CG5 - errors - no response on Unit 16?

[g__day]

Well to start I'm glad this is under warranty! My CG5 mount started acting very strange. Its powered by a Celestron 17amp power tank, which is fully charged. On start up I select 2 star align and it pauses then says No response on Unit 16.

I also noticed it was slewing very slowly, and it would not slew on + RA - a very ominous sign.

I'll call Kee Andrews tomorrow - but I bet this is a RTB warranty call that leaves me without a mount for a while - when the clouds have finally cleared - bummer!

Anyone ever seen this sort of behaviour before?

[OneOfOne]

I must say I have never had this error on mine.

Once it "locked up" when doing the final alignment calculation. The little "thing" in the top right corner just kept spinning. After 5 minutes I turned it off and started again.

The only other problem was once when I wasn't watching and it drove the bottom of the tube into one of the legs....not a good idea!

Doesn't sound like good news to me....

[sheeny]

No, sorry mate! I haven't encountered that one before.

Al.

[g__day]

Steve at ExtraVision e-mailed today and reckons he can fully fix it and quickly - great news. For anyone wondering what went wrong, read on...


The scope is a C9.25 XLT CF on a custom large permanent pier in an Astro lab.

1. Massive gotos errors and occassional motor housing collisions. I switched location from Australia -> Sydney (South 33 Degree 55 Minutes 00 Seconds, East 151 degrees 10 Minutes 0 Seconds) to my actual GPS co-ords and (South 33 Minutes 47 Seconds 56 East 151 degrees 07 Minutes 07 Seconds) and all gotos are widely wrong - by up to 60 degrees and once again the motor collide on about 1 in 3 gotos as it did when I first set-up the scope (and if you remember back to July 2006 Lance in Celestron technical support USA wouldn't believe me)!

I check the tracking was South Eq and Rate was sidereal but wierd behaviour persists. If you set the location back to International Locations -> Australia -> Sydney I suppose all willl work - did last time. Maybe they have a bug in custom sites where they expect them to be all in the Northern Hemisphere and didn't set a variable correctly for custom locations in the Southern hemisphere. Re-setting back to Sydney from international cities normally fixes this bug.

2. Slow slews and delayed stops. This only started two days ago - rate 9 slews are moving like rate 6 slews. Once you release any axis movement button on the hand controller the scope continues to move for about another second whereas before it would instantly stop. Backlash is still set to 09 on all axes so no idea what's going on here. Scope is perfectly balanced and powersupply - Celestron 17 Amp powertank was fully charged - wierd behaviour started immediately it was turned on. I tried doing a factory reset but wierd behaviour persists.

3. No +ve RA

When you push +ve RA all you get is a click in the mount and no motor noise or movement, and a display readout saying

No Response
16

Until you press the undo button.

Scope was working brilliantly till I came back from holidays, got a firend to give me GPS co-ordinates of my astrolab, keyed these in and tried to do an alignment - then everything went totally wierd and even the factory re-set didn't help!

[sheeny]

Frustrating! I hope Steve can fix it quickly for you.

Al.

[g__day]

Taa thanks - wait and see, I dropped it off to Lee to day, let's see how long it takes and what happens.

More's the shame I start work for my new job in 3 weeks, until then I have plenty of free time in the evenings - so this mount chose a bad time to go haywire!

[g__day]

Well very good service from ExtraVision. I called Steve today to see how all is going. They can't readily recreate all my problems ( a wtf?) but they are sending me a brand new mount and hand controller - brilliant!

I can't fault their service in any way its been terrific every time I've e-mailed or called them in the last year.

Interestingly too I asked about candidates for my next mount (CGE vs G11 vs mid range TAK vs Vixen Atlux). Steve informed me that he gets lots of calls for burnt out G11's but in four years a CGE has never, ever failed. That's impressive!

CYA all - I'm off to Cowra now to visit the Darby Falls Observatory for the next two nights with the family! I hope the new mount arrives early next week upon our return home!

