Sick and tired of my mount.

[raymo]

Eager to try out my new lens, and the mount's star alignment function
started giving impossible, ludicrous read outs again. Got down to a minute or so, and the next iteration said I was 16* 32' off in Az and
6* 22' in Ev. Tried a different pair of stars and just got more rubbish readings. Another whole evening wasted. I wish I could afford to throw this mount on the tip. Looking back through my log I find that 17 days
is the longest run I have had without something playing up since I bought
it several years ago.
raymo

[leon]

Goodness me Raymo, what else can cause you frustration, you have had a bit of it of late.
Hope you get it sorted mate.

Leon

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Get eqmod. You will never look back.

[Robert9 (Robert)]

Hi Raymo.
I see you are trying to use the alignment routine built into the handset.
I have the same experience. I think after each P.A. you need to do a star alignment (at least 2 star) and then the next P.A. I have had better results with this routine but must admit I'm thinking seriously about just going back to drift alignment or alternatively, putting a web-cam on the polar scope to save my ageing back, and doing an old fashioned visual.
Robert

[raymo]

Thanks for the commiserations Leon; the digital age has overtaken me, and I'm thinking of going back to visual.
Peter, I have looked in detail at EQMOD, and the whole process of installing and operating it just makes my head spin. One of the EQMOD
websites says that it is an awful lot to take in initially. Waaaay beyond me. I've never even used BYEOS that I bought a while back.
Robert, I don't use the P.A. function at all, numerous people on IIS
[ including me ] have found it to be pretty useless. I just do two star
aligns until down to less than one minute error on both axes, and when
it is behaving itself it tracks quite nicely.
raymo

[Somnium (Aidan)]

when i was using my EQ6 i was using EQMOD with Cart du ciel and astrotortilla (all free). that set up was really good. having a plate solving tool that can sync the planetarium software and give you a read on your P.A accuracy is extremely useful. people will say that this type of set up can be difficult but to be honest, a quick google or youtube search will get you to a tutorial which will step you through the settings and it is just a game of simon says.

[raymo]

Hi Aidan, I had these nonsensical readouts on my first hand controller from time to time, up until it failed altogether. My new V.4 H/C does
exactly the same thing. Sometimes I am up and running in a few iterations, and sometimes I never achieve alignment. My point is that
what is the likelihood of both controllers having the same problem?
Maybe I could go through all the rigmarole of installing the various
software, only to find that EQMOD can't control the mount properly either.
Some months ago an IIS member spent an evening with me, him using
his NEQ6. I was so envious watching everything working as it should.
Oddly, we couldn't get my mount to align even using a spare H/C that he brought with him.
raymo

[Somnium (Aidan)]

hmm that is a strange one, i know how frustrating it can be when equipment doesnt work like it is supposed to. i hope you get on top of it

[JimsShed (Jim)]

Sounds demoralising, so you have my sympathy. In addition to my previous response on the other thread, On a prior Occassion I once received a Skywatcher mount that developed a fault in the electronics, although this was about 2 weeks after receiving it. Symptoms were hand controller becoming unresponsive or crazy characters on the controller display, or erratic goto results. I'd bought it from Andrews so they got me to post back the hand controller, black box, and cables. They swapped in/out the parts on another new mount from their shop and found the culprit...faulty black box, not the hand controller. You need to find a friend or dealer you can send the bits to and do the same. The Andrews guy said faulty motors can also be the cause, and that would have been our plan B.
PS: gold star to Andrews for prompt service.

[raymo]

Thank you Jim; I'll look into that. I had cable troubles before, but
recrimped them and never had any more trouble. What black box are you talking about? I assume that it must be inside the mount.

Believe me, so do I Aidan.

[doppler (Rick)]

Maybe it's the the mount electronics that's faulty? Looks like an easy one to swap over and cheaper than a hand set.

http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astrono...=0_10_5_2_0_60

[sharptrack2 (Kevin)]

Hi Raymo,

My back ground is in electronics and the first thought that crosses my mind is that the encoders in your mount have something wrong with them, possibly areas of intermittent readings. From my rudimentary knowledge of how they work, as you adjust from night to night, the reference point rotates around the center axis of the sensors. Since you get periods of easy alignment, this starts to become a likely suspect.

I don't have any real experience with these mounts but it could simply be some oxidation on metal contacts, or if the encoder is completely magnetic in nature, the magnet ring could be out of round and not causing enough deflection to be read properly by the circuitry in certain areas.

