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Level 6.1 , HC 1.63/ Changelog

 

Greetings, folks!

After what felt like an eternity of clouded skies, we finally had a night of clear skies here in germany.
I was pumped to finally test the new firmware.
So, with full enthusiasm, a few buddies and I trekked out to the field, set up our gear
-myself the G11 with Gemini2 and all that jazz- and i started the alignment process.
And then... disaster. The G11 decided to slew in completely the wrong direction.

I checked the GPS coordinates and time, like a good little astronomer.
Nope, still wrong. G11 was off doing its own thing. I double-checked all settings, including ASCOM.
Restarted. Nada. G11 was still moonwalking in the wrong direction.

By this point, my friends were already having a blast while I was having a personal meltdown,.
In the end, I threw in the towel for the night.

Next day, I decided to calm down and take a look at everything at home.
In the changelog of HC v1.63, there it was something about:
"Checkbox to invert the direction of gearboxes in Mount->Gearing (for McLennan gearboxes, for example)."
Found the checkboxes in the HC... but why on Earth were these two checkboxes already ticked ... by default!?

Guys, I spent one full night out there, and it turns out that two tiny little checkboxes that had me chasing my tail. Classic.

Honestly, those checkboxes should really be left unchecked by default
so no one else ends up barking up the wrong tree for an entire night over something so tiny. ;-)

cheers
/Rainer
 

Rainer?
?
is that you….? ?Of early Gemini and G11 fame. ? If so you’re a legend. ?

in answer to you’re question. These McLennan gearbox are not ticked by default that I know of. ?Usually after any update you should do a HGM reset to ensure there isn’t any extraneous issues. ? I do this. ?

Then i re-enter Gemini data. ?As to why this happened to you, frankly I do not know. ?Nor could attempt to say. ? ?Computer being computers often have glitches….even the FA-18….”MacAir reset mid flight”. ? No not the laptop ….the flying thing with wings! ?

cheers
--
Brendan
 

Hi Rainer,
?
Sorry to hear about your troubles! I've heard of a few cases like yours, and certainly it's a very good reminder to check if the axis are reversed in settings when the mount goes in the wrong direction.
?
Can you please clarify, how old is your Gemini, what version of firmware was on it before your upgrade to L6.1, how did you upgrade to the new version, and where did the firmware come from?
?
> Rainer?
>
> is that you….? ?Of early Gemini and G11 fame. ? If so you’re a legend. ?
?
Hi Bren, I don't think that's Rainer Ehlert, but I could be wrong. I've lost track of that Rainer a long while ago. I think he was into spectroscopy most recently.
?
Regards,
?
? -Paul
?
On Fri, Mar 7, 2025 at 03:52 PM, rglas wrote:

Greetings, folks!

After what felt like an eternity of clouded skies, we finally had a night of clear skies here in germany.
I was pumped to finally test the new firmware.
So, with full enthusiasm, a few buddies and I trekked out to the field, set up our gear
-myself the G11 with Gemini2 and all that jazz- and i started the alignment process.
And then... disaster. The G11 decided to slew in completely the wrong direction.

I checked the GPS coordinates and time, like a good little astronomer.
Nope, still wrong. G11 was off doing its own thing. I double-checked all settings, including ASCOM.
Restarted. Nada. G11 was still moonwalking in the wrong direction.

By this point, my friends were already having a blast while I was having a personal meltdown,.
In the end, I threw in the towel for the night.

Next day, I decided to calm down and take a look at everything at home.
In the changelog of HC v1.63, there it was something about:
"Checkbox to invert the direction of gearboxes in Mount->Gearing (for McLennan gearboxes, for example)."
Found the checkboxes in the HC... but why on Earth were these two checkboxes already ticked ... by default!?

Guys, I spent one full night out there, and it turns out that two tiny little checkboxes that had me chasing my tail. Classic.

Honestly, those checkboxes should really be left unchecked by default
so no one else ends up barking up the wrong tree for an entire night over something so tiny. ;-)

cheers
/Rainer
 

?
My understanding is that there will be a change slipstreamed at some point in the future with respect to the gearboxes which required this firmware feature.? Historically the gearboxes were all the same but the new gearboxes output in the opposite rotation.? There is no best default but it is something people will need to know about their mount hardware.? It's easy enough to test quickly once you know to look there.? Maybe there should be a comment about this added to the Gemini L6 firmware web page.? ??
?
--

Chip Louie Chief Daydreamer Imagination Hardware?

Astrospheric - South Pasadena, CA?
 

On Fri, Mar 7, 2025 at 02:51 PM, Brendan wrote:
Rainer?
?
is that you….? ?Of early Gemini and G11 fame. ? If so you’re a legend. ?

in answer to you’re question. These McLennan gearbox are not ticked by default that I know of. ?Usually after any update you should do a HGM reset to ensure there isn’t any extraneous issues. ? I do this. ?

Then i re-enter Gemini data. ?As to why this happened to you, frankly I do not know. ?Nor could attempt to say. ? ?Computer being computers often have glitches….even the FA-18….”MacAir reset mid flight”. ? No not the laptop ….the flying thing with wings! ?

cheers
--
Brendan
?
IMO a legend for sure!?
?
--

Chip Louie Chief Daydreamer Imagination Hardware?

Astrospheric - South Pasadena, CA?
 

On Fri, Mar 7, 2025 at 02:51 PM, Brendan wrote:
Rainer?
?
is that you….? ?Of early Gemini and G11 fame. ? If so you’re a legend. ?

in answer to you’re question. These McLennan gearbox are not ticked by default that I know of. ?Usually after any update you should do a HGM reset to ensure there isn’t any extraneous issues. ? I do this. ?

