#1  
Old 04-12-2009, 08:55 AM
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jjjnettie (Jeanette)
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Guiding Problem...Still

I'm still having troubles getting my HEQ5Pro to autoguide.
I sent my faulty hand paddle back to Bintel for repairs, and this is my first chance to try the mount out since getting it back.

It still doesn't seem to be guiding in RA.
The drift align was good (well, I thought it was good, no visable movement of the star, and the graph in K3 was very steady, so the mount is tracking.
I've listed where I thought the possible fault may lie.
1. PHD is not sending the mount any RA signals.
2. One of the cables connecting the autoguider to the mount or the puter is faulty.
3. There is a problem with the mounts motherboard, it's not recieving the signals from the autoguider.

I've had this mount for 3 months, and I've not been able to put it to good use yet. I'm at the end of my tether over this.
I'm this close to putting the whole kit up for sale.
It's pointless owning gear that doesn't work.
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Old 04-12-2009, 09:09 AM
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toryglen-boy (Duncan)
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JJJ, i feel your pain, i am having some minor issue to.

Have to enabled guiding in RA? i know thats a crazy thing to say, but i had this issue once, and guiding in RA was disabled.

What sort of issues are you having? is it guiding for a bit, then slipping, or will it just not guide at all?




Quote:
Originally Posted by jjjnettie View Post
I'm still having troubles getting my HEQ5Pro to autoguide.
I sent my faulty hand paddle back to Bintel for repairs, and this is my first chance to try the mount out since getting it back.

It still doesn't seem to be guiding in RA.
The drift align was good (well, I thought it was good, no visable movement of the star, and the graph in K3 was very steady, so the mount is tracking.
I've listed where I thought the possible fault may lie.
1. PHD is not sending the mount any RA signals.
2. One of the cables connecting the autoguider to the mount or the puter is faulty.
3. There is a problem with the mounts motherboard, it's not recieving the signals from the autoguider.

I've had this mount for 3 months, and I've not been able to put it to good use yet. I'm at the end of my tether over this.
I'm this close to putting the whole kit up for sale.
It's pointless owning gear that doesn't work.
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  #3  
Old 04-12-2009, 09:16 AM
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jjjnettie (Jeanette)
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Sometimes it will guide. But only sometimes.
I thought the problems was in the hand controller, as others have had that trouble. But it's been fixed now.

I hate being this isolated from the astro community.
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Old 04-12-2009, 09:38 AM
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toryglen-boy (Duncan)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jjjnettie View Post
Sometimes it will guide. But only sometimes.
I thought the problems was in the hand controller, as others have had that trouble. But it's been fixed now.

I hate being this isolated from the astro community.

ok mate, lets break it down.

things it can be :-

RA guiding turned off in PHD, i have seen this turned off by mistake, and guiding wont happen, although usually this means no guiding at all, and yours like mine used to, guides, then sometimes slips, is this right? this would indicate that this option is enabled

Polar Alignment - Sometimes when the alignment is a bit out, then PHD cant move the mount enough or compensate, and it slips, but i guess you have drift aligned your mount

Mechanical fault - Can you spin the mount around on its RA axis? are there any parts of the rotation that feel sticky, and parts that feel smooth? although your mount is new, so thats unlikely

Software - I know there was a problem with earlier versions of PHD, i had to upgrade mine, to change a DLL in the package, what version are you using?

Balance - Is your 200mm scope just too much for the mount? the instance of slippage i have seen, happen less with smaller OTA's as far as i have seen.

Cableing - Do you have any other cables you can try? i am lead to believe that the guide cable is prone to electrical noise.

its all good mate, i am sure everyone will work through this together, and get it happening for you.




EDIT : What version of the firmware do you have on the controller?
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  #5  
Old 04-12-2009, 09:57 AM
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jjjnettie (Jeanette)
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I'm using the ED80 with the very lightweight iOpton 80mm riding on top.
Ponders thinks there may be some flexure.
The times it has guided well, I was pointing to the south.
There is a crunchy sound from the mount when I slew.

I'm not going anywhere near the mount to get any info off the handset.
It's sitting in the naughty corner atm and deserves no attention from me.
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  #6  
Old 04-12-2009, 09:58 AM
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toryglen-boy (Duncan)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jjjnettie View Post
I'm using the ED80 with the very lightweight iOpton 80mm riding on top.
Ponders thinks there may be some flexure.
The times it has guided well, I was pointing to the south.
There is a crunchy sound from the mount when I slew.

I'm not going anywhere near the mount to get any info off the handset.
It's sitting in the naughty corner atm and deserves no attention from me.

LOL, i hear you.

So, if its flexure, whats the fix?

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  #7  
Old 04-12-2009, 10:05 AM
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jjjnettie (Jeanette)
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Mounting the guide scope on a long dovetail bar and attaching the bar to the rings.
I'll try guiding through the ed80, and ride the 20d on top and image through the 300mm lens. See if that makes a difference.
Though I've been through all this before. I'm just going over the same ground yet again.

