Hi!

I use an eq6 mount with the eqmod driver . Go-to and plate solve now seems ok. But the scope (Newton) is in many cases hitting the pier. For example, I park the scope on the west pier side. If I then unpark and go-to an object quite high in the sky but west of the meridian, the scope will stay on the west side and possibly hit the pier. The counter weight shaft is in this case pointing a bit up. Shouldn't the mount move the scope to the east side in this case?
Could eqmod somehow think the mount is already on the east side? If yes, how do I tell it that it is not?

Best regards
Søren

It should, counterweight higher than horizontal should not happen. Does this happen directly when you slew to a position or does this happen after plate solving? It sounds a little bit as if the time on your scope does not reflect the time of KStars or of the INDI server.

- Wolfgang

EQmod driver can allow for a 'target pier side' that negates the need for a meridian flip when slewing to an object within a hour of it transiting the meridian. That will bring the weights up slightly if in use.

Thanks for the suggestions.

It happens when I select the first target right after selecting "unpark". The park position is with the counter weight almost horizontal and the scope pointing slightly into the ground on the dec axis.

kstars and indi are running on the same RPI 3 and kstars 'LT' in the top left corner matches the system time and the local time. UTC time under EQ mod also matches what google says UTC time is.

Target pier side is set to "auto". I will try to force it next time to a manual setting just to see what it does. May take some time before it stops raining, though....

Should I try to purge the mount model? Maybe it is way off somehow?

Normally the park position is the standard 'home position' with weights down towards the ground and the scope pointing up towards the celestial pole.
It's not that you can't have a nonstandard park position, many people do for clearance within an observatory, but it has to be configured properly. So I recommend starting from default settings and a typical starting position before attempting any advanced configuration.

That position does not work in my observatory, so I initially started out as you said (pointing near Polaris), did some go-tos and plate solves (some failed, others did not), moved the scope using the mount control panel keys to the position that allows the roof to close and choose use current position af park position. Maybe this is the wrong procedure to use a custom park position?

Yeah, that sounds about right. I only pointed it out because it's an additional factor to consider while troubleshooting.

All suggestions are greatly appreciated

Hi again!

One more thing comes to mind.... I have a roll of roof that I control using the dome scripting gateway and some simple scripts I have written to park and unpark (open/close the roof). Could the interaction between the (non-existing) dome and the eqmod driver play any part in this?

Hello!

Tried again and noticed that the mount model may have been completely wrong, as the slews were nowhere near the target. Of course plate solving would eventually get the mount to the right place.

I purged the mount model and it seemed to work ok for some time. Gotos were quite good initially, but then they seemed to become worse and eventually it would never reach is destination. It would plate solve fine and get a solution, but the corrections done were really small and did almost not move the mount, even though it was 5000" off, and even after 10 solves it had moved almost nowhere. After this I was frozen and gave up for the evening.....

Then I found this:

When using plate solving to refine every slew position it is best to not use the N-Star alignment....

from

indilib.org/devices/mounts/eqmod.html

Could N-star alignment be the thing that seems to (gradually) ruin my mount model?

Hello,
I've noticed the same problem with NEQ5/EQMOD/remote Indiserver -> Kstars
For a lot of targets it runs great, than i've found some target unable to solve (usually near zenith or > 75° without "limits" in Ekos), as dec inversed or too many steps/move...
have you seen a solution ?

I use the EQMOD align system
I purge/reset model each times

greetings
Damien