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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Celestron Nexstar + handcontoller + autoguiding

  • Posts: 55
  • Thank you received: 3
I able to attach the pinion by tapping a new set screw hole. So my mount is reassembled and seems no worse for wear. I took the opportunity to clean and relube both the RA and DEC drives. The gears all look in fine shape, no excessive wear. No new mount just yet!
Mike
1 year 4 months ago #88541

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Hi Mike,

I was not aware of a clutch on an SE mount for AZ? Sounds like you came through ok, get a chance to take it for a test drive, regardless of of which driver or visual?

Gene
1 year 4 months ago #88599

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Gene, Yes, it seems to be OK! I got a pretty good image of M43 last night and M77 was steady enough to show my son. He was disappointed that he couldn’t see the neutrino flux (just kidding). I misspoke about the clutch. If there is one if must be integrated into the motor assembly. I was just experimenting with the CCD simulator and the guiding simulator. The pointing error is around 30 arcsec with no bias in either axis and the guiding is within 2 arcsec.

I do not observe a conflict between the Nexstar+HC when run in parallel with the wifi dongle (each one plugged into an aux port in an aux port splitter). This is nice because it’s convenient to have the HC for initial positioning and for polar alignment.

I’m looking forward to the next clear night! Thanks for checking in.

Mike
1 year 4 months ago #88608

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The presence of HC does cause problems and eventually hangs the mount when using the Celestron Evolution Wifi driver. I just takes a while to see it. After using the HC to set up the initial scope position and polar alignment I disconnect the HC. I ended up building a computer interface a la John Schnupp to avoid any issues with wifi that might occur. Pointing, alignment and tracking all work fine with this new interface or with the wifi Skyportal dongle without the HC.

Now I'm on to autoguiding using PHD2. When I was using the INDI Nexstar driver, I could autoguide through the mount on my wedge mounted 6SE rather than having to use an ST-4 cable. Can someone confirm that the Celestron Evolution Wifi AUX driver supports PHD2 autoguiding through the mount on the 6SE? I'm having trouble getting it to work with the simulators (it's cloudy) but I don't know where the issue lies, with the guider simulator, or the AUX driver. I can get it to guide when simulating connection via an ST-4 cable, but I would rather do it through the mount. I have upgraded to Stellarmate 1.7.4.

Mike
1 year 3 months ago #88833

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The AUX driver provides guider interface, so it's *guidable* from any INDI client. This includes PHD2.
1 year 3 months ago #88835

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Thanks, Jasem. I have read some confusing posts about the 6SE not being able to do guiding through the mount, rather only through the ST-4 cable. Do you know if this is true?

Mike
1 year 3 months ago #88836

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Jasem, Mike,

The bug report on SE mounts and the AUX commands for GUIDE
github.com/indilib/indi-3rdparty/issues/685

And my pleas for alpha testers on non-SE mounts
indilib.org/forum/mounts/12675-celestron...for-new-updates.html

Gene
1 year 3 months ago #88838

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That's consistent with what I see here. When using PHD2 with the AUX driver, the SE mount does not move or barely so in response to the guiding commands. In addition, the manual guiding does not work and PHD2 appears only to displays the commands intermittently. With the hard-wired serial adapter I do see a series of timeout error messages.

I could guide using PHD2 through the SS HC and the Nexstar driver, but the strange DST issue is preventing me from doing the Quick Align and testing autoguiding again. I can try doing a "Fake One star Align" with the Nexstar+ HC and see where that gets me.

Mike
1 year 3 months ago #88842

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So I connected the RPi to the 6SE mount through the NexStar+ HC USB port. My Fake One star Align isn't all that simple since the +HC forces me to do a Fake Three Star alignment first. After that fails, I can do a Fake One Star alignment. But the upshot is that the autoguiding works through the mount in this configuration. You can do PHD2 guiding through the 6SE mount if you get by the alignment nonsense on the HC. Clearly the driver is translating the PHD2 pulse guiding commands into something the motor driver understands with the HC as an intermediary.

Mike
1 year 3 months ago #88844

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Mike,

The AUX driver -never- expects you to touch the HC, it owns everything, the HC is just a passtrhough.

Fire up Kstars/Ekos
Connect to AUX driver only, please do not have anything plugged into the AUX port.
In Kstars, pick a star and 'Sync'

Can you guide via PHD now?

Gene
1 year 3 months ago #88845

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Sorry, my previous note was about guiding with the NexStar driver through the NexStar+ HC. It is confusing with all the permutations I have done.

But to answer your question: Following your instructions, when I use the Celestron AUX driver either through the NexStar+ HC, with the hardwired serial interface, or the Wifi adapter, autoguiding with PHD2 does not work when attempting to guide through the mount. The mount refuses to budge during calibration and seemingly is not receiving the pulse commands as manual guiding does nothing either. Nothing is displayed on the PHD2 window at the bottom where you would normally expect the guiding pulses to be decoded (e.g. an arrow, direction and duration in ms). Well not completely nothing. When manual guiding, the decoded pulse are intermittently and very briefly displayed.

It is different when using the NexStar driver with the NexStar+ HC. In this case autoguiding through the mount appears to work as expected. My conclusion is that the NexStar+ HC takes guide pulse commands from the Pi and translates them into motor movement commands of an equivalent duration. I'm not sure this will work in practice because of the odd way I have to fool the HC into doing the initial fake alignment. I will try on the next good night.

Mike
1 year 3 months ago #88848

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I had enough clear skies tonight to try the NexStar driver with the Nexstar+ HC attached to the RPi with the USB connector. The autoguiding did work as I expected. The alignment is a bit dodgy since I had to fool the HC with a fake one star alignment. I didn't have enough cloudless time to work through the alignment issues. However, I think this shows that the SE mounts cannot accept the guide commands directly and need some sort of translation in the HC or in driver software specifically for the SE mounts. I would really like to see the AUX driver modified for the SE, but that's just my desire not to have to buy a new mount!

Mike
1 year 3 months ago #88849

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