Re: Meridian Flips and NINA
It is in the "Files" section, the direct link is?
/g/Losmandy_users/files/Edward-Gemini-NINA.xlsx
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Edward
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Re: Meridian Flips and NINA
"?I uploaded a newer version of the spreadsheet with some added round-off error checks."
Thanks Edward.
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Jim W
Phoenix, AZ. USA
Losmandy GM811G, NINA 1.11, ASI2600MC Pro, Sky-Watcher Scopes
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Re: Meridian Flips and NINA
>>
By the way, I uploaded a newer version of the spreadsheet with some added round-off error checks.
thanks edward. can you post the link again?
On Fri, Jul 23, 2021 at 8:57 AM Edward Plumer < eplumer@...> wrote: Fascinating!? From this video, I am also hard pressed to see how this is not an issue in the Gemini firmware itself since the discontinuity clearly occurs in the HC. When I get back home to my scope, I will try to reproduce as well.
(1)? I lost track of your configurations ... did you see this on both the released and beta version of Gemini firmware??
(2)? To echo an earlier question, can you confirm this only occurs during a slew operation, not during normal sidereal tracking?
(3)? Are you only seeing this around the Meridian, which John relayed is likely to have trickier math?
(4)? If so, do you have any sense of how close you have to be to the meridian during a slew to see the anomaly?
(5)? I gather from your last comment that this does not happen everywhere along the meridian?
As you continue to document this, it might be good to note your lat/lon, time-of-day, rough RA/DEC, etc before the slews to see if there is any pattern that might be useful to someone who knows the code. Also allow others to reproduce the issue by resetting their clock and location in the HC to match your documented occurances.
In the meantime, as a work-around in your automation it might be good to set BOTH "Pause Before Meridian" and "Minutes after Meridian" in NINA to a minute or two, based on what you report for question #4 above. Leave "Max Minutes after Meridian" to the larger value based on WSL. Use the spreadsheet to get consistent values for the other parameters. This should ensure that NINA is not pushing the slew buttons or grabbing bogus coordinates during the window around the meridian.?
I would like to hear whether those settings sufficiently "hide" the occurrence of the anomaly.
By the way, I uploaded a newer version of the spreadsheet with some added round-off error checks.
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Edward
-- Brian?
Brian Valente portfolio
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Re: Meridian Flips and NINA
By the way, the spreadsheet password is "nina". Not trying to be coy, just ensuring users don't accidently changes cells that are not meant to be entered.
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Edward
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Re: Meridian Flips and NINA
Fascinating!? From this video, I am also hard pressed to see how this is not an issue in the Gemini firmware itself since the discontinuity clearly occurs in the HC. When I get back home to my scope, I will try to reproduce as well.
(1)? I lost track of your configurations ... did you see this on both the released and beta version of Gemini firmware??
(2)? To echo an earlier question, can you confirm this only occurs during a slew operation, not during normal sidereal tracking?
(3)? Are you only seeing this around the Meridian, which John relayed is likely to have trickier math?
(4)? If so, do you have any sense of how close you have to be to the meridian during a slew to see the anomaly?
(5)? I gather from your last comment that this does not happen everywhere along the meridian?
As you continue to document this, it might be good to note your lat/lon, time-of-day, rough RA/DEC, etc before the slews to see if there is any pattern that might be useful to someone who knows the code. Also allow others to reproduce the issue by resetting their clock and location in the HC to match your documented occurances.
In the meantime, as a work-around in your automation it might be good to set BOTH "Pause Before Meridian" and "Minutes after Meridian" in NINA to a minute or two, based on what you report for question #4 above. Leave "Max Minutes after Meridian" to the larger value based on WSL. Use the spreadsheet to get consistent values for the other parameters. This should ensure that NINA is not pushing the slew buttons or grabbing bogus coordinates during the window around the meridian.?
I would like to hear whether those settings sufficiently "hide" the occurrence of the anomaly.
