What am I doing wrong with the eq6.

[sejanus]

:(

A week or two ago it was sorta working in terms of goto accuracy, but last night it was so far off that I am really thinking that I'm doing something so incredibly wrong, or there are problems with the mount.

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm having evil thoughts of getting rid of it and getting a nice cosy fork mount system. I've used a mates C11 with it's sky align feature and it's so easy a kid could use it. While he's using his I'm battling with mine :doh:

Got up at 4am.

- mount pointing 11 degrees east of magnetic south
- mount dead level according to spirit level
- C11 balanced perfectly on it
- Laptop next to me to double check alignment stars (though I know them pretty well now!!!)
- Turn eq6 on. Enter 151E 34.18S
- The stars that are most clearly visible are Sirius, Canopus, Rigel, Achernar and Fomalhaut (not sure if thats spelt right)
- Pick a 2 star alignment on Rigel & Achernar. Center both in 12mm illuminated eyepiece. Alignment successful.
- Tell it to go to orion nebula. It is so far off that it's obvious even to the eye without looking through the scope or telrad
- swear a lot.
- park scope. turn mount off.
- Detach C11. Put in garage and look fondly at the big paper weight. Put 80ED on mount and remove 2 counterweights and balance.
- Do a 3 star alignment on Sirius, Achernar, Fomalhaut. Alignment failed.
- Try again. Alignment failed.
- swear
- Check laptop to make sure the stars are the right ones. Yes they are.
- Do a 2 star alignment. Canopus and Fomalhaut. Yep align successful.
- Go to Orion nebula. A bit closer this time but still miles off. Slew there and look at it, and wish I had the celestron back on the mount.
- Tell controller to go to Pleiades. It's miles off.
- Swear
- Park scope & pack up and go to bed.

:mad2::mad2::mad2::shrug::shrug::he lp::help::help::help:

[h0ughy]

ok did you set the time and date, you have to do that every time it is turned on?

[sejanus]

yep you have to set the time and date every time, and yes i did definitely have it set for 11th december, DST, GMT+10

[sejanus]

i just spoke to tasco and he said to turn DST off and run GMT+11

shrug

will try tonight.

[ving]

best of luck. it sucks when stuff doesnt work :(

:thumbsup:

[sejanus]

the thing that is really trying the patience is that the initial v3.01 software was buggy - so now when things go wrong you think "is it the software or is it me"?

[matt]

How do you run GMT +11?

[sejanus]

key it into the hand controller on startup I guess? I'm not 100% sure as I'm at work at the moment so don't have it near me.

it sounds a bit dubious to me regardless. DST should offset it by 1 hour, so the guy whilst trying to be helpful - is implying he thinks the software time calculations are a bit buggy.

[Astroman]

There is a firmware update available v3.1 which fixes many of the problems with 3.01, but I have heard of a few people having troubles with that also....

Can't win....

[h0ughy]

have you updated to that yet?

[allan gould]

Your magnetic deviation is 11 degrees east of North. You stated you had it as 11 degrees east of South. This would put you out 22 degrees by my reaconing which is beyond the capabilities of the software as you have to be within a certain number of degrees of the pole for alignment to work sucessfully.

[Dave47tuc]

Does this map help:D

[h0ughy]

I read over that bit:doh: , thats very important, I have made that mistake a few times

[RB]

The reason you have to set it to +11 is because we're in daylight savings.

[Dave47tuc]

Hi Gav,:)
Read your problems here and on Yahoo.
It’s hard to figure out what’s up with your mount and it must be terribly frustrating for you. I have had the Atlas same as EQ6 for some months.
It did not work to well at first but since I got my 3rd !! hand controller its seems ok.
But the first time I used it with 3.01 the mount was great.
I used it 3 times with that firmware and the second and third time not as good in the
go to’s.
So I decided to upload 3.1. Now I have used this only twice so far and apart from the problem of uploading the firmware via a laptop with only USB then using USB to Serial adaptor and this did not work, I had to use another computer with serial port.

I have had a few problems with it. The backlash had to be reset , as every time I used the up down left right buttons it slewed away then came back, very strange. I fixed this by setting the backlash to 00.00.01 in both axis.
But then when I wanted to use alignment stars I gave a list but the list that did not have Rigel in it!! Who knows why? Can’t even find Rigel in the Stars list also.
First time out with 3.1 I used a 3 star alignment and the go to’s where in the field of a 1deg eyepiece. By the way I do use a 12 mm illuminated reticle eyepiece, as you do also.
Second time out it did not put objects in a 1.5 deg field eyepiece.

It seems what you have done is fine and it should work. Why it does not I do not know.
Just one thing and I’m sure you have it right make sure date is, month/ day/ year.
I did this wrong once!!
Set the time to +10 then set daylight saving to yes.

