Short story:
-The older? ascom control center values (in inches) is working for me (but i probably need to figure out how to really measure).
-Ascom device hub was flipping the dome around to 180 when the scope was north each time, havent retried by putting in the control center values in mm yet.
POTH, (didnt share a screenshot here), worked, but was off and i think values needed translated from my working set (but this is older, most say dont use POTH anyway)
Why is it preferred to (get working) the ascom device hub vs say the ascom control center that i seem to have working fine so far here?
Longer version: I have a thread in the FB group, but this is much easier to sort through. I'm going to try to group this together here as best i can
Some of this software i think i had installed, particularly from the ascom platform installer (v6.4 sp1 at this time i believe).
The other part is the nexdome software found here NexDome Control System 3.0.1
However, there is a newer (recommended apparently) Ascom Device Hub software located here V6.4.1.3
I first attempted to "figure out" the values for the Ascom Device hub and tried using these ones:
However, i ended up using the Ascom Dome Setup values (in inches) and via the Ascom Dome Control choice in the picklist (not in device hub?)
I think the first thing i opened to get to the window with values was, "ascom dome control panel" then clicked setup (this is also where i chose slave to dome where it worked correctly):
Where i got confused was this vs the POTH settings which i tried to emulate in POTH, but POTH was off by quite a bit, so i opted to stick with this ascom dome control version instead. Again, i dont think its using the device hub.
The issue i had with device hub, was when i checked off slave to scope, the scope, already was pointing north, the dome decided to move to 180 south (park position that i'm using). I couldnt get rid of this issue, but using the other and the values above, i think the slot and OTA centering are very close.
I also wasnt sure how to derive these values, i was guessing and they worked, initially i tried to measure (say for E/W) like this:
But, using what i ultimately kept in there is working as of now, at least on 3 or 4 targets at varying locations. I'm guessing so long as the combo of OTA and finder are centered reasonably well, and i see nothing but black and stars i'm good (no shutter/side of dome in view)
I think this picture i found elsewhere illustrates the measurements that should be made a bit better perhaps:
I may remeasure things as best i can. However, i know the values even if way off somehow seem to be working in the ascom control area, but it would be nice i guess (assuming advantages?) to get the ascom device hub values figured out and working there, and working so that when i check off slave there, it doesnt roll to 180 every time. Thanks for any info here
I was able to get this working on all 3 software choices, however, high altitude targets still have an issue, where the shutter at max is blocking the view partially. The dome needs to be rotated to a different position to have a clear shot at the sky, but i cant seem to get the software tweaked to make sure its in the right position.
Hey! I believe the measurement D is wrong! It should be the distance from center of dome (middle of pier most likely depending on that) to the point which is the bottom of your line F! So!! It will be slightly positive rather than negative. The mount pivot reference is the intersections of the RA axis and the DEC axis.
Best,
Ron