As said in some other thread, having just a little bit loose power connector which is quite typical to HEQ5 and others causes this sort of serial errors too so that is also something to test. And making sure the voltage the mount receives it high enough, more than 12V seems to work better, I ran mine at 13.8V.

Ok, at first I'll get a new EQMod cable and try to see what happens. The EQ5 has a 12V input, I use a stabilized transformer that provides 12,27V (is this enough Jarno?) and a max power of 7 Amps. The EQMod cable is about 1 m, a bit more than 3 feet with a RJ45 connector, the cable includes the FTDI chip on the USB connector, then the 1m cable and the RJ45 connector.

I don't know if this can help, but, as said, all my equipment is connected to Astroberry. The only exception to this is when I prepare the setup because I connect the mount and the ASI294 directly to the PC to use the NINA 3 point polar alignment, as in this way it's much faster than the Ekos one (the photo feedback is much more faster and the polar error is updated, while on the Ekos don't and I really don't know why). It's about two weeks that now I get very weird behaviour in NINA too: the mount (on ASCOM) randomly disconnects, I get messages that the mount didn't move the expected 10° but only 6° or the mount always moves Eastward even if in the plugin I set to move Westward.

Can these info help?

I ordered a new EQMod cable, but It's still bad weather here so I can't make any field try, so I made another cold run, but before I unplugged and plugged again all cables after blowing some air. After an almost identical routine as the other day I checked the log and the situations looks much better: it seems it didn't record any jump or error reading the 9 instead of 8 bits and I didn't see any jump on the screen. If I look for "error" in the file I still get the previous "EQMod Mount : "[COMM] read error, will retry again... ". I attach the log for any suggestion!

Any hint on the NINA/ASCOM problem?

 

It may not have been jumping that you saw but was erroring reading at least DEC, see the read error on the j2 command below.

As Jarno mentioned, check your power connections, quote:
"As said in some other thread, having just a little bit loose power connector which is quite typical to HEQ5 and others causes this sort of serial errors too so that is also something to test. "
And as Jarno mentioned, have you measured the voltage going to the mount when things are powered up?



[2022-01-27T18:46:40.067 CET DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - EQMod Mount : "[COMM] dispatch_command: \":j1\", 4 bytes written "
[2022-01-27T18:46:40.088 CET DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - EQMod Mount : "[COMM] read_eqmod: \"=FB777D\", 8 bytes read "
[2022-01-27T18:46:40.089 CET DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - EQMod Mount : "[SCOPE] GetRAEncoder() = 8222715 "
[2022-01-27T18:46:40.089 CET DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - EQMod Mount : "[COMM] dispatch_command: \":j2\", 4 bytes written "
[2022-01-27T18:46:45.117 CET DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - EQMod Mount : "[COMM] read error, will retry again... "
[2022-01-27T18:46:45.118 CET DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - EQMod Mount : "[COMM] dispatch_command: \":j2\", 4 bytes written "
[2022-01-27T18:46:45.135 CET DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - EQMod Mount : "[COMM] read_eqmod: \"=7F338F\", 8 bytes read "
[2022-01-27T18:46:45.137 CET DEBG ][ org.kde.kstars.indi] - EQMod Mount : "[SCOPE] Current encoders RA=8222715 DE=9384831 "

Thanks Gene, the transformer not connected provides 12,27 V, do I have to measure the voltage of the transformer output while the mount moves or tracks? It's going to be difficult, I'll add some extender with exposed cables screws to check the voltage

Ok, test run made with voltage detecting! I have:

12,27 V - everything off, just the transformer output

12,23 V - Ekos connected, scope parked

12,09 V - while slewing on both axes

12,18 V - while tracking, minimal variation to 12,19 V sometime

The whole output is very very stable, the values keep the same thoroughly. Made the same movement as usual, I attach the log, still showing errors.

Thanks for all of your support!

Hi Valerio,

For giggle and grins, put the meter on AC voltage, low scale if not auto ranging meter

I used a 20V scale that gave me a 2 decimal digits, the readings are below, together to the relative log, but I write them here again:

12,27 V - everything off, just the transformer output 12,23 V - Ekos connected, scope parked 12,09 V - while slewing on both axes 12,18 V - while tracking, minimal variation to 12,19 V sometime

How is it?

Hi Valerio,

You had the meter set to read AC voltages for the above readings? They look more like the readings provided for DC voltages(?).

Yes Gene, I set the meter to read DC voltage as the transformer output is DC, do I have to make measurements setting meter to read AC voltage?

Looking at the AC side may show you noise. If there is an AC signal of any strength, or even worse, fluctuation, it could be a power supply issue. Since your DC voltages are fairly stable though, it is likely a well-regulated power supply, and AC should be minimal if it is working correctly.

I have a digital multimeter with a dial for selecting, among others, DC or AC. For AC I only have 2 possibilities: 200 and 600. If I set to 200 I get the following readings:

26.0 everything off, just the transformer output and also Ekos connected, scope parked

25,7 while slewing on both axes

25,9 while tracking

No oscillation on any value. As usual, log attached with the "usual" "[COMM] read error, will retry again... "

How is it?