CPC 800 GOTO Problems

[Planet X]

Hi guys,i am pulling my hair out with my new CPC 800.   It doesn't seem to know where it is,how can that be with built in GPS?  I am in the UK so i have told it that,i have inputted Birmingham as that is the nearest town listed,the date and time are correct.  I have told it we are in Universal time zone(or zone 0).  so i dont know what else to do.  I have tried to align using the 3 star method and it loses where it is. i have tried auto two star align and it goes to the wrong part of the sky for the second star!!!!!  What is going on?   I thought having GPS was supposed to tell it where it is but it does not seem to know where anything is      I dont know what else to do.

[PeterCPC]

Are you giving it time to get the GPS signal - the other night my GPS unit took about 10 mins to find the signal. Other nights it's almost instantaneous! When I had the CPC it sometimes took a while to establish GPS.

Peter

[ronin]

Celestron being US (or they were) you may have picked Birmingham Alabama.

That is the first "Birmingham" that comes up, the UK one is under UK and the default list is US cities.

[Planet X]

Hi Peter,yes is says CPC Ready so i assume the GPS signal was found?  It takes no more than a minute.  I have had it a couple of weeks and have been out with it three times now and it fails every time.  

[PeterCPC]

I seem to remember putting in my actual Lat and Long co-ordinates - try that.

Peter

[Planet X]

Celestron being US (or they were) you may have picked Birmingham Alabama.

That is the first "Birmingham" that comes up, the UK one is under UK and the default list is US cities.

Yes i found the UK menu and Birmingham was listed there.  Should i be in Standard time or Daylight saving time?  I did try both.   

[Planet X]

I seem to remember putting in my actual Lat and Long co-ordinates - try that.

Peter

I will try that next time.  Shouldnt the GPS know that though?

[PeterCPC]

Yes - you would think so but I am just at a loss at the moment of what to suggest.

Peter

[Planet X]

Yes - you would think so but I am just at a loss at the moment of what to suggest.

Peter

It is really frustrating as i have pretty much fantasized about having a GOTO scope ever since seeing an ad in my first copy of Astronomy magazine in 1986!   It is a little disappointing to say the least. I am beginning to think i should have stuck with my Skywatcher 150P Newt. 

[PeterCPC]

I have just remembered that I did have a similar problem once. It was when I changed from a mains adapter to a Tracer battery. CPCs are very fussy about power. After that I only used a mains adapter or a Power Tank - no further issues.

Peter

[Planet X]

I have just remembered that I did have a similar problem once. It was when I changed from a mains adapter to a Tracer battery. CPCs are very fussy about power. After that I only used a mains adapter or a Power Tank - no further issues.

Peter

I use a Celestron Powertank with the standard cigarette lighter lead.  I have another lead on order so i will give that a try.  Thanks for all the advice Peter,its all a bit bewildering!

[Planet X]

I use a Celestron Powertank with the standard cigarette lighter lead.  I have another lead on order so i will give that a try.  Thanks for all the advice Peter,its all a bit bewildering!

I have got the thing set up now in my living room and i have noticed there is a calibrate GOTO in the utilities menu,i wonder if i need to do that next time?

[AstroJOE]

Try a factory restore in the utilities menu before you try anything else. You shouldn't need to enter your nearest town/city in GPS mode so I assume that may also be turned off.

[Planet X]

Try a factory restore in the utilities menu before you try anything else. You shouldn't need to enter your nearest town/city in GPS mode so I assume that may also be turned off.

Hi James,will that erase my HC firmware installs ?  I do have The GPS set to on but i have made sure that in the scope set up menu that the Lat and Long are all correct,as is my location and time.

[impactcrater]

I would think most of us have had teething proglems with goto. My suggestion is to go simple...use the 'solar system ' align method and ideally chose the Moon or Jupiter. The scope should then be able to goto a well known star with fair accuracy. Do some exploring using this method . Good luck...

