CPC1100HD Mount setup

ProjectScope

Hi guys

I have a question and hope someone can help
I have a Celestron CPC1100 HD that I'm struggling to get working with ASIAIR Pro.

Getting Error: "Connect Failed. The device on the USB Serial Port is not detected."

I'm finding the instructions very confusing on how to set it up to control via ASIAIR Pro. I've read through the manuals and Im still not very clear on the the setup.

I have updated the scope and handset firmware to latest versions. I power on the scope, input time/date into the handset and do a Two Star Align.

No what?

Some guides state to connect the Handset to the ASIAIR Pro. Others simply say to connect to mount. Is through the enet from ASIAIR to an Aux port?
(Does not detect the mount when I do this)

Does ZWO have a simple to follow procedure for setting up the AltAz CPC mount?

Steps would help. For example:

Step 1. Connect handset to.....
Step 2. Align scope
Step 3. Connect X cable to mount/ASIAIR

Any help would be really appreciated as I've tried methods described online without any success.

Thank you in advance.

bobrich

I’ve got a standard CPC 1100 so all of my comments will be relative to that version of the mount. I know the HD has a few features, like Wi-Fi, that might make some of my statements invalid.

I found this pretty confusing to begin with as well. First thing to understand is that the ASIAIR presently cannot control the CPC 1100 mount without going through the hand controller. You must always connect the ASIAIR to the hand controller only for things to work. Be careful experimenting with the other ports, the PC port for example is actually an RJ45 serial port and if you connected to the ethernet port you might damage something.

Assuming you have the hand controller with the USB port on the bottom, i would try this.

Disconnect everything.
Connect your 12v power and the hand controller to the mount in their labeled ports.
Start up the mount and do an alignment. (Note that if you want to just experiment this with this during the day you can do a one star alignment and just pick a random spot for a random star and press enter than align. Just keep in mind that any specific goto function from the ASI air could cause the mount to do large motions. Just stay by the power switch.)
Once the mount is aligned, start up the ASIAIR and connect it with the app.
Once connected to the app, connect the USB cable from the ASIAIR to your mounts hand controller.
Either create or go to your mount settings and enable the connection. Make sure that the baud rate is 9600 and that you selected celestron and CPC from the list.

At this point the ASIAIR should connect to the mount and be able to control it.

After all this is done though, it’s very likely you will experience the same issue I have. The underlying communications driver that the ASI uses to talk to the CPC is something called INDI. There is a bug in the current version of the driver it causes the CPC to stop tracking after any manual slewing or guiding calibration. This is on the radar of the INDI team but they fix they attempted is insufficient. I’m going to try a pull request this weekend to see if they will take my fix.

ProjectScope

bobrich

Thank you very much. I had a suspicion after I posted that that is how it should be connected but many guides weren't explicit, and if anything, often implied the opposite.

Thanks again. Ill try this later in the week and let you know how it worked out. 👍

bobrich

ProjectScope Awesome! I'm very curious to hear if you notice that tracking turns off for 5-10 seconds after using the on-screen slewing arrows. It's most obvious by just listening to the drive motors, sometimes one axis will quit and sometimes both quit at which point the mount becomes dead silent.

ProjectScope

bobrich

Worked a charm! Thanks for your help.

I tested it inside only but I could hear the motors running when tracking. Had the scope up at least 10mins.

Have had cloud cover where I am for almost 3 weeks now so haven't gotten the chance to bring outside for any length of time.

Once I get it up and running outside I'll get back to you if I encounter any such issues. 👍

bobrich

ProjectScope great to hear! Been stuck inside myself. Thanks

Augenthaler

bobrich Hey there, I had/have a very similar problem (both on a CPC925 and a CPC1100), with autoguiding calibration failing. I tried out what you suggested, and indeed, tracking stops after using the arrows in asiair.
However, I think I found a way to fix this issue:
-If you go to the mount control panel on asiair, toggle through the different tracking speeds from sidereal to solar to lunar and back.
Chances are, you will not see those speeds there. If that‘s the case, do the following:
1) Switch off tracking in the asiair
2) Disconnect the mount in the asiar software.
3) Reconnect mount in asiair, and the tracking speeds should appear (possibly only after turning tracking on).
4) Toggle through speeds, and tracking doesn‘t stop when using arrow buttons.

I tried this out several times after shutting everything down, and it seems to work consistently. (I read from someone in a thread that they used this speed toggling to fix something related, but couldn‘t find it anymore.)

It´s daytime and cloudy, so I have yet to see if this solves the underlying problem with guiding calibration, but I‘m pretty hopeful. Let me know if things work out for you. Cheers and thank you!!!
Klaus

Augenthaler

bobrich Didn’t fix it after all…Starting to get a little mad over here that ZWO customers are left alone with these issues, although these are absolutely standard mounts.
Is anyone from ZWO reading these threads?

rolmsted

Hi - the reason you are having trouble is that the ZWO computers (and most others) can't auto-guide with alt-azimuth mounts. They work with equatorial mounts which tilt the telescope at the same relative degree as your latitude measurement from the equator. When the telescope is aligned at the right angle the computer only needs to rotate in one access to track the object. It can make fine adjustments in the other access but is not set up to expect to change both. Celestron makes a "Wedge" product for the SCT Fork Mount Telescopes which mounts between the TriPod and the telescope and allows you to tilt the whole telescope and forks to the proper equatorial angle. Then the telescope only has to sweep in an arc using only (I believe) the azimuth to track the object. Google Celestron Wedge and you'll find them. They look kind of scary but work well and Celestron made this product for this exact problem. Your scope should then track correctly.