Hello - new user here and with Stellarmate and Ekos. First post.

When I run KStars and start Ekos with my profile which contains only the AZ-GTi Alt-Az Wifi and Canon DSLR drivers everything comes up fine but looking on the Mount tab in Ekos and clicking on the AI Mount Control in the upper right the controller appears but starts with a type of RA/DE which I assume is for an equatorial mount? If I GoTo some target and watch in KStars for an hour or two the position of the target and the mount diverge. However if I switch the mount type to AZ/AL then they appear to track.

Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong? I would have thought when using an Alt-Az mount the controller would start in the same mode?

My AZ-GTi does have the firmware update to support Equatorial mode but I'm not yet using it.

Possibly related - when starting the profile I get error messages in Ekos:

2022-02-09T17:56:13: [INFO] AZ-GTi Alt-Az WiFi is online. 
2022-02-09T17:56:13: [ERROR] Invalid Microstep per work revolution value from mount. Cycle power and reconnect again. 
2022-02-09T17:56:13: [ERROR] Invalid Microstep per work revolution value from mount. Cycle power and reconnect again. 

In general Ekos is working well on the camera side but I'm having LOTS of additional problems on the mount side.

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to provide.

RA/DE is used for all mount types for GOTOs. Where do you switch the mount type? The driver is exclusively for Alt-Az mounts.

Hi Jasem.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough. A firmware update from SW allows SynScan to choose Alt-Az or Equatorial. I have done that upgrade but don't use usually Synscan at all. I believe when KStars/Ekos loads the driver the AZ-GTi is operating in Alt-Az mode.

1) All equipment off. Stellarmate hooked to Canon DSLR using USB. Stellarmate hooked to AZ-GTi using SW USB dongle. Therefore a hardwired connection to both the camera and mount and wireless from the Stellarmate to my home Wifi network.
2) Turn on AZ-GTi. Red light on switch flashes. 
3) Turn on DSLR
4) Turn on StellarMate. SW Red light continues to flash
5) Open Ekos and start profile. INDI Control panel comes up. I get two error messages:

2022-02-09T17:56:13: [INFO] AZ-GTi Alt-Az WiFi is online.
2022-02-09T17:56:13: [ERROR] Invalid Microstep per work revolution value from mount. Cycle power and
reconnect again.  
2022-02-09T17:56:13: [ERROR] Invalid Microstep per work revolution value from mount. Cycle power and
reconnect again.

6) Close INDI Control Panel
7) Choose mount tab. Tracking is off.
In upper right click on AI Mount Control button. Mount control opens. Near the bottom Type is selected as RA/DE. Status is parked.
9) Click UnPark in Mount page. AI Mount Control now says Idle
10) In KStars right click a star. At this time I clicked on 'Er Rai'. List pops up, choose AZ-GTi Alt-Az Wifi -> Goto. The mount moves to Er Rai.

At this point the AI Mount Controller says 'Tracking' and still shows 'RA/DE'. If I leave it like this for a couple of hours the mount identifier in KStars is no longer over Er Rai and gets further away as time goes on..

On the other hand, if after doing the GoTo I immediately change the AI Mount Control Type to AZ/AL then 4 hours later the mount identifier in KStars will still be over Er Rai.

At some time in this process the red light on the SW AZ-GTi becomes solid red. If when that happens is important let me know and I'll see if I can tell you when.

I would like to try out the other AZ-GTi equatorial mode - there is a driver - but it down't seem to allow a serial connection like the Alt-AZ driver does.

Hope this helps,
Mark

For SERIAL connections:

1. Alt-Az: SkyWatcher Alt-Az driver.
2. Equatorial: EQMod Mount driver.

These would default to serial connection.

I shot subs last night for a couple of hours. I did this in two batches, or tried to.

1) Starting with the serial port plugged in and the Alt-AZ driver in my profile. Level north, right click Polaris in KStars and the mount scans up. Total failure. It went to NGC 2336. I had to use plate solving to even discover where I was. Using the AI Mount in Ekos I tried to find Polaris and couldn't get there. The mount was just going weird directions.

So, I start over...

2) Start level north and use the SkyWatcher SynScan app. The serial port was disconnected. Alignment went perfectly. Polaris, then Sirius, then Pollux, then Rigel. After that I went to two different targets and shot 500 subs. KStars obviously didn't know where I was so I just entered the target name in Ekos and everything just worked.

I will look into trying the EQMod mount driver soon.

For me KStars and Ekos are just not able to control my mount. Not at all.

- Mark