PROTECT your telescope & Camera AND make Meridian Flip work!! Mount Limits & Meridian Flip

My Patreon: / cuivlazygeek
My Merch Store: cuiv.myspreads...
Equipment used in this video for demonstration purposes:
WarpAstron WD-20 Mount: bit.ly/3wxNbGI
ZWO AM5N Mount: bit.ly/3W3TWKe (Agena) or bit.ly/3A0cO4e (HPS)
UMi 17 Lite Mount: www.proxisky.com/
RedCat51: bit.ly/48hyuVx (Agena) or bit.ly/48pTWXW (HPS)
Focuser bracket: www.etsy.com/s...
Physical "fuses" video: • Adding an external Lim...
Amazon affiliate: amzn.to/49XTx01
Agena affiliate: bit.ly/3Om0hNG
High Point Scientific affiliate: bit.ly/3lReu8R
First Light Optics affiliate: tinyurl.com/yx...
All-Star Telescope affiliate: bit.ly/3SCgVbV
Astroshop eu Affiliate: tinyurl.com/2va...
-----------------------
My equipment
-----------------------
Dwarf III Smart Telescope: bit.ly/3SyChXu
Seestar S50: tinyurl.com/3n...
ZWO ASI2600MC Duo: bit.ly/3M8IkPS (Agena) or bit.ly/3Jti7KQ (HPS)
ZWO ASI585 MC Pro Camera: bit.ly/3Iwo6y8 (Agena) or bit.ly/4cp1Ofn (High Point Scientific)
TOUPTEK IMX571 APS-C Cooled camera: tinyurl.com/mr...
TOUPTEK IMX585 Cooled camera: tinyurl.com/4y...
OGMA versions for US-based support (use code CUIV on checkout for a small discount!): getogma.com/
CarbonStar 6" Newtonian: bit.ly/3W7ZFiA
Mirror Mask for CarbonStar (designed by me :) ): www.thingivers...
SW Quattro 150P Budget Newt: bit.ly/3BABCxl
Backyard Universe upgrade kit: tinyurl.com/3j...
OCAL Collimator: s.click.aliexp... or s.click.aliexp...
Askar V Modular Telescope: bit.ly/3Imoq2M
or bit.ly/3GLuyR8 or tinyurl.com/2h...
RedCat51: bit.ly/48hyuVx (Agena) or bit.ly/48pTWXW (HPS)
Cable Organizers/Focuser bracket: www.etsy.com/s...
WarpAstron WD-20 Mount: bit.ly/3wxNbGI
ZWO AM5N Mount: bit.ly/3W3TWKe (Agena) or bit.ly/3A0cO4e (HPS)
UMi 17 Lite Mount: www.proxisky.com/
ZWO EAF Focuser: bit.ly/45agP0Z (Agena) or bit.ly/4avCIcE (HPS)
Antlia ALP-T highspeed filter: bit.ly/42RBR2e
SVBony Filters: amzn.to/3yBuQZX
Mini Computer (newer version): amzn.to/49XTx01
Flocking paper/Felt paper: amzn.to/3zASgvu or amzn.to/3m94zwa
Follow me!
My Instagram: / cuivlazygeek
My Facebook page: / cuivlazygeek

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

My Patreon: www.patreon.com/cuivlazygeek My Merch Store: cuiv.myspreadshop.com/ Equipment used in this video for demonstration purposes: - WarpAstron WD-20 Mount: bit.ly/3wxNbGI - ZWO AM5N Mount: bit.ly/3W3TWKe (Agena) or bit.ly/3A0cO4e (HPS) - UMi 17 Lite Mount: www.proxisky.com/ - RedCat51: bit.ly/48hyuVx (Agena) or bit.ly/48pTWXW (HPS) - Focuser bracket: www.etsy.com/shop/SmartComponents Amazon affiliate: amzn.to/49XTx01 Agena affiliate: bit.ly/3Om0hNG High Point Scientific affiliate: bit.ly/3lReu8R First Light Optics affiliate: tinyurl.com/yxd2jkr2 All-Star Telescope affiliate: bit.ly/3SCgVbV Astroshop eu Affiliate: tinyurl.com/2vafkax8

[@woodpecker1284]

Absolutely essential topic nowadays! Redundant proximity sensors on the tripod feet or pier would be a way for protection. And I'd bypass all "astro gizmos" (mount, not to mention asiair/miniPC), plain simply cut the power to the mount if equipment is in danger. If one wants to keep some bits of the equipment powered, just arrange a dedicated power line.

