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Problem with NEQ6 forgetting where it was when Parked by TheSkyX
I have been using an NEQ6 with the latest stable edition of TheSkyX.
I am not using the hand-controller instead using EQDIR plus the appropriate cable. Mostly works fine.
I ran automated T-Point to create a sky model and the pointing was great! I do not use ASCOM.
At the end of the night I “Park” the telescope before pressing the TheSkyX “Disconnect” button. I then wait a few seconds before hitting the power switch on the NEQ6. After that, I close down the TheSkyX software.
So, on subsequent nights I connect all the wires, power up the mount, “Connect” via TheSkyX and slew to a bright star to check all is good. That usually works for a couple of nights, but the night after that the bright star is nowhere near the field of view – tonight the RA was about right, but it was perhaps 10 degrees out in declination. Definitely double-plus ungood and the cause of much imaginative bad language in the boonies of Wiltshire.
Has anyone else encountered something like this? If so, have you developed any work rounds?
No, I don’t. I assumed that, if it was delivering the star to near the field centre then the TPoint model was working fine and I didn’t need to do anything.
Is that an error on my part?
Would be nice if it was as trivial as that.
Grant,
I don’t know for sure, but it is something I always do with my Paramount when using TheSkyX.
Worth a try IMHO.
Michael.Will give that a go! Probably in a couple of nights time…
Even done automatically a 36 point T-Point takes 30-45mins out of the night – especially with the moon around driving up the sky backgrounds.
Thanks.
Yea, T-Point is excellent.
I have a small Watec camera on the back of my C14 (with a couple of focal reducers).
After using about 20-25 stars for a T-Point model, it puts the target object in the centre of the little chip every time.
Michael.Yep. Courtesy of the great Pat Wallace. I see that the original Fortran code was being used for setting up a major professional observatory as recently as 2 years ago. I saw a presentation by him on the code once. Impressive piece of work.
Will try doing 25 stars and then add more every night instead. Will also see how far I can reduce the exposure and repeats and still work. Would be good to get it down to 15mins. Though, better yet, for it not to forget the model..
Grant, If you control your camera via he sky X you should be able to do an automated T point run using image link. I do so with my SB ME mounts. Takes me about an hour to get 200 – 300 stars. I would have thought that once you have a working model, synchronizing on a star at the start of each session would get you going. The Paramounts are “homed” on a predetermined point at the start of each session which I think is similar to synchronizing Eric
Yep. Thats what I do
Sychronising is awkward as I need to jog the scope using TheSkyX and last time it was a long way out. Perhaps after my right angled finder arrives….
Will see what happens tonight. Looks clear!
No. Image link your photo then go to Telescope->Start up->Star Synchronisation. It’s the last option. I have not tried this as it would disrupt my model. You may need to have clicked on the linked photo on the sky display to make it active but again not tried it.
Regards Andrew
Okay, what I wrote earlier appears to have vanished… version2.
A while ago, I sought help here regarding my NEQ6/TheSkyX setup forgetting where the sky was and regularly losing connection.
Highlights of the problem included when I asked it to point at NGC1999 and it ended up pointing 30 degrees below the horizon: deep joy.
So, I was using a TPlink connection to the telescope and that proved very unreliable. I had the earths and cabling checked professionally – and that was all good – but it would regularly lose connection during a night and even took to disconnecting when our microwave cooker was turned on.
After much investigation, I discovered that one of the 4 switched mode power supplies I used was dying (they have some nasty failure modes)- it still tested as 12V and there was little AC “ripple” on the voltage, but the fault mode meant it was chucking huge amounts of noise down the mains.
So, I dumped that PSU and things improved, but were still not perfect. I got a BT Wifi extender to connect and dumped TPlink. That massively improved things. Now, its unusual to get a single disconnection event during the evening and the pointing issue went away.
However, I discovered that 4 switched mode power supplies were still causing problems. The OTA is isolated from the mount by felt pads and I found that with one of the PSUs my CCD and the tube seemed to be experiencing a floating voltage (a DC offset).
Finally, fed up with the PSUs I decided to ditch them entirely and got a cheapo 20A 13.8V linear power supply that feeds my mount, CCD, fan, dewheater(s) and minipc – having checked with manufacturers to make sure they were all okay with 13.8V, instead of 12V. That seems to have solved all the problems. No connection loses, no lose of pointing and no floating voltages. Wish I had tried it a year earlier.
The PSU is quite heavy, but it now lives in its own little enclosure together with all the wires and the collimator.
Thanks to all who helped.
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