Hey all,
Maybe someone can shed some light on this: we’re having a lot of trouble coordinating meridian flips with our Paramount ME and 12" Newton.
We try to use SequenceGeneratorPro (SGP), but unfortunately the drivers for the mount (through the SkyX) do not support meridian flips (side of pier, and flip-before meridian).
So we have to do this manually (e.g. slew to a target on the west side before the current target hits the meridian, wait a bit, slew back on target). But this is /very/ error prone we found. Mostly due to two reasons: 1) any mishap in SGP will cause the mount to continue tracking, and thus causing the scope to hit the pier. This often happens with clouds, crashes, or simply silly things like the focus routing taking way too long. 2) a slight miscalculation (which also isn’t automated) in the transit times will also cause it to track beyond the safe point and hit the pier. Now we’re getting a bit frustrated with this approach (and I’m sure the people at AstroCamp too! Since they have to put the scope back to park position each time it messes up).
Is there anyone here who has solved a similar problem, either with hardware or with software? Open to any suggestions at this point!
EDIT: Any method of issuing a stop tracking or park command before the meridian (regardless of any other state the software might be in) would already be a massive help. In that case we might loose some light, but at least the equipment isn’t in danger.