It does not matter. The hand controller is not in charge of the mount. It simply sends RA/DEC to the mount servo. It does not matter at all how you got to the object, whether from TSX or MaximDL or APCC or any other program. The servo is the recipient of the new position where you slewed, NOT the keypad.

 

When you choose a new object in the keypad and press GoTo, the keypad simply sends that object's RA/Dec to the CP3 servo and the servo figures out how to get there based on where it is presently. The keypad is not involved in any slew decisions. The same is true of all other planetarium programs - they all simply send RA/Dec data to the CP3 servo, and none of them are involved in calculating how to go from the present position to the new one. That calculation is all done in the servo.

 

In fact, you can send RA/Dec commands from HyperTerminal on your Windows computer directly to the mount, without ever using any planetarium programs or keypad, and the mount will slew happily to that position without a whimper of disapproval.

 

Rolando

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Heggie stuart.j.heggie@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...>
To: ap-gto <ap-gto@...>

Sent: Mon, Mar 7, 2016 11:50 am
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Re: Strange big misalignment in SkyX

Apologies. I left that part out. About hitting RCAL. That of course is what causes the problem. My point was that in TSX, when I do a Closed Loop Slew, I believe it sends a RCAL command to the mount via the ASCOM interface. So, when I do closed loop slews in TSX and then pick up the hand controller, it no longer knows where the mount is.

Stuart

On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 12:39 PM, chris1011@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...> wrote:

 

""In other words, the hand controller is slewing from the last position IT sent the mount to, it doesn't know what TSX told it to do. I think""

 

NO! That is absolutely wrong. You can certainly go back and forth between TSX and the keypad as far as slewing to objects or stars. The keypad sends the same data (RA/DEC) to the servo that TSX sends. There is no difference in this function.

 

There is only one thing that can go wrong, and it is easy to avoid if you understand it: I will give an example, Let's say you slewed to Vega with the keypad.  Now you slew to Deneb with TSX. You then center Deneb in your eyepiece and you wish to update the position (otherwise known as a Recal). The keypad still has Vega in its "Last Object" memory. If you press Recal on the keypad, it will send the RA/DEC position of Vega to the servo, overriding the position of Deneb. This of course starts you off from the wrong place the next time you want to slew anywhere else.

 

We will have a fix for that soon in our next keypad update. For now, if you back and forth between planetarium and keypad software, do not use the keypad Rcal or Sync function UNLESS you actually went to the object with the keypad.

 

Rolando

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Heggie stuart.j.heggie@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...>
To: ap-gto <ap-gto@...>
Sent: Sat, Mar 5, 2016 8:34 am
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Re: Strange big misalignment in SkyX

That could be (the battery) but we've been warned repeatedly that we can't mix TSX and the hand controller. If your last slew with the hand controller was to something other than what TSX had last slewed to, and you don't have TSX via ASCOM updating the CP controller, I think you'd get what you described. In other words, the hand controller is slewing from the last position IT sent the mount to, it doesn't know what TSX told it to do. I think. 

Best to leave the hand controller out of it if you're using TSX. I used Closed Loop Slew and then RCAL to tighten up my pointing. Never the hand controller.

Stuart

On Sat, Mar 5, 2016 at 9:11 AM, challiwe@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...> wrote:

 

I had something like this happen to me last night.  I un-parked my AP900GTO, then told it to go to M 42 with the keypad (which was right in front of me) and it started to slew to something behind me and below me.  I stopped the slew but then found I could not do working go-tos either with the hand controller (even after a sync) or software (Sky Tools).  If I used the hand controller to manually slew near M42 a go-to to M42 had the mount going way off again.  Everything worked fine a month ago.  I have more sleuthing to do, but some AP site reading lead me to one additional possibility: that the 7-year-old battery in my hand controller is past its 5-year, normal lifespan.  This can lead to corruption of the objects (but not stars) database.  See: http://www.astro-physics.com/tech_support/mounts/keypad_update/dataload201/dataload201.htm

 

--

Stuart Heggie

http://www.stuartheggie.com/featured.html

--

Stuart Heggie

http://www.stuartheggie.com/featured.html

 

You can mix and match all day long. What you cannot do is to send the mount to object A and then Sync/Recal it on object B. It's that simple.

 

The present keypad version does not update itself to external data. A new keypad version will be available later this year which will automatically update itself to external data, so the issue of wrong Sync/Recal will go away.

