Celestron Unified Driver 6.1.7350, PHD2, and NexStar 8SE with Wedge

[G-Man 007]

I have a NexStar 8SE Alt/Az Mount but I also plan to use a Wedge to turn the mount into an equatorial mount.  On the StarSense Hand Controller, I plan to select wedge and plan to choose EQ North.  Based on this update, then I presume that in the ASCOM Driver, for CanPulseGuide it should state True.

Currently when I select Celestron Unified Driver 6.1.7350 on my mount before having a wedge for PHD2, PHD2 sends an error indicating "Mount does not support the required pulse interface" but I presume currently, CanPulseGuide in the ASCOM Driver indicates False which should change to True when Wedge and EQ North is selected.

As such, does anyone have experience with this proposal and will PHD2 be able to work with my NexStar 8SE Alt/Az Mount with a Wedge equivalent to a EQ Mount like a Celestron AVX Mount.  I have discussed the matter with Celestron and they indicated that Celestron Unified Driver 6.1.7350 can be used with the Celestron AVX mount which means the driver natively includes pulse guiding.

Look forward to review and response.

Thanks,

Edmund

[Dale Ghent]

It doesn't matter what's in the guts of the ASCOM driver if the mount
hardware, your NexStar 8SE in this case, does not support the commands
in its serial command protocol to effect the movements that pulse
guiding demands. The fact that pulse guiding is available when using the
driver with unrelated mount models such as the AVX is of no matter. The
driver either interrogates the mount hardware upon connecting to it to
ascertain its capabilities, or the ASCOM driver maintains a capabilities
table of mount models and firmware revisions. Either of which would
inform how it advertises the various ASCOM capabilities, pulse guiding
included.

To my knowledge, the only way to guide the NexStar series is via
old-fashioned ST4. This is where you physically connect the guide camera
directly to the mount via the "telephone" cable with the RJ12 6-pin
modular connectors. PHD2 sends guide corrections to the mount via the
camera, which basically acts as a relay and ST4 interface for your
computer. You will want to have PHD2 calibrate following every major
slew. The NextStar series are geared towards visual observing and
novice, no-frills imaging. It doesn't surprise me that it's not capable
of pulse guiding via its ASCOM driver.