Celestron AVX + ASCOM (pulse guide not working, but ASCOM hand controller is OK)

[npole]

Hi everyone,

I'm struggling to solve this. So I'm trying to guide my Celestron AVX with PHD2 via ASCOM driver.

The mount connects fine, and the ASCOM hand controller (NSWE) works as well (the mount move as expected).

However when using the manual guide in PHD2 nothing happens. The calibration nor the guiding are working, it seems that the commands send by PHD2 aren't arriving to the ASCOM driver or aren't interpreted by my mount.

I'm using the latest ASCOM drivers, the latest PHD2 version and as I said i can control the mount manually via ASCOM and via the NexRemote as well.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, however I cannot figure what.

The first question I have is: when you connect the mount in PHD2 (with no calibration or anything) using the ASCOM driver, by using the "manual guide" (i tried with up to 5 second "pulse") the scope should move like i'm using the hand controller or I should do something else before? The scope alignment is mandatory to use the manual guide?

Thanks for your help.

[Andy Galasso]

npole,

The Manual Guide tool moves the mount at guide speed which is a very tiny adjustment you would not be able to see by looking at the scope.  How are you determining that the Manual Guide tool is not working?

You mention that calibration is not working, but we will need more specific information about what is not working in order to provide help.  In general we need to see your log files (guide log and debug log) to help diagnose a problem with calibration. Please see here: https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/

Andy

[npole]

I do not see it moving in the main scope image, so I know it's not moving, also the mount isn't doing any noise.

Even ad guide speed I would notice the little movments but it's doing nothing.

During the calibration it doesn't move as well, and if I try to guide it it send an impulse of say 100.. but star goes away.. and the declination increases to 300.. 500.. 100.. up to the limit set of 2500 then the error comes out asking to increase such limit.

I uploaded the log here: https://openphdguiding.org/logs/dl/PHD2_logs_ju1P.zip

Notice: it contains a lot of failed calibration and also tests with "poor" stars etc.. however it should help to determine why the mount isn't moving at all even with those poor conditions.

Thanks a lot for your help and your time.

[npole]

I just received the update (dev7) and now the mount is responding to the pulses! It's just a coincidence, a miracle or something has been fixed? :O

[Andy Galasso]

That is good to hear that the mount seems to be working better now. There have not been any changes to phd2 that would affect how the mount responds to ASCOM pulse guide commands, so I do not have an explanation for what you saw or what changed to make it start working.  The older guide log from before you upgraded to dev7 showed that the mount was seriously misbehaving -- moving in the wrong direction in response to guide commands:

Notice how the N-S moves (red) are in the same direction as the E-W moves (blue).  If the mount is operating properly the red and blue lines will be perpendicular (as RA is perpendicular to Declination).

If you continue to see unexpected behavior like this from the mount you'll probably need to get some help from Celestron as it appears to be the mount electronics malfunctioning in some way.

Andy

[npole]

I have no idea really, if you say the latest build didn't modified anything with the ASCOM driver or the guiding then it must be a crazy coincidence! Or eventually when I did the update something got "reset" or anything else that I cannot explain.

Apart the crazy behavior you evidenced above, the mount wasn't moving at all in manual mode, neither with 5s pulse.. while now it's moving as expected.

I didn't had a chance to test the guiding tonight because the sky was cloudy, however I'm confident that the issues are solved now, I hope to see some stars tomorrow night to confirm that it is working.

Thank you for your time.

[sergio orlando]

HI

i've got a AVX Mount  too and I've a lot of problems guiding with phd. when yoy speak about v7 upgrade, it's about celestron ascom drivers?

[npole]

Nope, it's about PHD2. I received the update:

PHD2 Guiding 2.6.5dev7

Previously I had installed the latest version from the website, I don't know why suddenly this update has been pushed to me.

[James Canning]

Sergio,

The v7 upgrade refers to the latest update of PHD2.

James

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[sergio orlando]

thanx James