Celestron NexRemote + Stellarium /StellariumScope + PHD2

[Steven Bellavia]

Hi,

I am now only guiding by directly connecting to the mount through ASCOM, as recommended by all here, and it is good.

But there is one little glitch with my Celestron AVX mount using NexRemote, Stellarium Scope and PHD2, all at the same time.

Yes, I can use the virtual COM port of NexRemote (COM 4) to connect everything and they all work fine together. 

Except for favoring East or West for objects near the meridian.

It just doesn't work.  I have it set on the hand controller and NexRemote to favor West, so I can start an object about 80 minutes East of the meridian, and not have to do a flip.

And flips are difficult when you are off-axis guiding.  If you lose your guide star, you have to rotate.  If you rotate, you have to re-calibrate.  Not to mention re-centering your object, re-focusing, and the extra flat frames you now have to do.  And then in processing, remembering which frames to flip too, before aligning.  It's almost worth just waiting the 80 minutes (though time-on-target is precious)

Not the end of the world.  If I give up on NexRemote all together, and go direct from PHD2 / ASCOM to the real COM port (port 3 for me), it works.  And if I want to move the scope, without bending over and going for the hand control, I can use "regular" Stellarium, also direct, but have to remember to disconnect PHD2 temporarily, and then to stop the Stellarium connection before guiding again. Still not terrible, since I wouldn't be guiding while slewing anyway.

But if any of you know another way, I am all ears.

Steve

[Vince]

Steven, I am not familiar with Nexremote so cannot help with that, but I do have a CGEM-DX mount and can control it via PHD2, StellariumScope, CdC, and APT concurrently without having to disconnect and reconnect anything.  My connections are as follows:

 

PHD2 and CdC:  Celestron ASCOM Driver

 

StellariumScope and APT:  POTH Hub with Quiet Mode enabled, connected to Celestron ASCOM Driver

 

The Celestron driver acts as a hub and accepts multiple connections, as does the POTH hub, but the POTH hub with quiet mode will limit traffic, which for me prevents some applications from hanging.  As I understand it, it eliminates constant position updates from mount to software, and I don’t need constant updates with StellariumScope and APT.

 

I hope this helps,

 

Vince

[mahaffm]

Hi Steve,

I use NexRemote with StellariumScope & Stellarium, PHD2 and SGPro all the time. I have NexRemote configured as follows:

Ensure you have ASCOM loaded and the Celestron Telescope ASCOM driver installed

For NexRemote I configure it as follow:

   Set Com Port = 5 (This is what the Celestron ASCOM driver for the CGEM-DX mount is connected to)

   Select the correct mount type

   Set Virtual Com Port = 15

I then simply point/select StellariumScope, PHD2 and SGPro to use the Celestron Telescope Driver

Hope this helps,

Mark

[Steven Bellavia]

Hi Vince and Mark,

Thanks for replying!

Vince: Is POTH a separate download, or is it a part of the ASCOM suite?

Mark: I have no problem connecting to ans using everything concurrently with NexRemote.  My problem is that if I use NexRemote or Stellarium to slew to an object, it ignores my Favor West setting.  Even if the object is only a hair East of the meridian, it will put the scope on the West side, leaving me only an hour before I have to flip. (But it works fine with the hand control, if I don't connect through NexRemote). Does NexRemote allow the Favor West, etc, for your mount?

What would be awesome would be if PHD2 had a virtual com port, so that it could connect directly (which is the main reason I use ASCOM), but allowed other applications to connect through the virtual port.

Thanks again!

Steve

On Wednesday, October 4, 2017 at 9:53:40 AM UTC-4, Vince wrote:

[Vince]

Steve, I'm pretty sure POTH comes with the ASCOM Platform.  http://ascom-standards.org/FAQs/POTH.htm

Vince

[mahaffm]

Hi Steve,

Sorry I misunderstood. Interesting, I use the Favor West setting in NexRemote and it works. I use NexRemote for my observatory mount, CGE-Pro, and my field unit CGEM-DX. I'm not sure of the settings I've always just used whatever the defaults.are. Have you tried a factory reset? in fact sometimes I forget to disable Favor West and a few times the camera came close to hitting the pier/tripod.. If I use Stellarium to slew to the target and I have the Favor West enable it works as well. I also use a OAG and so far, knock on wood, I've never had an issue with not being able to find a new guide star after a flip. I use the Celestron OAG and the QHY5III174 camera. I think this camera is very sensitive so I'm sure that helps with finding guide stars.

Regards,
Mark

[Steven Bellavia]

Thanks Vince!

