rueffy I updated the firmware on the CGX mount, hand controller and ASIAIR Plus to the latest version only a few days ago (although this problem has been ongoing before the firmware upgrade).
I noticed the problem occurred by monitoring the hand controller’s Track Mode while the ASIAIR Plus was sending commands to slew to targets. The hand controller would switch to EQ-North following any slew attempt. I don’t believe the ASIAIR Plus has a setting to formally tell the CGX to track in EQ-North or EQ-South. The general premise is to ensure that latitude and longitude information is correctly entered into the ASIAIR Plus and I can confirm the ASIAIR Plus knows I’m in the Southern Hemisphere. There is a DEC tracking mode setting in the auto guiding page which can be set to AUTO, NORTH OR SOUTH. Regardless of how this is set it has no effect on the problem, as I believe this is more for auto guiding corrections to the mount rather than the basic sidereal corrections being applied by the mount independently by the CGX motors.
My setup process is as follows:
- Turn on the CGX mount, let it set the switches positions, and then shutdown the CGX mount.
- Boot up the ASIAIR Plus, establish a connection to my PC or smart phone, and log into the GUI interface.
- Turn the CGX mount back on, let it set the switch positions a second time, and then input the location and time data pushed automatically from the ASIAIR Plus to the CGX hand controller. The location and time data appears correct on the hand controller and matches that of the ASIAIR Plus.
- Perform a Quick Align using the hand controller (I’ve never really performed any other type of alignment given I rely on the ASIAIR Plus polar alignment feature for this).
- Perform an auto focus using an EAF.
- Perform polar alignment using the ASIAIR Plus polar alignment feature in conjunction with physical adjustments to the CGX mount using the alignment knobs.
- Slew to a target, take a preview image, and develop an exposure and shooting plan.
- Begin the ASIAIR Plus’s execution of the plan or auto run.
- The CGX slews to the target, and begins sidereal tracking in EQ-North.
- I force the CGX back to EQ-South tracking using the hand controller.
- I perform an auto guiding calibration and begin auto-guiding.
- I shoot the target.
This isn’t a major problem when shooting one target all night, as once the manual correction is made everything works fine, however if I want to shoot multiple targets, or a mosaic, which requires multiple slews, the CGX with revert back to EQ-North tracking, rendering any attempt at auto guiding useless, resulting in long star trails given the CGX sidereal motor corrections are reversed.
The physical connection is as follows:
CGX AUX 1 Port > Hand Controller > Hand Controller Mini-USB Port > ASIAIR Plus Standard USB 2.0 Port