eq8 is here

[coldknights (Cathy)]

Hi Mark will do thank you ! Yes not bad at all.
Have a nice Christmas as well .

[Tandum (Robin)]

This is a issue with this mount, you can't ship it unless you put it on a pallet. I just sold mine and they would not carry it unless it was on a pallet. Problem is, you have to put that pallet on a truck at pick up with a forklift and the receiver has to take it off with a forklift. The courier just provides a truck. How many of you know how to wrap a pallet or have the tools to do it.

I was lucky, one of my regular customers sends stuff on pallets all the time and helped me out. They wrapped it and used their fork lift to load it.

I was quoted $132 each end to lift it on and put it down using a different type of truck. Very poor design for transport. I guess there is no OH&S in china yet.


What happens when it has to go for repair?

[Star Hunter]

Originally Posted by Grimmeister

Hi Everyone,

OK so a bit of an update on my EQ8, I have managed to "work around" the declination issue I had by making sure the worm gear mesh is in the right spot for my imaging target it's a bit more fiddling on set up but otherwise easy enough to manage and fixes the problem fully.

I did however have a big issue last weekend with the RA gear binding up near the meridian . I was a bit dismayed when it happened and was quickly followed but a large chunk of expletives.......

I followed up with Tasco on my return home from a warranty view point as during the heat of the moment on the evening I was imaging I determined it was going back to be replaced. However, I have since calmed down and I have had a chat to Rob at Tasco about the issue. He has been great during the whole process and consulted the engineers in Canada for some guidance on the issue. There was no question where the problem was and that the mount needed an adjustment.

Initially I was asked to send this back for repairs however given it's size and weight and after speaking with Rob about it and my employment history (mechanical technician in the Defence Force and having had years of experience in adjusting equipment of similar nature) I have been given instructions on how to adjust the worm gear mesh and assurance I will not void my warranty in doing so.

After an initial review of the details this looks a pretty straight forward procedure and I will do this ASAP and retest (probably next weekend).

Some interesting feedback and a real credit to Sky Watcher is all the issues that do get reported are taken back to the factory and reviewed to ensure future mounts are improved where needed as can be seen in some of the early changes to the EQ8's, sometimes manufacturers don't always get it right the first time but Sky Watcher are dead set keen to make sure they keep improving things as they go.


Anyway I will update once I have had a chance to adjust and will let you know how it all goes.

Cheers

Anthony

Anthony,

I have an EQ8 which is only 2 months old and last night the whole Dec system seized. The noise sounded like either a bearing, the stepper motor had seized or the mesh was too tight between worm and wheel. Have left a message with Rob at TASCO as to what to do. Up till this period the EQ8 slewed perfectly but I guess nothing is perfect. Had Synta used better quality parts, the price would have double.

What caused yours to fail and was it serious? Did you need new parts?

cheers and have a happy Xmas.

James

[coldknights (Cathy)]

Hi has anyone got a tension Wrench can check the tension setting on the tripod bolts and also the mount to tripod bolts ?
Thanks in Advance

[Logieberra (Logan)]

Saw Baz's new EQ8 the other night. They are a beautiful thing. So much metal! Very few plastic parts. They look like tremendous value for money.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Originally Posted by James

Had Synta used better quality parts, the price would have double.

Decent quality bearings would likely only add at most a couple of hundred to the price, I'd pay that anytime.

[coldknights (Cathy)]

Well We unpacked the mount late last night and set it up ( was cooking most of the day ).
Read the Instruction manual and put one of the weights under the middle of tripod's Central post .

Shame the tripod did not come with a Case like the EQ8 mount did !

All went together well and tested the slewing of the mount and then retired to bed for the night.

We got up a bit earlier then normal and Made the Double ended RJ45 plug to go into the 4 Way Bluetooth Adaptor.

Took the hand controller out plugged in the 4way Bluetooth adaptor started the pc up with Eqmod told it the coms port number and connected straight away slewed around a bit using the arrow keys and then
Parked it with EQmod the started Stellarium scope up hit connect which brought up the EQmod window unparked it started Stellarium up and was going around slewing from target to target.

Overall we are pleased with the new mount ! Slews are very quiet and fingers x none of those dreaded noises comes from this Mount that others are Experiencing with their EQ8 mounts and hope SKyWatcher come up with the fix for their mounts soon.

[Grimmeister (Anthony)]

Originally Posted by Star Hunter

Anthony,

I have an EQ8 which is only 2 months old and last night the whole Dec system seized. The noise sounded like either a bearing, the stepper motor had seized or the mesh was too tight between worm and wheel. Have left a message with Rob at TASCO as to what to do. Up till this period the EQ8 slewed perfectly but I guess nothing is perfect. Had Synta used better quality parts, the price would have double.

What caused yours to fail and was it serious? Did you need new parts?

cheers and have a happy Xmas.

James

Hi James,

Sorry to hear the news, I haven't been under the stars since my last trip due to the weather here in SEQ , I really hope the end of Jan picks up a bit so I can head out for the new moon.

To answer your question, I was fortunate in there has been no damage (well that I can see any way). I have re-run the mount through a whole bunch of indoor tests since the issue and just cannot reproduce the issue . As of this evening I have tracked (via software) 15 objects up to the meridian till the limit is reached and set it to auto park, each and everytime it just parks to home no issues like last time????

So to date I don't really know what happened and may never know, given the time of year it happened I highly doubt temperature had any role so maybe not as balanced as I thought I was??????

Anyway new moon weekend I am hoping to go out again and have a play, I am quite comfortable now with the declination side of things and had the mount running perfectly in that regards last time so provided the RA doesn't show the same issue it is all working a treat.

I hope your mount gets sorted quickly for you, Rob at Tasco has always been very helpful so I am sure he will get you back up and running quickly.

Cheers

Anthony

[coldknights (Cathy)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

the response - nothing new here as discussed previously - but i dont think this is good enough:

Dear David,


Thank you for choosing Sky-Watcher. Here is a link to the controller firmware that should be able to help with the problem.


http://www.skywatcher.com/downloads.php?cat=3

Please follow the link to download "EQ8 MOTOR CONTROLLER FIRMWARE UPDATE (V2.09)". Thank you.

Version 2.10 now ready to download

http://www.skywatcher.com/downloads.php?cat=3

Seems to be a little better! those hard braking noises are a little quieter now when slowing down when it is coming to a stop.

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by coldknights

Version 2.10 now ready to download

http://www.skywatcher.com/downloads.php?cat=3

Seems to be a little better! those hard braking noises are a little quieter now when slowing down when it is coming to a stop.

good stuff - will have to do my hand controller soon

[gerhard_dangl (Gerhard)]

Hello all,
in the meantime I could measure the dynamical current consumption of my EQ8 also with firmware V2.10.
The diagram and some comments are here:
http://www.dangl.at/ausruest/eq8/eq8_e3.htm

[ozstockman (Mike)]

Hi guys,

I am trying to read all 30 pages now to find answers to my questions but it will take a while. If somebody is following this thread from the beginning would you mind answering a couple of questions.

1) are a bottom plate of this mount head and a thread that goes into the mount head the same as the ones used on an EQ6 Pro? I have a pier made for my Eq6 and I am wondering whether I can still use it with an EQ8 mount?

2) Has anybody been able to hook it with EQMOD either directly(without a HC) or through it? I can see the discussion about it on page 11 with someone mentioning difference in voltage and possible problems but I have not reached the point yet where it's been solved.

I am looking at this mount too and going back to astrophotography after almost 4 years pause. I would love to connect to the EQ8 the same way I was using my EQ6. I have used it with ASCOM-Bluetooth through serial port on the mount.

Since there is no serial port on the EQ8 I would need some adapters. It is not a problem to buy as long as this way of communication with the eq8 mount is possible.

[Grimmeister (Anthony)]

Hi Oz,

In answer to your questions, the EQ6 and EQ8 mounting arrangements are different so you will need a new mount plate.

Yes you can definitely hook up the mount direct with EQMod, same settings as the EQ5/EQ6 and works a treat.

Cheers

Anthony

[ozstockman (Mike)]

Originally Posted by Grimmeister

Hi Oz,

In answer to your questions, the EQ6 and EQ8 mounting arrangements are different so you will need a new mount plate.

Yes you can definitely hook up the mount direct with EQMod, same settings as the EQ5/EQ6 and works a treat.

Cheers

Anthony

Thank you Anthony. It seems I have had to read just a few posts further to get my question about the plate answered. It is mentioned on the same 11th page :-)

BTW, Orion has heir version of EQ8 listed on their website. I guess it is the same mount. The interesting thing though that they say that their mount should +-3 arcs tracking error without PEC

http://www.telescope.com/Mounts-Trip...4/p/103015.uts

Skywatcher does not make such promises or at least I could not find anything about it on their website.

[14cge (Roy)]

Hi all, has anyone updated from a CGE mount to the EQ8?
I can see it is a larger mount, but have you missed the CGE in any way?

[ozstockman (Mike)]

Originally Posted by 14cge

Hi all, has anyone updated from a CGE mount to the EQ8?
I can see it is a larger mount, but have you missed the CGE in any way?

Hi Roy,


A CGE Pro seems to be a great mount based on users' reviews I have read but the cheapest price for it in Australia I could find is AU$8000. You can get it cheaper from USA(around $6000 with shipping) but it is still more expensive than an EQ8.

[14cge (Roy)]

Hi everyone, checked the voltage readout on the hand controller and it comes out with 19.8 v from a 12v car battery. What scared me the most was that I connected up a 15 v power supply first, as recommended by the manual and that came out at 25v. That's when I quickly turn off the unit and checked with 12 volt battery.
All voltages check with professional multimeter first from power supply before connecting.

Is the hand controller powered by different voltage from the mount?
Perhaps something is wrong for the power from the mount to the hand controller?
Is the hand controller power direct from the incoming power supply or transformer in the mount?

[coldknights (Cathy)]

Hi Roy ,
Have a read from the link below !

http://www.skywatcher.com/downloads.php?cat=20

Take the power cord off the mount and using a multimeter check the voltage at the pins that plug into the mount you should get around 12 to 13.5 v you should not get more than that with the car not running .

To do this test plug the power lead into the car cig lighter socket at the other end that goes into the mount use the multi meter to check the voltage on the 2 pins (you may need someone to hold the plug while you check the voltage on the plug pins).

But I think it may have something to do with the firmware as per the skywatcher website link above.

Have you got Firmware version 3.35 on your SynScan hand controller ?

[14cge (Roy)]

Thanks Cathy, went out tonight with our group and tried another hand piece. All fine, it read correctly. Thanks for the link/fix.
kind regards
Roy

[orion69 (Knez)]

Has that spike problem when guiding with Lodestar using PHD2 been resolved using latest firmware?

Can't find confirmation for this...
My EQ8 arrives in 2-3 weeks.