After I rebooted, it seems the mount thought it was a CWD as an attempt to park it simply kept it where it was. So, I shut it down and asked the staff to manually move it back to CWD.

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I've operated for a few nights after and it is performing fine, hopefully it was an anomaly.

Typically, I do a warm start if and only if the mount is still at CWD when I power it up. Further, the mount "knew" where it was for the first part of the session before comms was lost.

Will do, but this will take a while as it's at a remote observatory.

I did grab that report but nothing interesting was there other than the logs stopping at the time comms was lost and then picking up after I restarted it.

Thanks, Paul.

Hi John,

Yep, that would scare the heck out of me, too.

Something I've done in the past, and as recently last week (first time in a long time) is to do a "Factory Reset".

about these factory resets.

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It is not scary, and you will have to run through the basic setup screens to get going again. So do note your favorite limits for that setup before, or you will need to "refind" them.

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This is my "Silver Bullet" if things get wonky for me with my Gemini II GM811G HD.

I would try that to make sure the gremlins get flushed out of your mount.

I don't have to use it often, only if things get too baffling.

But when things are being too stubborn, the Silver Bullet cures all doubts about my Gemini II system.

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--

Sonny Edmonds
GM811G HD

Hey John,

Quick question: Were you able to regain mount communication before power-cycling the mount when you found it in the inverted position? If so, where did the mount "think" it was pointed at that time?

In my mind, the mount would only go past the limit if it didn't think it was at the limit. If there was a power surge/interruption/glitch of some sort and the mount experienced a cold-start when the mount was close to the meridian, it might power back on and think it was CWD even though it was at/near the safety limit. Then it would continue to track until it was counterweight up... thinking that new position was the safety limit given it's relative position (~90 degrees) from the meridian.

This could possibly be caused by a failing power supply, poor connections that contract as the equipment cools, failing battery, or possibly corrupted files caused by long term low-level power issues. Perhaps your mount started a flip, but the AMP draw overloaded a connection, and your Gemini 2 cold-started... woke up... and continued to track from what it "thought" was CWD.

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If the mount does not reconnect, you could at least look at the logs and see when the last connection was known... If you know what time that was and what target you were looking at you should be able to figure out what look angle the mount had at the connection loss. If the angle between that position and the found position is equal to CWD and your Safety Limit (or less) that may provide a clue.

I recently had a handful of evenings where the mount wouldn't flip and would instead just run up against the limit. I cleaned my power contacts, replaced my power cables and power supply and the problem has (for now) not reappeared.

On Sat, Mar 29, 2025 at 05:58 PM, John Dias wrote:

Thanks Doug, to be clear the mount was NOT parked as the software/driver lost communication.

Thanks Doug, to be clear the mount was NOT parked as the software/driver lost communication.

Hi folks,

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An updated version of Gemini firmware L6.12 is now available. This fixes the reported issue where PEC, once programmed, can't be turned off and must be cleared to disable.?

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Update your Gemini using the usual methods:

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When flashed, the version should read:

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Note that the HC firmware version didn't change, and remains at .

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Regards,

? ? -Paul

Concur with Dale.

PEC selects and deselects normally again. Works on the desktop hand controller as well as through PEMPro.

Thank you Rene and Paul!

This seems to have fixed the issue. PEC on/off is fully controllable via PEMPro now.

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Thanks Paul and Rene !

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Dale

On Tue, Mar 25, 2025 at 05:41 PM, John Dias wrote:

But what troubles me is that the mount continues to track and ignores the safety limit. Shouldn't it stop tracking if it reaches the limit?

Viewing this, could not this come about tracking past the west horizon.? Started west of the limits tracking does not cross them.? Check that the mount ended the session Parked.? If a secondary operation, after session end, unparks the mount considers tightening the rule of what un-parks the mount.

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My thoughts anyway,

Doug

Thank you Paul and Rene!

Will try it out this afternoon if I can?

Hi Ryan, Dale, and others using PEC with L6.11,

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René investigated the PEC not turning off issue in L6.11, and has produced an updated firmware L6.12 to resolve this. Please test with your Gemini and let us know if this fixes the issue. Once you confirm, this can become the official new version.

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The test firmware (only the .bin file) is here:

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Download the zip file, drag-and-drop it into GFU advanced tab, as shown below, and press Start to update:

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Please report back with your findings.

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Regards,

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? -Paul

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By the way, my limit config -

I woke up to my telescope as shown in this picture. Somewhere around 11PM the mount disconnected - second time this has happened recently. But what troubles me is that the mount continues to track and ignores the safety limit. Shouldn't it stop tracking if it reaches the limit?

This is an ethernet connected mount, and it's worked fine except for the occasional disconnect like this. Luckily I don't think it hit the pier (this time). Any idea why this is happening?

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I have a new G11/Gemini-2 that I bought last summer. I've set up a Home park location of due west, and park it when I'm done each evening.

Rick

Thanks Dale.?

Yeah I couldn’t get PEMPro to change the PEC status at all and like you said, if selected in the Hand Control it would momentarily deselect and then reselect itself. I didn’t try to deselect PEC through PEMPro while capturing PE like you did.?

I appreciate your response?

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Ryan

Hi Ryan,

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I had this exact issue last night as well. I believe the only change to my system since PEMPro last worked was the Gemini-2 firmware update done yesterday. And of course, Win 11 keeps sneaking in updates...

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The PEC would not turn off (just as you reported) - actually it momentarily turns off then on again via the virtual hand controller. It seemed to be "settable" in PEMPro after starting PE capture, so I proceded, but then other issues popped up: the star selection process did not seem to work, and all subsequent image captures failed.

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I didn't notice the error message if any, and gave up - long night by that point.

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Tomorrow...

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CS, Dale

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Thanks Paul,?

I feel somewhat validated, lol.?
I’ll probably just leave PEC on for now. I only discovered it because I was playing with PEMPro this morning but my existing PEC will still suffice for now. I appreciate the idea though and I’ll keep it in my back pocket if I need to turn it off down the road.?

Hi Ryan, I do see that PEC isn't turning off from the HC or virtual HC. Seems Gemini is now insisting on keeping it going -- something Rene will need to check :)

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A simple way to overcome this from the ASCOM driver is to go to Setup->Configure PEC menu and press the Clear PEC button:

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That seems to work for me. For those who don't use ASCOM, I believe deleting PEC/CurrPEC.pec file from the Gemini SD card and restarting Gemini will do the same.