iOptron iPolar issue

[Crater101 (Warren)]

For what it's worth, I haven't heard anything back from iOptron for a couple of weeks. They were checking with other dealers / techs to see if the issue had been reported elsewhere and stated they would get back to me when that had been done. Given that it's been almost three weeks, I'll pursue the matter immediately after Easter.
The tech support staff have been pretty good, but I get the impression that the administration has room for improvement.

[ReidG]

I did not have an iOptron mount so I bought one which allowed me to do some testing. OK I had some uses for the SkyHunter and and it worked with cameras and telescopes within its specifications.


However the iPolar device seems to have some problems. My conclusion is that the hardware is working as expected but is not a general propose device, no problem there it is not intended to be. The iOptron iPolar software appears to be the problem it jumps about all over the place at a furious rate as others here have reported and seems unworkable. However in my case the software for its own reasons decide to go into a mode where it went automatically to stage 2 when it had a plate solve for stage 1. I don't think I did that.


On a good night it did enable me to get a polar alignment done vaguely in accordance with the instructions in the manual.


More testing:
I mounted the iPolar on my SkyWatcher AZEQ6Pro and tried to do a polar alignment using SharpCap. SharpCap behaved normally but because of conditions did not find enough stars. All very sane and the appropriate messages.


I then rearranged the iPolar so it pointed to the same place as the telescope and went to a star cluster closer to overhead. SharpCap had no problem doing a plate solve and gave the usual sane report.


Conclusion: the hardware works, within its design intentions, but the software appears to be in need of revision.

[Swagman105 (Geoff)]

Received my iPolar back from iOptron on Tuesday. Had no trouble installing it back into the CEM70. Was able to get out last night to try it out and got a good PA pretty much first go before having to wrap up early because of the 95% humidity and dew.
I Had to use quite a high exposure setting (132) and get a lot of stars detected but at least the plate solving stayed steady. When I reduced exposure star detection and plate solving again became erratic.
Have been thinking about what this all means.
IOptron said that the U board cable fault they found should not have caused the instability problems but to me clearly this was a far better result than I had previously been able to achieve. There was still a fair degree of instability in star detection and the changing messages flashing in the upper left corner were really distracting but having constancy of plate solving allowed time for the adjustments necessary to achieve PA. Once the green cross of PA was achieved and everything tightened down, it still jumped in and out of perfect alignment for much of the time but always seemed to come back to the green cross. That tells me that it was probably a very good alignment and the jumping around was to do with seeing conditions.
I live in urban Geelong off an arterial road which heads due south along the line of PA. A couple of kms down the road there is a major intersection where it meets the Princes Highway and a major shopping mall. From my place the SCP is almost directly above these. Just now wondering how much effect hot rising air from car exhausts, light pollution from the intersection and shopping centre etc would contribute to the star detection instability.
Avoiding the thought of having to suggest to my wife about moving, I am confident that the PA I got was a good one and looking forward to some decent imaging time whenever.

[Swagman105 (Geoff)]

Just an update on previous post.
Had another PA attempt tonight after a slightly warmer day albeit still high humidity.
Pleased to find that PA was even better than the night before with less star jump and the green cross staying nice and stable.
Maybe I should just now accept that whatever it was that was that was causing the stability issues has gone as a result of the iOptron repair or change to whatever else it could have been.

[Crater101 (Warren)]

I'm still waiting to hear back from iOptron after my last e-mail. Given that most of their responses to queries have been made within 24 hours, they appear to have gone strangely silent after my last request for information.

[Crater101 (Warren)]

The latest from iOptron. I think I've been placed in the Too Hard basket.
Sorry we could not have any feedback from the customers about the GPS issue.

Could try the following:
1.Power on the mount with no GPS connected.
2.Enter Setting menu to change the GPS coordinate to a random number. Change the date too. Take a photo.
3.Power off the mount and connect the GPS. Then power on the mount
4.Wait until GPS OKed, check the HC Time and Site info. Take a photo

BTW, which mount do you have? 40/45 or 26/28. I could not remember it. Sorry.


I should point out that I've already done what they suggest, and I've told them that. Back to the drawing board!