I am having trouble with plate solving and assume this is because SGP is not sending a sync command to EQMOD.
When I initially connect all equipment and do a solve and sync (platesolve2) or blind sync (astronomy.net) from park position the plate solve is successful. However if I slew away from park by any significant degree the solve and sync fails but the blind sync is successful.
When I slew to a target within a sequence the mount slews to the right general direction. If I then centre now it fails to solve when using platesolve 2 as the solver but if I change the solver to astronomy.net it solves but then fails to centre 3 times by 400 odd pixels without getting any closer.
I have noticed that whether I do a solve and sync blind or normal sync via either platesolve 2 orastronomy.net my sync points within EQMOD remain at 0 I have connected CDC to check if the problem lies with EQMOD but that syncs without issue. I have tried updating SGP and EQMOD to the latest version as well as rolling back but I’m running out of ideas. :-/
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Mount - Neq6 (belt), Atik 460ex, running latest version of SGP, EQMOD, Ascom on windows 7
In the latest beta versions, on the telescope tab, you need to tell SGP how to sync. It can be via an ASCOM sync command or by SGP working out offsets. Not all telescopes accept ASCOM sync commands. I think in EQMOD too you need to disable any pointing model too for a sync to be effective. I’m not an EQMOD user (I prefer the standard SkyWatcher ASCOM driver) but I recall reading it on a SGP post.
In the SGP Help File, type in EQMOD . It explains the whole thing. As far as PS2 is concerned, it can be VERY picky , you must be pretty close to begin with. As far as centering , up your attempts to something like TEN (not three) and maybe 50 for the pixel count. Mine is set to TWENTY tries and 50 pixels !! Hope this helps.
@Chris_Ottaway1, the Helpfile EQMOD instructions are good, however I still had some trouble with my setup (EQ8, EQMOD) and Plate Solve 2. Basically would often not solve or would blind fail over to Astrometry.net which would only work sometimes. Also, the autocentering would sometimes have trouble getting to center (50pix) - successive tries would not get closer.
So I ended up making a couple changes which work for me - namely turning back on the point model (but keeping model simple, only 7-8 points). But ensuring that new points were not added to the model (EQMOD User Interface = “Dialogue based”).
I think the issue for me is that if the initial slew is not reasonably close to the target, PS2 can’t handle it. The point model seems to help in that regard. Now PS2 solves immediately almost every time.
FWIW - I’ve also got the SGP-Telescope-“Sync Behavior” set to “Sync”.
More EQMOD and SGP discussion, and details on my current settings, available here: