Thanks Michael - I replaced the power supply with a new one a few days ago. I will double check its' connection.

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Ken

Well it is weird. Tonight it failed going to a star and I had to initiate park at CWD twice to get it to park.

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The error in the status page is " Powerfail detected! Off Counter: 496199 Stall in RA!"

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Another issue is I warm started at CWD from the previous nights session via the GeminiTelescope driver and sent the mount to a star but every time I picked up the HC to center that star the HC was showing the start page - had to select a start option before it would allow me to use the direction keys. That happened twice. I had replaced the HC cable recently.

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Thoughts? I will call Losmandy to discuss also.

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Thanks,

Ken

thank you everyone for your help,

I did a cold start today, the time zone was off for some reason but I have fixed that now. So far I am having no issues tonight. The first real test will be Tuesday as that will be the only night we have clear skies all night. I plan to run a full routine to see if it has any issues. Will update from there. All my tests tonight have worked well.?

On Sun, Jan 19, 2025 at 05:02 PM, Ryan wrote:

why it gives you the option to choose West side or East side

That is very interesting Doug, I will try this tonight to see. Althought I don't understand why it gives you the option to choose West side or East side. Doesn't really make sense to me, but will give it a go.

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On Sat, Jan 18, 2025 at 08:18 AM, Oberon510 wrote:

Last installment.

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I went nuclear - changed Gemini-2 battery and? reset/reconfig, changed power outlet, power board, G11 power adapter and cable.

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Last night went without a hitch so fingers crossed all is well again.

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Thanks,

Ken

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But what actually resolved the problem?? I think you said the battery was good.? Changing the power outlet in your house won't make any difference unless your house has a serious wiring problem. What's a power board, do you mean a power strip or surge suppressor strip???

?

Changing the power supply might make a difference if the cord or connectors are worn and giving intermittent outages.??

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Weird, but keep us posted!?

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?

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On Sat, Jan 18, 2025 at 08:58 PM, Ryan wrote:

It should be on the opposite side with the setting

Looking at the documentation for the Calibration Assistant (CA) are you sure about this movement error.? Reading the top of the CA panel the states "Use the slew buttons to move the telescope within 20 degrees ....... " or as stated the user starts by moving the telescope close to the desired CA position. Not that the CA program performs this step.

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?On slewing it says " The CA will always propose to slew the telescope to a location near Dec=0 (the celestial equator) and 5 degrees east or west of the central meridian. The choice of 'east' or 'west' is based on where the mount is currently pointing in order to avoid triggering a meridian flip."? This also means the user picks the side by initial placement.

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It goes on to say, "If you have obstructed views of the sky at your site, you can adjust the calibration location by changing the values in the 'Calibration Location'
?group of controls.? You should be conservative about doing this or you will defeat the purpose of using the CA. If you regularly have the same visibility
?limitations, you can save your modifications using the 'Save custom values.' button and then re-use those values on other nights by clicking on the 'Load
?custom values' button.".? which means filling out the panel values is optional and the east and west values your documentation of side for the initial placement.

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Then " Clicking on the 'Slew' button will result in two successive slews of the scope: the first to roughly position it slightly south of the calibration location, and the second to move it north by one degree in order to clear any Dec backlash.", this suggests your slew in the video was this slew.? And because of the slew start at the pole, this indicated neither an east or west position and the side defaulted to chance.? ?The mount then slews to perform CA on that chance selected side.

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Reread the documentation and see if you agree.? Where the mount observation results from a preconceived expectation.?

?

Doug

??

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Ryan, you are jumping from one issue to the next, without a clear explanation as to what you're doing or why. When you issue slew commands to near the meridian, like you're doing in the video, you need to be sure to account for mount's Goto and safety limits. If the destination exceeds these settings, you're likely to experience a meridian flip. This is when the mount slews to the other side of the mount trying to reach the target coordinate.

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I'm still not clear as to what's working and what's not. Can you please try basic mount operation, and report what happens??

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1. Start the mount in CWD position using Cold start. Verify that time and location are set correctly. Report the settings for your safety limits and goto limit

2. Use the HC modeling assistant to slew to a bright star. Report how far off this star is, then center it and perform an align. Make sure you center it precisely, a cross-hair on an eyepiece or on the image capture is a must

3. Pick the next bright star offered, and do 2-3 more aligns on the same side of the meridian. Report how far off each slew to the bright star is (before you center it, of course)

4. Try picking random targets, bright stars, etc., and doing goto to them while staying on the same side of the meridian. Report how far off these slews are

?

?