Or, I can just give up on it and manually guide instead.
At least I'll get some data.
I do not need this frustration atm.
This hobby is supposed to give one pleasure, not pain.
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Old 04-12-2009, 10:09 AM
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toryglen-boy (Duncan)
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you're usually a very optimistic person JJJ, you must be really fed up to feel like this!

this might explain my issue, i get slippage when it points in one general direction, so thats something for me to look at.

In the meantime, why dont you try a different aspect of photography? time lapse, or widefield shots as you suggest etc.

i am sure it can be sorted.




Quote:
Originally Posted by jjjnettie View Post
Mounting the guide scope on a long dovetail bar and attaching the bar to the rings.
I'll try guiding through the ed80, and ride the 20d on top and image through the 300mm lens. See if that makes a difference.
Though I've been through all this before. I'm just going over the same ground yet again.

Or, I can just give up on it and manually guide instead.
At least I'll get some data.
I do not need this frustration atm.
This hobby is supposed to give one pleasure, not pain.
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  #9  
Old 04-12-2009, 10:14 AM
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h0ughy (David)
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JJJ if you have the polar alignment done with K3 then use K3 to guide with as a test to see how it goes - you already did the hard yards getting the drift done
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  #10  
Old 04-12-2009, 10:19 AM
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jjjnettie (Jeanette)
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Thanks Dave, I'll give it a go.
Tonight.
After the work chrissie party. Hic.
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  #11  
Old 04-12-2009, 10:29 AM
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Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)
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Have you tried "Factory Re-Set"
You have to drill-down thru' the menu to find it.
I've been reading up on these and this seems to be a good fix, providing there are no mechanical or m'board faults.
Good luck, I feel your pain!!!
PJH
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  #12  
Old 04-12-2009, 10:32 AM
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jjjnettie (Jeanette)
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LOL
I set up last week planning to do just that, but when I turned the mount on the handset wouldn't initialise. (you've just gotta laugh don't you )

But I'll do that tonight.
Thanks.

When I was having all sorts of troubles with my little iOptron mount, a factory reset of the hand paddle sorted the problem out.
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  #13  
Old 04-12-2009, 11:28 AM
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Jeanette.
My EQ6(with EQDIR) sometimes won't guide in Dec when using my QHY guider. Interetingly it is only when the mount is aiming to the east. I can swap to my SBIG internal guider and it will work using its cable.
Because of this I felt that the problem was in the cable from the guider to the mount. I reversed the cable and the same thing still occurs. I'm still not sure where the intermittent fault is. It could be in the guider itself, the cable connections, or the connector in the mount having a poor contact.

Another thing to look at is the worm gears. I tightened mine up to reduce the backlash. After this the mount still would slew and track but wouldn't guide. It seemed I had made it too tight and the small movements needed for guiding needed looser gears.
Worth looking into.

cheers
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Old 04-12-2009, 11:30 AM
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pmrid (Peter)
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JJ,
I'll be back in Qld on Wednesday next week. Give me a day to stop my wheels spinning and we can see if we can't work through some of this. You could bring the guilty party down to 10Chain or I can bring mine to you. Since we both have the same mount and seemingly the same issue to resolve, I think this might be one time when the blind can lead the blind - even if it is only in concentric circles.
Whatever. Let me know.
Peter
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Old 04-12-2009, 11:32 AM
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jjjnettie (Jeanette)
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One can only hope that the problem is something simple.
Driver error so to speak.
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Old 04-12-2009, 11:52 AM
alfi (Alf david)
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hi Jeanette
you wrote the mount makes a crunchy sound when slewing, do you mean a sound other then the normal slewsound?
if so, it is most probably the wormgears that need adjusting, as it will make a crunchy sound when it binds.
this is possible to adjust with a allen-key, find astrobabys webpage, there she has written a good guide on adjusting it on heq5 pro.

alfi
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Old 04-12-2009, 11:54 AM
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jjjnettie (Jeanette)
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LOL It's slews with a purr one way, the other goes grrrr.
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Old 04-12-2009, 11:54 AM
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multiweb (Marc)
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Yeah I was thinking about the same thing. I sounds like it's a mechanical problem there. That needs to be resolved first before you start looking into drivers and software. Have your mount track reasonably well first once polar aligned. If need be service it. Then look into the software part further if still need to.
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Old 04-12-2009, 11:55 AM
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multiweb (Marc)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jjjnettie View Post
LOL It's slews with a purr one way, the other goes grrrr.
Then your balance might be a bit off.
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  #20  
Old 04-12-2009, 11:59 AM
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jjjnettie (Jeanette)
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I carefully balance each way to start with, and rebalance if I change cameras.
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