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Old 25-09-2017, 09:50 PM
Wavytone
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AZ EQ6 misbehaves...

Just had first night out with a friend and a new AZ-EQ6 and found setting it up totally bizarre. Friend has had an EQ6 for years and I've used other Synscan mounts before for several years - which was what persuaded me to buy the AZEQ6.

Went through the motions of setting up and aligning to the SCP using a compass to set the azimuth and a clinometer to set the altitude, estimate is within a degree both ways.

Powered up, set EQ mode, date, time, long and lat as per usual.

Tried a 1 star alignment using Kaus Australis. OK... then a GOTO to Moon. Mount slewed below horizon, approx 60 degrees off. Hopelessly wrong.

Tried 2-star alignments. Aside from offering a bizarrely VERY limited selection of just 3 stars to choose from each time, it went through this as usual.

Then tried a GOTO to Saturn. The handset insisted on showing the altaz position of Saturn (I expected it would show RA & Dec) then attempted to slew BELOW the horizon at which point I stopped it.

In total disbelief we spent a couple of hours parking the scope, powering off, powering on and repeating only to have it do similar each time.

Tried a 3-star alignment. After aligning on two stars it then picked Fomalhaut but slewed way off in the wrong direction - at least 90 degrees in both axes.

Any ideas ? I'm quite literally on the brink of sending it back to Bintel as defective.

It's so screwy that in some ways its as if (a) it behaves as if its in the northern hemisphere, or (b) one of the encoders isn't functioning correctly, (b) it persists in thinking its in altaz mode when it is set up as equatorial. Admittedly I haven't set up in AZ mode, might try that later in the week.
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Old 25-09-2017, 10:42 PM
glend (Glen)
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Is there a hemisphere setting in the hand contrpller menu system? It certainly sounds like it thinks it is on the northern hemisphere if its chasing stars below the horizon. My CGX certainly has a hemisphere setting. When you put in the gps location are you using negative for latitude or S, or does it have gps built in?
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Old 25-09-2017, 10:47 PM
Wavytone
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Glen it is set to E 151d 10' and S 33d 46' elevation 100m and time zone GMT+10h.
We both have used Synscans many time before and checked this several times tonight, which is why both of use were frankly shocked.

Something else I am puzzled by is that it only offers just 3 stars at each point in the alignment sequence, mostly hopelessly low elevation. We were lucky to be at a site with pretty good horizons otherwise it would simply have been a no-go, period.

Previous experience with Synscan handsets is that you get a fair selection of bright stars to choose from.

I'm also wondering if I can get SkySafari to communicate with the mount directly and ditch the Synscan handset.
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Old 25-09-2017, 10:50 PM
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barx1963 (Malcolm)
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The obvious thing to check would be see if a different handset works with it if you can access one. Will isolate the issue methinks. I have the Orion version of the same mount and found it to be very good, never had any issues with it.

Malcolm
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Old 25-09-2017, 10:54 PM
Wavytone
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Good point I'll try Alex's handset on the weekend.
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Old 25-09-2017, 10:56 PM
glend (Glen)
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I have gone through my old NEQ6 manual and other than the co-ordinate S designator i can't see what else you need to do. Is this a brand new, never used before mount?
I agree that trying another hand controller is a good idea, or you could use Sky Safari as it has avprofile for that mount, but you would need a wifi box like a Nexus to connect to the bottom of the controller.
Sounds like a call to Bintel might be in order.
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Old 25-09-2017, 11:03 PM
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barx1963 (Malcolm)
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The 3 stars thing sounds very wrong. I usually get a long list of stars. That fact alone tells me there is something not right with the handset. When you think about it, the handset is doing all the computational stuff, so is first place to look.
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Old 25-09-2017, 11:03 PM
Wavytone
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Yup brand new. I have a SkyFi adapter but have yet to get that to work - it came with no instructions either.

Figured get the hardware set up and the SynScan working first.

About all that does work at the moment is slewing.
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Old 25-09-2017, 11:07 PM
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barx1963 (Malcolm)
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Do you run EQMOD at all? If not I can lend you a Cable that I have spare to see if you can run it with that. Will need a laptop off course.
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Old 26-09-2017, 06:09 AM
rrussell1962
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I'm probably mentioning something you already know but the Advanced Filter default is ON in the SETUP options for Alignment Stars. This from an expert (not) who has just used Synscan again for the first time in 5 years.
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Old 26-09-2017, 06:49 AM
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Have you tried with the encoders OFF???
If there is an error in the encoder, it can badly affect the pointing as it constantly overwrites where it thinks it is pointing.

Andrew
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Old 26-09-2017, 11:54 AM
Wavytone
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Russell, Andrew - thanks will try again tomorrow... other commitments tonight...

I’ve no idea what the default encoder settings are out-of-the-box, didn’t look. Also a couple of times we did try a “factory reset” as a last resort, but that didn’t affect the way it misbehaved.
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Old 26-09-2017, 12:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rrussell1962 View Post
I'm probably mentioning something you already know but the Advanced Filter default is ON in the SETUP options for Alignment Stars. This from an expert (not) who has just used Synscan again for the first time in 5 years.
I should have clarified my comment above. Turning off the advanced filter means that all the alignment stars are displayed during alignment and not just the ones that the system thinks will give a good alignment, but which are often inconveniently placed. The list can also be sorted by magnitude or proper name.
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Old 26-09-2017, 12:50 PM
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Will be interesting to try. It repeatedly on gave only 3 alternative stars of which 2 were usually hopelessly low on the horizon. What has me scratching my head is that it ignored Antares and wants Kaus Australis instead. Similarly it ignored Achernar and Fomalhaut.

SynScans I’ve used out of the box before didn’t do that and offer typically a dozen stars - or the naked eye planets.
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Old 26-09-2017, 03:32 PM
AndrewJ
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Quote:
I’ve no idea what the default encoder settings are out-of-the-box, didn’t look.
They were normally ON, and if the encoder is damaged/misbehaving, then you will have problems.

Andrew
I have a small app that allows you to test out the encoders etc
but it runs best in EQDirect mode
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Old 26-09-2017, 04:31 PM
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Atmos (Colin)
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You should be able to test it inside, just do a random 1 star alignment, push okay and tell it to skew to Jupiter or Saturn. You’ll know quickly whether it’s working or not. Just allows you to test things inside when it’s clofuy.
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Old 26-09-2017, 04:43 PM
Wavytone
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Just tried that - repeated what I did last night. 2 star alignment, select alpha Centauri and Kaus Australis, then a GOTO to Saturn. It flipped the polar axis to the east and slewed to some random direction east below horizon.

I’ll try again tomorrow but looks like I’m taking it back to Bintel on Saturday to show them.

Off to a meeting for the evening.
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Old 26-09-2017, 05:29 PM
AndrewJ
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The handbox has a menu that allows you to see where "it thinks" it is pointing. Have you tried using that along the way to see what it says???
IIRC there are also serial commands you can use to do this.

Andrew
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Old 26-09-2017, 07:39 PM
Wavytone
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Hi Andrew, yes.

When trying the GOTO to saturn the handset displays the azimuth and altitude of saturn before passing ENTER to make it slew to that position.

A couple of times I checked that with Sky Safari and the position it gave was correct, yet it slews way off to some other place below the horizon. Each time I had to stop the slew before it crashed the scope OTA into the mount.

This is making me think the encoder system is totally borked.
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Old 26-09-2017, 08:03 PM
AndrewJ
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So try with encoders OFF
The encoders are rather insidious in that they tweak the "reported" position on misreads, even if you havent released the clutches.
Again this can be easily tested using an EQDir type connection

Andrew
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