By the way, I uploaded a newer version of the spreadsheet with some added round-off error checks.
--
Edward
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Re: Need advice selling my Losmandy G11 492 Digital Drive
I'd rephrase a bit. "The seller must demand that the buyer cover the fees." Generally, on CN, that only happens when the item is selling for several hundred bucks.?
Essentially all transactions today involve a 3rd party getting a piece to aid in the money changing?hands. Go to the farmers market and most vendors?accept credit or debit cards. Otherwise? sales will go elsewhere or not happen at all. I've sold about 550 OnStep controller kits worldwide in the last couple years, all through?Paypal. With sales that average $50 the fees are more in the 5-6% range and often there are additional?costs for currency conversions when you go outside the EU.?
It's just?a cost of business. Without it I wouldn't be selling to Abu Dhabi. It just gets built into the price. Don't get me started about shipping costs and reliability.?
Just shipped 4 kits to a fellow in Italy. Talk about triumph of hope over experience. His first kit landed in Warsaw a couple days out of JFK. It was then flown to Milan where it sat for 4 months. Considering it lost, I shipped a second. The two packages arrived a day apart.?
This happens a lot in the EU, like maybe 5% of the time. Every member state has their own postal service and customs service. When I order components from China they clear U.S. Customs before they are exported. Individual EU states can't offer that kind of coverage. Anyone who knows the history of the U.S. knows how well things worked under the Articles of Federation. The country only works because it became clear to the states that they had to give up some of the prerogatives of statehood. Unless and until the EU? members accept that fact they will not have a functioning union.
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Brian and Keith,
Thanks for clarifying the situation with these upgrade options.? I will likely wait on the SLW idea.? But I might do the RA extension.? My setup is not permanent and it might be handy to split out the DEC portion.
Steve
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Re: Need advice selling my Losmandy G11 492 Digital Drive
as @pcborland is interested in the mount head?
I am interested in the tripod base as I just bought a G11 locally but am not happy with the lighter weight tripod that it was sold with.
I think perhaps we can figure this out??
There are ways to ship this and if you keep the weight down below 50# per box it is less expensive.?
Flat rate boxes are cheap for very heavy items like weights. Perhaps @pcborland would mull over also buying the weights because they are 32mm bore?
I can be reached on Cloudy Nights where you can message me directly or email at @mikeby.mikeby and the last half is at? gmail dot com
?
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Re: Meridian Flips and NINA
On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 06:50 PM, <pcboreland@...> wrote:
I would thing there has got to be a problem in the math.
Peter, As I recall with my exchanges with Rene in 2018 when he wrote the Beta ware, he said there was some tricky calculations which occur near the meridian. Several of the issues some of us have seen over the past few years have that common theme, like the mount not responding to an app slew command to an object east or west unless you were already on that side of the meridian. Or the scope pointing into the ground. Or the wild slews. The Beta ware fixed many of these quirks for me, but perhaps the size of the fix needs to be enlarged, whatever that means in software speak. The Gemini logs I forwarded at that time helped with the solution. If you know how to read the code lines, you might see further into what happens at the noted points in recorded time when you see a problem.?
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Re: Need advice selling my Losmandy G11 492 Digital Drive
Just did a PayPal sale recently. The buyer must add 3% to their transaction amount for the seller to get full price requested.?
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Re: Need advice selling my Losmandy G11 492 Digital Drive
Bob H. here, if you consider "friends" in Pay Pal you lose a large part of the protections that PayPal gives to buyer and seller, especially the seller if something goes wrong.? Additionally there are 2 types of shipping costs, 1 covers just the transportation and the 2nd option gives a greater degree of protection of the shipped goods, so clarifying the difference to a buyer will protect both parties if problems arise. Lastly Cloudy nights is a viable option and there are methods to checking background of buyer mostly this will give a greater degree of safety to a seller. well that's my thoughts and data base on selling your mount. Respectfully submitted.
