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Autoguider Probleme

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Isi:
Hallo im Forum,

ich hatte Probleme mit meinem MGEN Autoguider, die Steuersignale wurden blockiert. Wenn man nun die Handbox nimmt und die RA

Richtung umkehrt werden die Steuersignale wieder empfangen.

LFEP V 6.20

Ascom 1.5.3 Beta 6

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jörg Isensee

Armando:
Hi Jörg,

do you mean that you found ST-4 guiding commands ignored and that pressing RA+ and RA- on the HW handpad contemporaneously solved the issue?

CS
Armando

the_lizardking:
Since I switched to the lodestar Autoguider I have the same problem,... thanks for the hint with changing the buttons in RA. I thought my ST4 is defect,...

It looks that a different pinning of the lodestar and the ALCCD5 from Mgen is the reason. Normaly it should not make a difference but it looks like this. In my combination a TDM is between Lodestar and LFEP, the TDM has same pinning like LFEP but lodestar is now different and it could be in my case that TDM is starting to do crazy things (shortly overlapped or too fast direction change),... same could be for Mgen when it figures out during calibration that directions are different,... maybe it also does smth crazy that LFEP does not want,...

The pins are in oposite for both guiding cams, which means:

LFEP:
not used
GND
R
U
D
L

Lodestar/Alccd5:
not used
GND
L
D
U
R

I think this could be the reason for the problems we both have,... I could not test it so far so its just a hint.
The reason why I think this is the root of the problem is that I had a ALCCD5T before. The ALCCD5T is a special case, this cam was not developed by QHYCCD direct, it was a German built and has the same pinning for ST4 output like LFEP and TDM. As long as I was using the ALCC5T I never had problems with the guide port and everything worked fine.

CS

PS Hoffe das passt auch in Englisch,... :)

Armando:
Hi the_lizardking,

according to me left, right, up and down mean NOTHING.
Probably some developers prefer to use this kind of notation simply to hide some firmware bugs or to simplify the development of the firmware (so that the user has to figure out the appropriate pinout of the guiding cable).

Anyway typically, except for guiding issues after a flip or for a pointing refinement by ST-4 based upon plate solving, the guider calibration is the only step required to be able to guide still with a wrong cable (I'm obviously assuming ground pins are properly connected).
But if both TDM ST-4 input and output sockets are in use then there is the need to make the right connections both on RA and Dec to avoid a "fight" between the TDM unit and the guiding camera. But Jörg didn't mention TDM; so I don't think the issue is related to the cable.  ::)

Another cause of possible issues on ST-4 is related to the use of ST-4 to change the side of pier. If you send contemporaneously RA+ and RA- (or Dec+ and Dec-) guiding pulses you can change the side of pier. I suggested this solution to Rajiva for the old EQ6 MCU update kit since there were no free inputs available to control the side of pier by a switch. I think he implemented this feature also for LFEP. But if only one device sends guiding commands to LFEP by ST-4 (i.e. no TDM is in use), since calibration sends RA+, RA-, Dec+ and Dec - commands one at a time, I see no issues can occur. After calibration the guiding software will never send RA+ and RA- (or Dec+ and Dec-) commands contemporaneously. With a wrong cable the software could mix up RA and Dec (so that if you set the guiding software to make use of dithering only on RA you'll find dithering only on Dec...). But the issue we're speaking about is that LFEP doesn't guide at all...
Maybe the cause is the debouncing management on ST-4 or too short pulse guide durations: maybe LFEP locks and Jörg found a simple procedure to unlock it...

CS
Armando

Isi:
Hallo

@Armando, ich meine das ich die Richtung der RA ändere. Im Guider einen Stern einstellen, Guider auf Start aber es passiert nichts. Dann ganz kurz RA minus gedrückt halten und kurz RA plus kurz drücken, dann beide loslassen. Gestern hatte ich nach dem ersten GOTO keine Probleme, aber nach dem zweiten GOTO funktionierte es wieder nicht. Dann Tastenkombination gedrückt und alles lief wieder einwandfrei. TDM habe ich nicht. Ich hatte den MGEN auch schon zum überprüfen eingeschickt, natürlich war alles in Ordnung bei der Überprüfung, vorsichthalber hatte ich mir ein neues ST4 Kabel mitschicken lassen.

@the_ lizardking, ich teste das Ganze heute nochmal. Ich glaube aber das es an dem Ascom Driver liegt da ich bei der früheren Version keine Probleme hatte.

Gruß und cs

Jörg

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