Resolved AO-X Problem?

I picked up a used STXL11k/ FW8G/AO-X recently, I have this mounted on my pier to a CEM120, /Meade 12" F8 (2438mm) and a Moonlight Litecrawler. The polar alignment is excellent and just checked. The problem is I keep getting oblong stars in dec, even running bin 2x. Doesn't seem to matter how many hz I get the AO to operate at either. Running current 6.27. I can see the issue in the correction box, the second number will occasionally ( once a minute?) jump to (2.4-3.0) for a few seconds before it drops to .2-.4. To have any effect I have to run crazy aggressiveness (17-18) which hurts the ra. In the past I've run on the same equipment a STT 8300 and 3200 with an AO-8 with no issues. I should add I had no issues during calibration.

 

Yes, it is an acf model.

 

I'll give it a try Colin, the weather should cooperate tonight.

 

No luck with my issue Colin. The plug in had no effect. I did notice tonight during calibration of the AO, I always got the message " Star moved less than five pixels in the Y direction". I tired different stars, binning, exposure lengths etc., no difference. While tracking with the AO I noticed as well the second number (Y) always would move between 0 and 100%, if it started at 0% the numbers would rapidly rise until it hit 100, stay there for a couple seconds and do the opposite, rapidly descend to 0%.

 

Colin, I have the mount controlled using "telescope", not guider relays. I didn't try regular guiding with this set up. Although during mount calibration a very nice L pattern is made. I have exercised the AO in ccdops with the camera sitting on my bench so I could watch the lens move, it moves fine.

 

Yes somehow I reinstalled 5.0.2.0. I rolled it back to 4.99 build 7. I'll give it another try tonight, thanks.

 

Colin trying it out now, really don't see much of a difference. It took many try's but I did get to calibrate the AO, although it still not correcting correctly in the Y axis, moving regularly between 0 and 100%. I also see when calibrating the drive the box will often lose the star. I did notice that the AO tracking speed after I did it to calibrate where much lower than the manual says it should be, X-34 and Y-15.

 

It might be comparing apples to oranges but I seem to remember with my Ao-8 the tracking speed number in the X and Y were in the 50-60 range. Also, I recall while doing the calibration procedure with the AO-8 a cross being formed, no cross to be seen while trying the same with the AO-X.

 

Colin, I resolved this issue. Not the software or the AO-X fault, it was (is) my mount. My guiding without the AO is bad as well, far worse than before. I put the CEM120 into the pier a number of times over the years and the latest time did some damage internally that I need to get repaired.