Alluna rotator turns backward, no direction control, not usable from ACP

[Peter Brackenridge]

[Edit: This is the original post of two long threads that ended up with Alluna finally seeing that their rotator was turning backwards. The threads have been combined here]

I had my first use of ACP remotely last night. Mostly things went very well.

One of the issues I am having is getting the correct Position Angle. I have attached the log. I had requested a 60s image only , with PA 0.

ACP plate solves and find the PA to be 128.6. But it doesn't correct the rotation as I have plate solved the image in SkyX and it says 126 56'.

The rotator is turned on and ACP connected to it. On camera the rotator didn't appear to rotate, although you can rotate it using the telescope control software okay.

This was with all plans I ran and I have noticed this previously when using ACP.

Any thoughts?

Peter

[Peter Brackenridge]

This is a few lines from a simulator log I did a few months ago. It gives information about the rotator rotating ,and when its finished rotating. I don't see this information on the log I posted on previous email, so wonder what that might mean and how to fix the issue.

Start slew to ngc 55...
14:36:59 Start rotate to PA 0.0 deg (raw rotator angle 180.0)
14:36:59 (wait for slew to complete)
14:37:10 (slew complete)
14:37:10 (wait for rotator)
14:38:00 (rotation complete)

[Bob Denny]

I see the rotator being worked by ACP, but the call returns immediately!:

12:42:20 Imager sky position angle is 128.6 deg.
12:42:20 Rotator mech. position angle is 23.8 deg.
12:42:20 Re-slew to target.
12:42:20 Start slew to IC 434...
12:42:26 (wait for slew to complete)
12:42:35 (slew complete)
12:42:35 PA error of 128.6 deg. detected. Correcting...
12:42:35 Start rotate to PA 0.0 deg (raw rotator angle 255.2)
12:42:36 Target is now centered.
... now take the image then solve it...
12:44:38 Imager sky position angle is 126.9 deg.

The rotator didn't move! What kind of rotator is this? Are yu sure you have the proper rotator selected in ACP?

[Peter Brackenridge]

Bob, the Rotator is TCS ASCOM Rotator, comes with the Alluna Telescope. I have used it with the Sky X okay.

The telescope also comes with its own TCS software, and the rotator certainly turns using that control panel.

What could be going on, do you think?

Peter

[Bob Denny]

I can't guess based on the info I have.

1. Is there a valid ASCOM driver and listing in the Chooser for this rotator? Rotator Menu, Setup, Select the one you have, Properties... make sure it is set to rotate CCW if there is an option like that. That is the correct direction for Position Angle.
2. Connect ACP to the rotator, Rotator menu, Connect.
3. Do you see the ROT light on the annunciator panel in the upper left?
4. Now use the Set Angle button on ACP's console to change the angle. There will be a difference between the mechanical and sky angles, but don't pay attention to that. Just look at the rotator, does it turn? Now look at the angles, do they change?

Snap2.jpg

[Peter Brackenridge]

Bob

The TCS Ascom Rotator Driver was selected. There are no setup properties when you click on ACP-Rotator-Setup.

For the Mechanical Angle to show information, i need to turn on the TCS software program and click Connect. Then the information comes on to ACP -only the Mechanical angle. The Sky-position angle there was no information. For this demonstration I only turned on the telescope rotator via ACP-Rotator Connect and not the Paramount/SkyX via ACP-Telescope-Connect.

I can Set an Angle on ACP interface and the mechanical angle will shift, and the rotator physically does move. BUT the curious thing is that if I type in 25 into Set Angle, the Mechanical Angle says 2.5. And if I put 53 it will put 5.3 . This is also reflected in the TCS software where it shows the rotator angle as 2.5 and 5.3 instead of 25 and 53. It also reflects how much the rotator moves visually.
in the TCS software there is a rotator section, focuser section, climate section, and open/close dust cover page. . Lastly there is a settings page . The only things on there to change for rotator are Resolution- currently set to 36000. And Skip Width- set to 55.0

Peter

[Peter Brackenridge]

I should add that the same effect doesn't occur when I tried using the SkyX through the camera add-on, it moves and gives the correct reading.

[Peter Brackenridge]

Hi Bob

Am imaging at the moment. I just witnessed in real time the interaction of ACP and the rotator. Here is part of the imaging log:

Imager sky position angle is 289.7 deg.
Rotator mech. position angle is 223.1 deg.
Re-slew to target.
Start slew to NGC 5139...
(wait for slew to complete)
(slew complete)
PA error of 70.3 deg. detected. Correcting...
Start rotate to PA 0.0 deg (raw rotator angle 293.4)
Target is now centered.

Now the rotator did rotate. However it rotated to 29.3 instead of 293.4

Am unclear why or how this is happening, nor how to correct the problem.

Peter

ps Replying to Colin as well, as I posted this on my posting about auto flats. Colin, the rotation numbers increase as you go clockwise. It is an Alluna rotator. There is not an option to change any settings in the ASCOM TCS Rotator . In the TCS software there is only resolution ( set at 36000) and step width( set at 55)

It does work okay in SkyX and also by rotating it using the TCS software

[Peter Brackenridge]

Bob- This rotator issue is causing me a lot of problems. I can't get decent alignment of my images. What I don't understand is why works fine with the camera add on in TheSkyX but not using ACP.

Do you have any ideas here. ACP is the only way I can operate remotely as we have slow internet connections making using VNC unworkable. Plus its a joy to use ACP and suits my situation.

Peter

[Peter Brackenridge]

Bob- I am going to contact Alluna, and see whether there is any reason at their end for this problem. I think they may use a comma "," instead of a ''." in their coding for numbers in the rotator- wondering if that could be cause of the problem?

Peter