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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Eqmod initial orientation

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Hi,
I am using eq6 mount with eqmod driver. My goal is to set up full remote control.
As far as I understand, the driver does not know the absolute orientation, so the starting point is set from parking position and if that fails, it expects mount orientation with counterweight down and telescope pointing to north pole.
The problem is that if the mount is not in this position for some reason, it can lead to dangerous situations.
I want to try to use arduino with orientation sensor (like BNO055) to get the initial orientation. My question is how to push the value from the sensor to eqmod driver. Adding it as a sync point probably won't work because the sensor is not precise enough.
Is there any standard way how to do it?
5 years 4 months ago #31701

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Replied by Eric on topic Re:Eqmod initial orientation

That's a good idea. You should use your orientation sensor for what you mentioned originally: to recover proper position. Once you determine your local up vector, you could request eqmod to move until the mount rotation matched the intended orientation. You could then use switches glued on the mount to achieve exact positioning and restart eqmod from there.

-Eric
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq
5 years 4 months ago #31705

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Yes, this would indeed work, but I'd rather push actual orientation to the mount directly, without moving.

I think the correct solution would be this:
- write a driver for the orientation sensor (it might even work with indi-duino driver), best output would be probably alt-az coordinates and maybe also pier side
- patch eqmod to optionally snoop this driver and use these coordinates if everything else fails (Skywatcher::Init() at the end)

Does such patch have any chance to get accepted?
5 years 4 months ago #31987

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