HEQ5 Pro Skywatcher Warranties

[pmrid]

Has anyone had any recent experience with warranty claims on HEQ5 Pro or other Skywatcher mounts? I bought one a couple of months ago from a chap who bought it new from Star Optics at Mermaid Beach in July, 2009. When I put it onto a nice new pier, and began drift alignment, it became apparent that it was a sick puppy (serious clunk in RA and wouldn't accept guiding instructions.)
Just spoke to Star Optics to be told that the mount would need to be sent to Skywatcher and there was some question whether they would honour the warranty given that the mount had been sold to someone else.
I'd be interested to hear whether anyone else had experienced a 'warranty becomes null and void if the goods have been on-sold' response from Skywatcher or Star Optics or anyone else.
Peter

[dugnsuz]

Sounds like the HEQ5 Pro I bought (2nd hand too) - I think it had taken a knock in transit and when running at sidereal rate there was a periodic click in the RA axis which would cause the star to visibly jump in the eyepiece while drift aligning the mount. Worm gear adjustment as per Astrobaby's tutorial sorted out the 'clunk' and it has run perfectly since.
http://www.astro-baby.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-m1.htm

Sorry, can't help with the warranty question though. But I hope the above link helps.
Doug:thumbsup:

[Tandum]

Ron at Sirius Optics told me the warranty transfers with the purchase invoice but the invoice needs to be presented when making a claim.

[pmrid]

Yeah. Did all that. To be fair, they haven't said they won't fix it. It's more that they are saying "we may not" and we'll let you know. Seems that Star Optics have to ship the mount back to Skywatcher and don't want to do so unless Skywatcher confirm they'll deal with as a warranty claim (i.e. cover the cost of shipping). That's fair enough. But I am surprised to see that there is any hesitation at all. With a brand of this importance and a product with this much market penetration, to even hesitate about backing a warranty just sounds "off".

Peter

[pmrid]

Is it my imagination or has this mount featured rather a lot lately as one having all sorts of problems. I can think of at least 2 other mounts that I know just in my local circle that have been faulty in a serious way. But while it is under warranty, I have learnt not to open the darn thing and stary 'fixing'.
Peter

[dugnsuz]

Not sure if adjusting the worm gear would void your warranty as one doesn't need to get into the guts of the mount so to speak. You do have to remove the screws to the Power input box to access one screw though - that might be a problem warranty-wise??:shrug:
You'll probably have need to adjust the backlash in RA or Dec someday, so perhaps today's the day!! The procedure isn't difficult, just requires a bit of patience to find the sweet spot where the gears mesh.
From the sounds of it, I think a minor tune up would solve your problem.
Does the mount track for a bit then give a mechanical , audible click?

Others have had software related problems recently I recall.
Doug

[pmrid]

Hi Doug, no, not quite. I had bought a terrific new pier specifically to hold this mount that I'd bought from it's first owner a little bit earlier. My ROR Obs has 2 separate concrete slabs for piers and the other one has my EQ6 on it already so I was keen to put the HEQ5Pro onto the new pier and really have the ability to do long FL on one with my GSO RC and shorter FL on the other with my ED127.

So as soon as I could get the pier and mount together, the next step was drift alignment and guiding setup.

I use K3CCD Tools for drift alignment as it gives a good 'live' feedback. I had earlier tested the mount "off-pier" and found that the SynScan handpiece didn't respond. I took it to Ron at Sirius Optics in Brisbane and he arranged a replacement without any fuss at all. He was great.

So, finally, started drift aligning and had it pretty close by the old plumb-bob at solar noon technique but as soon as drift alignment started what you could see and hear every 20 or 30 seconds was a real jump in the RA. The star image in K3CCD lept three paces to the right and there was a distinct click/clunk inside the mount. It was at regular intervals but I didn't precisely time it.

