I thought I’d share my experience here with the new version of AutoSlew 7.2.5.6 (from 5.2.4.8). I found even just the initialisation of the mount (both the initial amperage when AutoSlew first starts up and the P.I.D. tuning afterwards) somewhat more challenging. In part, after lots of testing, I think the fact that I’m in the Southern Hemisphere, has posed some challenges that aren’t necessarily in the AutoSlew manual.

Note this is with my DDM60 Std.

These are my observations in no particular order (and in bullet point form) :-

  • Contrary to advice, in my experience, do NOT uninstall the old version of AutoSlew 5.2.4.8 and just have the latest 7.2.5.6. overwrite it. If you uninstall 5.2.4.8, it (naturally) clears out the c:\windows\Program Files (x86)\AutoSlew. But the new 7.2.5.6 install does not contain the AutoTuneStartSettingDDM60.asa which is needed for Auto Tuning. If you don’t AutoTune, then it doesn’t matter. 7.2.5.6 (and 7.2.5.0 for that matter) doesn’t contain the necessary files that Auto Tune needs.

  • R.A./DEC alignment matters in the initial AutoSlew Motors On amperage tuning - this applies more to folks in the Southern Hemisphere. By default, in a fresh AutoSlew installation, the mount defaults to Northern Hemisphere. No issues there. Setting the location to a Southern Hemisphere DEC (and suitable RA), whilst may (prompt and) reverse the RA motor, the encoder readings would still say DEC + (e.g. DEC +90 even when pointing to SCP).

    Then in the initial Motors On amperage tuning, it naturally would for to the encoders to see how much the motors have moved. However if the RA/DEC settings are “incorrect”, it’ll hit the “Mount Limits” and therefore result in Position Error, and the motors won’t turn on for that axis.

    At least from my testing, for legacy DDM owners in the Southern Hemisphere, before Motors On :-
    - one should at least rough align the motors so that it reads to a semi (or accurate) R.A. and Dec setting first
    - then enable Motors On for the amperage tuning to complete successfully

    I don’t know why this seems simpler on the older 5.2.4.8. Maybe in the newer 7.2.x.x. there are additional checks that the 5.2.4.8 didn’t have but these newer checks assumes Northern Hemisphere users. Either more robust testing is needed, and/or more documentation is needed - especially for Southern Hemisphere ASA legacy owners. (I can’t speak for the current production models.)

If I’ve made any incorrect speculations after my testing above, please do help correct my understanding.

P.S. I’ve had my DDM60 for about 4 yrs, but the last 2 yrs it wasn’t in my possession until it came back to me in Dec ‘25. However when I first received my DDM60 4 yrs back, I did manage to get it working repeatably under 5.2.4.8.