Problems with Celestron C10 ngt

[Asterism (Tony)]

Hi guy's,
This is my first post so please go gently !
I purchased a new C10 about 18 months ago and have had nothing but trouble. I do regret even starting. Celestron have been no help at all ( now that's a surprise eh ! ).
It has never slewed correctly - sometimes spot on, sometimes all over the show ? I think I may have corrected that by now running from a car battery and not through a transformer. ( Voltage variations ).
Now to the main problem...
I read on a forum about these telescopes from China sometimes having 'dry joints' in the PCBs. I investigated and found everything to be in order. I re-installed all the 'bits'. It all worked as it should, apart from during the next alignment set up, the 'clock' in the HC worked to list everything required except the 'seconds' on the 'time listing' It just isn't coming up ? The seconds area is blank ( no reading showing ) ? I think the WHOLE time set up would be critical as without that, the mount would not move the telescope to reverse the movements of the universe ? Am I right ?
Do any of you guy's with knowledge about problems of this nature have any idea's ? I am getting close to chucking it all in, even though I have constructed an observatory with a pier mounted, computerised system that should work really well ! I hope you can help.

Thanks heaps, Tony

[The_bluester (Paul)]

It may just be a display issue, did the alignment actually work?

By my understanding the GPS time that they pull in is just to determine which stars should be visible for alignment purposes and for slew limits so seconds may well not matter. If it will align electronically, perform goto and track I would not worry too much.

[Asterism (Tony)]

Thank you Paul,
I haven't tried doing a new alignment yet, but I will give it a go! During conversations with another astronomer, he also said it may not be an essential part of the mount functions - you have boosted my optimism.
Thanks for such a quick reply.
Tony ( asterism ).

[The_bluester (Paul)]

No worries, hopefully you have a good outcome and it aligns and works properly.

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

I am not an expert on go to mounts, but as I understand it the time and position data is mainly only used to determine what stars are visible for the initial alignment. For example if it is July it won't ask you to align on Rigel.
Once it has done an alignment, it build a picture of what the sky should look like and then uses that to go to objects.
Deadly accurate time is really not necessary so i wouldn't be worrying.

Cheers

Malcolm

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Assuming the software works the same was as my CPC mount you can probably test it in daytime. On my mount you can do a one star alignment in EQ mode, if you have that option, try the alignment, select an alignment star then just hit enter to go to the fine alignment then hit align to tell it you have aligned to the specified star. Dont actually worry about pointing at any star, just do it wherever it is pointed. If you hear the RA drive start running when you hit align you are probably OK.

[Asterism (Tony)]

Thanks for all your assistance guy's.
It is brilliant having such knowledge that can be 'handed on' through Ice In Space.
I will try your recommendations.

Tony