malc-c

It only takes one of the tabs on a printed cable not to be making contact. Glad to hear the camera is working

No worries...glad its put your mind at rest 😉

Rob, What issues are you having other than the limits mentioned above ? - For EQMOD issues it might be worth placing a post on their user group https://groups.io/g/EQMOD as disabling limits should remove that message of limits reached.

Personally I would suggest a pair of 8 x 40 binoculars. From my personal experience youngsters often run through fads and interest in quick succession and are easily bored when things take an age, and then feel let down as what they see is nothing like the colourful and detailed images seen in books and online. Binoculars also double up in daytime use. At the seaside, looking at ships on the horizon, in a park allowing them to get close to birds and animals etc.

It's perfectly normal for HEQ5 and EQ6's to make a noise, even when parked. It's the high frequency PWM that is used to control the motors. Its not so much a hum as a zing !

Have you had a look at Gary's website https://garyhonislegacy.com/ - might be easier following the guides there rather than a video ?

I would agree with you. It could be a kink in the printed cables, or the camera is receiving a message suggesting the case is open or something hasn't closed properly and won't power on. Not sure what's the way forward really, other than reseating cables etc there is not a lot more you can do. If after the camera has been put back together its still bricked then sadly that's it unless you take it to a specialist, but then the cost of his time and any parts might make it prohibitive, and it would be better to look for an already modified camera on the classified section.

For details of pin outs etc to make your own have a look at this page - Or just contact FLO and purchase a new EQDIR cable if you are using a PC to control the mount. If you are looking for a replacement cable for the handset to mount then this is a direct replacement

You need to give people some idea of your budget, otherwise we could all be wasting time making suggestions that are way over what you are willing to spend

That's not good.... By "The camera does nothing when I turn it on" I presume you mean its totally lifeless, no screen illumination or lit LEDs ? - I would suggest you run through the procedure again, slowly in order to find out if any of the connectors have been not seated correctly and what part is rattling around inside the camera

If you do take it apart be careful removing the flex cable. It's held in place by a pressure connector. Using a blunt instrument or fingernails slide the dark brown part (indicated) by pushing on the edges upwards away from the main board towards the LCD. Clean the contacts using IPA (Isopropanol Alcohol 99.99% Pure) and wipe the end of the flexi cable with a cotton bud soaked in IPA. Place the flex cable back into the socket and push the pressure plate back down so it grips the cable.. If that fails then unless you can find a handset with some other fault but with a working LCD that can be swapped, then a new handset is needed because as you can see the LCD is proprietary, including the fixings.

Hi Matt, Looking at other post where they had similar problems it would appear that the graphical display is proprietary, and Synta, the company behind Skywatcher and Celestron don't offer them for sale. You would need to buy a new handset

Many thanks for posting the spec. It states that the board has USB2.0 ports, so should be OK with the camera - Being an old machine I wanted to check that it wasn't an early version. The fact the machine crashes when opening a CR2 file may be RAM related and I wanted to see what was installed and where. The board has dual channel memory for both DDR2 and DDR3. DDR3 being slots 2 and 4 working away from the processor. If one is missing the machine will still work however it is designed to work in pairs rather than one DIMM. Now I'm not a PC expert, but have been told that all memory should be installed in pairs, and ideally all of the same spec. DDR3 memory is now very costly but if you have any you could take out form other machines it might be worth doing... Personally I would be looking at upgrading the machine, especially if you intend to process on it.

Chris has some videos on how these limits work

Rob, sounds like you have the limits enabled in EQMOD. Click the spanner to set the limits to reflect your horizon or obstacles in the scopes line of sight, or just untick the enable box., but be mindful that the mount could then end up pointing in weights up positions or running the OTA into the legs of the tripod if not monitored correctly

How old is the PC in the shed that you are having all these issues with. Any details of make and model of the main board, processor and RAM info would be helpful. A crash opening a CR2 raw file shouldn't crash the PC, and you shouldn't be getting all these lockups when plugging or unmounting a USB device

It sounds to me as if this is related to the USB hubs on the old motherboard. The main board ports will all route through a hub controller on the main board, and seeing that the common denominator of crashes is when you connect or disconnect a USB device seems to suggest the issue may well be hardware related.

