After 1 hour of playing with Voyager, I was so impressed that I decided to buy it. I’ve been imaging for a long time and over the years I have used ACP, SGP, and CCDAutopilot and Voyager is impressive and better suited for my needs. I am an SW developer myself (backend) and is very clear that Voyager is very high quality piece of software, congrats to Leo!
Some questions:
– How do I start TheSkyX, MaximDL etc? if the programs are already running when I hit the connect button in Voyager it will bring a new instances. So far what I am doing is to start TheSkyX and Maxim in admin mode and then connect them to Voyager. Is there a recomended way to initialize the programs?
– Dithering doesn’t work if I am guiding with TheSkyX. I get Error:120 when starting dithering, IIRC the message is: ‘The camera is already running a command’. OTOH if I am guiding with Maxim Dithering works without any issue.
– One of my rigs uses a Paramount MX+, I have a long refractor mounted on it and I don’t have clearance to track passed the meridian so I have set TheSkyX to stop tracking at the meridian. Any advice on how to setup meridian flip for this configuration?
thanks you so much for you considerations about Voyager (also how developer), really appreciated.
Answers to your questions:
Voyager running as admin, if you open first Voyager then all the programs will be opend like admin, or put the program that create another instance in admin mode. Depends on how you installed other programs (for a particular user or for all user in pc mode).
Confirm, sorry but something is changed in the latest versions of TSX, another users tell me about this problem. I hope to fix in the next release of Voyager. I need to check if with simulator i can recreate the issue. This problem is only for TSX dithering.
if you use TSX like mount control in Voyager choose “ASCOM Pier Mode” equal to From Scope Position. If you use ASCOm driver in mount control in Voyager select the right “ASCOM Pier Mode”. Allow passing meridian of 2/3 minute in your mount, put “Only Expusre Action before Meridian Crossing” to 5 min. Put 2 min in “Do Flip After Mount Passing Meridian by”.
In sequence configuration, tab Meridian flip, remember to check the flag “Force Meridian Flip Procedure with Exposure Abort After Meridian Crossing” and put 2 min in the field value. This force to meridian flip mount after 2 minute crossing it whetever actions is running and aborting exposure running. Remember to create a base sequence configuration with this setting to inherits for all targets.
This could work, do some test on meridian cross using a sequence with a target near meridian (a star before meridian of 10 minute) to dont waste so many time in test sessions.
If you need more help or want to do togheter from remote just write me to support mail or use the whatsapp number.
Hi Leo,
Yesterday I tested the managed meridian flip using the parameters you suggested and it didn’t work. The mount stop tracking but the flip never started. I have to manually abort the sequence and restarted.
The flip started around 2019/10/19 21:46:21 in the log. I am sending you an email with the session log.
I answered to your question in email. I just shortly report here that your mount stop tracking 55s before reaching meridian. Voyager was setting up to ask meridian flip 2 minutes after meridian cross. So this is the reason. You must allow mount to tracking past meridian by 3/4 minutes to permit to Voyager to manage the meridian correctly.
Thank for your reply. Unfortunately, my current setup cannot track passed the meridian because when the scope is pointing to the zenith it will collide with eh concrete pier. I will check tonight to see how much clearance I have and try to stretch the tracking limit.
Is it possible with Dragscript to achieve a more generic meridian flip workaround? Something like:
– Stop Tracking 10 minutes before crossing the meridian
– Wait 5 minutes after the target has crossed the meridian
– Perform a meridian flip
– Resume sequence execution
usually some minutes are allowed … please check if its possible to manage because you have solved in this way. Instead of Dragscript is better to add option to meridian management in sequence to use the time before and after meridian crossing in a wait like you ask with mount stopped. I’ll add to todo list for the next build.
I’ve checked the clearance and there is some room to track passed the meridian without colliding, I estimated that I can track 20 min passed the meridian so I set the limit to 12 min.
At 12 min passed the meridian TheSkyX will stop tracking.
After allowing my Paramount MX+ to track 12min past the meridian the meridian flip work correctly with the parameters suggested at the top of the thread.
