AZ-EQ6 DEC backlash

[bugeater]

I've been having a few issues with my AZ-EQ6, but not sure of the cause. Last night I got it out and noticed a lot of play in the dec axis, which I didn't remember before.

Possibly related was PHD not being able to move one of the axis when calibrating, until I gave the whole thing a wriggle on the dec axis. It was a bit weird.

Anyway, I looked into how to deal with this and found the astrobaby guide for the EQ6, which is meant to be the same for the AZ variant. This guide seems unnecessarily vague and confusing, but I've removed most of the play.

But one question is - how to you know it is binding or too tight? Will it literally not move the axis or stall the motor? I never had any stalling of the motor and most of the play is out, but perhaps this means I've still got a bit of room to tweak?

[Slawomir]

Hi Marty,

Glad to hear you removed most of the play. It is possible to remove pretty much all play by following the steps on Astrobaby's website, but you need to be patient and systematic. To check if you got it right, after adjusting the set screws put all gear back on the mount including the counterweights and fully rotate in both axes - hopefully slewing will sound okay and it won't bind :thumbsup:

[codemonkey]

If it's binding you'll know; a fast kind of clicking sound. It sounds bad and you'll know you've gone too far.

Basically I'd just go off sound. Get it to the point where you've ust eradicated any play. If you go too far, you'll start to get a kind of friction sound at various points of the rotation... go even further and it'll bind.

[bugeater]

I just found out what binding is - it actually stalls and sounds awful. Fortunately I had a reproducible slew to test with and I've backed the grub screws off a little and now it doesn't stall, which is great. One day I might even strip it all down.....