Continuing issues with iOptron GEM45 mount and ASIAIR Plus

bigbanger

First some specs

ASIAIR IOS version: 1.91 (9.97)
iOptron GEM45 (the new version) with Hand Controller and “Main” Firmware: 210605
Connection: USB 2 cable from mount to USB 3 port on ASIAIR

Connecting the mount to ASIAIR’s USB 3 port has eliminated the “mount not found” issue. The combination is now kind of workable but there are MANY issues. Here are a few that come to mind.

1) Polar alignment fails in that the scope continues to turn beyond the programmed 60 degree angle. I’ve had to manually shut off the mount on a couple of occasion to prevent it from crashing the scope into the mount.

2) Occasionally when commanding the mount to return to home position it misses the pole by a VERY wide margin

3) Occasionally the ASIAIR goto function badly misses its target AFTER commanding it to plate solve and go to a new target. I suspect issues #’s 2 and 3 are related

4) After a successful goto operation, it often does not automatically return an image of the target to confirm success. It’s a minor but odd issue.

What on Earth is going on here???

Thank you in advance.

w7ay

bigbanger 1) Polar alignment fails in that the scope continues to turn beyond the programmed 60 degree angle. I’ve had to manually shut off the mount on a couple of occasion to prevent it from crashing the scope into the mount.

Check the mount's user manual to see what the factory default slew rates of your mount are (for an iOptron mount, you would typically see 9 slew speeds, like 1x, 2x, 4x, 16x, 64x, 128x, 256x, 512x, 1066x sidereal rate). Then check the hand controller to see what they are actually set to. If any of the the slew rates in the hand controller is different from the factory default; that could be your problem.

Chen

johnpd

Another thing you could try is before doing anything with the ASIAIR, do a <Home> operation using the hand controller. One more thing. I have a newer CEM40 mount which uses the same ASIAIR telescope model selection as the GEM45. In order to connect to my mount I had to place an unpowered USB 2.0 hub in between an ASIAIR 2.0 port and the mount's USB 2.0 input port. Although USB 3.0 should be compatible to 2.0, there is a possibility something is amiss. You might want to try that to see if that might help.

JohnD