Difficult to understand guiding issue in Maxin and ACP

Jerry,
I have a similar problem that appeared when I installed a new PC.  In my case, Maxim is not recognizing the pier flip relative to where I do the calibration.  I'm not using APC.  I use APCC but if I understand what you are saying, it sounds like your system is not recognizing the pier flip.  Is that right?

John


PS  In my experience, the DL guys are VERY quick to mark a problem solved as soon as you say you have something that works...or that might work.  When I've asked them for help, they are certainly responsive, but they do not appear to care about why anything happens.  They just want it off their plate ASAP.  That drives me more than a little crazy.

John Hayes:
Jerry,
I have a similar problem that appeared when I installed a new PC.  In my case, Maxim is not recognizing the pier flip relative to where I do the calibration.  I'm not using APC.  I use APCC but if I understand what you are saying, it sounds like your system is not recognizing the pier flip.  Is that right?

John


PS  In my experience, the DL guys are VERY quick to mark a problem solved as soon as you say you have something that works...or that might work.  When I've asked them for help, they are certainly responsive, but they do not appear to care about why anything happens.  They just want it off their plate ASAP.  That drives me more than a little crazy.

Yes, despite the amount of $ I have dropped over there, they are quick to call this solved.  It has been guiding since I posted this but nobody wants to explain what's up.  I assume nobody really knows.  I do not think that Adaptive option would be there if this problem did not exist.  I am glad it exists.  At the end of the day, Doug saved my cookies.

We may be very much in the same boat as I also use APCC to control my Mach1 with overall control through APC and Expert Scheduler.  Yes indeed it is not recognizing the flip.  Since I have three layers of software interacting you can see the problem.  This could be an APCC problem at the start, but I posted it over there and no comments. 

It is irritating as I have to take the system apart again soon but I am not going to change any of the guiding settings as long as it works.

John Hayes:
Jerry,
I have a similar problem that appeared when I installed a new PC.  In my case, Maxim is not recognizing the pier flip relative to where I do the calibration.  I'm not using APC.  I use APCC but if I understand what you are saying, it sounds like your system is not recognizing the pier flip.  Is that right?

John


PS  In my experience, the DL guys are VERY quick to mark a problem solved as soon as you say you have something that works...or that might work.  When I've asked them for help, they are certainly responsive, but they do not appear to care about why anything happens.  They just want it off their plate ASAP.  That drives me more than a little crazy.

Yes, despite the amount of $ I have dropped over there, they are quick to call this solved.  It has been guiding since I posted this but nobody wants to explain what's up.  I assume nobody really knows.  I do not think that Adaptive option would be there if this problem did not exist.  I am glad it exists.  At the end of the day, Doug saved my cookies.

We may be very much in the same boat as I also use APCC to control my Mach1 with overall control through APC and Expert Scheduler.  Yes indeed it is not recognizing the flip.  Since I have three layers of software interacting you can see the problem.  This could be an APCC problem at the start, but I posted it over there and no comments. 

It is irritating as I have to take the system apart again soon but I am not going to change any of the guiding settings as long as it works.

John Hayes:
Jerry,
I have a similar problem that appeared when I installed a new PC.  In my case, Maxim is not recognizing the pier flip relative to where I do the calibration.  I'm not using APC.  I use APCC but if I understand what you are saying, it sounds like your system is not recognizing the pier flip.  Is that right?

John


PS  In my experience, the DL guys are VERY quick to mark a problem solved as soon as you say you have something that works...or that might work.  When I've asked them for help, they are certainly responsive, but they do not appear to care about why anything happens.  They just want it off their plate ASAP.  That drives me more than a little crazy.

Yes, despite the amount of $ I have dropped over there, they are quick to call this solved.  It has been guiding since I posted this but nobody wants to explain what's up.  I assume nobody really knows.  I do not think that Adaptive option would be there if this problem did not exist.  I am glad it exists.  At the end of the day, Doug saved my cookies.

We may be very much in the same boat as I also use APCC to control my Mach1 with overall control through APC and Expert Scheduler.  Yes indeed it is not recognizing the flip.  Since I have three layers of software interacting you can see the problem.  This could be an APCC problem at the start, but I posted it over there and no comments. 

It is irritating as I have to take the system apart again soon but I am not going to change any of the guiding settings as long as it works.

Hi Jerry,

One last thing. Are you calibrating just once and done? When I said I can guide from east to west with no issues, that’s only if I stay on the same object. If I calibrated on an object in the east and then went to a new object on the west side without re-calibrating, I would defiantly have guiding problems. It may be inconvenient for some to re-calibrate after moving to a different part of the sky, but I do every time I go to a new target just to be sure the mount will track to that part of the sky. I think I read somewhere in Maxlm that they suggest re-calibrating anytime you move the mount more then 30 degrees or so, and every time you change in Dec, as the rotation speed of the sky changes.  

