Vixen Skysensor: are there any left?

[Ludd]

I know these are long discontinued, and spares will be impossible to find, but does anyone know of a Skysensor 2000 drive set gathering dust anywhere? Or have they ever been spotted at star party sales?

I used to have a Skysensor 3 which was lovely, but slow. I now have no goto capability and I miss it, but I don't want to go down the noisy Synscan route.

[E621Keith]

As you said, Vixen discontinued the Skysensor years ago. Skysensor 2000 is rare and Skysensor 3 is older and less common. Vixen even discontinued the Starbook S, the less capable replacement of SS2K.

If you want GOTO on your GP, you best bet is the Skywatcher Synscan. I'm surprised you said Synscan is noisy, it's suppose to be one of the quietest GOTO out there because it uses stepper motors rather the servo motors found in other GOTO system.

If you decided you want Skysensor 3 parts then you should put a wanted ad on ABS.

[Ludd]

Hmm, the sysnscan was loud enough for me to be seriously concerned about disturbing the neighbours. While you can limit the slew speed when moving the mount "manually", any goto slew is automatically at full speed, which generates that whining sound. Not so bad with a little refractor, but it resonates in the C8 OTA.

[E621Keith]

Your Vixen Skysensor 3 uses MT1 stepper motor right?

I don't think there is any goto system out there that will be close to the low speed MT1 on noise.

While the Vixen MT4 motors in my SS2k is quiet compare to my other GOTO, it is extremely loud if it was compare against the MT1 used in my dual axis motors clock drive.

[Ludd]

The SS3 that I used to have did indeed use MT1 motors. I guess their quietness was largely down to the very low slew speed, so it is to be expected that a more modern goto system would be a bit noisier. To be honest, if I could have something with the same noise level as the 8SE mount that I (perhaps foolishly) sold, I'd be happy. Even at max slew speed, the SE mount was OK for a city garden, and I could always set a lower speed.

Anyway, I've posted a wanted ad on ABS. Not sure whether I'll be able to afford anything that might surface, but it's worth a try.

[Ludd]

Well, I'm delighted to report that I have unearthed a GPDX mount and Skysensor 2000 drive system from a garage in Hampshire. I went to collect it last night and it seems to be in good order. Not sure how long the internal battery in the handset will last - the manufacturer suggests a 5 year life, and this kit is perhaps 15 years old already. The motors do chatter quite a bit even when just tracking, and I might tinker with the alignment of the gears and perhaps even try to fit some foam to damp it, but the real joy is that you can moderate the slew speed on the fly, thereby controlling the noise levels. You can also set your own customised speed ranges for each of the "slow", "medium" and "fast" slew speeds.

[pete_l]

If it's been sitting unused for some length of time, it's possible the lubrication has flowed to the bottom of the respective receptacles. If you haven't already whipped the lid off, it might be a good idea to redistribute the grease across the gears by hand. I think you can also get firmware upgrades. ISTR there's someone in the USA who can blow eproms for the SS2K handset.

[Ludd]

Good point about the grease - that ought to be my first measure before tinkering with gear alignment. Thanks for that.

Not sure if updating the handset will be needed - what would the advantage of that be?

[grchif]

Versions prior to 2.10 (the latest version) had bugs in the PC communications code that meant guiding was difficult at best. Not sure about the US, but Christopher Erickson (Google to find him, he's around on the SS2K list, the SCT list and a few others) in the UK seems to have a few sets of 2.10 proms around for sale if you're interested.

[skybadger]

2.10 eeproms were and maybe still available from Chris. the other point was that of my two SS2Ks, the more reliable tracking performance is with the 2.06 version.

Also the battery is easily replaced with an RS Thionyl battery.

Mike

[igor_g]

Hi!

I have one old Skysensor (shipped with Celestron SP-C8 in mid 80s) connected to two Vixen MT-1 motors.

It was never ever used. When turn on RA tracking is working, but thats it. The problem is that I do not have any manual.

If anybody have manual please contact me.

Old skysensor have RS232 port so I supose it it is posible to control mount via computer. Does anybody know which command set Skysensor have? Is ti LX200?

Or if somebody know how to speed up tracking...what is command?

Thank you in advance!

Igor

[pete_gamby]

You could try this:

http://www.vixenoptics.co.uk/PDFs/User%20Guides/Sky_Sensor_2000_User_Guide.pdf

HTH

Pete