Hi all,

After weeks of cloudy weather, yesterday it was finally clear. So I could test my setup for the first time. I have a mobile set-up :

• HEQ5
• Skywatcher refractor 120/600
• Canon 700D
• Guiding : ZWO 120mini on a guiderscope 50/160
• Raspberry Pi 3B+

I have my HEQ5 connected by a cable between the handcontroller and the raspberry PI. When using the EQMOD - driver I set the handcontroller to PC direct. During photographing a serie I notice the HEQ5 stops tracking which results in a failure of guiding. As a consequence I need to recenter the object and restart the guiding. Sometimes it happens after 4 photo's, sometimes after one.

Any insights in what I'm doing wrong?

kind regards,
Gunther

This sounds like a tracking error caused by interruption in communications, not specifically a guiding issue. It may be your cable connection. Are you connected through a usb hub? Do you have a good quality adapter? Cheap ones can suffer in the cold. You can try the Synscan driver or Synscan legacy driver if you suspect it is a driver issue.

My HEQ5 used to be very picky about power and would at times disconnect the serial port which caused tracking to stop. I added a second power connector that screws tightly and haven't had an issue since. So I'd recommend checking the power cable connections and batttery voltage at least. Also EQDir-cable would probably be more robust than running through the hand controller serial port as the driver doesn't like serial disconnects.

It seems I found reason why the HEQ5 randomly stops tracking. It seems that the EQMOD driver is loaded with the option to stop tracking when the horizon is on its limits. When I unmark this option the HEQ5 tracks without a problem. I was logging the mount and I found following records at the moment the tracking stopped :

2019-02-16T09:37:47: [INFO] Setting Backlash compensation - RA=10 microsteps DE=10 microsteps
2019-02-16T09:37:47: [INFO] updateLocation: long = 4.72417 lat = 50.8297
2019-02-16T09:37:47: [INFO] Loading device configuration...
2019-02-16T09:37:47: [WARNING] Can not load HorizonLimits Data File ~/.indi/HorizonData.txt: No such file or directory
2019-02-16T09:37:47: [INFO] updateLocation: long = 0 lat = 0
2019-02-16T09:37:47: [INFO] Mount is parked.

Now during tracking I get the following messages :
2019-02-16T23:03:01: [INFO] Align: current point is 7
2019-02-16T23:03:00: [WARNING] Horizon Limits: Scope outside limits. Nothing to abort.
2019-02-16T23:03:00: [INFO] Align: current point is 0
2019-02-16T22:17:10: [INFO] Align: current point is 7
2019-02-16T22:17:09: [INFO] Align: current point is 0
2019-02-16T21:23:41: [INFO] Align: current point is 7
2019-02-16T21:23:40: [INFO] Align: current point is 3
2019-02-16T21:17:52: [INFO] Align: current point is 7
2019-02-16T21:17:51: [INFO] Align: current point is 0
2019-02-16T21:06:10: [INFO] Align: current point is 7
2019-02-16T21:06:09: [INFO] Align: current point is 0
2019-02-16T20:59:30: [INFO] Align: current point is 7
2019-02-16T20:59:29: [INFO] Align: current point is 0
2019-02-16T20:59:10: [INFO] Align: current point is 7
2019-02-16T20:59:09: [INFO] Align: current point is 0
2019-02-16T20:43:39: [WARNING] Horizon Limits: Scope outside limits. Nothing to abort.
2019-02-16T20:42:38: [INFO] Align: current point is 7
2019-02-16T20:42:37: [INFO] Align: current point is 0
2019-02-16T20:39:56: [WARNING] Horizon Limits: Scope outside limits. Nothing to abort.
2019-02-16T20:33:53: [INFO] Align: current point is 7
2019-02-16T20:33:52: [INFO] Align: current point is 0

So he still gives a warning, but he doesn't abort the tracking.

kind regards,
Gunther

Try resetting EQmod driver to default configuration and ensure time and geographic location are accurate.