I had a problem with not being able to focus my Moonlite
This was due to slipping when the scope was looking at something very high.

I tightened up the grip with the thumbscrew and then the two Allen bolts and the slip was fixed.

Indi then tried to focus but the tics would not go past 0 (to the negative range) and I had to manually unlock
the focus and adjust it.

I wonder how to set the absolute tics from the control panel.

I see that Jasem says that you must start the focuser fully retracted as you can only focus out.

How does indi know what the tics are?

You probably need to give a physical origin to the focuser system. Move the focuser to step 0 from the INDI interface, then unlock the grip and move the tube to the minimum offset, inwards. Relock the grip and use the INDI interface to move to the expected focus position, which should result in a step value that is a positive integer.

-Eric