AZ-GTI WiFi mount

[glend]

I picked up my new Skywatcher AZ-GTI wifi mount yesterday from Astro Anarchy in Brisbane. They have it on sale for $559, which is the lowest price i have seen for it. I just happened to be in Brisbane visiting relatives and called in to have a look at their new store.
The mount and tripod are pretty solid, and should be fine with my ED60 and TS80 refractors. I hope to have it setup next to my camper at SPSP and do abit of visual astronomy while my main imaging rig is doing its thing.
Thanks to Mike at Astro Anarchy for his help.

[MortonH]

Looks nice Glen. Are you intending to use the tripod fully extended or did you just want to see how high it goes?

[Kunama]

I am getting one of these mounts for the little FOA60 and am still trying to decide whether to use my Manfrotto MT055CXPro3 tripod instead of the SW one.
Keen to hear your thoughts on the tripod Glen.

[glend]

Re the tripod, yes I wanted to see how high and strong it was. It surprised me, it is capable and fairly stiff. I would be using it at a lower height. I initially thought I would use another tripod but think it will be ok now, at least for visual use with my small scopes.

I have been following a CN thread on this little mount and apparently the Star Adventurer Latitude Base ( a wedge) works well to convert this mount to an EQ. If you run the Synscan Pro app you can use the EQ alignment routine.

[MortonH]

Good to know. Look forward to an update when you get to use it for real.

[axle01]

Mine arrives this week

Al

[alan meehan]

Looks good Glen I would be keen to have a look at it see you at the spsp
ALAN

[glend]

Ok Alan I will be bringing the AZ GT I mount, and i have ordered the Skywatcher Adventurer Latitude Base (EQ), which i should have by the end of this week.

[glend]

Ok, the Skywatcher EQ wedge and counterweight and bar arrived this morning, and I have installed it on the AZ-GTI mount.

The wedge fits the AZ-GTI fine but the dovetail lock screw handle (with its large plastic knob handle) fouls the base of the AZ-GTI but it is easy to replace with a regular bolt. One correction to my advice on the counterweight kit, the shaft does not screw into the AZ-GTI, the Star Adventurer countweight shaft (which is 12mm in diametre) has an M8 end thread which is too small and will need an adaptor to be used with this mount. I am trying to source a thread adaptor now. I suppose I could try to run the shaft through a die and see if that would screw in. The alternative may be to use a long Cap head bolt of the correct size, but one which has threads only on the very end, Bunnings sells these i believe . One of the guys on the CN forum in the US is using such a bolt arrangement. The counter weight itself can be used, it has a 12mm bore. You might be better off sourcing an alternative counterweight, as buying the Star Adventurer shaft and weight at $50, is going to need to be modded, money might be better spent on an alternative.

You will need to use the Synscan Pro app, not the standard Synscan app, in the Pro you get options for either Alt Az or EQ alignment. The Pro app also includes polar alignment and solar modes.
Photos below.

[AstroApprentice]

Hi Glen,
your setup looks great for a super portable EQ mount for small OTAs.
You'll need a quality die to cut a new thread on that SS CW rod! I'd search for shoulder screws or bolts instead. Plenty on ebay at various lengths. I use one as a CW shaft on my AYO mount, as I had spare CWs with 16 mm bore, rather than the standard 20 mm.

[Wavytone]

Apparently the bar from an EQ1 will fit which means the thread is 12mm. There’s also a firmware update to operate it in equatorial mode.

[glend]

Motor Controller firmware update has been applied (Ver 3.11 now, delivered with 3.10). Did some more testing and finally have the setup correct. The mount only works in the way setup in the photo below. In the photo assume south is to the right, counterweight shaft aimed down, elevation as per your latitude (mine is 33 degrees). I found that the elevation sticker on the wedge made no sense at all in the southern hemisphere when mounted with this head in EQ mode, so I removed the sticker and turned it around and oriented it to indicate my elevation. You can see I am using a bolt for my counterweight shaft right now. I have to source a longer one (EQ1 maybe). My counterweight does fit the bolt but I'd like to get one with just threads on the end and smooth bore on the rest of the bolt shaft.

One note on Home position, which I could find no reference to in the Synscan Pro software - until I pressed the Hibernate button, then it asked if I wanted to Home the scope. I guess I have become to used to the CGX home sensor and being able to start and shutdown from/to Home.

All good now, working fine.

[glend]

Finished the counter weight shaft today. Used a 12mm x 220mm bolt from Bunnings. Installed a collar on it with heat shink so it doesn't go too deep beyond the threads into the housing and it shims the bore outside (before) the thread as well. Works well countering my TS80, and I will not be using anything heavier on this mount.

