Thanks, yes that was all at the moment and I'll report back tonight.

I'm not on Level 6 so any problems with that update are not causing my issues.

However, I do believe I found the culprit for why my Dec calibration was inconsistent. It looks like there was some slop in the Oldham coupler between the Dec motor and the worm. This doesn't feel like backwash when you wiggle the mount in Dec so I thought I had minimal Dec backlash. I have tightened that up and tonight is supposed to be clear. I will directly compare the built-in guiding against the PHD2 guiding and report back tomorrow.

Thanks Bill, and hope it goes well

Bill:"It looks like there was some slop in the Oldham coupler between the Dec motor and the worm. "

That would easily explain your funny DEC calibration. Good luck for tonight!

Well, that wasn't it. I got even worse results last night.



I just don't see how a pulse in Dec could cause it to move mostly in RA. It just doesn't make sense. As I previously mentioned, my GoTos are fine and plate solving and centering is working.

I will make one more attempt at adjustment and try again tonight. I might put an eyepiece in place of the camera to see if i observe a noticeable backlash when using the hand controller.

Well, that wasn't it. I got even worse results last night.



I just don't see how a pulse in Dec could cause it to move mostly in RA. It just doesn't make sense. As I previously mentioned, my GoTos are fine and plate solving and centering is working.

I will make one more attempt at adjustment and try again tonight. I might put an eyepiece in place of the camera to see if i observe a noticeable backlash when using the hand controller.

You should do the box test or, as the phd guys call it, the cross test. It's basically the same thing.

openphdguiding.org/man/Trouble_shooting.htm

Scroll to "Validating Basic Mount Control - the Star-Cross Test". The software (Ekos and losmandy driver) works flawlessly here. The same software should work flawlessly with your equipment, too.

OK, I posted on the Losmandy forums about my problem. PHD2 reported bad Dec backlash but I could see nothing in the mount when either wiggling the Dec axis or when using an eyepiece a moving back and forth in Dec.

A very knowledgable person said that PHD2s backlash calculation is thrown off by the spring-loaded worms that modern Losmandy mounts use. He said to ignore the warning.

He also said to use a larger pulse length if needed to get a reasonable looking calibration. If I set my pulse to around 1000ms then my calibration looks pretty normal. I think I might be good to go.

Last night I was still only getting maybe 1" RMS with guiding. I need to play some more but I think (hope??) this is due to the poor seeing I get in the lee of the Rocky Mountains. We occasionally get good nights of seeing, but I haven't tried guiding during one yet.

Hola amigos, os escribo desde España y lo hago en español para que con el traductor me podais entender, ya que mi ingles es limitado. Tengo una Losmandy G11 y tubo parecido al tuyo Alfredo, y he estado probando con el guiado de PHD2 porque el de Ekos no me da muy buenos resultados posiblemente por las configuraciones. Las calibraciones las hace bien pero no obtengo guiados por debajo de 1,6RMS, por lo que tus guiados de 0,5 o 0,65 son sorprendentes. Mis tornillos bisinfin son de precision y creo que estan bien ajustados. Me podrias ayudar con los parametros de configuracion completos tanto en Ekos o PHD2, aunque preferiria utilizar Kstars para todo. Por otro lado la velocidad de guiado la tienes en 0,5 ??. Gracias Alfredo por tus aportes y ayuda.

Gracias por abrir este hilo, y lo seguire a diario . Un saludo

Hola Juanjo!

I never use PHD2 so I can't help with these settings. It is important to realize that without proper calibration you won't get good guiding results. I'm glad to hear your calibration is going well. Maybe you can post your calibration plot.

Yesterday evening I had another run with the internal guider. I was very pleased with Ekos' whole performance: Focusing, Calibrating, Guiding, taking subs, everything worked very well. Here are my guiding results and settings:











You're correct, guiding rate is 0,5. I had GPG turned OFF.

Seeing was ca. 1.1" which is outstanding for my place in Frankfurt. Guiding deteriorated a bit to around RMS 0,5-0,6 when the moon came up which is to be expected.

Yesterday I had "Remove DEC backlash in guide calibration" activated but I turned it off before I took the screen shots. That's why there is a white cross in the calibration plot. Probably my calibration settings are a bit extreme. You could go with 6x1000ms just as well. What is important IMO is you have to have overall movement of at least 10 pixels or so. You just can't calibrate within 2 or 3 pixels and expect good results.

HTH

Hola Alfred, muchas gracias por tu rapida respuesta. Veo que tu grafica de guiado es muy buena siempre dentro del segundo de arco, explendida yo diria con respecto a las que yo conseguia. En cuanto pueda voy a probar con tus datos de configuracion para ver si mi montura se comporta algo mejor de lo actual.

Entiendo entonces que la opcion de " Remove DEC backlash in guide calibration" debe de estar activada?.
Entiendo tambien que tu montura G11 tiene todos los engranajes y tornillos originales?.

Gracias por tu ayuda, si prefieres te escribo al privado para no cargar de mensajes el hilo del foro.

Saludos cordiales
Juanjo Herrera