Sick and tired of my mount.

[Shiraz (Ray)]

if your problem is only polar alignment, maybe consider getting a polar scope and do it optically (if you can see the polar region) - that will be plenty accurate for short exposure imaging or visual.

the mount does not have encoders, but I think that the ring counters (which keep track of where the mount is) are on the main board, so it may still be worth trying a new board in the mount.

[Nortilus (Josh)]

raymo, I was having a similar issue with my NEQ6. I found that one of my AZ bearing retainer caps was loose and giving me a whole lot of movment in AZ. Check to see if you can move the scope freely in AZ, if you can move it back and forward then you need to tighten down your AZ bearing retainer cap. There is info online about how to set these correctly.

[doppler (Rick)]

Originally Posted by 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

There is alignment info on pages 35 and 36 of the manual. I have never read the whole manual but page 36 looks worth trying out.

[raymo]

Thanks once again everyone, am looking into all points raised.
Bearings are secure Josh.
raymo

[Howard (Howard)]

Originally Posted by doppler

There is alignment info on pages 35 and 36 of the manual. I have never read the whole manual but page 36 looks worth trying out.

And the 'sync' ability is on page 34. They call it PAE. It sounds like you either didnt press and hold ESC for 2 seconds or more ... or your HC or SW or something else is corrupt.

BTW, have you updated your HC yet when trying to fix this problem with it giving weird readouts, and not Polar aligning?

Cheers

[raymo]

Hi Howard, I certainly did hold the escape button down for two seconds,
and got the message "centering Betelgeuse" or Sirius, stars I had been nowhere near for a while. I have the V.4 H/C which has I believe, the latest version installed, 4.10 if I remember rightly.
I am familiar with P.A.E. but got the wrong message when pressing escape. It should say "centre -------" whatever object, but said
"re-centering ---------" some irrelevant star.

[Howard (Howard)]

Wow! ... I'd be "Sick and Tired of my mount" too if I had all the problems you are getting. Do hope you or someone who posts is able to suggest something which works. Good luck. You have more patience than me.

[raymo]

Thanks Howard.
raymo

[kens (Ken)]

Originally Posted by raymo

Hi Howard, I certainly did hold the escape button down for two seconds,
and got the message "centering Betelgeuse" or Sirius, stars I had been nowhere near for a while. I have the V.4 H/C which has I believe, the latest version installed, 4.10 if I remember rightly.
I am familiar with P.A.E. but got the wrong message when pressing escape. It should say "centre -------" whatever object, but said
"re-centering ---------" some irrelevant star.

I was having a quick look at the SynScan manuals. V3 says "center..." whereas V4 says "re-centering..."
Have you tried explicitly clearing the PAE data? In theory they should clear whenever you do 1,2 or 3 star alignment but you never know.
With EQMOD I was getting some weird stuff happening due to bad data.

[raymo]

Hi Ken, I have never used P.A.E. on this mount, so I assume that there wouldn't be any data to clear. Apart from which, I wouldn't know how to clear it. As I mentioned just now in another thread, my mount went truly bananas last night. I happened to plonk it down almost spot on with first
iteration less than one degree on both axes, made a small correction and was then told I was 23 degs out in Az and 9 degs in Alt; clearly impossible. Ended up doing a rough drift align.
raymo

[g__day (Matthew)]

Sure sounds like something is scrambled. Can you borrow another controller / mount to isolate if its the mounts electronics, the hand controller or both units that are scrambled?

[kens (Ken)]

You can clear PAE using UTILITY Function > PAE > Clear PAE data
Its worth doing if only to eliminate as a possible cause.

Elsewhere you wrote

Originally Posted by raymo

Having been told to press and hold the "escape" button for 2 secs in order to sync to a chosen object for purposes of starting an iterative polar alignment,

This doesn't sound right. Pressing the ESC key for 2 seconds initiates PAE which is Positioning Accuracy Enhancement.
For Polar Alignment you need to use the MENU > Alignment > Polar Alignment option after doing a normal 2 or 3 star alignment.
You then repeat by doing another 2 or 3 star alignment then MENU > Alignment > Polar Alignment until you get reasonable polar alignment error (which just happens to have the same initials but is not the same thing)
I can't say for sure but I can imagine that doing a PAE before the polar alignment could screw things up..

Another way to check where the problem lies is to use the UTILITY function > Show Position option too read out where the controller thinks your scope is pointed.
This mount does not have any encoders and uses the start position and number of steps it has taken to work out where it is. This is done in the Motor Control Unit (MCU) inside the mount. The handset asks the MCU how many steps it has taken and converts to RA/Dec.
The fact that the scope seems to be tracking OK after a manual PA suggests the drive hardware (motors and gears) is OK.

[raymo]

Matthew, I don't think the hand controller is at fault; This mount has had
this problem on and off for a long time, before the hand controller packed
up and I got this new one. I'm pulling out the motherboard for a visual
inspection.

Ken, since owning this mount, a 2 star alignment has always provided
adequate tracking and Go To, [when working properly], so I have never used P.A.E. I have tried the polar alignment function, and got no benefit from it. The motors and direction buttons have always functioned faultlessly, so it is looking more and more like the MCU is faulty.
I will clear the P.A.E. data, and look at the show position function.
Thanks Ken.
raymo

[kens (Ken)]

Another idea just popped into my head. There could be a faulty connection between the hand controller and MCU - either in the cable or connector. If it was affecting the Rx line but not the Tx then the controller could send commands to the MCU but would not get data back reliably.

[raymo]

I did have [ along with other people] H/C to Mount cable troubles giving
all sorts of weird readings. I got a spare cable, and recrimped the connections on both ends of both cables, and the problem was fixed.
The H/C cable got caught in the R.A. axis clutch lever a while ago when slewing the mount. This put a lot of stress on the H/C cable to mount
connection. I removed the little board and am going to unsolder the connection pins and check to see if there is any damage to the connector.
raymo

[g__day (Matthew)]

Still posit you need to run an elimination test to see if its power supply, cables, mount electronics or hand controller electronics that are borked. Guessing may not help much. If the problem is persistent and you believe the wrong bit of gear is faulty you will waste a lot of time.

Fins someone with the exact same gear and test component at a time until you get the full list of everything that is wrong absolutely nailed.

[raymo]

I would love to do a process of elimination Matthew, but I don't know anyone with the same mount as me that would be prepared to pull
their mount to pieces, in order for me to try out each component in turn.
I have removed the motherboard and power board, and both look o.k. visually. I'll put my meter on them, and see if I can find any faults.
I have a spare hand controller to mount cable, so have pretty much ruled that out as the culprit.
raymo

[g__day (Matthew)]

Bummer Raymo,

You can't arrange to take it back to the original supplier and have them work with you on a elimination test - or don't they have these in stock? The sooner the real culprit is found - the easier it will to work out next steps!

Matthew

[raymo]

It came from Andrews originally, but is way out of warranty, and I bought
it used, so I don't think Andrews would be too interested, especially as
they don't sell spare parts for it as far as I know.No doubt I will get there
in the end.
raymo

[g__day (Matthew)]

No one with a HEQ5 lives close-by? If you could set up another mount and test your hand controller on it - and their hand controller on yours - that should identify the faulty part pretty quickly.