[matt]

g'day g_day!!!

Glad you got it all sorted.

Yes, Steve at ExtraVision is very helpful.

Also, I can fully understand and support your claim regarding Celestron not "believing" you.

When I went through my recent nightmare experience with my 9.25 most of the heartache was the result of Celestron's complete and utter denial that there could possibly be anything wrong with one of their scopes and they pretty much said I didn't know what I was talking about.

Every time I blew one of their theories out of the water, I'd get a new e-mail taking an entirely new angle. Each new e-mail, however, laid the problem squarely at my feet and absolved themselves of any responsibility.

This went on for months:mad2:

As is now well-known, it was in fact the scope which had optical problems and not me:mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

Very poor form, Celestron. Very poor.

Take a look around a lot of websites (particularly in the US) and you'll read of a lot of people unhappy with the optical performance of the SCTs since the Synta buy-out. QC has gone to seed.

I was reading the other day of a guy who received a 9.25 with the corrector completely out of alignment.

There was also a recent French review of the 9.25 which I believe was anything but flattering.

This is the venerable 9.25 we're talking about.

Very sad.

[casstony]

These QC issues are my greatest concern with buying this type of gear. If a dealer could provide QC for a reasonable fee they would certianly attract my business. That's why I've just purchased another set of Stellarvue binoviewers rather than buy one of the other clones that haven't had the same level of QC.

[g__day]

Well I am pleased to say the new mount has arrived back to me directly this morning and I set it up and did a few simple tests - all looks good by daylight - a few test slews and gotos where silky smooth!

A few small surprises

1. the DEC motor is labelled on this mount so when you are starting alignment it is on the left of the assembly when you are at the rear facing forward. On the old mount this was reversed - the markings where set up to start the DEC motor housing on the right of the mount assembly when you where at the rear facing forward.

Maybe someone just slapped the sticky paper alignment marking for the DEC motor 180 degrees on the wrong side of the mount (facing East not West) - or does it vary mount by mount? I wonder if this contributed to my original crazy pointing problems with the first mount? Can anyone confirm which side of the mount the Dec alignment marker should be on for a CG5?

2. I tested the bubble level on a surveyors theodolite, its way off - about 10 degrees - and when you press it lightly with a finger nail the bubble moves everywhere. Doesn't worry me at all Celestron quality control should look into this sort of finish.

3. Finally the bottom of the mount had 3 rough metal pimples that protuded a millimeter or two right near the base of the mount - simple job to remove these so it fits the pier without scraping it apart - I'd say again to quality control they just didn't turn the bottom of the mount and smooth it before they painted it!

So bottom line - I'm estactic and waiting for a cloudless night to put it all through its paces now!

[beren]

Glad to hear the mounts back :thumbsup:

On mine {brought recently} the markers are on the right hand side with the dec motor housing on the left. After reading some reviews of the mount some people have suggested it may be safer to have the small locking screw in the top positon which means having the dec housing on the right as you look from the back. I've had no hassles with alignments or gotos, so long as the mount is set up to your Lat and the scope is pointing to the SCP everything shouild be fine. I also use a dual mounting bar that allows the scope to carry two refractors, in this mode the dec motor housing is facing forwards {check pic}, no problems likewise it also stops the problem of the DEC housing colliding with the RA motor housing :P

[g__day]

Well still waiting for the weather to clear, however Celestron sent me this reply about which side of the mount the Dec motor housing should start from:

Celestron write:-

Motor housing should be to the right when facing from the rear. Arrow stickers on the left, pointing at each other.

Bubble level shouldn’t move, should be inset in tripod head. If possible, it is always best to get photos of any physical defects so we can determine it this is a mould over pour or defective mould that need be recast.

* * *

So my new mount was incorrectly labelled and the Dec was around the wrong way! It seems like the fab workers somewhere in China aren't doing basic quality control.