Frustrated and Cranky!

iceman (Mike) · #1 14-05-2006, 08:08 AM

Went out last night, no jetstream, a nice cool night, ambient at 8.5°, mirror within a degree.

Look through the eyepiece, WOW!

8/10 at least! Hurriedly set up the laptop, hmm what's this, the image won't stay in the FOV.

My EQ platform isn't working.. the stepper motor is making a loud "tick a tick a tick" noise that I haven't noticed before, and the roller than drives the top plate just doesn't appear to be making contact. The top plate seems to just be slipping and not being driven.

Tried everything between 11pm and 12am last night, just couldn't get it working. Something's broken, it seems.

Sooo frustrated because I missed an almost perfect evening of seeing to get some great images, because my tracking wasn't working

And now I've gotta figure out what's wrong with it and Fix it/replace it/burn it.

No images from me for a while

The only upside is I had some great eyepiece views of Jupiter in very nice seeing.

Dennis · #2 14-05-2006, 08:28 AM

Ouch - I feel for you Mike! On the positive side, you should have awakened this morning as fresh as a daisy, ready for Mother's day! Although re-reading the subject line, this may indicate otherwise?

Hope you fix it soon.

Cheers

Dennis

davidpretorius · #3 14-05-2006, 08:39 AM

got any photos to post, some of us may be able to help.

bugga this is not good!

xstream (John) · #4 14-05-2006, 08:40 AM

Sounds very

Mike.

I was thinking it may have something to do with that incident at Wiruna.

Or has it been OK since then?

h0ughy (David) · #5 14-05-2006, 08:55 AM

the cheese or the wine, might be stuck in the cogs!

Get the an EQ mount Mike, perminantly have it polar aligned and just add scope! thats all Scott does! so you can keep the dob EQ base for trips and such. BTW, best of luck finding and fixing the problem!

davidpretorius · #6 14-05-2006, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by h0ughy

Get the an EQ mount Mike,

yup, a g-11!

belated mothers day present! it will go down a treat!

iceman (Mike) · #7 14-05-2006, 09:02 AM

Would love to houghy, have the EQ platform for travel and the EQ6 at home.. but an EQ6 is $1500!

Will post photos later today, got mothers day things to attend to now.

John, it's been fine lately (a bit wobbly in parts, but generally ok). Last night it just stopped working.

spacezebra (Petra) · #8 14-05-2006, 11:21 AM

Hi Mike

Yes, Jupiter was absolutely fantastic last night, I was out till about midnight, until the FA cup came on.

I was going down the same road as you with the platform - you will need to let me know if there are any bugs that I need to be aware of before I order, or should I go for something else?

I have the ToUcam set up on my laptop and still waiting on a few more bits and pieces before I can kick off, hopefully in next couple of months. I have been noting some goods times to view Jupiter, ie transits of moons, GRS, so I cant wait.

Hang in the Mike, Cheers Petra

iceman (Mike) · #9 16-05-2006, 06:26 AM

Hi all.

Have been working with Brian from Round Table Platforms to try and troubleshoot the issue with my platform.

I've sent him some pictures and mpeg video using my old digicam to help show him what the problem is.

When I took the cover off the motor, it showed that it was "pulsing" instead of rotating. Brian's response:

Quote:

The motor should be rotating- not pulsing. It could be a wiring short – and the cause for the intermittent problem. Instead of fishing for the problem, I am sending a new circuit board – motor – and two new drive wheels. The second drive wheel is made from aluminum and will make your platform more stable. The WD-40 left on the track must be removed to prevent slipping.

Replace the motor / drive wheel and wire harness first. The new connector to the motor plug will need to be passed through the hole in the control box before the pins are pushed into white plastic housing. If the motor rotates with the cover off- alls well.

The circuit board is probably ok but I will include a replacement anyway. (keep for a spare) If you replace the board and the speed range is off, there is a pot on the board that can be adjusted with a small screw driver for course speed adjustment.

I will include a picture showing the plug pin order and the location of the pot for course speed adjustment.

The parts are going out today. They will be marked warrantee so hopefully customs won’t give you any headaches.

Talk about great service!

Thanks very much Brian! I look forward to receiving the parts and getting busy making it work again!

Dennis · #10 16-05-2006, 07:01 AM

That's great news Mike - what excellent service too! Hope it all works out.

Cheers

Dennis

h0ughy (David) · #11 16-05-2006, 07:26 AM

Tom Hanks whilest flying the FedX plane with Mike's board and Motors on board crashes on some remote island. Mike has launched rescue efforts to retrieve the items and found them, leaving Mr Hanks on the island.............

davidpretorius · #12 16-05-2006, 09:49 AM

that is great news mike, well done, houghy i am still crying from laughing and happy 8000 mike!

ving (David) · #13 16-05-2006, 12:32 PM

super stuff mike, let us know if it fixes it

netwolf · #14 16-05-2006, 01:43 PM

wow thats some service you recived. Great job Brian.

spacezebra (Petra) · #15 16-05-2006, 07:52 PM

Well Mike - I think that has eased any concerns that I may have had.

Dont forget an update when all up and running

Cheers Petra

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceman

Talk about great service!

Thanks very much Brian! I look forward to receiving the parts and getting busy making it work again!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #16 16-05-2006, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceman

Sooo frustrated because I missed an almost perfect evening of seeing to get some great images, because my tracking wasn't working

No images from me for a while

Why?

What ever happened to just taking pics of stuff just for the fun of it! Without tracking. Remember that method? The 'old fashion' way.

That's what I enjoy about this hobby, playing around. With or without tracking you can still get pics of stuff. Doesn't have to be Jupiter all the time, and it doesn't have to be better than the last effort.
Just happy snap away. You might end up with some interesting pics of anything while you are waiting to fix your platform.

There is life after tracking

leon · #17 16-05-2006, 09:07 PM

Yea Ken i agree with you, that's all i ever used to do, and it was just as rewarding, but we all strive for more i suppose.

iceman (Mike) · #18 17-05-2006, 05:58 AM

When you go from frustrating, to not frustrating, it's very hard to go back to frustrating.

I did take a non-tracking image that night anyway Ken, it's posted in the solar system section.

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #19 17-05-2006, 02:08 PM

yep, saw that Mike. And it was great!

Don't worry, I'm not picking. Just stating that you can still take pics. Never know what you might end up with

iceman (Mike) · #20 23-05-2006, 07:04 PM

yay got my replacement parts today! Now to fit them and hope it fixes it.