Arrrgh Help, Celestron CGE fault

[Rossco72]

Hi all,

Looking for some help, my CGE mount is playing up, I can't get it aligned as the Dec drive just keeps spinning round.

If I cancel and try to manually point at something, the RA drive works fine at whichever rate I select but the Dec just goes at the fastest rate (9) no matter what. Any attempt to goto results in the Dec just going round and round in circles!

any ideas?

[brantuk]

Sounds like a slipping clutch to me - is it worn? Do you know what condition the bearings are in? Maybe something wants tightening up or replacing. Or alternatively a chip may be blown if you had any recent "electrical anomolies".

I'd phone the supplier or manufacturer in the first instance to find out if there are any known issues (unless someone here has had a similar problem).

Sorry I can only give general ideas at this point.

[RobH]

Are you using the cat5 cables supplied with the mount?

There have been issues reported that sound similar to this by those using these cables.

When I bought a CGE, I immediately replaced the cables with the best quality ones I could get....cat 7 cable and gold plated connectors...a bit longer too.

Try swapping the cables. If it is a cable fault, it may well then cause the DEC to be OK and the RA to have a problem.

Cheers

Rob

[davew]

Hi Rossco,

As Rob said seems most likely. I don't own a Celestron mount but know a man who does !

No end of bother has been traced to the cables. He was thinking of a new mount until he found out. There is a replacement kit available where even the mount females get changed. Can't remember where. Canada I think.

Good luck.

Dave.

[steve51450]

try John at astrodevelopments as i am sure he can make a set up for you if that is what it ends up being

[Rossco72]

After a fair bit of reading up today, i've got it working again.

I had to slightly expand the metal shield on the supplied cables as apparently the CGE uses these as a ground and it couldn't have been getting a good connection.

Rob,

I'd be interested if you know the cables u used as they obviously worked.

Cheers

[RobH]

Hello Rossco.

I got them from a company called universal cables.

I got the highest spec I could...why mess around.

I think it came to a shade over £20.

Here's a link to the page....

Cat 6a Patch Cables, Cat 7 Shielded Cable

Cheers

Rob

[WatcherOfTheNightSkies]

Rebooted an unused CGE from 2004 had the same problem; fixed it! So posting here to let others know. 95% it is cables and loose sockets! 
Double check that you can hear the soft clicks for the switches; us older folk put ears against the chassis. 
1) Spray contacts, use old cable to plug-unplug to remove corrosion;
2) In receptacle jack, gently lift up the two small side tongues, they help maintain electrical contact with the cord.
3) Open up access to where the jacks are and reseat the cables onto the board-pins (likely not the issue, but good to remove from list);
4) Replace old cables with cat-6 shielded cables (have shiny metal jackets);  Mine were RJ45 F/UTP 568B C.6; another sticky had UTP6-SHD.
5) KEY: Shielded 8P8C Ethernet Patch Cable,Up Angled; this cord has an elbow at the jack;
6) Zip tie the bottom half of the Dec cord to the tower; allows the top half to rotate with RA swing with zero tugging at the plug point (see pic)
You *might* have to shim (I used copper, others used aluminum foil) the cable on the side where it contacts the inner wall of the receptacle. Our was still loose with the new cable. 

[CCD-Freak]

The problem could also be the Dec home switch.  If it fails to find the home position when you first power up and start the alignment it is probably the culprit.  Usually it take a small adjustment to make sure it closes.  If that works right then I would suspect the cables as mentioned in other posts.  The jacks can get dust or debris in them that can cause the encoder data to not reach the controller.

I had a CGE for many years and it was a great mount.