[@WildBillBadAss]

Great video as always. Learning a lot from these. I have recently renewed my interest in astrophotography after many years. I also like 3-D printing and have built several 3-d printers, CNC lasers, and a small mill. I use TMC drivers in my printers because they can be set up for "senseless homing" (I have become too lazy to hard wire homing switches ). They have a "stallGuard" function, which monitors motor current and triggers a signal when the motor stalls due to excessive load, like hitting a mechanical end stop. Not precise but for this could be used just to stop the telescope from slewing? Since the strain wave mounts use stepper motors, I wonder if the manufacturers of these mounts could soon incorporate similar stepper motor drivers into their designs. Seems like a perfect fit for this use case. The only problem is that usually they work best if the drive current is set differently when homing. Mine work fine even if I don't bother changing them. I've seen a few companies claiming collision detection on their mounts and maybe they use something like this?

[@crm114.]

After testing, I set my mount meridian limit at 7 degrees past. Sometimes NINA will go slightly past the meridian but never 7 degrees. Excellent overview btw.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

That's a great approach: giving the mount room to breathe (as much as the scope allows) and have NINA do the flip before that room "expires", good stuff!

[@bigracer3867]

Nice equipment 🎉🎉⚡️it amazes me how much it has changed since the 70s. I’m old😂

[@victortapia-montano8114]

Awesome video! I had that problem with my Celestron CGEM II. No matter what limits I set, plus, making sure it powered on at the home position, it kept doing a 360 on the declination axis and tangling the power and guiding cables, to the point that it ripped the control board because of the screw on power to the mnount fom the Eagle. I had to put a power cable with no screw on so that if slewed past 180 degrees, it would disconnect. My second scope is on a Celestron AVX, and haven't had any issues once I set the mount limits. I ended up replacing the CGEM II with a Celestron CGX-L (my scope got very heavy with the PLL cover and motor).

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Eeek that sounds like it was a painful experience! Glad your CGX-L works well!

[@callumvernon7053]

You read my mind, I was literally asking myself if Cuiv has a video on this after a collision last night. Nice one!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

There you go ;)

[@The-Chaos-Shack]

Thanks

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thank you for your support!!

[@peterbaldwin6573]

Great info again Cuiv 👍

[@didierpeyret9561]

Thanks Cuiv. This raises the more general question of priority between direct control of the mount (hand controller) and control by external software (e.g. NINA). It is often difficult to understand which system will be followed by the mount in case of contradictory instructions...

[@lavers_1]

Thanks!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thank you for your support!

[@chemtrail_brew_Que]

Thank you for this. I spent a long time asking questions about this in CN with no good answers.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Glad this was helpful!

[@bbasiaga]

The best experience I have with this is with my Losmandy mount. Using the hand controller, you can set East and West angle limits. If anything commands the mount to move in to those limits, the mount just stops tracking, and must be homed to reset. Nina and the ASI Air are unaware of these limits (other than where you program in the minutes before and after for the flip). So as long as you match those times to be outside of your programmed limits in the mount, everything works great. If the software gets 'lost' and tries to track past those limits, or go-to something that is inside the limits, the mount saves itself by stopping the motors. Astro Physics mounts have fancy programmable limits where you can set different degrees before or past the Meridian for each declination. And you can also set what to do when the limits are reached (stop moving, go home, etc.) For the price, you'd expect some fancy stuff and it delivers in this space. My old EQ-G mount had no safety limits. It relied only on the software programed stop before/wait after settings.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

That sounds very nice for Losmandy! And Astrophysics, a variable Meridian limit depending on DEC makes a lot of sense. Also it's probably easy to build and all mounts should have this :p

[@seemantadutta]

One tip which works for me is that after I slew to my target, I will use the sky atlas on the AAP app to slew to the meridian, while keeping my declination same. This tells me before hand if I will have a collision or not. Then usually 4min before and 4min after setting in the AMF section of the app is enough. I could, of course get a pier extension and avoid all of that 😅

[@MrGp3po]

When I first started guiding, I tried a PC and hated it. That big bright monitor and extra cables and bulk, just didn't appeal to me. Using ASIAir (Pro, Plus, Mini) I have only had two problems. One was a cable that got hooked on the mount and was stretched almost to breaking the plug, but I went out to check on and observe the meridian flip and caught it. The second was with a long refractor (AT115 with flattener/reducer) on an HEQ5 tracking a target in Ursa Major. The camera hit the tripod leg and continued to track. No damage was done as it appears the mount "slips" rather than drives the camera with enough force to damage it. I generally set the ASIAir to stop tracking at 5 minutes before and after the meridian for short scopes and 10 or even 15 minutes for long scopes. Thanks for the video, I need to pay more attention to these limits and flip settings and maybe test out a few since I now mainly use a pier in my backyard.