Thanks Mark!  I usually get another guide star after the flip.  But not always. I also use the Celestron OAG (the best thing Celestron makes, in my opinion) with a ZWO ASI224MC.

I just did a firmware upgrade to my HC, but it did not fix the NexRemote problem.  I did just order a 5-foot extension cable for the hand controller from Scope Stuff, and if I can get Stellarium Scope / Stellarium to work concurrent with PHD2, Ill be very happy.

Steve

[mahaffm]

Hey Steve,

Another thought, have you posted anything over of the TeamCelestron forum? Derik or some of the folks on that forum might be able to offer some assistance.

Mark

[Steven Bellavia]

I didn't even know there was a TeamCelestron forum!

But I have asked Derik questions directly, and he has been very helpful. (If it is the same Derik, which I suspect it is).

[mahaffm]

I assume the same Derik, Did he offer any insight/guidance?

Here's the link

http://www.teamcelestron.com/

Mark

[Steven Bellavia]

I dropped this on him the same time as posting it here.

I am sure he is developing a well, thought-out response, as he always does.

So we shall see.

I actually don't mind losing the use of my NexRemote, if I can still move the scope around from the laptop, and/or have the controller in my hand with the 5-foot extension.  

What I will miss is that NexRemote will take the computer time and date during  setup, so I don't have to enter it all on the hand controller.

[mahaffm]

I'm wondering if the problem is with having the NexStar HC being in the loop? For my setup I do not have the hand controller connected. I run from the PC via USB to Serial right into the PC port of CGE-Pro. The same for the CGEM-DX, via an adaptor. Both systems do not have the HC attached. If I need to move the mount I use the NexRemote buttons or I use a gamePad controller. 

Just a thought, but I wounder if the NexStar HC is doing something that would prohibit the Favor West, Favor East thing? Since it sounds like you are running through the NexStar HC, did you try enabling the Favor West in the HC as well as in the NexRemote. Just a thought in trying to understand why what I have works but yours does not.

Mark

[Steven Bellavia]

I thought I found the problem last night, when I did not connect to any computer, and the hand controller, by itself said the meridian pointing was disabled.  I said "that's it"!

So I set it to Favor West, tried it on an object about 10 degrees East of the meridian and it worked perfectly.

I went to the home position, shut down, restarted, connected NexRemote, and now both were showing Favor West.  But it still didn't work  :(

[Steven Bellavia]

I wrongly blamed NexRemote.

I did what Vince recommended, and now, with StellariumScope / Stellarium, it still will not favor West for an object just East of the Meridian.

So it must be in the ASCOM driver.  Not sure if there is any later than what I have that fixes this?

[Steven Bellavia]

This is what the release notes said:

For HC versions 4.15 or more SideOfPier and DestinationSideOfPier are read from the

mount. For the CGEM and CGE Pro SideOfPier can also be set - if the direction the scope is

poined to is accessible from the side of the pier specified then the meridian preference

commands are used to move the scope to that side of the pier.

[Steven Bellavia]

Can I connect PHD2 using the POTH hub?  It seems to work concurrent with regular Stellarium (not StellariumScope), and I get my favor West back.

[Andy Galasso]

On Thu, Oct 5, 2017 at 8:58 PM, Steven Bellavia <stevenb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Can I connect PHD2 using the POTH hub?

POTH hub is a genuine ASCOM Scope so phd2 can connect to  it.  I don't know if this will help solve your problem, but to answer your question, yes, it will connect.

[Steven Bellavia]

I think I got it working with Stellarium on POTH, quiet mode, and PHD2 through the Celestron ASCOM, just as Vince said.

What is odd is that if I use the regular hand controller for the first slew, then it favors West when I pick any target East of the Meridian with Ctrl-1 (so long as it is within the RA limit of 20 degrees).  But if I start with Stellarium, it will not.

But good enough!  I have a 5-foot extension, so I use the actual hand controller, and seems like everything is working for now.

Thanks!

[CyScape]

Steven, you do know that you can't use both Nexremote and the HC at the same time. Once you do your alignment with Nextemote and then slew with the HC, it seriously confuses the mount. Mine would simply stop tracking.

[Steven Bellavia]

Yes, I am well aware of that.  

I no longer use the NexRemote, as it does not support the Meridian choice on the Celestron AVX, which is important to me.  Meridian flips with an Off-Axis Guider is very inconvenient.  :/

On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 10:52 AM, 'CyScape' via Open PHD Guiding <open-phd...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Steven, you do know that you can't use both Nexremote and the HC at the same time. Once you do your alignment with Nextemote and then slew with the HC, it seriously confuses the mount. Mine would simply stop tracking.

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