Hello all!,

This is night 2 with ACP. Night one revealed that AscomDirect guiding incurred the dreaded "guide wacks out in west". Perfrect guiding in east at flip star is driven off. My hardware for this first test is a modest TMB LOMO 80 on a AP Mach1. It could go unguided really. Other OTA is a 8" F/5 newt which guides very well (~60 sec unguided OK). i use a old model lodestar on the guide port of a QSI camera.

I wanted to get Ascom reversal collisions out of the picture so.. I route a guider cable through the mount and did basic stuff to ensure X was RA etc.. The cable is on the QSI so Maxim is set to use "main relays". This is because the guider cable connection to the old model lodestar is useless.. I then calibrated in Maxim.. guide rate = 0.5X. X&Y rates were precisely 1/2 of what I've before with rate = 1.0X and AscomDirect. Interface works. I could have just divided the old cal values. I have min move at 0.08 and max move at 2.00. Delay between corrections is at 0.5.
Basic guiding on east in Maxim was about perfect. Log suggest my parameters are pretty good.. settless at ~0.1 or less both X and Y. (It is a small 377mm APO but I see similar results with the 8" F/5).

I tested with a 2 object plan starting in east then slewing to something in west. Did the whole deal.. autofocus etc for both. Guiding was flat perfect for both!!

Next I composed another 2 object plan with the first object starting in west (real data not engineering :-)) then later it will move to something in the East for a couple of hours then shutdown.

First object in west has begun and everything is perfect! The cable solves it!!

I sent an email to AP asking for details if the V2 ASCOM or APCC try and help on flip during AscomDirect by reversing X. That would undo ACP's reversal of X!!

On another session I'll do the tests described by Bob in other posts using Ascomdirect and actually see what is getting lost (X/Y) in ascom translation. Seems pretty clear that since ACP and AP ASCOM V2 5.06.05 are the only guys playing and you know what ACP does, the AP driver is likely trying to help out. Bob's test are very logical.. Ensure guiding is bang on in the east then have ACP move to an object in the west and begin. Once guiding fails (assuming the problem exists). Change the signs of the X and Y settings in Manual guider and guide to see what combo corrects the guiding errors. .. negate X/Y or both X&Y. One has to work.

Anyway right now ACP is just banging away happily.

Best to all,
Ron