You can test using the simulator.

You do not need to wait for a clear night to test a meridian flip, you ca do it anytime you want indilib.org/forum/mounts/7708-successful...flip-ekos-3-4-3.html

Will check that! The Simulator I never really used apart from browsing a bit over different funktions - will have a look at the video
However, if the weather forecast is right I can go out tonight.
Fingers crossed.

Okay, first of all sorry for the longer silence but I was busy with my day job and I have had a few nights imaging as well.
However, it seems to not be an issue with the time settings.

First I tested it with DST off in the mount and UTC+120min to meat my local time zone. In KStars I allowed the mount to update the location and time and both was displayed correctly in KStars. The Meridian Flip time was set to 3deg past meridian in Ekos and 5deg in the go2nova handcontroller. Nothing happend when the flip was due... only a tiny move and Ekos tried to solve...

The second night I thought I will overrule the mount and allow KStars to update the location and time to all devices. The other settings were the same. Still no success, same behavior.

The third night I simply did not bother and had a target that did not passed the meridian during the whole night.

What else I observerd (and what I think is part of the problem) is that Ekos and/or the mount basically don´t agree in the position of the mount itself. When I setup my gear I always bring my mount into the Home Position (weights down, scope pointing north). I alwasy tell in the INDI control panel that this the zero positopn and under site management say that the current position is the park position as well. BUT already when I do 2 or 3 iterations of the polar alignment, the mount is not going back to the home position but starts to slew somewhere - I have to stop it then manually and correct it. With my EQM35-Pro I never experienced that.

So, I have a bit the feeling that it´s not just a time setting problem but a general problem with the orientation of the mount and communication between the mount and Ekos?

Also, I reported above that I have to wait a long time until either Ekos or the mount ( I don´t know who is ruling on that) allows me to slew via the correct side e.g. to the East (pointing West). Even if in Ekos I have set the meridian Flip to happen at 3deg and in the mount is given 5deg I was not able to do that before the target reached 12deg past meridian. Despite that the maximum that the mount allows is only 10deg past meridian that behaivior is also something that makes me think it is maybe a deeper CEM25P <-> Ekos (INDI) issue? Unfortunately my EQM35 my secondary mount that is at my secondary home where I don´t have acces too easily (especially during COVID times). So, I´m going to setup the gear at home tonight and will try if I can do something with the simulators - need to figure out how that works though

Cheers, Nico

Hello Nico, I've had the CEM25P for over two years now, it is a nice mount but it has some things that caused me some headaches when I first got it.
I keep the DST set to NO in the hand controller year around, when the time changes I change the offset to make the handset time correct.
I keep the meridian flip set to happen at 3 degrees in the hand controller and in Ekos I have flip to happen at HA> .02 Set hour angle units to hours.

On the park issue, I emailed iOptron and they replied there is no park command in the CEM25P. In the alignment module choose options and untick auto park. That will stop it from taking off to a strange position after polar alignmnet. I just use the "go to home" button in the indie driver panel.

You can play with your setup in your house, no need to waste time when the stars are shining!
To check meridian flip, setup all equipment, start kstars, start ekos then hit the start button. In Kstars choose a star close to the meridian(on east side), GOTO it and wait to see if the flip takes place as it crosses the meridian. If the meridian line is not showing, go to configure kstars - guides- and tick 'local meridian'. Now the line should show up.

I hope this helps

Thanks a lot Brian! I truly like my CEM25P and I´m very happy with it. These tips will help me a lot and I will test it in the weekend. Yes I have the meridian visible in KStars and will check on the auto park setting!
I´ll report ASAP

Hi Brian,

I have the CEM25P as well and it does not show the behavior Nico describes. I use auto-Park, but of course, I first define the Park position in the CEM25P Control Panel > Site Management. Meridian flip also works like clockwork.

Nico could you post screen shots of the different tabs of your CEM25P control panel? Some of these setting must be off. Definitely have Kstars update the mount, not the other way round. Make sure both show the same time then (hand controller and Kstars).

As Brian said, you can test the flip parameters in the simulator. No need to waste star time. The mount works very well with Ekos.

Cheers

Jo

Yes, I will do screenshots when I setup all and test it. Earliest tomorow evening, latest in the weekend

Did you ever purge the Park position data, then write them fresh with the mount in the position you want it parked?

If you never purged the data, the mount may use these incorrect settings over and over again.

No, never purged them but get an error message when I want to purge them now - might be because I disabled the parking as suggested by Brian.

Okay... now I did all as suggested (disabled parking, made sure that KStars updates the date and location, set in the hand controller 3 degrees as limit and in Ekos the same (0.2deg HA) but still nnothing happens. INDI says it will start the flip and then it reports flip failed... I attach now all screenshots that I could think of. The settings in INDI, the mount screen from Ekos and images of the hand controller right next to to Kstars to show that they are synchronized. I´m pretty sure the problem sit´s in front of the screen here but would be happy if one of you can see anything thats odd?

...and the rest