[@The-Chaos-Shack]

Being totally new to AP I have heard the term "Meridian Flip" many times, but didn't fully understand the meaning,.................Until now. Cuiv to the rescue again with this excellent video. I am happy that I won't destroy my equipment on my first imaging session now lol. Merci mon ami. One question. Does the AM-5 have that problem of freezing when it reaches the meridian limit using the ASIair?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Glad it was helpful! No, with the ASIAir+AM5, you can set the AM5 to track past meridian for a bit before initiating the flip!

[@The-Chaos-Shack]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek Nice cheers

[@ekalbkr]

Thanks Quiv! I have used the stock settings with tha asiAirPro without issue (sofar), but note from experience, that if any power issues with the mount or controler occur, it is imperative that you start over.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Yes! That would make the mount incorrectly think it started at the home position in many cases.... Sigh...

[@lavers_1]

This is very useful information. Thanks for describing the whole procedure.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

My pleasure!

[@Heidi507ify]

Cuiv, what a coincidence😅! Just a few days after your video, Proxisky introduces its new mounts with the innovative Anti-collision System. Whether you knew about it or not, this new feature of the new Umi 17S and 20S is, of course, brilliant. This ACS is the gamechanger and will be the difference between a peaceful and stressful sleeping😂

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

I didn't know about it, but WarpAstron is also working on this, this is super nice!

[@bmandelbrot]

Hey Cuiv! Excellent, much needed tutorial. Thanks! I'm running NINA with a WD-20. You mentioned the Preferred Side of Pier having significance in the NINA meridian flip settings. Could you please explain the preferred side of pier feature in the WD-20 hand controller? The NINA meridian flip setting has an on/off feature for "Use telescope side of pier" How should these two setting be configured. I'm a little confused. Thanks!

[@CosmoHammers]

Thanks mate, this is the video that I’m looking since my telescope is a bit too long for my GTi and often clash into the tripod when shooting something close to the horizon

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Glad this is helpful!

[@thomasrider5852]

Oh wow an ASI2600 Air in the wild! Awesome!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Yep!

[@ssbhide123]

I typically set 10 mins for both options in ASIAir.. I know I am losing 20 mins of the best data for my condition but it gives me peace of mind.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Peace of mind is priceless!

[@realmcerono]

Perfect Mate! Just used my new AM5N for two nights with my Esprit 100ED without the pier extention and was worried a lot...😅

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Cheers! Congrats on your new AM5N!!

[@ASC-Explore]

Losmandy mounts measured motor current draw to detect stall and stop. Also some mounts set limits in degrees and software in minutes causing confusion

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Good on Losmandy, every mount should have that! And YES degrees versus minutes, the units should be very clear in the driver, it annoys me when they're not!!

[@johnadastra1754]

You can also set your minutes past meridian in many imaging apps like NINA or SGP to a negative (before) number, so the mount will flip at an earlier time which keeps the camera further away from the tripod or pier. But if set it too early you might be outside the safety limit on the east side of the mount and you will not flip.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Good to know! Although I guess for some mounts, they simply wouldn't flip since for them it's before the Meridian!

[@stevesanacore7459]

Excellent information! Thank you for providing such important setup procedures!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

My pleasure, thanks for watching!

[@astronook]

Thank you cuiv, a difficult and potentially expensive topic. It looks like Proxisky have got there first with their UMI 17S and 20s. Looks suspiciously similar to the Warpastro! They're advertising an ant-collision system. Also, a mechanical home position on the 20S and pre-drilled holes to fit iPolar or PoleMaster. Sadly nothing in their downloadable manual to flesh out the bones of these new features.

[@crateer]

Thanks for another super helpful Video Cuiv! 🥳

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Always my pleasure, thanks for watching!

