Neq6 Strange Behaviour

[FrankyT]

Hello, for a change I am not asking a question for my own equipment. Two mates of mine seem to have the same issue.

Once the NEQ6 has been polar aligned and all is working well for an unknown reason it begins to drift quickly in RA (the one I observed east) for about 30 arc seconds. It hovers there for about two minutes and slowly returns to the original position. I have been told it also can go the other direction and photos show that ie on either side of the star there is a small trail enough to ruin shots. I tested one of the mounts using all my own gear to eliminate anything else such as power. It is not balancing, power and other issues around the mount. I have also updated the hand controller and MC software. It appears too largeto be PE (my experience it is usually quite small not the gross travel I am talking about here)but just in case I tried PEC. I thought I was getting somewhere as tracking seem to improve but then it came back again. I could show screen shots but it simply shows the star disappearing from backyard EOS cross hair on X10 within about 20 seconds, hover for a couple of minutes around 30 arc seconds from where it is supposed to be and return. The mounts are still under warranty. Cheers.

[codemonkey]

It does sound like PE. I never had much luck with PEC on my NEQ6s, but that could just be PEBKAC. You'll get a fairly wide range of PE amplitude on mounts like this.

[Atmos]

I agree with Lee, it does sound like PE, mostly because I cannot think of anything else that could cause that.
Were you doing the PEC training from the hand controller?

[FrankyT]

Yes with the hand controller. I wonder if PEC can be done on the NEQ6 using a synguider as with AZEQ6 but havent tried that. I dont normally bother with my mount as it is not that bad at all.

[Anth10]

I've noticed that too with my neq6. I haven't really payed to much attention to it as I haven't had much of a dive in DSO photography. I attempted my first drift align last night and like you had the same thing with it. I fixed on a star using my illuminated reticule. It remained still for about one minute then randomly drifted significantly then stopped still again. I'm perplexed.

[bugeater]

Have you timed the effect? Is it always the same duration?

[Anth10]

Yes, the effect occurs after about 1minute. It then slides away for one or two seconds. Then stays put after that. It's enough to ruin a long exposure. I am therefore limiting my subs to 30sec to avoid this occurance. I was thinking it could be the slew in the gears at a particular moment?? I was pointing almost at the zenith at the time. I've also heard to keep the scope 'east heavy' if this helps I have yet to try it...

[bugeater]

If the period of the effect is exactly the same every time and repeats time after time, then that does suggest periodic error. I think the total cycle on an eq6 is about 8 minutes.

I had a problem with my setup that I thought was mechanical, but in the end it was actually interference on the cable from the laptop to the mount. Cable rerouting solved the problem.