I have had 3 go to mounts one a LX200 gps and one a Meade LXD55 then the EQ6 with skyscan. The LX200 was way better at pointing to objects. If it’s a 10/10 then the EQ6 is about a 6 or 7 at best. The LXD55 had its own problems which I wont go into.

I would like to pick my own stars with the skyscan with out it giving me a list to choose from, when I do my alignments. But its seems it does not. Yes it gives a list of about 10 or so Stars but I wanted more of my own choice.

From now on I will keep a log book on my set ups to try and figure out the best steps to getting the mount right. Yes I do use a level to set the tripod and not rely on the mounts level as I have found this is out. And I use a compass to set the mount and then do a drift alignment to get the polar alignment right.
But I want to work on it so I don’t have to do this as often, especially when I’m only viewing.

So far I have found the weakest link to these mounts is the Handcontroller.
The rest seems fine.:)

[sejanus]

yeah i have sorry i should have mentioned it - running 3.10.

[sejanus]

yeah i know but what i meant was that I have it currently set to GMT+10 with DST enabled, so I'd expect it to correctly offset it by 1 hour.

The guy from tasco seemed to imply that possibly it was ignoring the DST setting.

[sejanus]

hey allan,

wow, if this is right I'll look like quite the idiot :) I'd be glad though!

Are you sure? I'm not really too clued up to be honest with magnetic deviation, but I always thought I had to set my mount pointing 10-12 degrees east of magnetic south. When I went to Kulnurra to meet the boys I was told that as well.

Do you mean set my mount 11 degrees west of south magnetic?

Sorry if I sound like an idiot, directions and mag deviation isn't something I've ever needed to really get into it before.

cheers

[sejanus]

hey dave

thanks for the post mate. my backlash was all wonky in 3.01 but seems to have reset itself and works great in 3.10 - all other problems aside.

not very encouraging hearing your woes on multiple controllers :)

I'm hoping the problem is my mag deviation is wrong as suggested above, that'll be an easy fix if it's true.

cheers

Gav

[Dave47tuc]

I set mine at 11deg east of south:shrug:

See here, http://www.myastroshop.com.au/guides/polar-align-basic.pdf

[sejanus]

interesting hey :)

this thread suggests to go SE

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=14381

I called Tasco and he said SW

i guess I'll try both :)

[sheeny]

Hmmm... not sure of what you mean by 11 degrees east of south...:shrug: ...east of magnetic south, east of grid south or east of true south?

(EDIT: Just went back to your original post... east of magnetic south...OK!)

I assume you are using a compass to do the initial setup. For Sydney the mnemonic is GMS - grid to magnetic, subtract - and MGA - magnetic to grid, add. True directions are very close to grid for Sydney as well so the mnemonic should still be OK for true to magnetic variation.

I'll take your word for it that your magnetic declination is 11 degrees from magnetic to true (mine is 12 at Oberon so I believe you:D ).

So,...

True south is 180 degrees true, so set your compass to 180 - 11 = 169 degrees magnetic. So when your compass reads 169 degrees all lined up on the needle, it should be pointing true south.

Hope this helps to clarify the muddy water rather than muss it up some more!!!;)

Al.

[Striker]

Yes it SE...I dont know where SW is coming from.

Point it 11° east of magnetic south will get you close enough.
Just like Daves link.

[allan gould]

It gets confusing, but the Magnetic north is 11 degrees east of True North. So true north lies 11 degrees west of the compass needle pointing magnetic North. I alsways use an offset on the compass to 11 degrees east and align the mount true north. What you have said is correct if you have no magnetic offset then you set your mount 11 degrees to the east of south to have true South.
Sorry if any confusion but the way I read your post it seemed you were ofsetting the wrong way.

[sejanus]

ok well i think i am doing it right

when i have 'finished' i am standing behind the mount standing in line with the direction it faces. i hold out my compass and it shows magnetic south as being 11 degrees to my right hand side, thus I believe the mount is pointing 11 degrees east of the magnetic south.

this sound ok?

[Striker]

Yep.

How far out is it anyway.

Just do the alignment on the same side of the meridian and choose 2 stars.

Pick Rigel as one and then slew to Orion and see how close it is...it should be spot on being so close to the alignment star.

[sejanus]

i'll try once this darn rain goes away :) the cloud gods strike again!

[Doug]

Haven't they heard of non volatile ram? Do you have to set your latitude and longitude each time as well, and will the EQ6 synch or must it go thru a 2 star alignment each time?

[sejanus]

it remembers the last date and lat/long you input but you still need to confirm them. the time it does not save between sessions and defaults to 8pm every time.

you can buy a gps addon which does all that for you but yes it is a bit of a drag

[iceman]

hmm it's unfortunate reading about problems with the EQ6, cause i'm currently saving for one.

