@matt s#53776 Most frustratingly, and repeatedly, the AAP failed to calibrate when setting up the auto guiding: it would appear to calibrate West ok, but the crosshairs would continue to move West when it was telling me it was calibrating East!
That drift sounds suspiciously like tracking has been turned off. Next time it happens, check your handset controller for the state of tracking (and make sure it is tracking at sidereal rate and not solar or lunar rate).
If that is what is happening, you might be able to manually force tracking back on, behind ASIAIR's back.
By usual "convention," mounts turn on tracking after a GOTO is sent to it. And tracking continues until the mount reaches some limit set by the user (like horizon limit, or Meridian limit). Or the computer specifically send the mount a "stop tracking" command. The snafu may be caused by ASIAIR turning off tracking for some reason.
For safety reasons, tracking will often be turned off by the mount when communications is suddenly lost (even for a short glitch). So, check to see if the ASIAIR had stopped communicating with the mount -- be sure to strain relief the connectors at both ends to prevent the connectors from physically moving, and perhaps also try the cheap USB 2 back power preventer like this one (mounts don't need USB 3):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094FYL9QT
It is cheap enough to try.
Mounts often like to back power their USB connectors (don't know if that holds for your mount), and depending upon the tiny voltage differential (ASIAIR or mount has the higher 5V on the USB power line), could back power the ASIAIR and cause weird behaviors.
I have seen an ASIAIR completely refuse to even boot when it is badly back powered (i have a USB 3 powered hub that does that predictably to ASIAIR), but most often, the ASIAIR will boot, but then develop sporadic USB disconnects afterwards.
Chen
