I got it today!

Connected to Stellarmate to test with the CCD Simulator.
Hand-controller is not connected.

Slewing to targets seem to go in right directions.
BUT

I tried to perform Polar Alignment - it was scary!
Slewed to Polaris and started the procedure.
Instead of going 30dgrs it went full 360 and wanted to go further but I stopped it.
I pressed Park (which I set to 0,270) - it went 360 in the other direction and parked successfully.

Location/date/time is set correctly in KStars

What could be wrong?

OK. Figured this one out.

The hand-controller has to be connected to provide coordinates/date/time to Ekos.

Once I connected the HC, selected "Mount updates KStars", PA procedure went as it should

Now, the confusion starts.

- is it enough to connect the HC just once for a certain location to sync the GPS data?
- or I need to do this every session?
- is it save to disconnect the HC after GPS sync and proceed with Ekos?
- my concern is the Meridian Flip - if the HC is connected it will interfere with Ekos.

What is the workflow? Anyone?

OK.
Looks like I figured this mount out.
I am testing it outside for guiding right now.

Performed the PA routine. It worked nicely.
Control knobs of the mount are very smooth.

Guiding is good at around 1" RMS total (0.5 sec interval) with occasional RA runaways.
I had to adjust Min/Max parameters quite a bit (from what I am used to with HEQ5) for guiding to work.
Internal guider.

Can someone please share good Control Parameters for the Internal Guider?
Will be much appreciated!

Running it outside with everything attached.
Will have the flip in 15 min.

Guiding is good - below 1" RMS but even after tweaking I still have RA runaways every 1-3 minutes.
Those are just spikes which settle in 10-30 sec.
I guess it's OK but if someone knows how to get rid of them - please let me know.

For guiding I settled at:
Min/Max RA 120/12
Min/Max DEC 1000/12
0.5s guiding interval.
Internal guider.

Thanks!

The flip didn't go well.
It went under horizon.
When I parked after that - the position was off by 90dgrs in RA.
I guess, I had to have "simulate pier side" option enabled (without it the pier side was "unknown').
Next time I'll see if it helps.

Also, after the flip, the DEC guiding became worse (still good at around 1") but RA spikes disappeared.

Continuing talking to myself...
Tonight, I am having the second night out with the mount.
Same thing - guides smoothly at 0.6-1.0" RMS total and then every 1-3 min RA spikes.

Out of curiosity I installed a counterweight (2kg). Luckily, I had a proper shaft and a weight.
Guess what? No more RA spikes/runaways!

That's with my smallish AT72.

I wanted to lighten my travel bag with this mount but it's not going to happen, I am afraid....
Guiding is really great at 0.6-0.8" RMS total now.

Did you sort out the flip? Was it side of pier? I haven’t used mine with StellarMate/EKOS in a few months. Been using ASIAir and trying NINA. But previously had no issues with the meridian flip. I did have to set a 5° past meridian limit in the hand control, then set EKOS to flip at 3 minutes past meridian. That seemed to work for me. I’m anxious to get back to EKOS, as it’s still my favorite capture application. But we’ve had such a string of bad weather, it feels like it’s been a month or more without any opportunities to use it.

Yes. I don't know what happened the first time I tried the meridian flip...
The second time it worked fine.
Also when I enabled the "simulate the pier side" option it made matters worse. I keep it OFF.

The pier side is "undefined".

I don't use the hand controller at all.
I figured that it's only needed to be used once to push coordinates/date/time to the mount for a particular location.
If you travel to a different location/time then the HC needs to be connected again and synced with the mount.

So, my scope is in the default RST Park position (horizontal, facing west).
I connect to INDI/Ekos and there I have its Park position defined as facing NCP. So, I park it from Ekos and it goes to NCP.
In the end of a session I manually drive the mount back to horizontal position (with Ekos Mount Control).

I sometimes encounter problems where the mount travels the opposite direction of where it's been asked to go. For this reason, I home the mount every single time I boot it up. I've also seen where I might start it up, home it, and let it sit for a few hours, then issue a GOTO command and it doesn't know where it's pointing. So I have to home again, then reissue the command. I have no idea what causes this erratic behavior. I've also seen on occasion that if the mount moves from west to east, and you send it back west again, sometimes it thinks the shortest route is to continue east until it gets back to the point you sent it to. This makes the cables wrap around the mount. I also don't know why it does this.

But typically homing before using the mount in anyway keeps all these scenarios from happening.

Yes, I think it's a good idea to have the HC handy in case the mount gets confused.
I intend to use this mount mostly for travelling to dark sites - I will need it anyway to update the location.