ioptron ieq45 pro auto meridian flip

[Matt Clements]

Is auto meridian flip supported on ioptron mounts?

PHD2 is unable to fetch the "side of pier" for my mount so that on flip PHD2 guiding goes bonkers until I manually recal or "reverse" the existing cal. I need this to work automatically.

Using ioptron commander/ascom v5.62 with PHD2 v2.64. 8407+ HC with 170322 fw

I see the following in the PHD2 debug log file:

09:42:51.587 00.004 1328 invoke: [80020009] Exception occurred.
09:42:51.587 00.000 1328 Error thrown from C:\cygwin\home\agalasso\projects\phd2\scope_ascom.cpp:1067->ASCOM Scope: SideOfPier failed: (ASCOM.iOptron.Telescope) SideOfPieris not supported by this mount. is not implemented in this driver.
09:42:51.587 00.000 1328 ScopeASCOM::SideOfPier() returns -1
09:42:51.587 00.000 1328 Connect success
09:42:51.587 00.000 1328 Status Line: Mount Connected
09:42:51.590 00.003 1328 Connected Scope:iOptron ASCOM Driver for Mount

The side-of-pier is reported in the ioptron mount commander (though seems opposite of actual position)
I did some more testing and indeed on flip. PHD2 guiding goes bonkers. I have to re-cal or "Rev cal".

I'll try the "rev cal on flip" setting in PHD2 next to see what, if any, impact that will have. But I doubt it will have any impact as PHD2 is not getting informed about the flip.

Searching here and elsewhere, no one else seems to be having this problem which makes me think it's something on my end - but there's nothing that I've found where I can tweek something to affect the result.

[Andy Galasso]

On Mon, Feb 26, 2018 at 5:03 PM, Matt Clements <benden...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'll try the "rev cal on flip" setting in PHD2 next to see what, if any, impact that will have. But I doubt it will have any impact as PHD2 is not getting informed about the flip.

You are right, changing that setting is not going to help since PHD2 is not getting informed about the flip.

The problem you are having is coming from the ASCOM driver so you'll need to contact the ASCOM driver provider -- iOptron.

Andy

[Brian Valente]

Looking through the ascom driver and command language for that mount, I don’t see any references to side of pier, so that seems to confirm it

 

Thanks

 

Brian

 

 

Brian Valente

Brianvalentephotography.com

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[Matt Clements]

I just heard back from ioptron and they asked me to try v5.4. will try that and report back here.

just very surprised I'm the only one experiencing this issue on a popular mount... but maybe everyone else is using v5.4 lol

[Matt Clements]

On Monday, February 26, 2018 at 2:54:05 PM UTC-8, Matt Clements wrote:

I just heard back from ioptron and they asked me to try v5.4. will try that and report back here.

just very surprised I'm the only one experiencing this issue on a popular mount... but maybe everyone else is using v5.4 lol

Same result.

So basically can't guide past meridian unless you happen to be there and do a PHD2 rev cal or re-cal? Will try to find an ioptron dedicated forum and post the query there. 

[Andy Galasso]

On Mon, Feb 26, 2018 at 10:09 PM, Matt Clements <benden...@gmail.com> wrote:

So basically can't guide past meridian unless you happen to be there and do a PHD2 rev cal or re-cal? Will try to find an ioptron dedicated forum and post the query there. 

The best option by far is to get a working ASCOM driver, so I think you are on the right track.

If for some reason that is not possible, PHD2 can be scripted to flip calibration based on some external cue, like a script being run from you imaging program. Hopefully it does not come to that but just figured I'd mention it.

Andy

[Matt Clements]

Thanks for the feedback Andy.

For anyone reading this if you could post your working iOptron ASCOM driver package and other relevant version info I'd appreciate it.

 

[Matt Clements]

So it looks like v5.41 of the ASCOM ioptron driver is working - I don't see any "...side-of-pier not supported..." type of error and I see PHD2 querying for the state every once in a while in the attached log file.

Based upon what I've seen in the logs are the returned values :

-1 = "Neither" (not west or east or unknown)

1 = East?

0 - West (I never saw this value, just assuming)

But I don't know if it's fully working, I was not guiding but went from west to east and I started guiding and DEC floated away pretty quickly. Reversed the cal and all was well again. Shouldn't this reverse op be automatic if the driver and PHD2 are in-sync?

[Brian Valente]

There’s a checkbox option on PHD to reverse when pier flips

 

Sounds like you may need to change that setting (under brain)

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Brian

 

 

Brian Valente

Brianvalentephotography.com

 

From: open-phd...@googlegroups.com [mailto:open-phd...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Matt Clements
Sent: Thursday, March 1, 2018 8:57 AM
To: Open PHD Guiding <open-phd...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [open-phd-guiding] ioptron ieq45 pro auto meridian flip

 

So it looks like v5.41 of the ASCOM ioptron driver is working - I don't see any "...side-of-pier not supported..." type of error and I see PHD2 querying for the state every once in a while in the attached log file.

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[Andy Galasso]

On Thu, Mar 1, 2018 at 11:56 AM, Matt Clements <benden...@gmail.com> wrote:

But I don't know if it's fully working, I was not guiding but went from west to east and I started guiding and DEC floated away pretty quickly. Reversed the cal and all was well again. Shouldn't this reverse op be automatic if the driver and PHD2 are in-sync?

Hi Matt,

That's great the updated ASCOM driver is working now.

When you did your original calibration the pier side was unknown due to the old ASCOM driver not reporting it, thus PHD2 is still unable to tell whether a flip of the calibration is required. Once you do a new calibration with the updated ASCOM driver, the calibration data will be properly tagged with a side of pier and the automatic calibration data flip will start working.

The reverse dec guiding option that Brian is referring to may or may not be required, see the user guide for the procedure to determine whether or not you need it. (Advanced settings, Guiding tab)

Andy

[Matt Clements]

Andy & Brian,

Thanks so much for help. 

I can confirm that the iOptron Ascom Mount Driver v5.41 is working for the North Hemisphere. The side-of-pier shows up in the calibration dialog. More importantly referencing Andy's last post; I reset the calibration to pick up the pier side and now I'm able to do guiding after crossing the meridian automatically.

Regards,

Matt

[Andy Galasso]

Great, thanks for the update, glad it is all working now.