HEQ5 Pro guiding/tracking problem...HELP!!!!

[dugnsuz]

Hello all,
If I had hair I would most certainly be tearing it out by now...

This is one of those "it was working perfectly last night" type of problems!

HEQ5 Pro seems to have developed a tracking error overnight.
Over the last few nights I've been gathering 15min Ha subs of the SMC with no problems at all - last night after going through a slightly longer PHD calibration, the guidestar decided to leave the green box and head slowly off out of frame. I decided to just observe the error, and each time I centered the guidestar in the PHD window, after a couple of seconds it would quite rapidly head off toward the top right of the window.

I recently tried to tune the RA gears as there was a bit of play in the axis - all seemed to be well...after tune-up, motors responded instantly to controller commands (ie no backlash). I can only assume that this tune up has caused some problem with the RA tracking. It's almost like the sidereal rate has been altered in some way - is this possible?
I used this tutorial as a guide...
http://www.astro-baby.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-we1.htm

I also noticed that when I use the GPUSB Nudge program which allows small movements in RA/Dec - the RA movement was much slower than the Dec. Once again pointing to an RA problem?

Anyone have any ideas? This is driving me mad!

Cheers
Doug

[Tandum]

Doug, I've had similar problems at odd times with both my heq5 and eq6. In my case, either tracking had turned itself off and I needed to turn it back on under setup on the hand controller or I had a poor guide cable connection at the qhy5 or the mount end of the guider cable.

You can tell tracking is off as the woosh woosh sound disappears. This fault resulted in stars moving rapidly across the screen. Slow drift resulted from dodgy connections in that stupid RJ connector they use. Also if polar is too far out of alignment, guiding can't keep up. I have also adjusted the motors too tight before. That stopped mine from slewing freely.

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Robin - may try going back to basics and drift aligning etc.

All seems to be as it should under the stars...tracking is on with that familiar "woosh woosh" sound and any touch on the direction arrows causes immediate movement with no backlash! Motors/Cogs are firm but not too tight and slewing is Ok!!
RJ45 connectors seem fine too - just bought a longer 10m one so replacement testing proved that.

Seems like very bad polar alignment - but it's dramatic and happened overnight!!!

Nothing else for me to do but keep at it!
Cheers
Doug

[pjphilli]

I agree with Robin regarding the RJ type connectors. Whilst not stupid in a static application they are not good news for cords where lots of end movement is possible whilst in use. I also have had problems in this department and it is my first port of call in case of trouble, although it looks like Doug has eliminated this fault. However, I have found that PHD or the mount do go crazy sometimes and a restart of both the handpiece and PHD software usually overcomes the problem (more valuable imaging time wasted!). Cheers Peter

[trackerau]

This is a summary of a post I did a couple of days ago.


I had the same trouble after polar aligning a new NEQ6 Pro it would not find, track or guide on stars correctly. I used "Factory Reset" and it now works

I read the manual - no help.

Removed and reloaded all software, upgraded the firmware to 3.25, and stillhad the same problems.

After an all night session and half the next day I rang Bintel and I was told that there was a customer in the store who had had the same problem. I was asked if I had done a "Factory Reset" - of course not :confused2:.

Scrolled through a few menus and found factory reset, which is not listed in the menu tree(manual pg 15).

Powered off/on everything.

Connected to starry night, commenced alignment - alast 100% on target so well I could not find the target star as it was under the cross hair.:D

Used the Scope live that night and it worked fine.

Hope this will help you.

[dugnsuz]

Thanks Gavan - I've spent so much time trying to fix this problem I'm in the bad-books with my wife!
I'll let you know if the reset works after making amends with big mama!:lol:

All the best
Doug:thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

And the results Doug???
I'm going though exactly the same problem atm.
At my wits end.

[trackerau]

Took the NEQ6 Pro to VicSouth.

It played up the first night, the hand set was on but nothing displayed, turned it off the on.

Re did the alignment, seemed OK but not "right on the money" as it had been.

Short time later it powered off by itself - realignment this time so far off not funny.

Factory reset - start again looked OK but very late.

Next day time to do some imaging. No good would not follow the guide camera.

Got back to Melbourne Sunday and did some resets, set ups etc. Nothing helped.

Connected to Stary Night and the best it would do (attached) was miles out.

Bintel lent me a new handset on Monday and the difference can be seen in the second pix.

Bintel replaced the faulty hanset and sent it back to the supplier.

Now for clear nights when I'm not working!!!!!

[toryglen-boy]

fella

if you take the OTA off, and unlock the RA clutch, can the mount splin completely freely on that axis? i have seen instances in the past where, certain parts of the revolution where harder than others, and there appeared to be some binding.

hope you get it resolved.

[trackerau]

Thanks Duncan, but no problems with binding, had it all checked out etc, moves freely on both axis.

The problem was in the hand set, with the replacement handset everything is fine.

[jjjnettie]

My handset wouldn't initialise tonight.
Turned the mount on and off a few times, no joy.
Looks like this may have been my problem all along.

[Tandum]

Peter has a new heq5pro at 10 chain and his handset has packed it in as well. Maybe a bad batch?

[jjjnettie]

To say I'm not happy is an understatement.
This may well have been my last chance to image for months.

Looks like I'm back to using the TOT again. sigh.....

[dugnsuz]

Oops, hadn't caught up with this thread for a while...sorry!

My problem was down to my polar alignment being way off after lots of moving the scope/mount around - also tried a factory reset along with redoing drift alignment.

Your problem where the handset wont talk to the electronics in the mount could be down to one of the micro-connectors in the mount control panel (power switch, autoguider port etc) becoming loose. When I took my mount apart to adjust worm etc I pulled the wires by accident.
After putting mount all back together I got the "cant connect" error message. Fixed it by carefully checking the mount control panel and found that there was a small white plastic connector which was easily reseated.
Hope it's that as I was sweating worrying that I had ripped wires off the pcb etc!!
But, this would only really apply if you've been playing around in the mount's guts!
All the best
Doug

[pmrid]

Jeanette, this is weird but I have exactly the same poroblem with my HEQ5Pro (darn near new too). The screen on the SYnScan illuminated but nothing appears except, after pressing enter a few times, I get some characters (the same ones each time I do this) that look as though they are probably part of an initialiszation including date and time) but in foreign language characters (Chinese probably). But I can't get beyond a few screens of this garbled stuff.
I thought I might be able to reset the handpiece somehow by downloading the latest version and reloading it. Wellm the installation program on the web site does not recognise the handpiece at all. That's off because there is another opiece of software on the same page that is just a recognition program (like the GPUSBCheck program does) and sure enough it recognises that there is a Synscan handopiece present on that Com Port. So one program syas yes and the other says no.
Mine stopped working after I had used it in PC Direct mode to let Cartes de Ciel control it tnroug ASCOM. That worked fine but next day when I switched on, this is what I found. So you aren't alone sport! I'll be taking my handpiece to a friendly dealer and asking for help with a warranty claim. Suggest you do the sme.

Peter

[jjjnettie]

I'm ringing the boys at Bintel tomorrow morning about it.
Sounds as if they're getting a few handsets returned. So I can see no problem with getting a straight replacement. So long as the replacement one works.

[[1ponders]]

This sounds like shades of Adelain. He got a new EQ6 last year and has had nothing but trouble with it since. Kept shutting down and reinitializing.

[dugnsuz]

No...doesn't sound like the problem I had.
Good luck all
Doug

[jjjnettie]

I wish the handset had just stopped working outright instead of playing silly buggers over the last few nights.
So many many hours wasted trying to work out what I was doing wrong.:mad2: