iOptron Smart EQ portable goto Mount Question

[thunderchildobs]

I am looking for a light weight goto mount to use with some of my small scopes (<5Kg) and as a camera mount.

I found a iOptron Smart EQ at a local shop. When trying to do a 3 star alignment the mount ended with the counterweight pointing up, above the horiztonal on the 3rd star. I was expecting the mount to do a meridian flip.

Is there a trick to do the 3star alignment? To be far I was trying the mount straight out of the box without knowing what the factory settings were and there was no detail manual.

Brendan

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Hi Brendon , I have the Ioptron IEQ45 and had the same problem . You have to set the date the American way , eg month/day/year , so todays is 12/26/2012 , ,,,, not 26/12/2012 as we do here .
Good luck .
Brian

[thunderchildobs]

Thanks

[33South (Chris)]

I recently ordered one of these as a grab and go mount - hasn't arrived yet.

You can download a manual from the IOptron website, looks pretty detailed. One thing I noticed you have to set the UTC time offset in minutes not hours.

http://ioptron.com/support.cfm?module=umanuals

[thunderchildobs]

I revisitied the mount today, the date is in YYYY-MM-DD format.
I tried entering "20" in the month field and software rejected it.
Also checked that the mount was set to "Southern" and the longitude and lattitude were set correctly.

Brendan

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Thats a shame , by the way what version of Ioptrons software is running in your HC ?
Try opening your HC up ( 6 screws ) and removing the Micro SD and reinstalling it , that will reboot the flash , I have read on Ioptrons Yahoo user groups site that sometimes helps , .
Have you looked at the Yahoo groups site yet ? its a wealth of info and you might find what you are looking for there , just google ' IEQ45 imaging , yahoo groups ' and you will find it . they do ieq45 , ieq30 and your smart eq is just starting to be seen there , but all Ioptrons software is the same whatever mount you have , and that saves a lot of problems for us owners ( save for the version you are running , I have 8406 ) .
Good luck Brendon , you will sort it and kick your self when it is .. .
Brian.

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

When I got my MiniTower Pro I had to do a firmware upgrade to get it to work. That did the trick for me and I've had no problems since. It is known fault with that model, which is a bit sad they can't fix it at the source if its known about. So I'd recommend trying that. iOptron have a page where all the firmware updates are available and detailed instructions on how to install them, too.