I think if mount really need aliment before connecting you can just confirm position without fine tuning. That should work. Or maybe buy EQ6-R?

Thank you Nou!
I think my heq5's behaviour makes me very reluctant to buy skywatcher again... I know plenty of people use those but mine has been only nightmares recently, to the point I'm even wondering if I will keep spending that much time and money in astronomy... That makes me sad to say it but that how I feel right now.

Hi!

Didn't see this until now. I use Losmandy driver for my G11. It does not need anything. It does not need the handcontrol connected. Ekos does all of it, except turn it on. 

I also use a Celestron CGE-pro. That one need alignment before connecting to Ekos. As far as I know. 

Magnus

Some mounts require alignment, all of Celestron traditional mounts require this with exception for Evolution mount where it is controlled via a different driver that does not require initial alignment. SkyWatcher is the best in this class since it does not require any alignment. I used HEQ5 for many years before upgrading to EQ8, both were quite solid and reliable.

Thank you Magnus! That's exactly the kind of feedback i was joping for
Jasem, thanks for you reply too, I guess by best in class you mean from a driver's features perspective? 
It's actually quite funny people come back to me now as yerterday for the first time in more than 2 months (!) I managed to get a really good guiding session with my old heq5! I bought it second hand from someone I didn't knew and i found clues which made me believe i hemihht have have taken great care of it. It. So in the end it took 10 weeks to fot together and correctly tune the new bearings, belt and worm gear! I'm still looking quite avidly at g11g losmandy but don't feel trapped anymore:)

BTW, Jasem thanks for the amazing work and for releasing indi under a free license!

I use an iOptron GEM45 with the iOptronV3 driver and it doesn't need any alignment to be fully utilized from Ekos.

I have a CEM120 and never use the hand controller for anything after setting the meridian flip correctly.

I take it all iOptron mounts that have USB connection from Mount --> PC do not need any alignments, correct? So perhaps only older mounts that do not have the mount USB port need the handset alignment first?

Interesting, with my Celestron CGX, I do a polar-alignment with the polar scope, then just select "last-alignment", even though the telescope has moved since the last alignment. Then I got to plate-solving about three locations in the sky with the setting set to "Sync", after that I typically slew to my target with the setting changed from "Sync" to "Slew to Target" and it usually gets to within  a few arc-seconds on the first slew.
I don't want to spend too much time out in the cold, doing a two star align with four calibration stars, as it is pretty time consuming and would require me to attach a finder scope, which I'm yet to ever use with my current scope.

Hi!

Maybe this is going slightly off topic but....

When using my (borrowed) CGE-Pro, I can not sync. I do as you with your CGX, choose "last alignment" to make it easy, but after that, Indi control panel just tells me that sync, or update of time for that matter, is not needed since the mount is alrealy aligned. Maybe this is caused by my Nexstar hand control being not updated recently or it might have to do with the mount (??). Is there anything you do in particular with the CGX to make sync possible? And do you use the Nexstar driver? What version of Nexstar HC?

Magnus

Ah right - I kind of didn't elaborate the full picture. I run GPSD, I connect INDI after polar alignment and it sync's time and location on the CGX, then I go to mount and check time/location is correct and choose last alignment.
After that I do the process of plate solving.
I use the latest Nexstar HC firmware that you can get teamcelestron.com/ - note this is the bleeding edge, and is usually ahead of what you can get from the normal Celestron site, but anyone can sign up and request access to the firmware files for their equipment.

Hi!

I trying to make sense of how I can have my CGPpro time and site updated by Ekos. However, if I connect Ekos before searching for home (HC says: searching for home sensors, then asking about time - which is correct, Daylight saving - which is correct, and time zone - which is correct) and then last align - if I do this, mount goes haywire after first or second slew.... 
If I do the whole align process (search home sensors, check time, check daylight saving, check time zone, then last align) BEFORE connecting Ekos, all is fine. Except, of course, time, which is slightly off. Doesn't matter much but a little bit. 

Do you do something differently? Oh and this time I did with recently updated HC. 

magnus