ASIAir Home Position Problem

pbecker0127

I’ve got some questions about the “home” position on my ASIAir Pro and EQ-6R Pro mount. I set up my mount “weights down” with the scope pointing north. This is what is considered the “home” position. I then power up the mount and the ASIAir. At this point or any point thereafter if I tell the ASIAir to “goto home position” the mount slews on the RA axis to approximately 11. Why doesn’t the mount return to the “home” position? Where does the ASIAir get IT’S version of the “home” position? How can I fix this? I’ve seen it suggested that you should just loosen up the clutch and put it back where it “belongs”. This problem isn’t new and it isn’t just affecting Celestron AVX mounts as has been suggested. I’ve seen many threads head off into the weeds on this subject without a satisfactory solution. Has anyone been able to solve this very basic issue?

PMTeam@ZWO

pbecker0127 wrote:

I’ve got some questions about the “home” position on my ASIAir Pro and EQ-6R Pro mount. I set up my mount “weights down” with the scope pointing north. This is what is considered the “home” position. I then power up the mount and the ASIAir. At this point or any point thereafter if I tell the ASIAir to “goto home position” the mount slews on the RA axis to approximately 11. Why doesn’t the mount return to the “home” position? Where does the ASIAir get IT’S version of the “home” position? How can I fix this? I’ve seen it suggested that you should just loosen up the clutch and put it back where it “belongs”. This problem isn’t new and it isn’t just affecting Celestron AVX mounts as has been suggested. I’ve seen many threads head off into the weeds on this subject without a satisfactory solution. Has anyone been able to solve this very basic issue?

Hello pbecker0127, the mount has to be powered up at Zero Position even you are using EQMOD. With SynScan HC, includes power on at zero position you need to do 1star align before doing the connection in ASIAIR App.

radders76

I've had the same/similar problem lately with my HEQ5 Pro. Always start in Home position, weights down then power up. When I've done a Polar Alignment I always like to return to the Home position but it doesn't quite get there. Never used to do this. What I have noticed is that once I've done a goto to my chosen target and plate solved etc, at the end of my imaging session if I goto Home position it is bang on.

starmapper

I'm having the same problem with the ASIAir Pro and the AVX mount. I verified latest firmware in each. I set the HOME position on the AVX, align the scope, fire up the ASIAir, then SYNC the phone/tablet to the mount. When I hit the "GoTo HOME" in the mount tab the mount slews in both RA and Dec to a position about 10 degrees off. It's repeatable, rotating to the same position every time.

On a related note, I've found a problem with Polar Align routine. If I start from the HOME position established by the mount, the PA routine refuses to rotate the RA axis the required 60 degrees during the 2nd step of the PA. Sometimes it rotates a few degrees (5-10) then hangs. Other times it just hangs. If I hit the "GoTo Home" in the app first, the mount slews as stated above. Then if I start the PA routine from that slewed position the PA routine works fine.

IPNJAX

starmapper
I can't tell you how good it was to see your post. I have the exact same issues with my AVX. It has been driving me nuts. I have tried everything yet Home Position is way off. I have tried doing an alignment with the AVX only then power the ASI on. I have tried Resetting to factory settings on the AVX. Even tried Re-flashing the ASI card to make sure it was a software glitch. So far nothing solves it. I noticed this started about 3 firmware updates ago on the ASI. Prior to that I never had the problem and was always getting consistent Home position.

If anyone has a clue I would love to hear it before I am bald from pulling out my hair!

astrograndpa

I'm also unable to reset the home position in the ASIAIR Pro. I have a CGEM II (hypertuned). I followed all the above instructions, that is, with AIR off, I do a 2 star alignment of the mount (plus with 3 calibration stars), I use the mounts Utilities/home/goto which brings me back dead centered to Polaris. I then power up the AIR, and connect the USB to the handheld of the mount. Then on my iPad, in the AIR App I connect everything - mount and cameras. I always try to sync the App to the mount...always fails. I then use the App's goto. which moves to about 30 degrees east. I go back to the handheld goto which goes to dead center to Polaris. I've made sure I'm directly connected to the AIR wifi (and not my extender) for this testing. Unlike Radders76 above, after AIR/Preview/Goto a target the Home problem does not resolve.

so how do you successfully sync AIR App to the mount? maybe this would help?

stevesp

I have AVX
after sync to a star I goto home and then plug AAP to HC. Then I goto from AAP without issues

ArkRider

Check for GMT offset. Asiair doesn't understand DST and must be set to standard time using manual GMT offset.

Dspital

Has anyone come up with an answer to this Home Position issue? I’m having the same issue that others described. I Set mount to its index marks, do a star alignment, return the mount back to Home using the hand controller. Power up the Asiair, ask the Asiair to go to Home position, and it sends the mount off to the East no where near the mounts Home Position. Why?

PMTeam@ZWO

Dspital Hi, the mount has to be powered up at Zero Position. Please have a try.

