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No meridian flip with Losmandy mount

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Hi!

I just ran into the interesting situation where the mount shoud do a meridian flip, Ekos reports that a flip is initiatied and then completed, but the mount does not move. No flip accomplished, despite Ekos saying so. What's going on here? I don't know if this is a new or an old issue - haven't tried meridian flips for several months.

Kstars log and indi log for the mount is attacked for a sequence when a flip was reported (but not done).

Magnus
7 years 3 weeks ago #14918
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So Ekos currently does not check if the telescope actually performs a meridian flip, I need to add some code to manage that. A meridian flip is taken care of by your controller. That is, at that location where the meridian flip was commanded, it's suppose to flip. A meridian flip is simply a "GOTO" to the same location the mount is tracking now. Mounts that support meridian flip will flip the mount upon receiving a GOTO once they are passed the meridian, but this differs from mount to mount.

So forget INDI/Ekos, if you let you mount track pass the meridian, and you ask it after it crosses to GOTO the same point in the sky, does it flip or not?
7 years 3 weeks ago #14919

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Hi!

OK. No, mount does not seemt to flip when I do that - but I do it from Kstars right now. I select a star, allow it to track across the meridian, then tell it to slew to same star again - no meridian flip. I've not tested with handcontrol on the mount, due to all the "Bright stars" being too far away from the meridian right now. I'll test that too, in a while.

Also: when I try to slew to a star that HAS crossed the meridian, the mount does not flip - unles the star is too far west, then it flips. Maybe this has to do with the limits set in the mount?

This is strange, because the mount did flip before - but it is several months since I did that.

Magnus
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7 years 3 weeks ago #14920

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Hola Magnus conseguiste resolver el problema a mí me ocurre lo mismo. Cuando ekos empieza la cuenta atrás para el volteo y llega al fin manda orden dice que está echo pero la montura no se mueve. Esto para el estudio de exoplanetas no es bueno y hay que interrumpir la toma de datos. Nose que pasa con el mantenimiento de Indi con monturas losmandy que no funcionan varias cosas .
5 months 2 weeks ago #96408

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Hi!

I don't understand Spanish but Google Translate tells me you have a problem with flipping, or rather, Ekos issues a "flip command" but mount does not flip. I'm not sure what happens, but this is what I know:
Flipping is simply Ekos issuing a GoTo command to the current position. Then the flip limits on the mount causes the mount to flip. So if it does not flip, there is something wrong with your limits.

Or, sometimes I've had a problem with this because my CWD position was wrong. If it is, the mount misinterprets its position in regards to the meridian. The CWD position defines the position in relation to which the limits are set.

So I would check my flipping settings on the mount, and then check the CWD position carefully. This is typically not an Ekos/Indi issue, but a mount issue. You can try manually doing a GoTo on the mount, when it is in a position where Ekos thinks it should flip, and see what happens.

Hope this helps.

Magnus
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5 months 2 weeks ago #96413

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Good morning Magnus, thank you for your quick response. I send you this miá through the English translator so as not to send it in Spanish. I understand what you write to me about the limits of the mount, which I have in 122 and 93 for west and east so that I do not touch the tube in the mount. However, I think you mean the Goto limit, which is as I have configured. If you could send me as you have so you can do the Meridiam Flip I appreciate it or else what would be your recommendation of configuration so that it turns because now it passes through the meridian and the mount continues its course until it reaches its west limit.
Nor does the funion Park, when I give the order from Ekos, it starts up but soon shows me Motor Stall AR, and stops. If I press you again, continue another bit until you show the same error. This would not happen in previous versions, the same thing happens to you. Thank you for your advice. A greeting
5 months 2 weeks ago #96422

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You can use the "Use flip command if supported by mount" in the ekos settings. The Losmandy mount supports this feature. It will issue a "flip" command to the mount and the mount will use a command specific to flipping instead of a normal goto command. The mount will then flip if it is within the safety limits. It is available with 3.6.5 kstars.

There have been changes to enable this feature, but the original behavior should be unchanged if you are not using the feature, and then you will need to have your western/eastern goto limits set correctly to do the flip.

The new feature has been tested and I have not heard of an issue. I will take a look at the logs when I have a chance.

Jamie
Last edit: 5 months 2 weeks ago by James Amendolagine.
5 months 2 weeks ago #96439

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Hi James!

I was not aware of the feature of the flip command. Which version of the Gemini controller are you talking about here? And can you clarify for me the added value of this flip command as opposed to the normal goto (flipping if within the "flip zone")?

Magnus
5 months 2 weeks ago #96444

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5 months 2 weeks ago #96448

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If it's in your version, you will see a flip in the indi losmandy panel. If the ekos version supports it, then it will be in the ekos settings.
5 months 2 weeks ago #96454

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photos.app.goo.gl/9XPnTNApGHsjVifx7

From the indi control panel for losmandy under main control there is an additional "Flip" button for the "On Set" group. If you set it to flip, and punch in the current coordinates to "Eq. Coordinates" , then hit "Set", the mount will flip if its safe to do so. This can come in handy if you just want the mount to flip.

The more interesting functionality is for meridian flips. If you hit the "Options" button while in the mount tab of ekos, you can check "Ekos->Capture->Use flip command if supported by mount". This will use the special flip command when doing meridian flips. Now you don't need to configure West/East goto limits in the mount and hope that they are correct. It will just issue a flip command, and the mount will flip as long as the flip will be within the safety limits. This is a general feature that I added to simplify meridian flip configurations for any mount that supports it. If the mount has the feature then the driver for that mount can be updated to use it. It's currently only enabled for Losmandy Gemini mounts.

I did test it pretty well, and asked others to test it as well, so I don't expect there to be any issues either using the new feature, or with using it in the old way, but there can always be bugs lurking that are not found. If there is an issue please let me know and I'll fix it.

It is also done this way under ascom, and the reason for this is reliability. There are some situations where the mount will refuse to flip with a goto, even though it should according to the goto limits. The mount prefers not to flip if the goto is very close to the current position.

Jamie
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Last edit: 5 months 1 week ago by James Amendolagine.
5 months 1 week ago #96507

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Good morning, I can't find these options you say on Ekos. An inversion of the meridian from a given HR value can be configured in the telescope control tab. Specifically, I have it at 5. But it depends on the configuration of the East and West mount limits, and also the GOTO limit that is not very good as it works. I read in a manual by Michael Herman, that if you don want it to act you must set it to 90, and if it acts on the meridian itself the series configuration is 0.

My particular problem, is that if I am going to observe an exoplanet transit and this past the meridian, if my programming lasts 4 or 5 hours he had or the mount will reach its west boundary without having made an inversion. The solution would be to force an investment to the East looking for another object and hence go back to the exoplanet manually. There is solution for it to be automatically???.
5 months 1 week ago #96585

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