[@Artaka1987]

@CuivTheLazyGeek Proxisky just announced mounts with a collision detection system, the UMi 20S and the UMi 17S. They also shared demo videos on their discord channel

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Nice! I think Warpastron will also have that, exciting times!

[@Astroimagery]

I really needed to watch this Cuiv. Another great video, if only I could make videos as good as yours!

[@revolting887]

I wish I had this video a year ago @Cuiv I ended up getting a pier extension to help avoid pier crashes for my refractor.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

I hope you didn't have any equipment damage!

[@KingLoopie1]

Thanks for the explanation! 👍👍

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

My pleasure!

[@scottfairbairn6305]

Interesting and informative as usual. It would helpful if there was some way to manually slew your equipment around to find the exact Dec/equipment combinations where a collision could occur and enter that information into the control software. Almost like entering your custom horizon, it would tell the software, that under no circumstances continue tracking past those limits. Of course, as you say, it could still go wrong in certain situations.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Funnily enough, the EQMOD driver lets you do exactly that!

[@davidpearson5574]

When I started remote observing, I was worried about pier collision so as a final precaution I put three inflated small tire inner tubes around my pier at distance where camera may hit pier. Luckily never had to use it in 6 years, But gave me piece of mind

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Low tech and high efficiency! Love it!

[@astrofromhome]

Great video Cuiv! I only had issues with the limits once. I have used my PDS 150 on my iOptron CEM40 on which by design the rear end of the telescope anway sits lower than on GEMs. I did not pay attention to the limits set in the iCommander so I continued as normal. My bad was that i still had the meridian limit set to 14 minutes in iCommander for my small Apo telescope. The New't just can go 5 minutes past due to my tripod setup. In NINA I had Meridian Flip settings that should have worked. BUT..... I had the GUI set to German and in the end I learnt the hard way to set the language in NINA back to English (confirmed by other too). At that time there was a bug somewhere in NINA that prevented the flip to happen in case you were using a certain languages. No idea if this bug is still present. Since then I got used to the English GUI quite good. 😁 I think no one ever saw me getting off the sofa as quick as during that night the moment the alarm of the iOptron mount started. 😂😂😂

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Oh wow, that is an insidious bug, I hope they fixed it! Glad you got it figured out now!

[@ehkxs9996]

Good overview of the issue. I had a scenario last week where my AM5 lost power in mid session. When the power came back on, I attempted to re-slew to the target using NINA. However the AM5 took off heading west , it continued until the telescope was pointing down at the ground. The telescope ran into the leg of the mount and then stopped. I tried everything to stop the mount before that point, but ran out of time. In hindsight, I should have just powered down the mount, after powering back on, using the hand controller manually move it back to the home point and started over again.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Was the equipment OK?? But yes, after a power off, the mount usually starts up thinking it is at home position... and then this can happen!

[@ehkxs9996]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek What is interesting and a bit frustrating, is that my guiding appears to have degraded? I seem to be getting a new periodic error that I never captured before? I noticed it directly after the incident, ended up calling it a night after checking everything and not finding a cause. Then on my next session that error came back. I am hoping I did not damage a gear or something in the AM5? The scope hit pretty hard and I don't know at this point what is causing this ? Any thoughts ?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

@@ehkxs9996 maybe the belt tension got out of whack - it is a fairly simple fix but you would need to open up the mount!

[@anata5127]

AVX doesn’t care about any limits. AVX is true “carefree soul”.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Ha! AVX is freeeee!

[@IdWinger]

I believe you could have added another concern when setting limits, in that it is possible to exceed the balance (of a tripod) and subsequently drop the equipment to the ground or viewing platform.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Oh wow, yes, true, that is quite extreme though!

[@TheTabugman]

I use the same settings for my UMI17, ie stop tracking 5 minutes before the meridian and then wait for 5 minutes. Seems to work flawlessly so far. And yeah, Onstep for UMIs has very firm limits for the meridian flip.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Yep, for the UMi 17, that seems to be the good way to set this up! OnStep is *really* weird about that meridian window, it's better not to mess with it in general :D

[@ianspector1357]

I am coming to the view that the lack of any physical protection is a huge issue with strainwave mounts. Hours after watching this video my Warpastron WD-20 drove my Takahashi into the tripod. The culprit was the Eagle computer's GPS had frozen and kept giving out a time that became increasingly wrong. Thus when I slewed to Caldwell 14 it slewed to where the double cluster was at 1415 in the afternoon (spoiler alert, under ground). This was the second crash with this mount, if you start with the mount in the park position and start tracking no protections will be activated, apparently this is an On-Step thing. These mounts are so powerful that they simply crush an equine in their path.

