come some day.
Yes, that's what I do at powerup when I do stuff at the obsy at daytime but not much fun driving to the obsy to do the calibration in the middle of the night when it's -15degrees C and things go wrong.. Just be patient and it will be implemented.
/Markku

What is AutoHome for? how is that different from Park/UnPark?

Hi Jasem.

It's for getting the EQ8 pointing at the celestial north pole as the mount does not have absolute encoders,
that means if you get a power failure or maybe something gets stuck/hitting something while slewing or tracking for
some reason there is no way to know where the mount is pointing, and if that happens even the normal park position will be all wrong and can cause other unexpected things to happen when parking the mount.

So Autohome and Park/UnPark is different things. I hope I was clear enough explain it, maybe somebody else having a EQ8 or HDX110 can add something more.

Br
/Markku

Jasem,
Any time the mount gets shut down without parking, power outage, or gets bumped after being turned off, it has no idea where it is. The handcontroler finds home as the first step of any power up process. I would like to push a button that says find home. It straightens itself out at that point. Further I would like to see this at a higher level than just the mount driver, that may be asking too much.... Bruce

HI,
I remember to have looked for some info concerning EQ8 and AZ-EQ6 mounts to be able to perform some very basic tests. I did'nt find anything so I left it down. Now, after using a trial/error procedure (there are dozens of pic microcontrollers), I'm quite able to simulate an EQ8 mount. Actually looking at the code sent by maxer (thanks to him and skywatcher), the autohoming procedure makes the mount slew at full speed in both directions for an angle of 5/10 degrees (or 3 seconds), and this for both axes (this is also a reason why I did not implement it without more info). I still have some questions:
- the procedure will only work if the mount is within 10 degrees of the pole. If you face a power failure for instance, do you have a way to put the mount back in this situation if you are in a remote place? Using a webcam maybe.
- do you use horizon limits other than tracking, I mean goto and slew limits? If you try to put the mount within 10 degrees of the pole, there may be situations where the mount (which still believes it has started from the pole) will get outside the driver limits.
- Can you confirm if the mount ends up its autohome procedure always in the same direction ?
- I think I may have access to the encoder/home indexer/worm home indexer info. Would it be useful to expose them in the driver ?

Hi,
Thank you for looking into it again
Yes, I have a webcam so I can get the mount to point within probably ~3-5 degrees in best case after a powerfailure.

I use limits only for tracking but have never run to limits, when slewing/goto I mostly keep an eye at the webcam.

That's a bit tricky to know, in webcam it's impossible to know that the position is exactly where it should be, but taking a exposure can confirm that by resolving.

If you ask me it's definitely useful, that would save a couple of trips to my obsy in the middle of the night.

Br,
/Markku

Gentlemen,
It is not my experience that it only works within a limited range of home. I have started the mount up at different angles and it finds home. I can experiment with this if need be. I can also experiment with it starting up from either side of the pier if need be. Bruce

Hi,
I've built some sort of EQ8 replica on breadboard with some PIC18F452, but unfortunately it is unable to get into either highspeed nor goto mode. It always gets back to lowspeed slew mode. So I am unable to perform basic tests concerning autohome. Rather than searching for the underlying reason I would ask to people owning an EQ8 or AZEQ6 to test the autohome sequence (the sequence itself should be ok, where the mount really goes, I don't know, if it ever stops!).
Prior to make a commit I would prefer if someone may test at least the basic behaviour of autohome. I've attached an archive of the driver to be hand-compiled.
Perform the test while you're physically near your mount, I really can't know what could get wrong. Autohome is in the Site Management tab, you have to hit the Perform button twice within 10 poll periods, just to be sure.

Thanks,
Jean-Luc.