It seems that there is good compatibility between Ekos and Star-Watcher mounts using the EqMod driver based on feedback here www.indilib.org/forum/mounts/13191-what-...full-automation.html. How about iOptron mounts? Do they use the EqMod driver as well? (I don't see an iOptron-specific driver amongst the 3rd-party drivers).

Hi Dave,

I have two iOptron mounts and they are both supported natively in the current INDI releases - here's a link: www.indilib.org/individuals/devices/telescopes/ioptron.html. I have had very few problems and those I've had are mostly related to keeping a consistent park/home position from session to session and I'm not sure that's the driver's fault.

Happy to answer questions,

Proud owner of an GEM28, working great wirelessly with my Ekos setup.

I've got a CEM120EC2 and it's been working well with Ekos.

Hi,

I have a GEM28 and no issue except the park position setup as the home position, but the setting seems to be not saved par the handset. The driver is not the problem.

Fred,

If you don't mind, I've got a question about my iOptron GEM28 mount with Ekos.
I started with my RPi4/8G with the Astroberry 2.0.4 image and had some issues with the meridian flip. I now am trying with Stars 2.6.4 stable on Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS. It looks like both have this issue that sometimes Ekos will initiate the MF, but it immediately says that the MF completed and failed.

My issue seems to be that sometimes the pier side is wrong in the Ekos mount tab. Do you know where Ekos gets that info? Is there a way to force it to sync up with which side the mount actually is?

As long as the pier side is correct in Ekos, it looks like the MF will work.

Thanks,
Pete

Welcome to the forum, Pete!
Could you please post your logs. Without them it's difficult to help. Here is an explanation how to do this:
www.indilib.org/support/logs-submission.html
-Wolfgang

Pete,

First, I agree with Wolfgang that having a look at the logs will help diagnosis.

The only times I've had trouble with meridian flips has been when I haven't had the meridian flip settings established correctly. There are other threads that cover this but, for my part, I set the mount to STOP at 5 degrees past the meridian (can be done via the mount's handset or via the 'Meridian Behavior' tab on the INDI Control Panel for the mount). In the Mount tab in EKOS I set the Meridian Flip if HA>2 degrees. The key is that the EKOS setting is 2 or 3 degrees less than the mount setting. In this way EKOS will control the slew (meridian flip) rather than the mount setting. The difference of 2 or 3 degrees is to allow enough time for any long exposure to complete before initiating the flip.

I've spent no time on the pier side settings and can't really help you there if that turns out to be the problem. As long as the time, location, and home position are established I've not had the problems you've indicated. Again, the log files may provide some clues.

Here's a log file with MF failures. I'm not sure what verbosity was set when this happened, hopefully there's enough info in it. I'll bump up the level and see if I can get it to happen again.

I've had this mount for a couple of months, so I'm still learning about it. At first I wasn't aware of the Meridian Treatment settings in the HC. It was defaulted to 'stop at position limit' and the position limit was 0 in the HC; of course that caused MF (and autotracking) to fail. Now I have the HC position limit set to 10 deg and in the mount tab of Ekos it is set to flip at +5 deg.

Thanks,
Pete

Hi Pete,

One quick question - looking at your log, it shows you are running 3.5.5 (with a build date in 2021). In your original post you had indicated problems with 3.6.4 (actually the post said 2.6.4 but I assume you meant 3.6.4). Can you clarify?

Fred,

The log I attached was with 3.5.5 (Astroberry Server 2.0.4). So yes, an old build. I built a SD card yesterday with Ubuntu 22.04.2 and KStars 3.6.4 and I noticed that it started out with the pier side being incorrect, but I don't have logs of that build failing the MF. I'll see if I can reproduce with the newer build.

I should have stated initially that I think its 90% likely the issue is either an incorrect setting or something I'm doing wrong.

Thanks,
Pete
--
iOptron GEM28, Redcat 51, Nikon D7500, WO Uniguide 32/120MM, ZWO ASI120MM Mini

Hello,

I have an iOptron GEM28. The last use with V3.6.4 and the scheduler, the MF didn't run well. After it, the object was not in the right position. And I have to delete all images taken after. And more, I think guiding was out of order also.

It was very curious. I was confident, cause before, with 3.5.9, the MF was perfectely executed.

The weather being very bad, I can't do another try. Next time, I'll pay attention to the log.