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Howdy all. Does anyone have any advice on how to get a Losmandy G11 to perform an automatic meridian flip with NINA? In my case the telescope never slews after the meridian flip command is given and NINA tries to plate solve and re-slew, over and over. Thanks for any help. Dan |
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I use a different mount and have had similar issues. I'm still trying to perfect it but there are 2 things that I have tried to incorporate to my sequence when I know a flip will be needed (night's so short this time of year that I get through most nights without one). First is making sure I have at least a 15 minute pause after the flip. What I have seen happen is the flip happen then the sequence picks back up and tries to flip back again when re-slewing. Even if it doesn't and it slews properly my GEM45 seems to not like guiding that close to the meridian and needs to get rolling the other direction before it will apply corrections properly. The other thing is to make shorter sequence groups so NINA triggers a recenter frequently. It costs time overall but can be considered an insurance payment for the time integration time bank account. Maybe You already know/do all this and your issues are strictly related to your mount. My GEM45 had connectivity issues the first year I had it that magically resolved from simply opening the circuit board boxes and reseating the plugs. |
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Hi Dan, there’s a GroupsIO for Gemini users, you should post you questions there, lots of Losmandy users will be willing to help. Short answer is I have NINA flipped with both my Gemini and Gemini II, so it can be done. Usually the issues are your east and west settings. There’s a video on YouTube produced by Losmandy that explains the process. Clear skies! |
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| I moved the topic to the "Losmandy G11" equipment item: owners of this mount who didn't opt out of the notification will be notified and perhaps somebody will have an answer! |
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Thanks everyone. I did find that my western go to limit was set to 0. I have since set it properly and am now waiting for a clear night. Dan |
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| There’s a good spreadsheet out there put together by one of the oth G11 users that assists in finding the correct settings based on your safety limits and go to. I had the same issue early on. I’ll second two things, the YouTube video and groups.io G11 group. Both excellent sources of information. |
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Hi Dan, no need to wait for a clear night. I’ve done meridian flips in the day time with NINA to check my East/west settings work. Through NINA go to a star near the east side of the meridian, using sequencer setup an imaging routine with a flip command. Run the sequence, when NINA thinks the star has crossed the meridian it will issue the flip command. CS |
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Greg Bass: Thanks Greg, I will give that a try tonight. Dan |
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Regales what program you use to control the mount, you most set the safety limits in Gemini 2 using the hand controller. The issue is, there is just a time window Gemini will accept the commands from the program to do the flip, if they are out, G2 will ignore them. Look at the Losmandy video of how to set the limits. They explain very well that. I had the same issue with ASIair until I set the limits correctly Hope this helps Rodrigo |
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Well this has been a pain in the ar$$, but I think I have it fixed. I was able to perform an automatic meridian flip by setting Nina to initiate at least 15 minutes after meridian. Luckily my scope is short and stubby and I can image nearly 2 hours after meridian. Thanks everyone who gave suggestions. Dan |
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Greg Bass: Hi Greg, can you tell me the link to that group? I just can't find it and I have a Losmandy and although it flip meridian with NINA, I have some problems... Many thanks! CS, Jaume |
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Hi Jaume, here's the link for the Gemini II Group: https://groups.io/g/Gemini-II/ There is also a Losmandy Group and Gemini Group, I joined all three. CS. |
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Greg Bass: Many thanks Greg! CS. |
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I had exactly the same problem, but with ASiair Plus executing a G11 Meridian flip. I believe I have found the main issue here, but a caveat: this has happened in only the last few days and I haven't had a clear night to test it under "production" conditions. This is what I understand, and where possible, tested: a) The Gemini/G11 doesn't have a native M.f. command - it has only GoTo and GoHome commands. b) It is possible to set safety slew limits on the G11 via the handbox or a control program like Gemini Control Center (GCC). These allow the RA axis to go beyond the Meridian on the approach side, or pick up prior to the Meridian on the departure side. I'm not sure what the limits are set at out-of-the-box, but suspect that they are both 90-deg. c) In ASiair, you can define prior- and post-Meridian delay times. When the ASiair determines that the mount has reached the prior-Meridian point, in its Autorun or Plan modes, it stops tracking. It then waits out the pre-Meridian then the post-Meridian delays you have set, then gives a GoTo command for your target. d) This is where things come unstuck! You would expect that if you executed a GoTo command at this point, i.e. while it is paused close to the Meridian on the approach side, the mount would slew the OTA to the opposite side of the axis. Not so! Gemini just moves the OTA to its new position on the current side without doing a flip. Tracking resumes, and you end up reaching the slew limit with the alarm sounding continuously, and possibly continuing beyond the limit, to the detriment of your gear. [I have checked mine today, and it stops tracking once the limit is reached - phew!] e) If you try to GoTo the target when the slew limit is reached/exceeded (i.e. you have the limit alarm sounding continuously), Gemini doesn't seem to recover (at least my v1 doesn't) and just continues to sit at the limit point with the alarm sounding. The only way out of this appears to be to issue a GoHome command, then a new GoTo command (after pausing Autorun/Plan). This, obviously, defeats the purpose of the automation. [Checked today: the GoHome command didn't work, but worked up to just before the limit was reached.] f) The best way of achieving an AMF is to have the ASiair's post-Meridian delay time sufficient for the target to get outside any G11 slew settings. I have trialled limits of 92-deg on both East and West sides, with a post-Meridian delay of 10 mins and it worked just fine. It may also work with E91-deg/W91-deg/5 mins but I have not tested this, yet. If you set both at 90-deg, then you have to put up with the alarm sounding until the flip commences. To sum up then: With slew safety limits set in Gemini, set a prior-Meridian delay to a low value, and set a post-Meridian delay to a value that would have the target beyond the approach-side safety limit. This will result in a hiatus around the Meridian, but if you have a post-Meridian delay too short then Gemini appears to interpret a GoTo target command as having the target still in range on the approach side. If that occurs, you are likely to have a mess on your hands to sort out. I hope this helps. Paul. ADDENDUM: I have checked out the E91-deg/W91-deg limit setting with a 1 min pre-Meridian delay set. The alarm started chirping its warning ~30sec before the delay point ws reached. This is a nuisance for some, so you could set ASiair's pre-Meridian stop point at 2 min. I found that 3 min after Meridian, I could slew to the target with the OTA on the opposite side. This made a 4 min hiatus for me - comfortable! This test was done in daylight, so a true test (Autorun/Plan) needs to be done to confirm these settings. If you aren't troubled by the alarm sounding, then possibly E90-deg/W90-deg/1 min (or even 0 min) might work. ADDENDUM2: I've now used the above configuration (slew limits E91-deg/W91-deg, 1 min pre-Meridian delay in ASiair) on 4 nights, and all went well, so well, in fact that I took myself to bed for the last one and didn't check it until I surfaced an hour after Meridian. With the 1 min delay, the Gemini can start beeping its slew limit warning if it stops tracking close to this point - no problem here, though, it's just an audible warning. I did find that after the flip, it can take the ASiair 1-2 mins to sort itself out before doing a plate solve and re-centring the target. Why the delay?? I haven't a clue. [WARNING: With Gemini 1, if the slew limit is reached, then GoTo, GoHome and GoStartup don't work. You have to backtrack the RA axis with the slew controls eastwards until all warnings are off, then any of those commands will work. At least, that is my experience.] |
