Juwei-17 strain wave mount?

[garymck (Gary)]

mine was $1699 delivered from Australia, so no gst....

Gary

[Ramius (Bill)]

Interesting
The sale site clearly states Tax excluded. In the early days AliExpress did not directly charge GST but for some time it has been included late in the transaction - I thought when buying or going from cart to Checkout.

However i just did that - freight and coupon discount applied there but no GST. Perhaps it pops up on the final payment invoice ..or something has changed .. or senility?
Good price then - particulalry if you want the remote.

[garymck (Gary)]

Ali now only charges GST on items under $1000, anything over that the carrier is supposed to collect GST and clear it through customs. Seems that sometimes they come through with no charge if you are lucky.....
Gary

[Ramius (Bill)]

Thanks - that clears it up.
Curious though that they now mandate the small stuff while under $1000 used to be exempt. The whole GST on personal imports thing has been a fiasco since day one.

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Mine arrived today 10 days ahead of the scheduled delivery date.

No GST and a very quick and pleasant experience. I haven't done anything with it yet as I am waiting for an eq5 tripod adapter which is in transit.

Looks solid as and I can't believe how light it is!

[garymck (Gary)]

Look forward to seeing your results. Mine still isn't in the country.

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Originally Posted by garymck

Look forward to seeing your results. Mine still isn't in the country.

Gotta wait for the mount adapters at this stage I tested it with the asiair just a slew back and forth to see if it all works, It's so quiet!!
I have to work out how the onstep controller works as I can't seem to connect it to the mount, it says wifi failed There are no instructions.

[garymck (Gary)]

check out the Onstep Wiki:
https://onstep.groups.io/g/main/wiki/Home

Should help you out...
Gary

[BillR]

The onstep wiki has detailed instructions for connecting using usb, wifi and bluetooth. I use a minipc on the mount and remote desktop to it for control but found the bluetooth to minipc connection was not reliable - I suspect the minipc cannot cope with a simultaneous bluetooth and wifi connection. The direct usb mount to minipc works well.
Still waiting for the clouds to clear!!!

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Originally Posted by BillR

The onstep wiki has detailed instructions for connecting using usb, wifi and bluetooth. I use a minipc on the mount and remote desktop to it for control but found the bluetooth to minipc connection was not reliable - I suspect the minipc cannot cope with a simultaneous bluetooth and wifi connection. The direct usb mount to minipc works well.
Still waiting for the clouds to clear!!!

I still can't get my head around that wiki, I'm not too technical. All I want is for the mount to connect to the handset and vice versa. Is there a simple instruction without going through that wiki?

[BillR]

I don't have a hand controller but it appears from the wiki that it can connect via a cable plugged into the ST4 port or wifi. I would expect it to work straight away if plugged in. Have you tried this?

There is a very long Juwei thread on Cloudy Nights where some people are using the hand controller. It would be worth browsing this or asking a question there if you can't get it working.

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Originally Posted by BillR

I don't have a hand controller but it appears from the wiki that it can connect via a cable plugged into the ST4 port or wifi. I would expect it to work straight away if plugged in. Have you tried this?

There is a very long Juwei thread on Cloudy Nights where some people are using the hand controller. It would be worth browsing this or asking a question there if you can't get it working.

I don't have a cable that can do that I'll fish around and see at home
It's the wifi that the hand controller can;t connect to the mount. I have the weekend to play around
cheers




Edit: from the wiki page I read this: Starting Up
When the SHC is powered up an "OnStep w/Teen Astro" splash screen will appear for a few seconds then it'll tell you it's trying to connect. After a couple of seconds, if successful, the SHC will start displaying the status information across the top line (guide rate, pulse-guide rate, and a series of icons as described below) and the RA and Dec below that. If the connection is interrupted for any reason the SHC will automatically attempt to start the connection again.



In my case it just keeps attempting to connect the mount is powered on

[BillR]

Finally the clouds cleared and I had a chance to try my mount. By the time I sorted out how to polar align I only managed 30 minutes guided with PHD2. The mount achieved 0.8 arc secs rms even though the polar alignment was out by 23 arc minutes and the seeing was terrible. I am happy!

[garymck (Gary)]

Sounds good, still waiting for mine from eBay - should have use Aliexpress!

[Nikolas (Nik)]

All the mounting parts arrived and I have it mounted ready to go. Now for some clear skies.

[ChrisV (Chris)]

I don't have one of these mounts but all my mounts (G11, EQ5 etc) use onstep. It's actually simpler to use the onstep phone app instead of the hand controller. Connect via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth - just depends on what the juwei onstep board has.

Otherwise, normal onstep hand controllers connect to the st4 port - use a standard cable (but there are Bluetooth variations)

[Ramius (Bill)]

Originally Posted by BillR

Finally the clouds cleared and I had a chance to try my mount. By the time I sorted out how to polar align I only managed 30 minutes guided with PHD2. The mount achieved 0.8 arc secs rms even though the polar alignment was out by 23 arc minutes and the seeing was terrible. I am happy!

BillR
What payload - and with or without counterweight?
Bill

[garymck (Gary)]

Mine finally arrived, really surprised at how well it is made. Finish is excellent and the equal of any premium mounts. Won’t be able to try it until bits to fit to tripod arrive- hopefully next week.

[BillR]

Some observations after a few nights use.

I have a Celestron C8, ZWO 533 pro, guidescope with camera mounted, total weight about 7.5 kg. I use APT with PHD2 guiding for control. In poor seeing with almost full moon conditions I have seen tracking from 0.8 to 1.2 arc secs. Meridian flips work fine but I had to select reverse DEC direction after flip in PHD2.

The mount ALT adjustment works fine but the AZ screws are too short -limiting the adjustment range. They are 6mm thread so can be replace easily with long bolts.

I would be interested to hear of other experiences.

Bill

[netwolf]

There seems to be a local seller on Ebay for these now.