[@BobJohnsonSince1970]

Timely video, Cuiv! I recently had to replace a drive motor for my CGX-L after a tripod crash stripped one of the plastic drive gears in the reduction gearbox. Now I watch the mount like a hawk, since I still need to set those limits correctly. I also discovered that if the planetarium software and the mount are not in agreement, there can be the "deception" you spoke about. Curious, when you had issues with ASTAP at long FL, how long of a focal length are we talking? My longest scope, the FLT132, is "only 911 mm."

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

I believe at the time it was 1400mm (EdgeHD800 + reducer)! I'm so sad for your CGX-L, it's a good mount otherwise!

[@BobJohnsonSince1970]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek I was sad too. But I did a "hypertune" on it since I had to work on it. It's up and running again. Appreciate your videos!

[@peterbaldwin6573]

[@amp2amp800]

Another great video Cuiv! Thanks for clarifying. Without that clarity I wouldn't trust my interpretation of the ambiguities of geek speak. It's great that you can translate for us. "Meridian E" I ask you?! Minutes sir? Certainly! Arc, or clock?...or perhaps you seek the transcript of the scrum where the brainfart was born? OMG😱 We *do* express RA in hhmmss for a reason🙄, but it seems that the memo hasn't reached geekland yet (at least not to the province of Onstep) 🤣. That niggling doubt, and the doubt I harbour about my judgment of leeway being enough in all circumstances means, very simply, I've never used or relied on these limits, and doubt if I ever could. How could I ever sleep? Moreover for my big APO (if setup on the balcony) I'd need an aspidistra limit, and a balustrade limit, in addition to the zenith, horizon and meridian! I've found that a power out followed by forgetting to go home after reconnecting is my most likely crash risk. But for sheer idiocy, synscan and skysafari and asiair arguing amongst themselves about where the scope is pointing (like some kind of menage a trios in a French theatre farce) must surely qualify for some kind of ignobel prize! The hubris of the salesman-manager is astounding when it comes to foisting technically unsound concepts onto naive engineering teams and unsuspecting customers alike! And to think I actually tried that combo once, for a comet hunt 🤪.

[@BobJohnsonSince1970]

Today I learned that aspidistra is not an astronomy term but a genus of a flowering plant!

[@amp2amp800]

​@@BobJohnsonSince1970Famously so... "“At night all cats are grey.” ― George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra Flying ...except for Celestrons, which are orange😹.

[@RyanParle81]

Quite a long time back I saw a project where a guy used a few microswitches wired in series with the power supply and were strategically placed on the mount so that if any of them were triggered the power would be cut.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

That's the ultimate protection: hardware failsafes!

[@frankm81m82]

Another case that cause problems if just using only software limits is if the program dies or the computer freezes , Microsoft decides to do an update or computer reboots during a sequence.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Eeek, good point as well!

[@glennvanrooij5571]

This happend to me as well, gives me nightmares 😢

[@AnotherAmateurAstronomer]

I set my limit to 90 degrees in Sharp Cap Pro. As I only do unguided EAA, I watch the location of the optical tube. I reached 90 degrees recently. The optical tube would not do a meridian flip and the camera kept taking subs at the same place. I didn't try pausing the camera and using a go to instruction, for fear of ruining the photo. I had 3 hours of M 31 and it looked nice, so I saved and quit.

[@robvandenwijngaart1970]

Great video Cuiv. What you discribe with text in the video happened to me. I have a Sky Watcher EQ6 (on a pier) and I live in Galicia in Spain. We have a lot of power failures overhere. After a power failure I pushed "park" not knowing thet the mount would not move home. I was just in time to disconnect the power. The day after I bought an UPS so that if there is a power failure the UPS kick in and nothing happens with the telescope. I think I have set te limits correctly, but I'l check again. Beter safe than sorry.

[@ventania9320]

Meridian limits are the same on northern and southern hemisphere. Why would you set an East limit rather than a West limit in the southern hemisphere? South of the Equator the Earth rotation is still the same and objects are tracked from East to West, so the mount also needs to flip from West to East side of the pier to have it pointing West when the target has crossed the Meridian. It is exactly the same as in the northern hemisphere. Or is that just an issue with the Onstep software that needs other limits in the southern hemisphere?

