Bug in Synscan 3.21 upgrade

[dluth]

White Rabbit:
I used a USB adapter and it failed when I used it on high, but succeeded on Low speed. It got to 100% after ages. I don't think my problem is with the upgrade though, as it did the same thing out of the box with V3.12

Originally Posted by White Rabbit

Dluth.

I'm having the exact same problem with mine tonight, to the letter. I've tried to reinstall the V3.21 and V3.20 but both stop at about 60% then say "Update Complete".

I've only had mine a week, and this is the first time he sky has been clear enough to get out and properly test it.

I though maybe I'd fried it or something so I'm quite relieved that someone else is having the same problem. I'm thinking it must be software now as we both have the same issue.

I'm going to see if I can find an older download program and see if that will upload the software better. When you updated did you watch to see if it reached 100%?


Thanks

[dluth]

Yes I can slew fine by skipping through initialisation and can operate the mount perfectly well by doing this. It just screws up trying to align. And once I go through that process it the directional buttons don't work manually and I have to turn it off and on.
I have set the polar axis to my latitute and done a geo South alignment. Though I would have thought isnt relevant in this case as the mount just isnt moving at all. If I haven't aligned, the telescope still should slew to where it thinks the star is, even though it may in totally the wrong spot.

Has anyone ever received a reply from emailing skywatcher in the US?

Originally Posted by Kokatha man

Have the HEQ5 Pro with Synscan: have not encountered this at all.

Not much I can say except - the bit about RA offset greater than 45 degrees, I presume you've done a geo South alignment and set the polar axis to at least a rough approximation of you latitude?

Can you get it to slew by skipping through initialization and just setting the slew rate and operating the mount?

[Kokatha man]

Hi Dluth - White Rabbit is hopping all over the place and has created a new thread in this forum section - I also think he's confusing NJB with you - he's found that his power supply wasn't delivering sufficient current and that was why he was having his problem (which I understand was the same as yours!) Check his thread about "EQ6 motors" (sic)

Other than that, and obviously your drive motors are ok in themselves, unless someone can come up with a solution I'd seriously think about contacting your supplier if, as you say, it was this way straight out of the box.

[White Rabbit]

oops, sorry your right I got confused I'll amend the other thread title.

With regards to the update problem. Now that I have the current worked out and it seems to be working fine I'm employing the moto of "if it aint broke, dont fix it" I'll tackle that when a new update comes out.

Have you checked the power supply that you are using. You need to make sure that its giving out at least 2amps of current.
I was fairly suprised that it needs 2amps but then when you think about the weight it has to push it kinda makes sense.

[NJB (Noel)]

Hi all.

I just wanted to comment on the problem of getting a time zone of +10 to stick in V3.21. I was having the same problem last night. I was using the LEFT scroll key (DOWN) to change it, and it did not stay. For no particular reason, I then used the RIGHT scroll key (UP) to change to +, and it stuck! I don't know if I was lucky, or that is the way the bug works.

Cheers.
Noel

[MikeM (Mike)]

Dluth,

I am encountering a similar problem to what you reported a few months ago with alignment. Did you ever find out what was causing the problem? What have you done to get around it?

Some background on my problem ...

I have an HEQ5 Pro with a GPS. I just upgraded to v3.23 (from v3.12) and everything seemed to work well a week ago until last night which was not fun at all.

During set-up, the time that comes up on Synscan is a couple of hours off. My time zone seems to come up as +4GMT when it should in fact be -4GMT. I select DST as well.

After going through a 3 star alignment, the following error message appears:

"WARNING RA OFFSET > 45º"
"Pls. check time and location settings"
"Alignment failed."

A colleague at the star party suggested that I try aligning with the 1 or 2 star methods and not over-ride the time or timezone. I was able to go to overhead objects but not objects low in the sky. Synscan said the object was below the horizon - suggesting a time problem.

Does anyone know what is going on here and especially how to fix it?

Mike


***


Hi, I can't get my Synscan (V3.21) to work with my EQ3-2 mount and it's frustrating the heck out of me. The problem is that after I enter all the info and try to do an alignment, the telescope doesn't slew at all. It seems to try to move then gives up and after that even the directional keys won't work manually and I have to turn it off and on again to use them.
I enter all the details first (ie. Lat 144.40E, 38.20S; Time Zone +10:00; Date 03/24/08; Time 21:00:00; daylight savings? YES) and then it says the following on the screen:
Polaris HA = 05:17
Clock = 03:21

Begin Alignment?
I choose YES and choose 3 star.
First star choice is Sirius which I select.
The telescope then clicks as I said but doesnt move at all. The screen says briefly Slewing... 00:00 00:00 on the screen, then "Use dir. keys to centre object". But at this point the directional keys don't respond (they do normally).
I then press enter and it says choose 2nd star? Achernar. I select that and the screen says:
000º00' +16º42'
I then get "Use dir. keys to centre object" on the screen again but again the directional keys don't respond. I press enter and it says choose 3rd star? Alpha Centauri. I select that and the screen says:
000º00' +16º42'
"Use dir. keys to centre object"
I press enter as the keys don't work (by the stage the telescope has not moved an inch).
The screen then says: "WARNING RA OFFSET > 45º"
Pls. check time and location settings
Alignment failed.

Does anyone know what any of this means and what the problem could be? It also ocurred when I had V3.12 which is why I upgraded to V3.21 but the problem is exactly the same.

Thanks in advance!

Daniel

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

I've recently fitted a synscan upgrade to my EQ5 and upgraded to 3.23 without a problem. Only glitch so far was caused by the battery voltage dropping too low, would try to slew to the entered target and then spit the dummy and I'd have to reset to get it going again. Once the battery was changed for a fully charged one, the problem disappeared. It holds all the settings except the date and local time. Have to re-enter them every night, but I believe thats normal. Only other thing I've noted is it sets itself to Tracking Off on some occasions if I don't do an alignment, but I always check that now in the utilities menu.

Bill

[dluth]

Sorry for replying so late (what's a year?!)
The problem, as White Rabbit highlighted, was indeed the transformer I was using that had too low amperage. I replaced it with one with the right Amps and all is now working fine. It does say what Amperage is required in the manual, so it was an oversight of mine. But I reckon they should include a transformer with the Synscan (they only include a car power supply)


[quote=MikeM;359652]Dluth,

I am encountering a similar problem to what you reported a few months ago with alignment. Did you ever find out what was causing the problem? What have you done to get around it?