I then connected my QHY5 camera to the scope and to the autoguide port on the mount and tried to calibrate in PHD. It said it was connected via ASCOM and PHD went through a calibration routine but whether PHD screen said it was calibrating N,S,E or W, the star just kept drifting off the screen; and when it finally said it was guiding, the same happened. How it thought it was calibrating and guiding when the guidestar was headed towards Broken Hill I don't know.

Anyway, it seemed to me this was not a job for a weekend tinkerer: so it
was a job for the people who had sold the mount 6 months before, Sirius Optics at Mermaid beach and the rest of that story seems to be still developing.

Peter

[dugnsuz]

That periodic RA jump sounds very much like my problem.
Hope you can get some joy from Sirius Optics
All the best Peter
Doug

[PeterM]

Just to clarify the last paragraph Sirius Optics are at Underwood and Star Optics are at Mermaid Beach.

PeterM.

[pmrid]

Absolutely. My error. Sirius Optics have been terrific but sadly they didn't sell this mount. Pity.
Peter

[Brettstar6754]

Yeah, ive had troubles with my Heq5-g -Too.
At first i think it was bugs in the software. It seemed not to feature many southern stars to align on and 9 alignments out of 10 were properly confused. I was lucky and had a upgraded hand Controller to v3.15. And That fixed that!
- but now my mount stalls in RA at the drop of a hat(easily). It makes the clunk described in this thread. Anyone with a "Clunk" in their system could remove the motor cover and look at and feel (carefully) the motor gear as the clunk sounds, especially at a fast slew. Its a horrible noise, one that should never be associated with a thing of such precision and beauty. Anyway if your motor is stalling then you might relieve some tension in the gears.

Thats my next move.

[brightstar]

The problem with warranties as such especially for Skywatcher products is the grey importers who do NOT have factory support. I have had several occassions where customers have bought Skywatcher mounts etc from a Sydney Discounter who have had problems to be told that they should take their warranty claim to Tasco as they are the Skywatcher Distriburor in Australia. All Skywatcher products have a 5 year warranty and Tasco (and most authorised) dealers will insist on a copy of the purchase docket/invoice to prove that the item was purchased from an authorised dealer. Remember if you purchase from non authorised dealers, you can be left to sort out your problem, yourself. Sirius Optics will support any warranty claim for Skywatcher, purchased from any authorised dealer. This is called 'customer service'.

Ron;)

[jjjnettie]

You're a legend Ron.
I seem to have solvered my problem with this particular mount. Thanks to IIS member omaroo. It was too well balanced, when imaging to the east it needs to be slightly over balanced to get those gears meshing tight.
Still have some problems with it though. It's just a pain not to have it work straight out of the box.

[pmrid]

And so say all of us!!!
Peter

[freespace]

OT...
Hrm, I have a EQ5 Pro (not the same) and it has symptoms described here in the RA axis. At low slew rates it sound ok, but if pushed higher it sounds really horrible :/

Haven't been able to find a guide like the one for HEQ5 Pro, and I would love to know what advice omaroo gave nettie :)

[JethroB76]

So what was hinted at on IIS a while back regarding the Skywatcher stuff re:dealers and warranties is true:question: Good to know

[Barrykgerdes]

Warrantees are written so that the manufacturer can have every possible get out of a contract.

Always buy from a reputable dealer.

Never be beligerent when making a warrantee claim. You won't win.

Dealers and manufactures do not like bad publicity so if you have a legitamate gripe talk to the dealer. Tell him everything. It is surprising what some will do even on equipment that is technically out of warrantee. I got a replacement board kit from Meade for a LX200 free four years after the warrantee had expired because I spoke to them told them the situation and said I was happy to pay for it. They did the same thing for a 201 autoguider that I had for about three years and had never never used but when I loaned it to one of our most prolific and best astro photographers he found it was faulty. Meade gave me a new one of the later model.

Years ago I worked in the motor trade in a GMH dealership. GMH had a policy that the customer was always right and would OK everything if the dealer told them it was a fair thing. You should have seen some of the shonky claims that went through.

Barry