[@МихаилЗиннатуллин-в3х]

Oh, yes, my Newton rested on a tripod when I was watching the object. As a result, I bought an extension cord for mounting the heq5 and can direct the telescope to the zenith

[@TL1000S97]

I would think the limit will be very different between a small refractor like this vs bigger (and longer) telescope *with* a big filter wheel or rotator in the image train. And if your setup is ZWO hardware only I do not see any other benefit in using anything else than the ZWO app, apart for having access to "hidden" og more "advanced" settings like you can in NINA or EKOS. But this was a very timely video Cuiv as I just "went mono" with a huge 2'' filter wheel on one of my rigs. I can see I must investigate before doing any image sessions that involves objects that might lead to interference with the either the OAG or the EFW. An extension peer will probably solve any issue.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Yep, you're right, this depends on the scope! Even with all ZWO hardware I prefer to use NINA, simply smoother for running my sessions though :p

[@TL1000S97]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek Because you are an über-geek. Not a lazy "has-been-geek" like me 😂

[@RobertRidgley]

Thank you.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

My pleasure!

[@seemantadutta]

Ok this may be a dumb idea - but why can’t we set up our session so that the scope starts with the eastern side of the pier to begin with. That way, meridian flip will be ~9 hrs into the night, well past sunrise. And if I set up my auto run session intelligently, I can ask the asi air to go to home and shutdown. But in practice I have seen that my mount never slews from the eastern side. That’s why I am not able to do this in practice.

[@bronco_fv]

Inch?? Oh no, please no imperial system. I thought we were beyond that in astronomy 🔥😀

[@tomstahr3272]

Thank you once again for a great video Cuiv. I recently had some trouble with meridian flip settings after making the switch from the ASI Air to NINA and lost a night of imaging from my rooftop here in Chicago. After that problem, I set the mount to track a number of degrees past the meridian, and aligned the NINAs settings properly and everything worked fine. That said, I didn't do what is most important...I did not confirm that my setup IS actually safe tracking x degrees after meridian. I was hoping your video would outline the best method/process for checking/testing a particular set-up's clearances. What is a good way to do that? Can it be done during the day? Thanks!

[@blueteknoman]

Good question 🙋‍♂️

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

So you need to simply manually slew the mount past meridian, then just slew in DEC back and forth. Keep doing so until you see when it could potentially hit your tripod! That will give you a good idea of when the mount needs to be stopped past Meriridan!

[@mercury7]

Off topic… are you planning on reviewing Origin and Dwarf3? Thanks Scott

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Dwarf III yes, Origin probably not

[@Anandpatre-k6u]

Yes, mounts should have limit switchs at the end of both axis :)

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Would be nice to have, or at least measure power consumption spikes and stop the mount when a collision is detected!

[@NevrilAioros]

Loss of power + "recovery" with no homing sensor has led to nasty disasters in my case. Including the mount lifting the tripod over the balcony using the refractor as lever... ouch.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

So many ways it can go wrong :(

[@BobJohnsonSince1970]

And they say there's a "weight limit..."

[@meibergstrmandersen9181]

Informative, thank you. WTF .. You got the ASI2600 AIR ???

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Just on loan from ZWO ;)

[@CaptRescue2]

Thanks!

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

No problem!

[@tubedude54]

Smiling as I look at my fork mounted scope on it's wedge.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

That avoids all issues :)

[@joajoajoaquin]

Is not zenith limit just a special case of meridian limit?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

If you include negative Meridian limits there is a lot of overlap for sure

[@CenturionGMU]

Which takes preference, the ASCOM settings in the ZWO mount or the setting in the ASIAIR? If I tell it 3 minutes before meridian in ASCOM and 5 in ASIAIR which will the AM3 use?

[@Chris_NGC6188Ara]

Ascom limit settings can be confusing, you can lose them after updates as well. We need a Nina plugin please.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Limits in the control software rather than the driver, that could work

[@KZgun4hire]

I am having an issue with Meridian flip on the SW Staradventurer GTI. I have set the MF to 0 deg but when I manually slew past the meridian k-stars makes no attempt to abort the motion. I think the mount can go about 5 deg past the meridian and so if I manually slew past 0 degs (a little) and stop and then try and slew back (in the safe direction) it is at that point k-stars aborts the motion (but if I slew in the unsafe direction it is happy). I'm not sure if this a southern hemisphere issue with k-stars or if I have misunderstood something but I do not feel the meridian flip is working.

