Skywatcher EQ6RPro not taking time/date settings from the ASI AIR

_astroimager_

I was having a hard time Polar Aligning and using GOTO on my EQ6RPro. I have the ASI AIR connected to the mount via direct USB (Not ST4 link).

I found that moving the alt knob would also change the az error during PA. And the error values were erratic. Like if I am shown to move 30" to the left, and I move to the left, I get the new error as 69" to the left still. This does not make sense. I should have seen a value less than 30".

In the same way, when using GOTO, even if I synced the mount after a successful plate solve, it would just point to some totally opposite direction. It was a huge pain to use this mount along with the ASI AIR app.

Then out of desperation, I connected the HC to the mount. I was told I did not need to do that as the mount would take the time, date, DST and GPS from the ASI AIR app. After I manually set the time and date onto the HC, everything worked. GOTO and PA both worked. PA was really stable and I was able to get to within 1" of NCP.

So the question that I want to ask is, is there some known or unknown bug that is causing the time and date settings not to be sent to the mount when using the ASI AIR App?

Thanks in advance!

franco

_astroimager_ I was told I did not need to do that as the mount would take the time, date, DST and GPS from the ASI AIR app.

That's been my experience so far with 3 different mounts, including the az-eq version of your mount.

Corsair

ASIAIR Original / Pro / Plus 32GB / Plus 256GB / Mini ?

_astroimager_

Sorry, I am using ASI AIR plus 32GB. I also checked iOS permissions and it has location access turned to always and has access to my photos and everything looks good there.

Corsair

Question: How are you powering your mount?

Also, when you set up for the night do you the following in order:

Set up and level tripod. N marker should be facing True North/South (depending on hemisphere) not magnetic north/south.
Attach mount to tripod. Correctly set the latitude of your mount for your location.
Attach all equipment to mount and balance it all.
Make sure mount is in the correct physical Home position (counterweights down).
Now turn on the ASIAIR. This sets the Home position of the mount correctly in the ASIAIR since it sets the Home position when turned on.
Go through the initial steps in the App. Now turn on your mount.
In the App - go to Mount settings and enable your mount. Check that the time and date are correct (if you have Daylight Savings Time in your area - then it should be 1 hour behind your current time and you should see a caution about it as well).
Power on your camera and enable it as well. Enable any cooling. Give time for camera to cool to desired point.
Set Main Camera focal length to 0. Take an exposure in Preview Mode and plate solve to set focal length (make sure focus is good enough).
Now do Polar Alignment. When finished - go to Mount Settings > Go Home. Then Mount Settings > Sync Mount.
Choose Go To a star to track the star in order to refine focus in Focus Mode.
Then Mount settings > Go Home.
Now choose to Go To a target.
Make sure to return mount to Home position before going to next target.

_astroimager_

Where can I find the N marking? Is it on the tripod or is it on the base before putting on the mount? I looked but did not find it. Once I can find it I can verify with the above steps.

Thank you!

Corsair

_astroimager_ Apologies. The tripod of the EQ6-R Pro doesn't have an N marker. You use the Black peg instead.

Watch this video about setting up the EQ6R-Pro (note: not all of its relevant but a lot is about physically setting up the mount with gear correctly). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9MTR7x2WCU

Also worth having a look through these videos: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Sky-Watcher+EQ6-R+Pro+asiair