I recently purchased the iOptron HAE43EC mount and need to know what settings in PHD2 that others are using successfully. I am not getting good results and suspect I have PHD2 misconfigured.
PHD2 Settings for iOptron HA:R43EC Mount
Well Written
Hi Don,
I just grabbed a screenshot of settings I use with my CAT91 rig.
📷 HAE43EC Settings.jpg
I run multiple rigs on my HAE43EC mount from the CAT 91 to larger Stellarvue 4 and 5 inch refractors. Sometimes even my EdgeHD 11 and it works fine. I’m just not comfortable with that large of a scope on the HAE43EC mount. Sometimes I use an OAG and sometimes guide scopes. The only thing that changes with the main scopes or OAG vs Guide Scope in the PHD2 settings is the Min Move amount and focal length. I calculate MinMove for each rig I use. You can use this site for a guide on calculating your Min Move setting https://www.myastroscience.com/minmoveinphd In all cases I use 1 sec guide pulses because that gives the best result for me in terms of lowest RMS error. Up to 3-4s guide pulses have given acceptable results with my gear. RMS error values for me are typically 0.05 - 0.15 pixels or 0.3 to 0.5 arcsec depending on what number you wish to use for reference.
My HAE43EC is one of the first built that requires PC connection through the hand control. If you connect directly to your mount you may need to enable the “Reverse Dec Output after Meridian Flip” button. I’m actually not certain on that for the HAE43EC but it is the case for my newer HAE69EC mount that does not use the hand control.
An issue I found initially with mine was belt tension was too loose on both axis. Here is an iOptron document you can reference on that if adjustment is needed. HAE_Backlash_ADJ.pdf
Two more things I just thought of to check. Make sure you have initially calibrated the RA encoders. Also make sure that RA guiding is enabled in the mount settings. I believe it defaults to off. Directions for both of these can be found in the manual.
Hope something here helps. There are actually a ton of things that can cause you grief guiding. It would help to know the actual gear you are using as well as the issue you are seeing as detailed as possible. This is a great site for help.
Good luck and clear skies,
Jeff
Helpful
Thank you for the details. I am using an Apertura CarbonStar RC8 with a 0.67 reducer. Effective f/l is around 1085mm. The main camera is a QHY MiniCam 8 mono. Guiding camera is ZWO 220mm. I am using an Askar 180 FMA for the guide scope. I know this is not ideal, but I am having problems getting enough stars with the Askar OAG. The Askar FMA 180 does have a field flatter that may help? I am going to setup tonight and I will share the guide logs. I am getting an error saying the calibration is not as expected because of differences between the RA and DEC axis. I will grab a screenshot of it tonight as well.
Once I get the guiding figured out, I will start looking at other items, like which camera to use. My seeing is usually poor to average. The small pixels on the MiniCam8 may require me to bin 2×2 if I cannot guide well enough or possibly move to the ASi 294 MC Pro with larger pixels. Other camera option is the ASI 533MM Pro.
I am using NINA with the newest version of PHD2.
Well Written Helpful
I added a couple comments possibly after you first read my post sorry. Did you do the initial calibration on the RA encoders and is RA guiding turned on in mount settings? If you saw those already I apologize. Might explain the error you are getting especially if RA guiding is off.
Jeff
Here is the link to the logs. Thank you.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YJo63Pc6jYmonAXbXtHlm2HSOD6JLSKU?usp=drive_link