[@KZgun4hire]

The other issue with k-stars and the SW GTI is when starting I have the mount at dec -90 and the counter weight vertically straight up/down. K-stars reports the correct dec (-90 deg) but the RA for example as 00h 48m. But on the star map that RA will not be vertically up (but instead 18h 40m will be). Am I mistaken in believing the RA of the mount should be the same as the RA displayed in the star projection map!?!?

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Have you set limits in the INDI driver dialog?

[@KZgun4hire]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek I have looked in the EQmod Mount tab from the Indi Control Panel but I couldn't see anything obvious. I'm getting the impression that EKOS alone is controlling this.

[@jodyschultz5870]

OK so I was running NINA and a CGX (which is too heavy to move) so now I have an AM5 and an ASIair. I also got an Android tablet to run the ASIair via the app but now it looks like the ASCOM driver and ASImount in Windows has better functionality for limits? What should I do?

[@larrycable984]

I killed an ASIAir and a PegasusAstro PowerBox Micro with this issue 😭

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Eeek :'(

[@larrycable984]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek yeah the ASIAir it bent the female power socket similarly to the PowerBox ... I will no longer use the finder dovetail on the side of the mount saddle ...

[@AnkurMishra1990]

I have iOptron CEM26 mount and generally using N.I.N.A, meridian flip didn't worked for me at all. I haven't done astrophotography for almost 2 months but before that almost all night's whenever I was imagining any target which need meridian flip in night without my present, in morning I am only getting star trails in images and target completely lost. If you had ever get this kind of issue, please let me know what I am doing wrong. I haven't change any setting regarding meridian flip.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Can't say what went wrong, but remember that you can test the Meridian flip indoors as well (I have an old video about that!)

[@blueteknoman]

20:59 lord of the rings 😉

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Hehehe, thanks for noticing!

[@stay_at_home_astronaut]

Can you show how to set this up with KStars/Ekos?

[@astroazores]

In the mount module, you can enable the meridian flip in the left side of the panel. I have mine configured for 5. Using a SW Neq3 with a Evostar 72ED, on a permanent pier. No accidents registered! And the systems does perfect auto meridian flips.

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

As @astroazores said, for Meridian flip, that's in the mount module - but for the actual limits, that's in the INDI driver! Just go to the INDI setup for your mount!

[@stay_at_home_astronaut]

@@astroazores "I have mine configured for 5." Five what? 5 Kilopascals? 5 furlongs? George the Fifth?

[@astroazores]

@@stay_at_home_astronaut, 5 minutes. The equivalent to 100 furlong...

[@turboSlow325]

Your coordinates are visible at 14:00

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Thank you, fixed now!

[@defevfefwow976]

Thats how i destroyed usb port on my nikon D750, i almost cried when i saw this but a week ago it came from repair and work as it worked, though reapir cost me $200

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

So glad the D750 is now repaired!

[@EugeneRu777]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@yobb89]

ah yes, i've blown worm gear bearings with pier strikes , i moved to a bend knee pilar setup

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Eeek, glad that new you shouldn't have any more issues like that!

[@TheNakism]

Astro-Physics makes you pay $250 to have this most basic safety feature (via APCC). I went with physical limit switches on my AP900 instead

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Eeek, that's not good practice...

[@BobJohnsonSince1970]

@@CuivTheLazyGeek It's how it goes when selling expensive things, like cars. "But don't you want heated seats and navigation? You get both if you opt for the power windows package! Plus free floor mats--oh wait, sorry, floor mats are never included for free."

[@rashie]

👍👍

[@TheCosmicGuy0111]

Ooo

[@vladimirgutkovskii3351]

Red telescope and red camera, collects light faster. Or am I wrong)

[@johnsmith-rd9rr]

your wrong

[@CuivTheLazyGeek]

Hahaha you're wrong, but you're also so right ;) (no!)

[@МихаилЗиннатуллин-в3х]

Oh, yes, my Newton rested on a tripod when I was watching the object. As a result, I bought an extension cord for mounting the heq5 and can direct the telescope to the zenith