[axle01]

Just got a M12 x 300 SS bolt for mine.

Al

[JA]

Good stuff Glen! It looks like a great jigger and the wifi interface and app with a phone or tablet would really be wonderful. (It even knows your time and GPS location via the phone/tablet and/or you can override it if required). I've seen it in a couple of youtube vids.... a very desirable product:thumbsup:

Here's 1 I watched with plenty of detail on the phone app.... (you may want to skip through as it's a little long)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYrG323Z4_U

Best
JA

[axle01]

Glen how heavy is your counterweight.

Al

[glend]

It is 1kg.

[glend]

I have been doing some EQ testing of this mount, with my ED60 onboard. The EQ alignment goes fairly well but some of the language the app uses is confusing.
One thing I don't like is you cannot find common names displayed for targets, unless you select "tonight's best". You can't search by name. You need to know a catalog reference to input to goto and there is no lookup function, and no sky display to select from. Pretty basic. I understand now why some people are using two devices, the app plus something else running Sky Safari Pro. Honestly it would be great to just use Sky Safari. What are others finding re usability?
A reminder, the only way to "home" the mount is to Hibernate it, where it gives you the option to Hibernate in place or Hibernate at home.

[axle01]

Glen I wonder if using the handset would have the same issues.

Al

[Wavytone]

Glen you’re not alone - the Synscan user interface reminds me of a bad computer game from the 1980s.

There are many objects misnamed, particularly clusters and galaxies. Catalog numbers seem ok.

[glend]

Well i have been trying to image with this mount, but cannot get much joy. I have been using a very simple setup: the AT60ED with a Nikon D5300. Taking care to do a three star alignment, and testing using it visually before starting. Picked out a star, Antares, and centred it and left it for 15 minutes with no noticeable movement. Installed the camera, got it focused using BYNikon, and setup a run of a few 30 sec subs. The mount tripod was sitting on my observatory floor, so no vibration or flex in that floor. As soon as the first sub finished it was obvious there was a tracking problem, trailing stars. I checked the tracking settings and Sideral was running. Did three more subs, all with the same results, trailing stars. I cut back to 20 sec and it got better but not good enough. No wind to cause a problem. I am at a lost to name the problem, other than perhaps this little mount just does not have the accuracy to drive a camera without star tails.
Has anyone else tried imaging with this mount?

[JA]

Maybe it's too much to expect at the focal length you're using: 60mm f/6 (360mm) with a 1.5x FOV crop is equivalent to the field of view from a 540mm focal length.

Best
JA

[JimsShed]

This is interesting. I bought a synscan wifi thing to replace the handset on my azeq6. I tried it this week with the mount in altaz mode. Did an alignment and all okay. But from there on whenever I slewed to a target, it would track for about a minute then the object would drift. In time I realised the dec motor was stopping. You could hear it stop. If I use the app to select no tracking, then reselect sidereal tracking, it would start tracking again for another minute and so on. Glen maybe yours is stopping too. I’m pretty sure we’re using the same app here.

[glend]

Try pressing Point and Track after your GOTO stops. There was a discussion of AltAz mode not tracking right, on CN, with a Skywatcher recommendation to push Point and Track.

[Karlzburg]

I've had the mount for a few months now and have used in both altaz and eq modes. With synscan pro you can the sidereal rate from .25 up to full sidereal, the longest I've had the camera on for is 180 sec with slight trailing. I've taken pics of Orion's nebulae and the car nebulae as well as quite a few star clusters. In altaz mode, the closer to the scp the more the stars tail even at short exposure, I'm yet to try in eq mode similar shots. A cold that wouldn't go away has kept me inside of late.
I use a 127 mak, with the weight of it plus counter weight on AA battery power will chew through the batteries. When power levels get low, the mount does some pretty weird manoeures. I've since gotten 12v power pack.
Hope that helps
Cheers
Karl

[JimsShed]

Thanks Glen. I've now found a thread on https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/312557-skywatcher-az-gti-help. Glad to see it's not just me. I've updated with the latest firmware and tried again last night but it's still not fixed. Incredible that SW have known about this for several months now but still no proper fix. It's a waste for time slewing in Skysafari, only to have to pick up another device to press Point and Track. So for now the time wasting wifi module is in the growing box of unused things and I'm back with the trusty hand controller :screwy::)

[axle01]

Has anyone tried using a SkyFi Wireless Controller connected to the hand controller.
http://skysafariastronomy.com/skyfi-3-professional-astronomy-telescope-control.html

Al