Hi guys! Apologies for the long post, but I want to be as detailed as possible...
Few months ago I bought a used iOptron SmartEQ Pro+ mount and wanted to use it with my DSLR camera (no telescope yet). I have had good nights with tracking about 1min (haven't tried more), but most of the time I am having issues with the tracking... sometimes it tracks and sometimes it doesn't. I was adviced to get it guiding, so I bought RPI4 (8GB) and installed Astroberry on it. I read in the forums that the driver for this mount should be ZEQ25. Is it the most accurate one?

I am using the following equiplent now:
iOptron SmartEQ Pro+
Pentax K-5 with 135mm lens as main camera
Svbony SV165 guidescope
SvBony SV105 as a guidecamera

Everything is connected the the RPI4 and it should operate the mount with the information received from the main camera and the guidescope camera. Since the SV105 doesn't have a ST-4 port, I have connected it with the RPI4 through USB that came with it and then the information should be sent to the Mount HC with USB>RJ9 4P4C cable (it was advertised to be for iOptron Go2Nova Handcontroller to Computer Control and Firmware upgrade)

When I run the INDI server, everything connects as it should, I can control all devices (Pentax cam, guidecam, the mount), but still, the tracking is off most of the time.... I do the Balancing, Polar Align, Plate solve and slew to target through EKOS. Pretty much the basics, but it still sometimes won't track with the speed of the Earth movement, and startrails appear... Last night I managed to get a 60sec images with minimal startrails. But then just a few images later it all failed. Also, the PHD2 connects, but it won't follow the star. Once the star is lost, I get an error in the mount driver and have to restart the mount.

I believe there is something I am missing with the settings in EKOS/INDI as there have been night that it tracks pretty good. I recently noticed the default setting EKOS for "Guide rate" is set to 0 and I am not sure whether this is correct. So, if someone is using the same mount (no matter the other equipment), could you please show me what your settings for it are?

I am getting more desperate with each night out without any luck as I know the mount is working. I even disassembled it, greesed, checked all the gears, etc.
Thank you in advance!
Clear skies!

Hello Stoyan,

Just a quick note : Astroberry is a "dead" project for a long time, it is really outdated. So many - if not all of them - will probably be resolved with the StellarMate OS for RPI (paid stellarmate.com/products/stellarmate-os/for-raspberry-pi.html) or by simply setting your own Kstars/Ekos/Indi. There are scripts to automate the process, for example github.com/rlancaste/AstroPi3

Thank you for the advice! I got the Stellarmate and will try in out tonight or tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

So, I bought Stellarmate and still it won't track, and the Guiding stucks at "RA drifting". If it by chance starts guiding, it won't operate the mount at all... Any ideas? I am using ZEQ25 driver for the mount. I read iEQ driver is newer for the mount, but I get an error with it. Is there a special driver to be additionally installed as Stellarmate says it is up to date, including INDI?