Telescope Reviews: Initial Questions on EQMOD with the EQ6

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Equipment Discussions >> Mounts

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Agnotio
sage

Reged: 08/29/08

Loc: Ottawa, Canada

Initial Questions on EQMOD with the EQ6
#3062331 - 04/23/09 02:45 PM

Hi guys, I have just got my EQ6 mount recently and have been thinking about setting up for EQMOD. I will join the Yahoo EQMOD group as well, but first I had a few simple questions that hopefully will clear some of my confusion up.

I want to use PhD guiding to control the mount through the EQMOD ASCOM driver. As my connection between the laptop and mount, am I going to use EQDIR or GPUSB from Shoestring? I plan to autoguide for astrophotography in the future so that would dictate having the GPUSB, but will the GPUSB allow me to control the mount in other ways like slewing with a planetarium software? Or the EQMOD software will allow me to do some this by itself using the GPUSB? PhD guiding seems to be set up really for autoguiding functions, so it looks like I would rely on the EQMOD interface to control the mount for observing in the meantime, is that right?

Thanks for any clarification you can provide.

Post Extras:

jtaylor996
scholastic sledgehammer

Reged: 09/02/08

Loc: North Texas

Re: Initial Questions on EQMOD with the EQ6 new

[Re: Agnotio]
#3062754 - 04/23/09 06:05 PM

Just use EQDIR, and then use ASCOM pulseguide corrections for guiding rather than the GPUSB. The correction latency should be much better using pulseguide than using the autoguide port interface on the mount.

Also, I don't think the EQDIR is an option. If you want to use EQMOD, you have to have it (or a clone). EQMOD can't control the motors through the autoguide port. It just doesn't work like that.

In short, forget about the GPUSB, it's not necessary at all. The EQDIR is required to use EQMOD at all.

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rmollise
Postmaster

Reged: 07/06/07

Re: Initial Questions on EQMOD with the EQ6 new

[Re: jtaylor996]
#3062780 - 04/23/09 06:22 PM

Quote:

Just use EQDIR, and then use ASCOM pulseguide corrections for guiding rather than the GPUSB. The correction latency should be much better using pulseguide than using the autoguide port interface on the mount.

Also, I don't think the EQDIR is an option. If you want to use EQMOD, you have to have it (or a clone). EQMOD can't control the motors through the autoguide port. It just doesn't work like that.

In short, forget about the GPUSB, it's not necessary at all. The EQDIR is required to use EQMOD at all.

The EQDIR is optional if you have the SynScan HC (with an up to date firmware load). The HC now has a direct mode that works pretty well.

While EQMOD doesn't do ST4 guiding, it's still possible to run the guide program alongside EQMOD and run the output through the GPUSB to the guide port...which is what I do--I just prefer ST4 guiding.

Post Extras:

Agnotio
sage

Reged: 08/29/08

Loc: Ottawa, Canada

Re: Initial Questions on EQMOD with the EQ6 new

[Re: rmollise]
#3063208 - 04/23/09 10:10 PM

Thanks for the response guys, I have since looked around the forums a little bit more and confirmed what you told me.

Quote:

While EQMOD doesn't do ST4 guiding, it's still possible to run the guide program alongside EQMOD and run the output through the GPUSB to the guide port...which is what I do--I just prefer ST4 guiding.

Rod, what do you prefer about ST-4 guiding? From what I hear there's a debate between the EQMOD/EQDIR folk and those who use the GPUSB (without EQMOD) over which method is more reliable and accurate for autoguiding. What's your take?

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sh00ter80
newbie

Reged: 06/09/08

Loc: Hardyston, NJ

Re: Initial Questions on EQMOD with the EQ6 new

[Re: rmollise]
#3116700 - 05/20/09 12:51 PM

Hi Ron,

I've just been reading some threads on EQMod and I have the GPUSB on my SVP. Is it possible to use EQMod "through" the GPUSB? I use PHD and guiding through it is great (even though I just started). I'm interested in order to use the PECPrep utility wit hthe EQMod.

Thanks

Bob
74°59’72.17”W 41°14’94.25”N

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neptun2
professor emeritus

Reged: 03/04/07

Loc: Bulgaria

Re: Initial Questions on EQMOD with the EQ6 new

[Re: sh00ter80]
#3117201 - 05/20/09 05:30 PM

One way is to use PHD to guide through the gpusb and parallel to it use eqmod to control the mount (for example for slewing). But if you use PEC from eqmod alongside with phd guide through gpusb you have 2 programs which are correcting independantly and so the result will maybe not be good. If you want to use PEC from eqmod it is recommended to use also pulse guiding through it because this way eqmod have the information for both the PEC corrections and the guide corrections and it can ensure that they are not fighting.

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rmollise
Postmaster

Reged: 07/06/07

Re: Initial Questions on EQMOD with the EQ6 new

[Re: Agnotio]
#3117632 - 05/20/09 09:31 PM

Quote:

Rod, what do you prefer about ST-4 guiding? From what I hear there's a debate between the EQMOD/EQDIR folk and those who use the GPUSB (without EQMOD) over which method is more reliable and accurate for autoguiding. What's your take?

Simpler, no foolin' with the software. I think the pulse/serial guiding can work well, but I've never heard anybody say "better than ST4." IMHO, simpler is almost always better. Anyway, works for this old boy.

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rmollise
Postmaster

Reged: 07/06/07

Re: Initial Questions on EQMOD with the EQ6 new

[Re: sh00ter80]
#3117646 - 05/20/09 09:38 PM

Quote:

Hi Ron,

I've just been reading some threads on EQMod and I have the GPUSB on my SVP. Is it possible to use EQMod "through" the GPUSB? I use PHD and guiding through it is great (even though I just started). I'm interested in order to use the PECPrep utility wit hthe EQMod.

Thanks

Bob
74°59’72.17”W 41°14’94.25”N

Nope. PhD don't know pea turkey about GPUSB. You can run a guide program that's using GPUSB _alongside_ EQMOD, but the only guiding EMOD does itself is through the serial connection/EQDIR.

Post Extras:

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