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Goto issues with the EQ5


acharris77

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Hey all, sorry for the stupid questions but now I am having issues with the goto. Set it up last night following Astro shed video and while I think I got the polar alignment wrong, I did point the N leg to polaris.

Following his sequence when I did the home position, the polar align hole was blocked so I had to adjust this to enable viewing and think this did not help. I did a 2 star alignment and after this the handset said successful.

When tgoing to a star the scope was way off position, so I am guessing I did something wrong during setup. Can bad polar alignment cause the goto to be off?

I checked date and time, Co ordinates, etc and all was fine but the goto was way out. Then clouds rolled in. Going to try tonight again.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

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After you have completed a rough polar alignment and BEFORE you run the GoTo ensure that your scope set up is in the HOME position and clutches are locked. So HOME means balance bar straight down and scope aligned so that it points close to Polaris (check by looking along the top of the tube).

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Guessing your location is:

Long = 3o 15" West

Lat = 51o 45" North

Time Zone is UTC

Longitude just check that what is accepted is 003o 15W

Enter it as a custom location if you have not already.

When you set the mount up get the top as level as you can, it does not need to be but is better if is as it minimises the errors that the software needs to account for.

Perform the polar alignment with the polar scope as well as is reasonable.

The mount latitude will be close to 52 degrees, take care not to bend bolts setting this if it is not already set.

Set the scope, weights and whatever in the start position.

Not sure about the above from Chris as I thought it was weight bar vertically down and OTA therefore level and North not necessarily aimed at Polaris - that is not level.

Equally they add and remove options in the software - read the manual (twice).

Power up the mount and check that the data displayed is right.

Supply the Time, Date (it is in US format = mm/dd/yyyy)

DST is presently On (or Yes).

GOTO's are not a problem until it gets something incorrect, it then has a bad habit of carrying on regardless and not quite working. The problem is several things can go wrong, usually small, usually a pain in the butt. Main thing is to take a bit of time and care

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  • 1 month later...

Did you manage to sort your synscan, please?  I am having the same issue.

I bought an upgrade kit and fitted it to a Vixen GPDX, and up until this summer has worked well. Then it stopped working properly, and the goto stopped aligning and going to.

Tonight I had another go and carried out a factory reset, then re-entered all the information. Polar aligned and then a 2 star alignment. At the first star, Arcturus the scope went almost to the horizon. When going from there to the second star Vega, it ended up in Cygnus, near Deneb. I slewed it back to Vega and completed the alignment, I then tried to find Alberio but it went straight past Deneb.

I have read lots of posts about getting the date format and the lat long in the wrong order, but this is all entered correctly and as I have said I been using it for over a year without issue.

Is there any diagnostic software available to check the handset out or could it be the motor control box?

Any help gratefully accepted.

Dave

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Sorry for the late reply. Yeah I did get it sorted but my problem was the fact that my Polar Alignment was way out due to me not understanding the new markings that Sky Watcher have put in the polar scope. Since then I have not had a real issue. The only thing I can think is that it is a power issue or something has gone wrong with the mount.

Sorry I can't be any more help as still relativity new to the EQ5.

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Did you manage to sort your synscan, please?  I am having the same issue.

I bought an upgrade kit and fitted it to a Vixen GPDX, and up until this summer has worked well. Then it stopped working properly, and the goto stopped aligning and going to.

Tonight I had another go and carried out a factory reset, then re-entered all the information. Polar aligned and then a 2 star alignment. At the first star, Arcturus the scope went almost to the horizon. When going from there to the second star Vega, it ended up in Cygnus, near Deneb. I slewed it back to Vega and completed the alignment, I then tried to find Alberio but it went straight past Deneb.

I have read lots of posts about getting the date format and the lat long in the wrong order, but this is all entered correctly and as I have said I been using it for over a year without issue.

Is there any diagnostic software available to check the handset out or could it be the motor control box?

Any help gratefully accepted.

Dave

Check the power, one odd characteristic of low power is just aout what you describe:- the scope moves but not quite to where it should or as it should.

It could be voltage or current.

Also which software is on the mount/handset ?

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