[Astroman]

its the controller that suffers, not the mount. There are ways around that though :)

[sejanus]

ice there may be one going cheap soon! that is, unless I chuck it hard against a brick wall. not sure I'm that strong though :)

[iceman]

Keep me in mind.. as long as it's not thrown against a brick wall :)

As long as it tracks accurately i'm not too fussed on the GOTO :)

[sejanus]

it tracks really well. but i want the goto to work as well! :)

these damn clouds arent helping though!

[Astroman]

There are always other options than ones given by the maker of the mount. Lukily there have beeen people working on this day and night to help those that dont want to stuff around with the controllers.

Have a look here ---> http://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/index.htm

I am making the EQ direct version which should be finished this week. then the fun time of testing begins.


Ice if you just want tracking why not go the Syntrek version of the mount, I am using it and it works great, it also gives you the option of adding Autoguiding without hacking into the mount.

[Doug]

It might be worth noting however that according to Tasco they must fit the mod or else the warranty will be void.

Doug

[Striker]

Doug,

You cant purchase the skyscan mod seperately what sej is commenting on is that you can buy the syntrek mount which has the Skyscan motors factory installed but does not have the goto hand controller which you can simply purchase and plug in anytime.
This would be a good option for Mike not needing goto and also has the guide port.

But yes any motor instalation done by the customer will void warranty from tasco.

[Doug]

Thanks for clearing that up Tony. As Segoon would say, "All very confusing really".
Syncscan, skyscan, EQ6, EQ6 pro..........:juggle: :confuse3: :confuse3:
Doug

[OneOfOne]

To help get around the alignment problem, I saw someone from the ASV with a jig to help locate true south and made one myself. Essentially, it is a triangle that fits at the base of the tripod which allows you to hold the compass at the required offset. You can then turn the jig around until the compass points south and put the tripod on top. Otherwise, the compass is affected by the steel in the tripod. I hope my pictures give you an idea.

[ving]

thats pretty nifty one of one! :)

[Astroman]

I thought of doing this the other night, didn't even know someone else had already done it. :)

[sejanus]

hey,

thanks for that, it's a neat idea. I am pretty sure scope is in right direction though, I considered the fact the mount may be interfering so verified it with the mount moved away, and it was all good. mount is definitely pointed in the right spot, as close as I can get it anyway.

[Astroman]

Oh keep those compassessssss away from sheds too, they hate them :D

[sejanus]

ok so it ended up being a bug in the code. If you use DST in southern hemisphere it goes all whacko.

setting time to gmt +11 and dst off, and doing a 2 star align on rigel and achernar and everything worked flawlessly. in fact the goto accuracy was stunning, on the 11mm on the 80ED everything i went to was either dead center or darn close to it! it was perfect.

time to plug a camera into this sucker now :D

[Astroman]

Great news, weird how it stuffs it up though, its not like rocket science to change the time an hour in the firmware LOL, c'mon you Synscan controller engineers if your watching.....

Glad you are getting good GOTO's, it sure is a nice unit, when it works :)

[sejanus]

yeah it was good

it was just frustrating previously as being very new to all this, I was never sure if it was me stuffing up, or the mount.

[iceman]

Great to hear, Gav.. thanks for the heads-up.

[ving]

hey thats great new that you have it sorted :thumbsup:

I guess its not on teh market now hey mike ;)

[sejanus]

yeah eq6 no longer for sale :D . unfortunately though when i was considering getting rid of it i did some irresponsible spending that i regret a bit now, i have 2 mounts at the moment! The eq6 & a fork I was going to wedge. I'm unsure whether to keep 2 different platforms, one for visual and one for imaging or just suck it in and stay on 1.

gavin = idiot :)

[allan gould]

See I guess that Qld did something right in NOT going to DST. Thats why I never had this problem with V3.1

[iceman]

Keep your fork and sell the EQ6 to me. Problem solved :P

[sejanus]

heh, just as i get it working!

had it out again tonight. crystal clear sky (I live 50-60km from cbd) and with a 3 star align it was yet again absolutely precise on goto's.

all these previous probs due to such a simple error on the controller software :rolleyes:

[Astroman]

Excellent news! Have you mentioned this on the EQ6 Forum, so some of the guys can report it back to Pacific Telescopes to fix the error?

[Doug]

It would be good if they came to realise that like cows, the stars don't run on DST either.
NV Ram would solve the problem by holding the date/time when the main power is removed.
Glad your up and running though.
cheers,
Doug

[Dave47tuc]

Andrew, Both Gavin and myself reported this on Yahoo EQ6.
So it would seem problem solved. My mount worked a treat same as Gavin once this setting was set to +11 GMT the NO to daylight saving.:)

[sejanus]

Yep and Bintel also have reported it, and I emailed Jack from synta as well who is one of the tech guys who make the mount code, so I think they'll be aware :)