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Mount/Ekos/Kstars/Me - something has lost its mind.

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I'm perplexed. I've been using a DIY LX70 eq mount fitted with AstroEQ and steppers relatively successfully for a few months. The other night, I left it imaging overnight - big mistake as it failed to perform the expected meridian flip and instead crashed the OTA into the pier. After releasing the clutches and getting everything zeroed again, something's been off. I tested things later in the day by setting the time to 10PM and slewing to M97. The CW's moved west and the OTA pointed at the house (low).

Clouds and rain paused further testing but gave me the opportunity to change the motors from 1.8 degree Nema14's to 0.9 degree Nema17's. I reflashed the AstroEQ firmware with the changes. Last night, it did the exact same thing.

Today, I discovered I'd messed up setting the "Park" position when I was fixing the crash (I had zeroed things out). However, now when I set the time to around 10PM and slew to M97, the OTA ends up pointing NW instead of NE.

I checked Eqmod direction buttons and found "Left/Right" reversed - pressing right sent the OTA W instead of E. I checked "Reverse Left/Right" and the buttons now are correct. But slewing is unchanged - the mount still heads West for M97.

Since I copied the wiring from the previous motors, and until recently that worked just fine, I am not sure that's the problem unless some setting also got changed????

Any ideas?
4 years 1 month ago #50194

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Switching the A and B windings would cause a stepper to drive the opposite direction.
4 years 1 month ago #50202

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Have you also done the purge data step?
See stellarmate.com/support/faq/mounts.html?view=faq&faqid=33
When I've had crashes, sometimes even software crashes, I've needed to do that.
4 years 1 month ago #50204

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Thank you for the replies - much appreciated.

I just checked the wiring again, and the datasheets for the two motors, and they match up. If that's the problem, it would have existed in my "old" setup. At least I would have thought so.

Purging the data unfortunately had no effect on the slewing issue though I wish I had known about that last night as it would have cleared one problem. I will definitely keep that in mind.

I did come across this post where RA was reversed: www.cloudynights.com/topic/414078-eq6-eq...se-what-have-i-done/
Problem was Longitude set W instead of E. I'm using a GPS dongle, but is it possible that could be my issue, too?

Also, just checking things, I see "Pier Side" is "East (pointing west)" <-- is that correct??? Target side is set to "Auto"
4 years 1 month ago #50206

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BTW, what logs might help with this?
4 years 1 month ago #50207

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Thanks! Go to INDI Control Panel --> EQMod --> Site Management and click on Purge Data under Park Options.

I've seen some wonky things happen on crashes and my only fix was to, Park, stop all drivers and turn off the mount and back on again. The Purge Data looks like a much better solution.
Last edit: 4 years 1 month ago by David Tate.
4 years 1 month ago #50226

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What I have tried -

Reverting to previous installation of Astroberry (replaced the microSD) - basically same behavior.
Swapped in old motors - confirmed new motors turn the same direction as the old
Swapped RA and DEC cables - seems to behave no difference.
Confirmed 4 directions with EQmod buttons. Mount moves in all 4 directions.
Checking Reverse Up/Down and/or Left/Right has no effect on slew direction. I presume these options only affect the buttons in EQMod?
Replaced the Pi with a Windows laptop running EQmod and Stellarium. Same behavior as near as I can tell.

I went back into the AstroEQ config utility and reversed RA/DEC. At least now the mount is moving in the right direction. It's overcast here with just enough sunshine to make reading the laptop screen hard for my eyes. I dunno...maybe my memory really is shot and I did this previously. We'll see.
4 years 1 month ago #50228

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I might have figured it out...maybe.

NGC281 was our "target"

This morning, we tested my wife's Nexstar CG5 w/Astroberry - it slewed correctly.

Tested my AstroEQ LX70 - it slewed incorrectly.

Tested my CEM25p - it also slewed incorrectly, except the RA moved opposite direction as either CG5 or LX70.

Went to park the CEM25p - nearly broke the mount with wild overshoot. Reset to index marks, used HC to set "Home". Now CEM25 slewed correctly.

***Does Ekos or whatever overwrite the Home position in the HC???***

Purged/reset "Park" position for LX70 - slewed incorrectly again.

Reprogrammed AstroEQ - only RA reversed.

LX70 slewed correctly.

It's breezy here today/tonight, but I'll do my best for testing.
4 years 3 weeks ago #50319

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Let me know what the problem was when you have figured it out.

I am running into similar problems every second night on my iOptron SmartEQPro+, but strangely NEVER when I use my Orion Atlas mount.
The iOptron Mount has ideas of its own. It usually starts with Polar alignment where every second or third time it will slew East, although I am telling it to slew West. Moreover, it may (or not) slew 120 degrees, not the 60 degrees it is supposed to. I need to manually release the clutch and set it back to the home position. Then I need to reboot (restarting Ekos is not enough) so that it remembers its home position. Once I am over all that, the rest of the night usually works fine.
Again, more a problem with the mount, not with Kstars, Indi or Ekos, since I NEVER have these problems with the Orion Atlas mount.
That, more than anything, has stopped me from acquiring an iOptron CEM25 as an intermediate mount that is easy to carry.
4 years 3 weeks ago #50320

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My CEM25p does well with my Windows laptop I don't recall having an issue except when wind caught my C8 like a sail and cammed the worm gear. That hurt. ;)

I recall, too, when I first started trying to do polar alignment with Ekos, it seemed like the mount had lost its mind. Turned out I had Ekos slew West, but this triggered a meridian flip, so it would beep and then slew back. Much scrambling because I know if the mount crashes it can be damaged. Thankfully, I was set straight here. ;)

I *think* it could be a driver issue maybe? It seems like the Home position in the HC is getting clobbered. I will have to double check this, but yesterday I attempted to slew the LX70 - it slewed to the wrong location. I then connected my CEM25p, created a new profile (I had not done this yet with the latest version of Astroberry), powered it up, and told it to slew to the same location. It also slewed to the wrong location. Through Ekos, I told it to park. Almost cammed the worm again as it tried to slew to China. Powered off, reset to index marks, powered on, set home position - CEM25p then was able to slew to correct location. More testing needed, I think.

My LX70 mount test last night was a success once I got past the park thing. Again, more testing needed, but I was able to get at least some results -
4 years 3 weeks ago #50347
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Doing some testing this morning and am left wondering about the purge/write data. Is there just one file???

I ask because when I powered up my CEM25p, I checked the home position, and it was correct. I slewed randomly, then through the HC sent it back to its home position - no problem.

I then connected the mount to the Pi, unparked and then parked without first randomly slewing. The mount slewed approximately 90 degrees in RA. I find that very odd, though it is consistent with what I've experienced when switching from one mount to another.

Purging the data, clicking on current, and then write data seems to have "fixed" the issue, for now. However, I'm concerned when I go to use my other mount - will it go rogue if I don't purge/set current/write? Is there not a config file for each profile? Could this be an oversight or perhaps a bug?
4 years 3 weeks ago #50428

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I am using my Pi4 only for the iOptronSmartEQPro+ and it has the exact same problem. No matter how often I set Park and Home position, the mount seemingly randomly decides that it wants them to be somewhere else. Quitting KStars does not help, I need to do a full restart of the Pi to erase that erratic behavior.
Then on other days, no problem at all. Meridian flip can't have anything to do with it when I polar align, can it.
I only experience that erratic behavior with the iOptron mount, NEVER with my Atlas Pro mount. That always works flawlessly with EQMOD. The iOptron mounts use different drivers.
4 years 3 weeks ago #50429

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