CEM60 odd behaviour with ASIAIR

Hi all,

I purchased a preowned CEM60 recently and love the mount. Guided well (ASIAIR Plus) from its first time out. A week ago though things all went south and I have no idea why. When I connected the ASIAIR, it showed the mount tracking was off. When I used the soft switch on the ASIAIR iPad app to turn on tracking, the mount started slewing RA east at its highest speed…..and kept on going. If I touched the RA west control on the onscreen app, that stopped the slewing, but tracking had turned off again. I tried to turn on tracking again and the same uncontrolled slewing started again. Effectively, the mount - ASIAIR combo is now unworkable.
 

To try and fix things I’ve tried:

- separate power supplies for the mount and ASIAIR in case it was a voltage issue

- resetting my asiair

- changing the order in which the devices are turned on

- plugging in the Ioptron hand control as well

- plugging the CEM serial cable into both the USB 2 and 3 ports

- updating the ASIAIR to the latest firmware (mount is also at the latest firmware)

Has anyone seen behaviour like this with an ASIAIR and cem60 combo please? In all probability I’m just doing some dumb newbie error, but I can’t for the life of me work out what it is. Any and all ideas are welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Paul

Do you use permanent or movable setup? Did your PA routine performed well? Did you try to exchange connecting cables with new ones?

Anyway, try this: Set your mount manualy to the approximate North Pole (like you would do PA manualy). Use your HC only to set it as the Home position of CEM60. After that disconnect HC and connect ASIAir. Check if everything works good afterwards.

Do you use permanent or movable setup? Did your PA routine performed well? Did you try to exchange connecting cables with new ones?

 

Anyway, try this: Set your mount manualy to the approximate North Pole (like you would do PA manualy). Use your HC only to set it as the Home position of CEM60. After that disconnect HC and connect ASIAir. Check if everything works good afterwards.

Success @Ljubo!! My mount ASIAIR combo is playing nicely together again. Do you mind if I ask how you knew this would have worked? (I used to have a AZEQ6 and never had any issues like this needing to initialise the Home position). Honestly, I would have been scratching around in the dark (no pun intended) for weeks trying to work that one out on my own.

Cheers,

Paul

Do you use permanent or movable setup? Did your PA routine performed well? Did you try to exchange connecting cables with new ones?

 

Anyway, try this: Set your mount manualy to the approximate North Pole (like you would do PA manualy). Use your HC only to set it as the Home position of CEM60. After that disconnect HC and connect ASIAir. Check if everything works good afterwards.

Nice catch!  I was thinking the exact same thing.  I had this happen with my GEM45.

 

Do you mind if I ask how you knew this would have worked? (I used to have a AZEQ6 and never had any issues like this needing to initialise the Home position). Honestly, I would have been scratching around in the dark (no pun intended) for weeks trying to work that one out on my own.

Yeah, I had no problem like this with my EQ6 nor HEQ5 neither... But, with my CEM70 I had very similar problem. And I was desperate, too (even thinking of flashing my mounts board).

After reading hundreds of posts here on CN, I concluded following:

iOptron mounts tend to loose information on true NP if not checked the home position with an HC. Actually, they know the line to the NP, but (if not checked the home or park position), they think that NP is on the same line but in opposite direction! So, I ended up with CWs up, and OTA going downwards (if there's no safety stop it should collide with the tripod).

This is not happening always, but once it search for the NP in opposite direction, you need to set anew Home position as above.

Since this happened to me, at the end of AP session, I usually let ASIAIR to put the mount in Home position, and use HC to park the telescope - but I use permanent setup.

Edited by Ljubo, 12 May 2024 - 04:09 PM.

Yeah, I had no problem like this with my EQ6 nor HEQ5 neither... But, with my CEM70 I had very similar problem. And I was desperate, too (even thinking of flashing my mounts board).

After reading hundreds of posts here on CN, I concluded following:

 

iOptron mounts tend to loose information on true NP if not checked the home position with an HC. Actually, they know the line to the NP, but (if not checked the home or park position), they think that NP is on the same line but in opposite direction! So, I ended up with CWs up, and OTA going downwards (if there's no safety stop it should collide with the tripod).

 

This is not happening always, but once it search for the NP in opposite direction, you need to set anew Home position as above.

Since this happened to me, at the end of AP session, I usually let ASIAIR to put the mount in Home position, and use HC to park the telescope - but I use permanent setup.

Thanks Ljubo. You’re a lifesaver. I was beginning to dispair that i’d broken the mount controller somehow. You’ve saved me days and days of frustration.

Cheers,

Paul