That’s all I got, hope it helps.

I too use a Mach1 and APCC.  I use MaximDL v6 for acquisition, calibration, stacking and DDP.  I also use it for guiding.  I use the MaximDL PinPoint light version for plate solve.  My APCC is the standard version, so I have to manually input the plate solved RA/DEC coordinates.    I recently purchased the full version PinPoint to use in Sequence Generator Pro.

I have taken Roland Christen's advice in guiding with Maxim.  He suggest always calibrate the mount near the meridian and DEC 0.  That is where earth's rotation and polar shift in DEC is most extreme. The guide rate in APCC should be set to 1x, and adjust guide aggression in Maxim.   He also recommends not using the "Scope DEC." tab in the Guide window.  He said the algorithm is very complex and prong to error.  So, leave it at "0".

I use the AP Meridian Delay option and always start imaging with scope on the eastern side.  I start set up by aligning  on a  star in the east with meridian delay NOT activated. The scope is then on the west side.  I then activate Meridian Delay ( 2E) and ask the mount to slew to the same alignment star.  It will slew with the scope now on the east side.  Counter weights may be pointing up.  I then connect the mount in Sky6.  Sky6 recognizes the Meridian Delay. I slew the scope  slightly to the east side of the meridian near DEC 0 and calibrate the mount.  I use 40 sec in RA and DEC using the AP/Baader 60mm guide/finder scope that AP sales.  I use a Loadstar X2 guide scope.

If for any reason I have to image with the scope on the west side OR forgot to calibrate on the east side foe east side tracking,   I click the  "Pier Flip" check box in the Guide window.  That usually solves the problem by reversing DEC.  I set the guide graph view to 1 pixel.  The error and correction usually stay within 1 pixel.  When Maxim's "Auto Save filter set up control does a Dither ( set to 2.5) the error will  go out of the 1 pixel range.  I set the delay to 30 sec and that usually is enough time for the guiding to settle back down.

As suggested by Roland, I do not set any weight off balance to RA or DEC.  I have two Mach1s.  One is permanently set up in a POD.  It is the newest version with the spring loaded motors and gear release clutches.  It can be finely balanced.  The other is an older version as a portable mount and can be difficult to balance due the the tension/friction in the RA/DEC housings. There, balance is a best guess.

A few notes and comments about MaximDL.  Occasionally, Maxim refuses to perform mount calibration.  I am lost as to why this happens.  It will give a triangular calibration result as apposed the correct "L" shaped.  (Buy the way when it works, my "L" shapes or always perfect right angle with no backlash)   It will also switch stars during calibration.  I don't Know if this is a calibration star issue, a Maxim issue or a Windows  issue.  Often shutting everything down will solve this, but not always.   Sometimes it is simply changing calibration stars, but often that doesn't work either.  However, once I have the mount calibrated, I don't re-calibrate until I change scope set up or for portable, re-set up.  When I have good guiding, I will copy down the number under "Manual Calibration" under Guide Settings.  If guiding is poor, I will compare those numbers.  Since I always calibrate near the same location, theoretically I should be able to plug those numbers in, using the same scope/guide set-up.  The problem is,  the rotation of the Loadstar would need the be exactly the same or never removed.
This is why I have avoided OAG.  I would need to re-calibrate every time I rotated to fine a guide star.  The 60mm guider/finfer have worked well for me, but the focal length is short and only works well with short focal length scopes.  I image with a AP130GTX at F4.7 and Tak FSQ106ED at F3.6.  The longest I image with is a C9.25 at F7.5 and there I switch to a WO 66 at F6 for a guide scope.

Another Issue I am having with Maxim is unrelated to guiding Issues.  I have a Starlight Express Trius SX46 camera.  It uses the Kodak KAF 12600 chip.
Any exposure longer than 2 sec will bloom the stars all the way to the upper side of the chip.  I have tried everything I can think up to track down this issue. 
Terry Pratt of Starlight says his works well with his MaximDL.  I have upgraded, and tried it on three different laptops an always the same results.  There in NO problem when using the Starlight Express  Starlight Live acquisition software OR Sequence Generator Pro.  Only in Maxim.  Maxim tech simply said camera problems are not their issue and contact Starlight Express.  The camera works fine, except in Maxim.  It is a Maxim issue.  Terry has been very helpful, but till I am not able to resolve this problem.  I much prefer Maxim's Guide set up and filter set up over SGP.  I probably have over $1000 in to Maxim by now with upgrades.  I love the software, but have found service very poor.

I hope my experience with the Mach1 and Maxim is helpful.

Lynn K.