Well unfortunately I was wrong it definitely still isn't going where it should. As you can see the scope is on the east side of the pier pointing west. It should be on the opposite side with the setting I have checked below. It will also do this when slewing to east side stars etc.?

Being off that amount, for an initial slew, is nothing to be concerned about - just centre the object and synchronise the mount.

In order to get any closer you would need to be perfectly polar aligned and CWD, both of which are unrealistic.

since my hc is on 1.6 I don't have those boxes to check.?

Fortunately now it has been slewing to the correct side of the pier, but when I slew to a target it is off by about 30-40 arcmin, I have tried building a new model. Even with 8-9 points on one side I still get an initial slew with a distance from center error of about 30-40arcmin.?

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No idea how to fix this one either.?

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I also had it try to park at CWD in random positions. It even tried to flip my scope to where the camera was pointed towards polaris and the telescope front lense was pointed at the ground. A full restart of my pc and Gemini helped, but that is a new issue since updating the firmware. The restart did not help the initial slew error?

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HC is a required piece for seeing the gear reversal checkboxes ;) Although you could also check this through the Gemini webpages or the latest ASCOM driver.

well interesting, it did not update the HC thought it went through every step. But would that cause an issue? I'm under the impression the HC is not a required piece for imaging

On Sat, Jan 18, 2025 at 02:10 PM, Ryan wrote:

Paul,

I sent it into Losmandy for them to do it, so I did not do the L6 upgrade.?

?

Today I have updated the firmware to 6.1

However, When I go to the mount-gear on my HC there is no reverese dec/RA option??

?

I followed all the instructions to update the Firmware found here:https://gemini-2.com/gfu.html with no issues.?

?

I have a few hours of clear skies tonight will try again and update you on how it goes.?

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Hi Ryan,

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What does the screen show when you go from the diamond screen >> MENU >> HC >> INFO ?? This should show you something like this:?

HC firmware version 1.63

Mainboard Firmware 6.1

Servo Drive Firmware v3.0 and v3.0??

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If you do not see these same versions on your HC then you need to go back to the GFU and finish the update.? Sometimes the HC firmware check boxes are not set right and various parts are not loaded by the GFU.? Normally they should all be checked other than the Show Beta and Load Videos options.?

?

Under Gearing is where the Reversal RA DEC checkboxes are found - directly below the servo RA & DEC 4x check boxes.? ?

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Hope this helps.

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On Fri, Jan 17, 2025 at 04:09 PM, Chip Louie wrote:

On Fri, Jan 17, 2025 at 07:20 AM, Ryan wrote:

I can go back and check those boxes. I dont mind updating to the latest firmware, but is that likely causing the issue?

?

The reason I ask is in my experience updating drivers/firmware usually causes more problems than it helps. I'm happy to do it if it will fix my issue.?

?

Ryan,

?

I have been using the Gemini 2 L6.1 firmware with v1.6.3 HC firmware since it was released without issue.? It sounds like you have some sort of data corruption and a reflash with the current versions should clear it out.??

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IDK where you are located but if you are in L.A. area I'd be happy to reflash your Gemini-2 and also reprogram the PIC chips if you need additional help.??

?

?

?

thank you I am in Arkansas if I can't get this to work i'll take you up on that.?

Paul,

I sent it into Losmandy for them to do it, so I did not do the L6 upgrade.?

?

Today I have updated the firmware to 6.1

However, When I go to the mount-gear on my HC there is no reverese dec/RA option??

?

I followed all the instructions to update the Firmware found here:https://gemini-2.com/gfu.html with no issues.?

?

I have a few hours of clear skies tonight will try again and update you on how it goes.?

Last installment.

?

I went nuclear - changed Gemini-2 battery and? reset/reconfig, changed power outlet, power board, G11 power adapter and cable.

?

Last night went without a hitch so fingers crossed all is well again.

?

Thanks,

Ken

On Fri, Jan 17, 2025 at 07:20 AM, Ryan wrote:

I can go back and check those boxes. I dont mind updating to the latest firmware, but is that likely causing the issue?

?

The reason I ask is in my experience updating drivers/firmware usually causes more problems than it helps. I'm happy to do it if it will fix my issue.?

?

Ryan,

?

I have been using the Gemini 2 L6.1 firmware with v1.6.3 HC firmware since it was released without issue.? It sounds like you have some sort of data corruption and a reflash with the current versions should clear it out.??

?

IDK where you are located but if you are in L.A. area I'd be happy to reflash your Gemini-2 and also reprogram the PIC chips if you need additional help.??

?

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On Thu, Jan 16, 2025 at 08:37 PM, Ryan wrote:

This started happening after my L6 update.