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Updating Firmware Synscan V4/V5 Handcontroller
I spent an extended long weekend down at our South Coast retirement retreat with family and was hoping to get some decent imaging done but not to be due to weather. Saturday night was the only semi clear night so decided to do some visual observing with my SW12” Goto Dob as it’s been a long while ( 1 year ) since I’ve observed under a new moon period with Bortle 3 skies.
Set up the Dob and started to 2 star align it when I had issues with slew rates. It kept wizzing past the centre illuminated crosshair at rate 9 speed when set on rate 2 or 3 or 4.
Hmm….. tried a few times then decided to redo the whole set up again , level base and OTA , point to true north , double check Synscan settings, check cables and cable connections, check motor drive connections and so on.
Same thing happened again, so parked it , switched off and wheeled her back in the garage. By then high cloud started to move in. Astro was over for the weekend.
Back in Sydney on Monday arvo started thinking what could cause this slew rate issue.
Hmm… has to be the handcontroller surely as it’s the brains of the Synscan control system.
So decided firstly to pull apart the handcontroller and clean all the pressure pad contacts and PCB copper contacts with 100% isopropyl alcohol. Also checked all wiring connections as well. The handcontroller is a 2017/2018 Synscan model V5 with additional USB2B port ( the first series of USB ). When pulled apart it was in mint condition which surprised me as it sits in garage and I’m only 150m from the beach ( salt air environment)
Secondly I though it might need a firmware upgrade so spent an hour or two nutting out how to do this ( never done it before ) The SW website only has an old guide based on the older version 3 Synscan handcontroller. Eventually worked out how to upgrade the firmware and did so using the latest update 4.41.00. As this was a new procedure for me I documented it so it may be of assistance to others who still use the handcontroller.
Finally I browsed through the Synscan manual in case I might find a clue about the slew rates ( this manual is terrible and has never been updated in donkeys years ) Section 1.3 describes slewing using the direction keys and reading through each point , the light bulb went off !! I can’t be certain but on that Saturday night I think I was changing the slew rate by pressing Rate /2 button followed by Enter. According to the manual , pressing Enter will change the slew rate back to the previous or default rate of 9 or fast. You should only press Rate/2 followed by a slew rate number from say 2 to 9 ( not Enter )
Hopefully on my next visit down south I can set up the Dob and test out everything again. Hopefully that’s the solution to the previous rate 9 slew rates.
Attached is my procedure to update the Firmware in Synscan V4/V5 Handcontrollers for those interested.
Cheers
Martin
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