Then i re-enter Gemini data. ?As to why this happened to you, frankly I do not know. ?Nor could attempt to say. ? ?Computer being computers often have glitches….even the FA-18….”MacAir reset mid flight”. ? No not the laptop ….the flying thing with wings! ?

cheers
--
Brendan
?
There was a famously spectacular failure on a new experimental US missile frigate many years ago.. Apparently the SCO UNIX O/S that ran the entire ship from propulsion to missile systems crashed and had the ship running berserk.? The solution was to depower the ship and get a tow back into San Diego where the SCO UNIX control system was decommissioned.? ?
?
--

Chip Louie Chief Daydreamer Imagination Hardware?

Astrospheric - South Pasadena, CA?
 
Edited

Hi Brendan, Hi Paul, Hi Chip,

First off, thanks for the quick replies!
Looks like you guys are handling it with the same humor as me,
even though it was a bit annoying.
But my buddy had his own issues the same evening after updating his GM1000 too ;-P

You can probably guess my last name from my nickname w/o r,
but no, I’m not the legendary one ;-)

Here’s the info, Paul:
Probably not McLennan boxes, though I would love to have them… or at least my ears would.
I’ve got the "old ones" that came with the High Torque motors back in the day.
Mainboard – Gemini2 PN6100127-00 Rev A / PCB PN 3050307-00 Rev E
HC – Himax9347 / v1.63 (Sorry, I’m not taking apart the HC for the PN)
Servos – both v3.0
I’ve always done firmware updates via GFU.
Previous version was 6.02 / 1.61.

Brendan, great tip – I forgot to reset after the firmware update.
But here’s the kicker. After I reset, set everything up, and did a reboot,
all my settings were gone. Guess what? The battery was dead… #&%!

Thanks, Chip! I didn’t even know the new G11/Geminis are shipping with the McLennan.
The GUI checkboxes are probably just flipping the gear value from "+" to "-" anyway.
Since the checkboxes were ticked in my update, the default must now be set to negative (-).

One more thing: after everything worked in the following night (except for the battery, which I replaced today),
I’ve got to say… totally awesome! With 5-star alignment/model, the Gemini2 is even more accurate now…
great respect and many thanks for your hard work!

Quick question though:
How do I make a backup of the Gemini2 and the HC configs?
Can I wipe everything and restore it later?

/cheers
Rainer
 

Rainer
?
you're still a legend ….as all Losmandy’s users are. ? ?On the point of Firmware update and reboot resetting all Gemini settings. ? No not quite. ?There is SRAM and flash RAM. ? Not all data can be guaranteed to be cleared. This is why the lvl 6 update specified “do a HGM reset”
?
I’ve been caught with odd data settings after firmware updates ? Always do a HGM reset post firmware?
?
Even the old G1, ?I can take the battery out (for a few seconds) and it loses RTC info but usually keeps most but not all SRAM data!
?
Rene’ haunts these forums I’d expect he’d be checking this but I have never seen McLennan selected by default.?

I think the McLennan option is given as Losmandy take care to ensure reverse operability with older modified mounts or users who fitted McLennan gearboxes. Michael Herman and a few others did write ups on fitting these, see Gemini 1FAQs under menu: help/Gearboxes and mods. ? For some reason I cannot link it nor find it but do have a copy if you want in pdf.?

https://gemini-2.com/faqG1.html#
?

?
Cheers and you are correct to bring this up, there could be lots of users seeing the same thing…..this is how we find and correct “issues” that slip the testing.?

The solution was to depower the ship and get a tow back into San Diego where the SCO UNIX control system was decommissioned. ??
Good to see the Navy as classy as the Airforce....hahaha
?
How do I make a backup of the Gemini2 and the HC configs?
Can I wipe everything and restore it later?
Good point Gemini but Gemini ASCOM does have "Rev Ra" in its settings and can do this for users? It can also save all user settings.
?
--
Brendan
 

Hi Brendan,
?
No it is not me, it is another Rainer, as I am still alive and live in Mexico and thanks for that about being a Legend?? :-0
?
Since April 2018 I have no Losmandy G11 and so also no Gemini anymore.
?
René contacted me today :-)
?
best regards to all and thanks for remembering me. It is nice to hear that people still speak about me, be it bad or good because when nobody speaks about you anymore then something is wrong :-) :-) :-)
?
Mexico NHSA Observatory
North 22° 8'35.63"?? West 101° 1'57.16"
 

Hi Rainer, it's good to see you!?
?
Regards,
?
? ?-Paul
?
On Sun, Apr 6, 2025 at 06:44 PM, Rainer wrote:

Hi Brendan,
?
No it is not me, it is another Rainer, as I am still alive and live in Mexico and thanks for that about being a Legend?? :-0
?
Since April 2018 I have no Losmandy G11 and so also no Gemini anymore.
?
René contacted me today :-)
?
best regards to all and thanks for remembering me. It is nice to hear that people still speak about me, be it bad or good because when nobody speaks about you anymore then something is wrong :-) :-) :-)
?
Mexico NHSA Observatory
North 22° 8'35.63"?? West 101° 1'57.16"
 

Thanks Paul but I do not own any Losmandy with Gemini anymore
?
regards Rainer
?
 

On Mon, Apr 7, 2025 at 09:56 PM, Rainer wrote:
Thanks Paul but I do not own any Losmandy with Gemini anymore
?
I realize that, Rainer, but even without a Gemini, it's still nice to see you! :)
?
Regards,
?
? ?-Paul

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