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SyncToTarget() RaDec sync rejected

Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equipment Equatorial Mount Troubleshooting M104
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Linus avatar
Linus avatar
Hello,,

A few nights ago I opened the roof of my observatory just like any other night and decided to take a look at M104, which for me in Scandinavia sits very low on the horizon near the meridian. I used the target finder in NINA and my EQ6R-Pro slewed just like any other night to the target. When I came within a few degrees of the target and the plate-solve told me that the target was not within my margins and it was going to re-slew it freaked out and moved the telescope miles off target before going back. I got an error saying: SyncToTarget() RaDec sync rejected. I didn't think much about it but in the morning when I was going to park my telescope it ended up in a position miles off where it usually sits in park. Now whenever I try to slew to an object the telescope slews to a completely different part of the sky and gives me the error that a Sync was rejected.

My questions are:
  • What caused this in the first place?
  • Is there a way for me to fix this remotely without having to visit my observatory and re-do park position/balancing and polar alignment?
  • Is there a way to force coordinates to telescope through EQMod? I remember CdC has an option to sync to telescope but The newer versions of EQMod rejects the sync because it is so far off where it thinks it is.



Any and all help appreciated!
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andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
The only thing I can think of is that the mount driver settings will have an altitude limit beyond which it won't go. As for the remainder I think you can override the position in NINA and move the mount manually (using the mount control panel in NINA) to move it to point at the NP (which is the default park position for NINA, afaik). Not sure whether this can be reset in EQMod as I'm not familair with SW stuff. May be done with Green Swamp Server, check it out.
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Médéric Hébert avatar
Médéric Hébert avatar
I've had it happen to me before, in my case, the mount lost power and reset it's position to park when the power came back even tho it wasn't pointing there. To fix it, manually point the mount where it's park to within a few degrees, then turn it off without parking it. Turn it on then plate solve. Also the mount as to be going at sidereal speed. It often a reject syncs if it sits idle
Linus avatar
Linus avatar
andrea tasselli:
The only thing I can think of is that the mount driver settings will have an altitude limit beyond which it won't go. As for the remainder I think you can override the position in NINA and move the mount manually (using the mount control panel in NINA) to move it to point at the NP (which is the default park position for NINA, afaik). Not sure whether this can be reset in EQMod as I'm not familair with SW stuff. May be done with Green Swamp Server, check it out.

GS Server might be a good shout, will look into this, not sure how they handle syncs.
Médéric Hébert:
I've had it happen to me before, in my case, the mount lost power and reset it's position to park when the power came back even tho it wasn't pointing there. To fix it, manually point the mount where it's park to within a few degrees, then turn it off without parking it. Turn it on then plate solve. Also the mount as to be going at sidereal speed. It often a reject syncs if it sits idle

When you say "Manually point the mount" do you mean, physically manipulate it or slew?
Médéric Hébert avatar
Médéric Hébert avatar
Médéric Hébert:
I've had it happen to me before, in my case, the mount lost power and reset it's position to park when the power came back even tho it wasn't pointing there. To fix it, manually point the mount where it's park to within a few degrees, then turn it off without parking it. Turn it on then plate solve. Also the mount as to be going at sidereal speed. It often a reject syncs if it sits idle

When you say "Manually point the mount" do you mean, physically manipulate it or slew?

You could do it physically but I find it easier to slew using the direction arrow
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
I have had my EQ6R-pro mount do this a few times, usually the result of a plate solve error. To reset things I would shut down NINA and manually put the mount into the park position disconnect from GSS and power the mount down. I don't know about EQmod but GSS will handle all this with no issues. I don't know if it makes any difference but as soon as I connect the mount in NINA and while it's running but still in the parked position I always click on the "Save as Parked" button on the mount page.
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Linus avatar
Linus avatar
Tony Gondola:
I have had my EQ6R-pro mount do this a few times, usually the result of a plate solve error. To reset things I would shut down NINA and manually put the mount into the park position disconnect from GSS and power the mount down. I don't know about EQmod but GSS will handle all this with no issues. I don't know if it makes any difference but as soon as I connect the mount in NINA and while it's running but still in the parked position I always click on the "Save as Parked" button on the mount page.

Thanks for your input, when you say manually are you slewing the scope to roughly the park position or are you physically manipulating it?
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
Linus:
Tony Gondola:
I have had my EQ6R-pro mount do this a few times, usually the result of a plate solve error. To reset things I would shut down NINA and manually put the mount into the park position disconnect from GSS and power the mount down. I don't know about EQmod but GSS will handle all this with no issues. I don't know if it makes any difference but as soon as I connect the mount in NINA and while it's running but still in the parked position I always click on the "Save as Parked" button on the mount page.

Thanks for your input, when you say manually are you slewing the scope to roughly the park position or are you physically manipulating it?

I usually just loosen the locks and do it by hand but both ways would work.
dkamen avatar
dkamen avatar
I am getting SyncToTarget() failures with my GEM28 some times. I believe that happens when the mount should have done a meridian flip but didn't "know" it, because of an error in its initial position. It crosses the meridian without flipping (as Andrea said most mounts don't mind doing so as part of a move command), then plate solving tells it this is a position past the flipping point, so it refuses to sync there. My solution is to send it back home, wait 3-4 minutes for good measure and then retry. The mount will slew pointing west and sync.

It helps if I have synced with at least one less controversial target first, so that the mount has an better idea of its current position.

cheers,
D.
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Linus avatar
Linus avatar
Marking this as solved, Switching to GSS was the solution for me. I will still need to go to the observatory physically to reset my park positions in GSS but the scope is now aligned with the pointing model.
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
Linus:
Marking this as solved, Switching to GSS was the solution for me. I will still need to go to the observatory physically to reset my park positions in GSS but the scope is now aligned with the pointing model.

Great, GSS is really excellent, up to date software.