I'm still working mostly with manual adjusting so have not experienced the joys of electronic tracking, but as strange as it might seem, I'm looking forward to it.

It might be worth an email to the manufacturer to see if this hypothesis holds any water...

[JimsShed (Jim)]

Originally Posted by raymo

Thank you Jim; I'll look into that. I had cable troubles before, but
recrimped them and never had any more trouble. What black box are you talking about? I assume that it must be inside the mount.

Believe me, so do I Aidan.

On mine it was the box that clips onto the mount's leg. The hand controller plugs into it along with the power cord and RA cable. It's also referred to as the motor controller. On your mount, this part may be a component in the mount.

[raymo]

Thank you Jim, Kevin, and Rick. Some new avenues to explore. The motherboard or encoders do seem likely suspects. [Actually the motherboard is almost the same price as an H/C, which is A$215 ]. Not a happy camper, if I have to send the whole mount, it'll cost a bit for postage, let alone the cost of testing and repair.
raymo

[bert (Brett)]

The heq5 does not have encoders, it uses stepper motors and open loop.

[glend (Glen)]

I know your constrained by your age and budget, but i'd consider replacing the HEQ with either a NEQ6 or Z25, either will bive you more imaging capacity, a new system, and the flexibility to go to heavier scopes.

[raymo]

Well that cuts out one possibility Brett. Thanks for that.

Glen, I got the 5 in the first place because it suited my needs size wise
then, and still does. The last thing I need is a larger scope; it is fairly
hard work mounting my 8" with it's electric focuser, and my D.I.Y.
tube rotating device, and sometimes with my 80mm on it as well.
I have to set up every time, and can just carry my 5 with the weights attached; can't do that with a 6. Many people happily use a 5 for years, I just seem to have got a lemon. Maybe the vendor knew it was faulty, and
that's why he got rid of it. The perils of buying used electronics.
raymo

[Howard (Howard)]

You say once you've done your normal series of 2-star alignments and got the polar error as small as you can that the tracking is fine. Great. How about the go to's? Are they ok too?
I have an EQ5 Pro and in the past had occasional weird tracking and goto issues. The solution was the power supply cable plug which is connected to the mount was rotating in its plug hole on top of the mount. Once I took the head to bits and soldered the positive power pin in the actual plug hole in the mount (as it was loose) and got a replacement plug from Jaycar and soldered it onto the power lead and (lastly) got in the habit of using a rubber band to go around the cable securing it to the polar scope cover at the back of the scope, the problems disappeared. The last bit re rubber band means the power lead came from the plug inserted into the head in a small arc towards the back of the mount where the plastic polar scope cap is. The cover rotates in RA as the head rotates in RA thus keeping the arc of power cable stationary relative to the plug hole so there is absolutely no rotation nor weight on the plug going into the mount.
Lastly, re alignment, you could do an iterative polar alignment. Google it ... but basically ... setup then without doing an alignment GoTo a star roughly on the equator about 45 degrees altitude. Then SYNC to that star using the hand control (hold ESC for 2 seconds). It will ask you to centre the star using the hand control. Then GoTo a star near'ish to the pole ... Acrux etc are fine. You correct half the error in that GoTo by using the Alt and Az bolts (underline half the error and underline bolts). Repeat the process two or three times and you should find each time the Alt/Az bolts adjustment to correct half the error reduces. You should end up with quite a good PA. Good luck ... hope you find it's just your power lead or male or female power plug adapters/hole which are the problem.
Cheers

[raymo]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions Howard.
Firstly, I had H/C to mount cable problems,[as did a number of other people], giving weird results. Recrimped the cable and everything returned to normal.
I have for quite a while had the power cable fixed like yours but using a cable tie.
After alignment down to a minute or less Go Tos are pretty good, placing
the target very near the centre of the F.O.V. in a medium power EP. and when the target is a very long way from either of the alignment stars, it
is usually within half way to the edge of the F.O.V. of a low power EP.
Using my present method when the mount is behaving itself I can get
round stars for 60 secs, and sometimes up to 100secs, so the mount can track pretty damn well.
I would drift align, but my F.O.V. doesn't allow me to access any stars
low in the sky. I will try an iterative align, but difficult as can't see anywhere near the pole until late at night this time of year.
raymo

[raymo]

Well I tried an iterative P.A. tonight, but it didn't matter what star I went
to, when pressed escape button it just said re-centering Betelgeuse.
Pressing enter did nothing. Tried again later but it said re-centering Sirius. My mount tonight was the worst it's ever been, all rubbish readouts.
raymo