It's more likely GSS than CdC IMO but could be wrong. As suggested above, does the mount behave the same way if you use EQMOD rather than GSS ? If there is no change and it still drifts then install another planetarium application and see if that affects the tracking. If it still drifts after trying two planetarium applications and two mount drivers but works fine with the handset then it clearly points to something software related, but exactly what I have no idea.

I assume US consumer law is similar to the UK, in that your contract is with the dealer the scope was purchased from, not the wholesaler or manufacture. If the scope is within its warranty period then it's down to the dealer to resolve, and then they in turn would seek redress from the wholesaler or manufacture (depending how the supply chain is set up). What did the dealer say ?

Can't really help as this forum is predominately UK based, and the UK has different consumer laws than the US. Here in the UK there is a binding act passed in law that gives consumers protection even if something is outside of the normal 12 months warranty period.

John, that can often be the case. And under UK law there would be nothing stopping them starting another Ltd company days after winding up if Trading Standards managed to close the website down.

Doing a reverse IP lookup on whois provides details for the HOUK website can be found here https://whois.domaintools.com/homeobservatoryuk.com - the lookup suggests that Catalyst2 are the company HOUK used to develop the website, or were the "brokers" between HOUK and Godaddy who probably own the actual servers in the data centre

Carole, I'm no expert, but would assume that the request / order for a website to be closed down would need to come from the police / trading standards and possibly needs a court approval to enforce closure. Chances are the website is hosted externally to HOUK so the application would need to be made to the ISP/Host Edit: If someone knows the details of the hosting company then letters from affected people highlighting the issues to that company requesting they investigate could also result in the site being taken down as HOUK being their customer may have broken the contractual terms and conditions with them.

I'm sure that those who have taken legal action to get their money back would have also gone down that road and had them involved. Those who did go to court and won have been quiet in this thread since, but I'm sure if bailiffs were involved that an update would be posted with any additional information that may help others following in that path. What we don't know is how many customers are not aware of SGL let alone this thread and have continued to place orders whilst this mess is going on without knowing about it. It does bring into question the character of the person who has basically lied and broken the promise's they made to close the website and try to resolve this mess. I'm sure most of the people on here that are owed money or an observatory would be understanding if the owner has had personal issues in life to deal with which has resulted in delays etc was up front and in regular communication. It's a real shame this thread exists as HOUK fulfilled a gap in the market place at the time it originated, and gained a good reputation for both products and service. I know that there are guidelines on what can be posted on SGL regarding members viewpoints on suppliers or individuals, especially when things are negative rather than positive, but there has to be some leeway when it comes to the facts that individuals have experienced and the comments that follow from others keen to help. If it prevents just one more person who is considering ordering from HOUK from losing £1000's then the thread deserves to be kept open.

Basically you can't have your cake and eat it, for want of a better phrase. If you want to a scope that is easily portable so you can drive out to a dark site and just do some basic astronomy without any concerns of power, computers and such then look at getting a 150p (or PDS) / EQ5 combination. You could consider an 200PDS / EQ5 combo, but as mentioned the 200P can be subject to breezy conditions. But that would not be the ideal combination for imaging. It will work, and there is a long running thread on imaging on an EQ3 mount, but IMO gives you one more hoop to jump through. You could always buy motor drives, either basic or synscan goto for an EQ5 at a later date, but you won't get the additional precision that the HEQ5 or EQ6 provides. But then as mentioned these mounts by design lack manual use option of the RA/DEC axis as they have the goto system installed as an integral part of the design. You can still do visual observing with a PDS, but I think you are at that fork in the road and need to decide which path you want to go down. An HEQ5 that at minimum will need a decent 12v power pack or car battery for the times you just want to look through the scope, but can then readily accept the additional load of guide scopes and cameras, and be controlled from your laptop / pi / dedicated astro PC etc if / when you chose to do imaging. Or an EQ5 that has the means to manually do the fine tuning, but can have a driven option fitted at a later stage, but lacks the accuracy and load carrying ability of an HEQ5 It has to be your choice... choose your own destiny ( I don't know why but I could hear Darth Vader saying that last bit !)