 

Rolando

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Heggie stuart.j.heggie@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...>
To: ap-gto <ap-gto@...>
Sent: Mon, Mar 7, 2016 12:19 pm
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Re: Strange big misalignment in SkyX

Okay. I was sure some time ago you said not to mix them. So as long as neither the hand controller no the planetarium program send a Sync/RCal command on the WRONG object, you can mix them?

BTW - my AP900GTO is CP2. Does that change any of the answer?

Stuart

On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 1:08 PM, chris1011@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...> wrote:

 

It does not matter. The hand controller is not in charge of the mount. It simply sends RA/DEC to the mount servo. It does not matter at all how you got to the object, whether from TSX or MaximDL or APCC or any other program. The servo is the recipient of the new position where you slewed, NOT the keypad.

 

When you choose a new object in the keypad and press GoTo, the keypad simply sends that object's RA/Dec to the CP3 servo and the servo figures out how to get there based on where it is presently. The keypad is not involved in any slew decisions. The same is true of all other planetarium programs - they all simply send RA/Dec data to the CP3 servo, and none of them are involved in calculating how to go from the present position to the new one. That calculation is all done in the servo.

 

In fact, you can send RA/Dec commands from HyperTerminal on your Windows computer directly to the mount, without ever using any planetarium programs or keypad, and the mount will slew happily to that position without a whimper of disapproval.

 

Rolando

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Heggie stuart.j.heggie@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...>
To: ap-gto <ap-gto@...>

Sent: Mon, Mar 7, 2016 11:50 am
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Re: Strange big misalignment in SkyX

Apologies. I left that part out. About hitting RCAL. That of course is what causes the problem. My point was that in TSX, when I do a Closed Loop Slew, I believe it sends a RCAL command to the mount via the ASCOM interface. So, when I do closed loop slews in TSX and then pick up the hand controller, it no longer knows where the mount is.

Stuart

On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 12:39 PM, chris1011@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...> wrote:

 

""In other words, the hand controller is slewing from the last position IT sent the mount to, it doesn't know what TSX told it to do. I think""

 

NO! That is absolutely wrong. You can certainly go back and forth between TSX and the keypad as far as slewing to objects or stars. The keypad sends the same data (RA/DEC) to the servo that TSX sends. There is no difference in this function.

 

There is only one thing that can go wrong, and it is easy to avoid if you understand it: I will give an example, Let's say you slewed to Vega with the keypad.  Now you slew to Deneb with TSX. You then center Deneb in your eyepiece and you wish to update the position (otherwise known as a Recal). The keypad still has Vega in its "Last Object" memory. If you press Recal on the keypad, it will send the RA/DEC position of Vega to the servo, overriding the position of Deneb. This of course starts you off from the wrong place the next time you want to slew anywhere else.

 

We will have a fix for that soon in our next keypad update. For now, if you back and forth between planetarium and keypad software, do not use the keypad Rcal or Sync function UNLESS you actually went to the object with the keypad.

 

Rolando

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Heggie stuart.j.heggie@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...>
To: ap-gto <ap-gto@...>
Sent: Sat, Mar 5, 2016 8:34 am
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Re: Strange big misalignment in SkyX

That could be (the battery) but we've been warned repeatedly that we can't mix TSX and the hand controller. If your last slew with the hand controller was to something other than what TSX had last slewed to, and you don't have TSX via ASCOM updating the CP controller, I think you'd get what you described. In other words, the hand controller is slewing from the last position IT sent the mount to, it doesn't know what TSX told it to do. I think. 

Best to leave the hand controller out of it if you're using TSX. I used Closed Loop Slew and then RCAL to tighten up my pointing. Never the hand controller.

Stuart

On Sat, Mar 5, 2016 at 9:11 AM, challiwe@... [ap-gto] <ap-gto@...> wrote:

 

I had something like this happen to me last night.  I un-parked my AP900GTO, then told it to go to M 42 with the keypad (which was right in front of me) and it started to slew to something behind me and below me.  I stopped the slew but then found I could not do working go-tos either with the hand controller (even after a sync) or software (Sky Tools).  If I used the hand controller to manually slew near M42 a go-to to M42 had the mount going way off again.  Everything worked fine a month ago.  I have more sleuthing to do, but some AP site reading lead me to one additional possibility: that the 7-year-old battery in my hand controller is past its 5-year, normal lifespan.  This can lead to corruption of the objects (but not stars) database.  See: http://www.astro-physics.com/tech_support/mounts/keypad_update/dataload201/dataload201.htm

 

--

Stuart Heggie

http://www.stuartheggie.com/featured.html

--

Stuart Heggie

http://www.stuartheggie.com/featured.html

--

Stuart Heggie

http://www.stuartheggie.com/featured.html