Paramount MyT run away Dec

[John Travis]

Hello,

I can't seem to figure out why I am having problems with what appears to be a runaway Dec while guiding. Here is the catch... I can get a good calibration just fine and even guide okay with no issues on the star I calibrated on.. However, as soon as I slew to another part of the sky and try to guide after about 50 seconds or so my Dec guiding goes off in the weeds. No amount of guide pulses will bring it back. It's as though the Dec guide pulses push the mount in the opposite direction all of a sudden. I do have auto restore calibration option checked.

I just got the MyT setup. So, perhaps I have something configured wrong in PHD2 or the X2 TSX Ascom driver? I can guide just fine using the guiding application in TSX. But, I would like to get PHD2 going for use in SGP. I have been using SGP & PHD2 for all my image acquisition in the past with no problems, but that was with a Losmandy G11.

1.) I did do a fresh profile for the MyT with the wizard.

2.) Even uninstalled PHD2 and tried a fresh install.

3.) I have tried reverse Dec output after a meridian flip. Didn't seem to make a difference whether it was enabled or not.

Not sure what else I can to do? If anyone has any suggestions I would be most grateful :-)

Thanks for taking the time to look!

John

Please see the below link to my log files.  Also, I have included a screenshot of my Ascom settings.

https://openphdguiding.org/logs/dl/PHD2_logs_kFCI.zip

[Andy Galasso]

Hi John,

The problem does appear to be related to the setting 'Reverse dec output after meridian flip'.   Your ASCOM driver settings look ok, and the driver is indeed reporting the side of pier.  You mentioned that you tried selecting the 'Reverse dec output after meridian flip', but it was not in this session we have the logs for so the let's try that again.

• open phd2 and connect equipment
• open brain, guiding tab, enable 'Reverse dec output after meridian flip'
• calibrate on one side of the pier
• guide for a bit to confirm dec guiding is ok
• pier flip to the other side
• start guiding and see if dec guiding is ok

I expect it will be ok. But if not, calibrate again on this side of the pier and upload the logs for us to look at (logs will include calibrations on both sides of pier.)

Andy

[John Travis]

Hi Andy,

Just wanted to follow up on my previous post. You were right on the money with the enable 'Reverse dec output after meridian flip'! I guess in my excitement of setting up a new mount I must have fat fingered the checkbox for reverse Dec after meridian flip. LOL! But, all is well now :-) A Paramount requires that option checked as to where my Losmandy G11 doesn't.

Thank you so much for pointing that out! 

Clear skies,

John

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[Andy Galasso]

Hi John,

Thanks for reporting back. I'm glad to hear that the problem is resolved.

We're trying to figure out some ways to make this setting more automatic, like setting it by default for mounts we know require it like the Paramounts.

Andy

[jeff m]

Andy:  this happened to me last night and I wasn't aware of these threads regarding "reverse dec output for meridian flip" until just now.....I have a paramount MX+....did something change in the software bisque or PHD2 software recently?..I've had this mount working with PHD2 for several years...don't recall this setting was necessary before..

my issue last night was I was trying to sneak in some imaging on east side of mount while waiting for my current target to get in location on west side..had originally calibrated on west and used it all week and assumed since PHD2 is connected to ascom telescope driver for theSkyX it knows where it is in sky across meridian..I was out changing cables last night trying to figure out why DEC was going off scale..eventually gave up on east side target, recalibrated for west side and PHD2 worked beautifully all night

I have gone back and checked that box given threads indicating it's necessary for Paramount

jeff

[Andy Galasso]

Hi Jeff,

Sorry you ran into trouble with that. Nothing has changed on the PHD2 end. The only reason I can think of it not working would be if the setting inadvertently got un-checked, or if something changed in the SB ASCOM driver.  If neither of those are possible, maybe you were calibrating before starting guiding and didn't run into it?  The setting comes into play if you calibrate on one side of the pier then pier flip then start guiding.

Andy

[jeff m]

I hadn't changed the setting for reverse dec output..and it's same computer for last several years..just updated PHD2 version 2.6.5dev5

your latest versions of PHD2 have had the user rely on a previous good calibration unless you manually force it to clear calibration..I have a portable setup  and in past i probably was re-calibrating excessively every night while scope was still setup in same position even for same target..but now I rely on previous calibration from 1st night of setup..so maybe I got caught with the setting now that I am relying on a previous calibration on west side, and then tried to sneak in some east side target time

thanks for reply

jeff

[Andy Galasso]

Hi Jeff,

I'm curious, do you recall when you are installing a new version of PHD2 are you uninstalling the old version or just installing the new version "over" the old without uninstalling the previous version?

If you uninstall the prior version then the installer cleans out the section of the registry where the settings were stored so you end up with all default settings when you run the new version.  If you install the new version without uninstalling the old then all your settings are preserved.  For that reason we recommend not uninstalling the old version before upgrading.

The reason I bring this up is that some time ago we change the default setting for "Auto-restore calibration" to be enabled for ASCOM and INDI mounts.  Prior to that time the default setting was disabled (regardless of mount connection type.)  You mention that the behavior you are seeing corresponds to "Auto-restore calibration" being enabled now after you upgraded.  The only way I can think of for the setting to change would be if you uninstalled an old version then installed a new version and thus got the new default setting "enabled" since you have an ASCOM mount connection. This could also explain how you might have had "reverse dec output" option un-checked (default setting) yet perhaps had it checked in the past?

Andy

[jeff m]

Hi:

I always just install the new version over the existing version, however I did create a new setup last year for my new scope/camera configuration so I may have clicked something in the brain as I was setting up the new telescope/camera...but i've definitely not uninstalled any previous version...and now I do need to go in manually to clear calibration when I set up my portable mount the first time, but that's fine...it works so well all week..especially since I learned from all of you to calibrate consistently near celestial equator/meridian intersection each time..guiding was fantastic last night!  

jeff