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Pier flip

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gpaolo:
Hi,
I'm trying to use CCD Autopilot to control the CCD and I'm having a problem related to the pier flip.
I explain what I did tonight, maybe it's the best way to understand the problem...

I started the observation with the telescope west looking east, after the unpark command.
I did the guide calibration, everything went fine, but when I begun to guide, the Y axis moves in the opposite direction.
By connecting the scope to Maxim, I noticed that the pier flip status was active, while I never performed any pier flip.
If I change the scope direction on the LFEP control panel, from west looking east to east looking east, the guide begins to work and the pier flip status disappear, so it is a problem definitively related to that.
If instead than starting with the scope west looking east I perform the calibration with the scope east looking west (no pier flip status active), the guide also works.

So my idea is that the program performs the guide calibration thinking to be in normal condition (no pier flip) but, when it comes the moment to guide, it sees that the telescope has the pier flip active and it decides to reverse the Y axis.

I thought that the pier flip status should be active only when the pier flip is performed, not "by default" with the scope west looking east -which doesn't have much sense to me, because you must flip going in east-west direction, not on the other way. Do you know if there is any way to reset this status so that the controller will stop telling to the control program to reverse the guide direction?

the_lizardking:
I think this more a bug... I will also try today,... and let you know.

gpaolo:
I'm not sure if it is a bug or a misconfiguration. Since my LFEP is of 2nd hand, I don't know if the previous owner made some special configuration for its setup.
Next time I have a clear night, I would like to try to set it up as it is, perform a meridian flip to make the flag change, then manually move the telescope on the other side and synchronize it again.
In any case, I would be grateful if you can check. As I said, telescope west looking east --> pier flip active, telescope east looking west --> pier flip not active, it is the opposite of what should be.
If it turns out that it is a bug, maybe through the ASCOM interface would be possible to add a switch to reset the status of the flag.

Armando:
Hi gpaolo,

if you're using MaxIm DL you can try to make use of ASCOM Inverted mode as Side of Pier (if you're having issues by ASCOM normal mode): you can select it by Observatory setup tab (in Telescope options).
I hope it helps.

CS
Armando

gpaolo:
Thanks Armando, I will check it out!
Unfortunately, I don't think it is a maxim problem...
When I work only with Maxim, everything is fine. The issue comes when I try to use CCD Autopilot, which overwrites Maxim setup with its own to handle the pier flip. So, when the LFEP tells CCD Autopilot that the pier flip status is active, CCD Autopilot automatically reverse the Y direction of the guide.

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