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Re: Meridian Flips and NINA
Hay everyone,
I've uploaded another video that shows the problem some 7 hours later in the day, for those here that might have insight as to what might be going on here. Since I first showed the problem this morning, I have since reset Gemini II and re-entered all my data.?
Its a fascinating problem as it moves along the meridian so hard to nail. I would thing there has got to be a problem in the math.
Peter
?
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Hi Steve.? I was/am in the same boat, and for me it doesn't make much financial sense to upgrade vs. selling what I have and purchasing new.? You might be interested in this thread:? /g/Losmandy_users/message/67900. Keith
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I'm looking to switch from Celestron to Losmandy!
Any idea when the G11G will become available??
I signed up for the waiting list.
Thanks!
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Hi Steve
you can do the high torque motors and RA Extension yourself
the spring-loaded worm is factory-installed only
Brian
I have a twenty year old G-11 which I upgraded to a Gemini-2 a few years ago.? Now I am interested in upgrading to the spring loaded worms.? After reviewing the information on the Losmandy website, I am interested in the following components:
- Spring loaded worm blocks + worms
- High Torque motors (might need to gear/motor housing)?
- RAEXK (my motors will NOT be tucked)
Does this make sense or do I need to ship my mount to Losmandy to add these components?? If it does make sense to order these components and install myself, what is the best way to order?
Thanks
Steve
-- Brian?
Brian Valente portfolio
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I have a twenty year old G-11 which I upgraded to a Gemini-2 a few years ago.? Now I am interested in upgrading to the spring loaded worms.? After reviewing the information on the Losmandy website, I am interested in the following components:
- Spring loaded worm blocks + worms
- High Torque motors (might need to gear/motor housing)?
- RAEXK (my motors will NOT be tucked)
Does this make sense or do I need to ship my mount to Losmandy to add these components?? If it does make sense to order these components and install myself, what is the best way to order? Thanks Steve
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Re: Needle bearings and axial play, is this a significant performance problem and how difficult is it to fix?
I thought the slew rate was limited by how fast the controller can count pulses?
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Re: Meridian Flips and NINA
Peter please see comments re: support ticket
I've tried both sides.
can we use the ticket to get this sorted, thanks. Easier to respond in one place
On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 12:34 PM pcboreland via <pcboreland= [email protected]> wrote: On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 11:59 AM, Brian Valente wrote:
Peter can you please email me, i must \not have your correct email address i'm at brian at losmandy dot com
?
Brian,
I think you must have it now as I just got an email. The test you did does not match mine. You need to slew on the other side of the meridian. Look at the coordinates in my video and you will see what I mean. I have the coordinates. mirrored horizontal. (Chart/transformation/mirror horizontally) in my setup.
Peter
-- Brian?
Brian Valente portfolio
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Re: Meridian Flips and NINA
On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 11:59 AM, Brian Valente wrote:
Peter can you please email me, i must \not have your correct email address i'm at brian at losmandy dot com
?
Brian, I think you must have it now as I just got an email. The test you did does not match mine. You need to slew on the other side of the meridian. Look at the coordinates in my video and you will see what I mean. I have the coordinates. mirrored horizontal. (Chart/transformation/mirror horizontally) in my setup. Peter
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Re: Meridian Flips and NINA
Peter can you please email me, i must \not have your correct email address i'm at brian at losmandy dot com
thx
On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 09:14 AM, Brian Valente wrote:
i was hoping to see this demonstration on the hand controller - I'm still not clear if you see this on the gemini by itself? without hooking up an external application.
?
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Brian,
As I said this same thing happens using the hand controller. The scope is is this position per the image for this area of the sky in the video. It's not easy to make a video out in a field, in the sun looking at green digits that appear already in the panel to the right of the video, and therefore some what pointless.??
-- Brian?
Brian Valente portfolio
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Edward Plumer