Oh, boy. So, here we go. Most of you keep talking about how to reset the mount and hand controller. I have an iOptron CEM40 mount and am using the ASIair pro which is not quite one year old and already out of date.... I hope there is some workaround that does not require me to set the mount or hand controller at each imaging session.
To do that with my setup, I have to start the mount with the hand controller, then turn off the mount, remove the hand controller, restart the mount with the ASIair connected to my ZWO camera which then connects to the mount via one of the USB 2 hubs on the camera.
To be as clear as possible, my setup does not allow me to use the hand controller and the ASIair at the same time. Whenever I switch from the hand controller to the ASIair, all the settings are automatically reset by ASIair even if I do not hit the Sync to Mount button. Every time I reconnect to the ASIair using my tablet or phone during DST, the ASIair gets reset to DST instead of EST. Here are things I have tried.
Remove the tablet from any method to automatically reset the time (either by WIFI or GPS). Set the local time to EST. Try to run via the ASIair after fooling all my equipment into believing I live where DST does not exist. Nope. No go. The Polar Alignment routine does work. When I point to an object more than one hour past meridian, it will point 15° (one hour) off on the initial point, auto plate solve, then move to the correct position. But auto and manual meridian flips are completely out of the question. The mount will crash or grind away at the gears trying to go where no CEM40 can ever go.
I tried telling the mount it was on DST and setting the tablet to EST and had the same pointing and meridian flip problems. Impossibly, I reset the mount to EST and tablet to EST with the same result (which is why I am certain the ASIair has to be doing something to the time on the mount or something. I've also tried setting the mount to EST and the tablet to either EST or DST and the pointing is always off by one hour.
This year, I considered using the hand controller to set the mount up as UTC -240 (minutes) instead of UTC -300 (minutes). That seems to be the one function on the mount that does not get reset by the ASIair running on the ASI app on my tablet. I do not have a simulator program, so I'll have to wait for a clear night to test this. Fortunately, it is past 3rd quarter moon, so I won't be wasting time on an imaging night. Unfortunately, I live in Syracuse, NY, so I will be lucky to get even one clear night in the next two weeks.
Final summation #1: I will report back here if setting UTC offset on my mount gives success.
Final summation #2: Programmers at ZWO, please have mercy. Add a line of programming that allows those of us unfortunate enough to have to deal with daylight savings to be able to flip a toggle that says whether or not we are on DST at the moment.