[impactcrater]

PS

if you have done an update you need to have used "CFM'...please see the celestron site re this...if the firmware is wrong the scope will not work...I would  restart as suggested with 'factory settings' as advised  already...

These updates are not always smooth by any means...

[Planet X]

I would think most of us have had teething proglems with goto. My suggestion is to go simple...use the 'solar system ' align method and ideally chose the Moon or Jupiter. The scope should then be able to goto a well known star with fair accuracy. Do some exploring using this method . Good luck...

Will try the Solar system align on the next clear night,i cant bring myself to take it out again tonight!  Thanks for the advice. Will post an update when i have some news.

[AstroJOE]

Hi James,will that erase my HC firmware installs ? I do have The GPS set to on but i have made sure that in the scope set up menu that the Lat and Long are all correct,as is my location and time.

If the GPS is activated and working there shouldn't be a need for setting the lat or long, location or time. It should know this already. If you're being prompted to enter this info then something is not quite right. The factory restore just returns the handset functions to the factory standard settings I think. I do it occasionally if I get any issues and it normally sorts itself out. If problem persists reinstall the firmware using CFM as already mentioned. TheCPC series are excellent scopes and when they are set up correctly the accuracy of the goto should be more or less spot on. I have mine permanently set up in an obsy and use the hibernate function (also in the utilities menu) so I only have to realign the goto very occasionally.

James

[PeterCPC]

I agree with James - when set up properly the CPC800 will produce excellent results. On mine the GOTO was spot on. Keep at it - you'll get there in the end.

Peter

[zakkhogan]

If your in inputting the date and time manually you have to remember, being an American production, That  you have to input the date as MONTH/DAY/YEAR not the other way.

I had this problem with my 102GT drove me nuts untill i figured it out.

Hope this helps 

Craig

[Planet X]

If your in inputting the date and time manually you have to remember, being an American production, That  you have to input the date as MONTH/DAY/YEAR not the other way.

I had this problem with my 102GT drove me nuts untill i figured it out.

Hope this helps 

Craig

Hi Craig,thanks for the advice. I just checked the date and you were spot on.it was wrong due to it being the British way of inputting the date!   Right,if its clear tonight i will give it another go. Fingers crossedn

Cheers Carl

[Planet X]

If the GPS is activated and working there shouldn't be a need for setting the lat or long, location or time. It should know this already. If you're being prompted to enter this info then something is not quite right. The factory restore just returns the handset functions to the factory standard settings I think. I do it occasionally if I get any issues and it normally sorts itself out. If problem persists reinstall the firmware using CFM as already mentioned. TheCPC series are excellent scopes and when they are set up correctly the accuracy of the goto should be more or less spot on. I have mine permanently set up in an obsy and use the hibernate function (also in the utilities menu) so I only have to realign the goto very occasionally.

James

Craig made a valid point which seems to be correct. He said that inputting the date the British way is wrong,ie Day/month/year, you have to input it the American way ie Month/day/year.  I checked inj the Scope Set Up menu and this was indeed the case,it was set to the American version so yesterday it thought the date was 3/1/15.   I am checking its performance out again tonight just in case it was this,if not i am going to take your advice and do a factory re-install, i was just a little reluctant to do so given my limited knowledge of getting it set back up.   

Cheers Carl

[zakkhogan]

Glad it helped,

if you just want to test it you can do it in your living room, just go though the motions of the aligning process and let it assume that it got the alignment spot on, it should align successfully 

Craig  

[Planet X]

Glad it helped,

if you just want to test it you can do it in your living room, just go though the motions of the aligning process and let it assume that it got the alignment spot on, it should align successfully 

Craig  

Craig,this might sound really dumb to you but i am powering it off a Celestron powertank,does it matter which of the two 12v cigarette lighter outputs i use? One has a + under it the other has a -  I just want to make sure i am doing it right from the begining of set up.  

Cheers again Carl

[PeterCPC]

Doesn't make any difference - that - and + do not refer to the outlets.

Peter