Moorefam

I have just bought the ASIAIR and had no problem with home position till tonight. I powered up pointing at Polaris and it went to a "home" position somewhere near the nearest manhole cover. Nothing I try makes any difference. I tries disabling the encoders on my 200PDS Skywatcher but still no good. I tried loosening the clutches once it finishing pointing at the ground and set it back to Polaris but it just pointed down at the ground again. Now what?

reykowski

Same problem here.
I use a Celestron CGEM mount.
I power up the mount and align to "last position" (because the mount is inside and I am just trying to get the hang of Asi Air Pro). I also did set this position to "home position" on the mount.
But when I do "goto home position" via Asi Air Pro the mount skews off into the weeds. Makes absolutely no sense.
In this context, it would be a nice feature to see (and being able to set) the actual mount coordinates rather than RA/DEC for the sky. - Working with the raw data so to speak.
And please don't tell me that I need to do a "1 star" or "2 star alignment every time I want to use the software.

Tech@ZWO

reykowski

emeliasanford
Can you please reproduce the problem and submit the log in the ASIAIR APP for us to analyze? and please also let me know the BUG ID after submission. thanks.

emeliasanford

@Super Mario I can't tell you how good it was to see your post. I have the exact same issues with my AVX. It has been driving me nuts. I have tried everything yet Home Position is way off. I have tried doing an alignment with the AVX only then power the ASI on. I have tried Resetting to factory settings on the AVX. Even tried Re-flashing the ASI card to make sure it was a software glitch. So far nothing solves it. I noticed this started about 3 firmware updates ago on the ASI. Prior to that I never had the problem and was always getting consistent Home position.

If anyone has a clue I would love to hear it before I am bald from pulling out my hair!

Same problem here.

reykowski

emeliasanford I am feeling you. I see that ZWO Asi Air is quite popular but I really don't know why. I bought it because of the convenience and the price. I had been contemplating about creating my own solution using a Raspberry Pi. But then I saw Asi Air Pro and figured that it is exactly that. What I did not know was that they would make access cumbersome through a proprietary app rather than using the R Pi OS. Also, putting that WiFi into a shielded housing did not make setup easy. Initial setup took forever. Then, when I had AsiAir finally connecting to my WiFi, the connection was still so bad that I couldn't use it literally on my doorsteps. Like many others here, I got so frustrated and also sidetracked with more important things, that I ended up with my telescope under a dust cover for 3 years. Now, 3 years later, I was actually thinking about upgrading to the Asi Air Plus for better WiFi. But after reading a few reviews, the Plus seems to have issues too. Well, maybe it is time now to find an open source community that knows how to do things right - like Stellarium for example. Just need camera control apps and guide apps etc...
Arne

Tech@ZWO

reykowski A wifi extender can effectively solve the wifi problem on ASIAIR Pro, you can try that, or connect ASIAIR Pro to your home router.

Regard of ASIAIR Plus, the antenna on the ASIAIR Plus greatly improve the wifi signal. if user can not get stable connection when stand next to ASIAIR Plus, he/she can contact us for tech support.

reykowski

Tech@ZWO can I submit a short video? I see RA/DEC changing after I move the telescope per "goto" to a manual RA/DEC coordinate. - Should be static, specially with tracking on.

Tech@ZWO

reykowski Sure, you can share the video via cloud drive if it is too large.

arturoreynoso86

Hello! regarding the innacurate home position issue with the ASIAIR I found out something interesting... It might not the fault of the ASIAIR. I tested this with a Celestron AVX so maybe somebody with another mount can test this too. So, I connected the hand control to the mount and nothing else, I set the axis to their index position, powered the mount and do the normal startup process but selected "Quick Align" instead of another align method, then set the motor speed to 9 and move the axis about 45 degrees (any direction) then do an automatic goto home by selecting MENU>UTILITIES>HOME POSITION>GO TO because its the same command issued by the ASIAIR when going home.
The mount went home but to a wrong position, same position as I would get by going home on the ASIAIR...
Now this is important and dangerous because I set RA West/East limits and since the mount home position is way off the camera would crash into te tripod legs if you are not checking the mount position often. If anybody has a celestron avx mount please test this to see if you get the same results, and anybody with another mount that has the same problem give it a try... By the way, sorry, english is not my main languaje.

Corsair

From the AVX Manual:

Home Position – The telescope’s “home” position is a user-definable position that is used to store the telescope when not in use The home position is useful when storing the telescope in a permanent observatory facility. By default the Home position is the same as the index position used when aligning the mount

To set the Home position for your mount, simply use the arrow buttons on the hand control to move the telescope mount to the desired position Select the Set option and press Enter.

Select the GoTo option to slew the telescope back to the Home position at any time

So try that with just the hand controller connected to the AVX mount.

If it works to fix the Home position - then make sure you do that as part of setting the Home position of the AVX mount when using it with the ASIAIR.

https://www.astroshop.de/Produktdownloads/33052_5_Anleitung-EN.pdf

arturoreynoso86

Corsair
Yep, what I meant is that in the manual states "By default the Home position is the same as the index position used when aligning the mount." but that is not true, if you slew anywhere then go to home by Menu>Utilities>Home position> goto it will not return to index position, it will miss that point and go further, as same as what is happening by going home using asiair.