Flip Isn't Happening

Sequence Generator
1

Hi,

Practicing at home - have everything setup and running and not only can’t get a flip to happen but also SGP seems to just go into negative in terms of time distance to pier flip without even worrying about it.

The attached snapshot shows that SGP and EQMOD are seeing eye-to-eye except for when the flip is expected, and automatic flip is enabled in EQMOD. I don’t know what else I could do to check for the issue?

Thanks

Farzad

image.png1680×913 127 KB

2

SGP will only command a meridian flip when the sequence is running and it looks like it’s idle.

Thanks,
Jared

3

Thanks, Jared; that makes sense, I will give it another try tonight. You’d think a program of SGP’s sophistication would protect users like me from ourselves!

Farzad

4

Hi Farzad,

You should disable the automatic flip in EQMOD. You want the flip to be controlled only by SGP.

Kind regards,
Horia

5

I thought in order for flip to happen EQMOD had to be set for that. I will
definitely try disabling it and running a fake sequence and see how it
flips. Thanks.

Farzad

6

Jared,

After I retried with a running sequence the flip did start to happen. The only curious thing now is why would SGP and EQMOD be about 2 minutes off in terms of time remaining to meridian. Is this a known issue?

7

Horia,

I tried it both ways and it worked the same. But given that SGP wants to flip at a different time than EQMOD wants to, it makes sense to disable EQMOD’s flip and let SGP do it because we want SGP to do a lot of stuff before and after a flip. Thanks for pointing that out.

8

EQMOD is smarter (for better or worse) than most mounts. You may want to have a look here on how to configure things for success:

http://www.mainsequencesoftware.com/Content/SGPHelp/UsingEQMODwithSGPro.html

Thanks,
Jared

9

Hi Jared.

I actually had read that part of the help file a long time ago. The main
points are to set the flip 4 to 8 minutes past meridian and make sure that
the mount driver is set for limits that allow tracking to at least 4 to 8
minutes past meridian - in other words, make sure that the mount doesn’t
reach a random limit [and stop] before the flip is to be executed by SGP.
There are also guidelines on clearing past data points, etc.

It was a good refresher, however, it doesn’t explain why SGP and EQMOD
think they are at different times behind a meridian flip. The important
thing is that flip does get executed.

Incidentally: why is it better to set the flip 4 to 8 minutes “after” the
meridian? Would it not be safer to do it before?

10

I believe those are just examples. If EQMOD supports SideOfPier then you should be able to set a negative value and flip prior to the meridian without issue.

Thanks,
Jared

11

Okay, I thought I read those were suggestions. It baffles me why we would
want to flip post-meridian when we may as well be safe and do it just
before. Thanks for clarifying.