CAA Questions: Page 2 - ZWO User Forum

CAA Questions

DvsZIO2F

I am having the same issues as everyone else. There needs to be a way of setting the user “zero” position within the ZWO ASIAIR software. I can’t find a way of doing this running ASIAIR PLUS through my iPad or iPhone. Last night my CAA decided to rotate to 150 degrees, rather than 30 degrees, for framing. Both are equivalent for my ASI6200MM. But the 150 degrees rotation caused a collision with my AM5n mount and broke the USB B female socket in my 7-position ZWO filter wheel, so now I have to get that repaired. The “360” and “180” degree options are confusing and misleading for the users. What we need are two things to be made available in the ASIAIR software:

Introduced the facility for the user to define a “zero” position that survives disconnects and power-down within the ASIAIR app.
Replace the confusing 360 or 180 degree choice with a 360 or +/-90 degree option with respect to the user defined zero position. The latter would prevent any risk of mount collision and enable the user to frame for any circumstance.

DvsZIO2F

Tech@ZWO

Thank you very much for your guys feedback, i conveyed and we will optimize this as soon as possible.

evltoy

Thank you ZWO for implementing what you have to date. It is welcoming by all and cant wait to see more refinements in the near future.

I have notice a few users have mentioned that they have damage ports from the CAA rotating beyond 180 etc. I understand why the system is trying to do this, but I don't think this solution fits the majority of users.

If your were able to introduces user limits within the 360 range you may find that usrs can let the CAA rotate on flips, but the system will find it will hit users set limits and go back to were it was.

Here is an option to consider
Have a button in the CAA interface to reset the current CAA location to 0 or a button to move the CAA to 0 position.
User will then manually rotate CAA left to desired location and set first limit - via HC or in ASIair app
User will then manually rotate CAA right to the desired location and set final limit. - via HC or in ASIair app

effectively the user is setting a dead zone in which the CAA and can not entre and the system will have the smarts to either rotate the other way or stay in its currently position on flips etc.

The "Dead" Zone is the area where other devices cable port are within.

Tech@ZWO

evltoy
Yes, we are considering to add the 0 position in the settings so the users can tell the 0 position and the limition position, thank you again for your suggestions.

DvsZIO2F

ZWO has done a great job with all its products and it’s the reason why I have migrated all of my astrophotography equipment to the ZWO platform - ASI6200MM, EAF, EFW 7 x 2″, AM5n, ASIAIR Plus. Up until now, everything has just WORKED and astrophotography has been a joy and the equipment has been reliable. However, since buying two ZWO CAA units, everything has changed and now the system is unreliable, unpredictable, and has caused damage to some of my equipment. The urgent fix needed from ZWO should be straightforward. PLEASE eliminate the current 360/180 degree options and replace this with a simple +/- 90 degrees rotation from a USER DEFINED mechanical zero position. Also please add a user selectable check box which says “do not rotate camera after a meridian flip”. This should, I believe, solve everyone’s problems with the CAA and make my astrophotography a joy once more.

KaRh41BI

I've been waiting for the ZWO CAA for a while and always made it by with DIY rotators. I finally got one a few weeks ago and I am so disappointed.

First of all, the advertised pointing precision is meaningless when there's a constant 1-2 degrees of backlash/slop in the unit itself. It seriously WIGGLES back and forth. And it's not just my unit - several in our local group have purchased and are now selling their CAA units for just this reason.

ASCOM integration is awful. Relative/absolute positioning is incredibly poorly defined and the logic between how and when the unit decides to move CW or CCW is far from intuitive and not spelled out anywhere I can find.

And what is the comment about there being a 'mechanical' zero position that the CAA can't cross? I've seen this thing spin the SAME WAY several times over 360 degrees and thoroughly wrap cables into an absolute mess.

The product was promised a long time ago and took forever to come out but still feels incredibly rushed. Slop in the hardware and buggy/incomplete software MONTHS after release is unacceptable. I already moved away from ZWO on all my other rigs and I'll be selling the CAA now as well. I'll go back to DIY or maybe a Falcon.

KB1911

ZWO Studio v1.15 had the option to set a new 0,
but that was removed in v1.15.1.

kotka

ZWO - any solution on the way to protect us from cabling issues?

I’m so tired to see the picture like this every night:

Tech@ZWO

kotka what software you used to control CAA? ASIAIR or others? could you submit a bug report in ASIAIR If you use it?
CAA has a machine limition position, so should not have this issue, maybe we can figure out the problem via the log, thanks.

KB1911

Are you using AA or ascom? I am using N.I.N.A with no problems.

kotka

Tech@ZWO

Hi, I use AsiAir. My scope is in remote observatory, shall you need log - just let me know how I can get it out of AsiAir

KB1911

Tech@ZWO

Is there any way to download ASI Studio v15.1? It had the Edit option for the Current Position, which allowed changing the Zero position of the CAA.

tomas-kocanda

Hi friends
can you share some info about fixing above issues? Its mentioned many times here and at the FB groups including official ZWO Astro group bu no real response.
As I mentioned several times (and others too), users with anything else then refractors cannot use flats shooted with different angle then lights. Not only is not clear, what angle has been shooted each flat (especially with strange rotations what does not solve the 180° limit option in current beta or current full version of AsiAir), but mainly with fact, that shooted flats is impossible to identify what angle been used when the flats series been shooted. For stacking its real pain. Probably best would be to include CAA angle in the name of any file (flats, lights..) so will be immediatelly visible in WBPP or other stacking sw, that those lights are with 124° angle and it need matching angle flats identified by degree value in name. Or flats can be grouped by angle in sub-folders and easy group renamed before processing. Its real pain to return from shooting and guessing what flats are what angle as there is no way how to identify it other the exact shooting time and written notes. Maybe even autorun logs with this info would help too. But easiest will be simply ... aXXXd somewhere in the filename (like a124d) what would identify that those files angle is 124 degrees.
Here is quick example from SCA260 scope, what is super cassegrain - rotations by 90°. Impact on flats is massive.
Please let us know the progress. Many of my friends (mainly with RC or newtonian scopes) decided to not buy CAA until this will be solved.

tomas-kocanda

Hi friends
can you share some info about fixing above issues? Its many times here and at the FB groups including official ZWO Astro group bu no real response.
As I mentioned several times (and others too), users with anything else then refractors cannot use flats shooted with different angle then lights. Not only is not clear, what angle has been shooted each flat (especially with strange rotations what does not solve the 180° limit option in current beta or current full version of AsiAir), but mainly with fact, that shooted flats is impossible to identify what angle been used when the flats series been shooted. For stacking its real pain. Probably best would be to include CAA angle in the name of any file (flats, lights..) so will be immediatelly visible in WBPP or other stacking sw, that those lights are with 124° angle and it need matching angle flats identified by degree value in name. Or flats can be grouped by angle in sub-folders and easy group renamed before processing. Its real pain to return from shooting and guessing what flats are what angle as there is no way how to identify it other the exact shooting time and written notes. Maybe even autorun logs with this info would help too. But easiest will be simply ... aXXXd somewhere in the filename (like a124d) what would identify that those files angle is 124 degrees.
Here is quick example from SCA260 scope, what is super cassegrain - rotations by 90°. Impact on flats is massive.
Please let us know the progress. Many of my friends (mainly with RC or newtonian scopes) decided to not buy CAA until this will be solved.

tomas-kocanda

[unknown]
photo was not possible to upload 🙁

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