malc-c

Not sure how VAT and import duty work in this instance as duty and VAT would have been paid when the item was originally imported, with the final VAT being paid at the time of purchase. This may require a copy of the receipt to prove that VAT has already been paid and this is a repair and possibly exempt for any further taxes ?? Under UK consumer law it doesn't matter if the thing failed a month, or six months out of the years warranty. Its down to expectation that an item of said value should be expected to last a certain amount of time (unless dropped or abused by the owner). Your contract is with the retailer it was purchased from not the manufacture. So in this case I would be going back to the retailer, quoting your consumer rights and asking them to handle the repair. Granted if the camera is years old and has suffered the odd drop or two then that may well be chargeable, but the retailer still has the duty to repair the device for you.

I believe EQMOD takes the time from the PC. Most planetarium programs allow you to do a "what the sky looks like 10,000 years ago" but when used for positioning a scope it will be a real time event. If testing in the day, leave the covers on and use the sun as a target to see if the scope points to the right location, and then fine tune at night on a bright star.

I think you are supposed to calibrate on a star close to the intersection of the meridian and celestial equator as there is where the Earths rotation is most noticeable. Calibrating near the NCP is practically the opposite.

The plot thickens....... I sent Vin a PM asking if he had any use for the faulty handset as it would be fun to see what the problem may be and if I could attempt a fix. Vin was a great sport and sent me the handset which arrived today. The first thing I did was connect power to the handset to see if it powered up and report the "no response both axis" message, which it did , which was quite understandable as it wasn't hooked up to any mount. I removed the power lead, and the EQDIR lead form my HEQ5 and connected the handset to the mount via a standard 3m cat 5 cable. Plugging the power back into the mount the handset once more burst into life, and this time reported the firmware. I proceeded to play with the directional buttons handset.mp4 As you can see, the mount moved in all four directions (apologise for the wobbly footage, holding the camera in one hand and operating the handset with the other was tricky). So nothing for it but to let Vin know and make the arrangements to return the proven handset back to him. Not sure what the original issue was. Could be the cable that was originally recommended, but then the member who made that recommendation is well conversed in the hobby and so would presume the cable was indeed the correct one, but it still could have been faulty. Anyway, at least this has proved the handset is fully functional.

When I had an EQ5 I found it was quite reliable. If you remove the motors but still have them connected to the synscan unit so the motors can run freely, do they or do you still have issues. If they run freely then the issue is with the mechanical fitment or the mount is binding. The mount requires 12v at 2.5amps in order to run both motors when slewing. If the motors or mount was binding, causing more amperage to be drawn then this could take the voltage down to a point where the mount shuts down.

Most of the standard type of rechargeable batteries (AAA to D cells) normally have an output voltage of 1.2v and not 1.5. - So the 8 x AA rechargeable batteries will only give you 9.6v which is well below the optimum 12v required. Depending on the battery technology, the charge held may drop off suddenly, or the drop off is gradual. But once each cell has dropped by just 0.262 volts it will be below the 7.5v minimum operation voltage that is stated for an AZ-GTi

AFAIK there is no shut off system. The only cause will be a lack of voltage. Batteries have a tendency to recover for a short period once their output has dropped, and the cold won't help. My guess is that the output from the battery pack fell below the minimum that the mount requires under load, even when new batteries were installed. - Best advice would be to use a suitable mains powered adapter

I sent a package via Royal Mail international tracked and signed for delivery service (fortunately the item wasn't as valuable as the OP's camera - It was a pair of programmed chips to repair a SW motor board) to Saudi Arabia. It's not the fastest method, but if you want a quick service that's why DHL are so expensive. Anyway, it was handed over to the Saudi postal services to deliver the package, who basically first claimed it was "lost in the system" and then "delivered" but couldn't / wouldn't provide a signature. All the effort to track the parcel down had to be done at the destination end because once it had left the UK shores Royal Mail had no more information than I did which was the tracking website and couldn't help. The recipient couldn't claim for any compo as only the sender can claim as the postage originated in the UK and not Saudi. Royal mail refused as their "investigation" found that the parcel status had shown been delivered, and were basically accusing me and the recipient of a fraudulent claim (which was around £30 in value). We finally got the address of where the parcel was apparently delivered, which wasn't the one on the address label (it was next door to the commercial address on the package), and the person there claims never to of received it. It would seem that this sort of thing is common in Saudi according to the recipient. When presented with this information RM still refused as there was no signature recorded. If the parcel had been reported as lost then yes I could have claimed on the insurance after the required amount of days, but in this case I / we were out of luck. The only consolation in this was that whoever actually has the package they were going to be disappointed to find all it contained was two 16F886 Pic Microcontrollers which would be of no value to them whatsoever

Does sound like the mount has died. Is there any signs of movement on the connector where the power lead connects? - either way I would be contacting the retailer for advice on how to have it exchanged

A limited search didn't throw up a UK distributor, so it may be a case each of the retailers such as FLO or RVO purchase direct. It may be worth dropping FLO a PM / email to see if there is a UK disty, and possibly contact them to see if the camera can be returned through the distribution chain rather then privately. The £299 value would be risky on a product that will set you back over a grand to replace, but insuring it for the price of a new replacement could see the cost increase dramatically. DO NOT use royal mail. They have no control after the package leaves the UK. It's passed on to the postal service in the destination country, and if it gets lost you have no redress and have to contact the overseas postal service to try and recover or discover where the parcel is (speaking from personal experience). It will cost more, but using something like DHL or UPS gives you more "rights" should the parcel go astray as you will be dealing with a UK agent.

So what have you done with what appears to be a faulty handset?

I originally used the adapter for a modified Philips SPC800 some years back and it worked very well. Modern Astronomy currently have this listed for £24, and worth every penny. I now use one of the other adaptors for an old QHY5 camera attached to the finder, which again works well

Looking at the bright star in the top right I would say the collimation is way off. I was experiencing strange diffraction spikes with my 200P, which turned out to be an issue with the secondary having unmirrored edges on the minor axis. This was resolved when I installed the same size mirror fitted to the PDS version, so you shouldn't be getting the same problem as you already have a larger mirror in your PDS. When I was collimating the scope in order to set things up through out the year long post, twists in the secondary support veins, not having the secondary centred in the tube, and not having it collimated correctly to the focuser all gave odd shaped stars with strange diffraction spikes.

For the same money you can get the Skywatcher GOTO upgrade kit for the EQ3, which will have a new hand controller and thus not be reliant on PC software or a mobile phone for use. You could then sell your old handset to recoup some of the cost.

The mount doesn't run off mains supply. The power unit that plugs into the mains will rectify the 220-240v ac and drop the voltage so you get a DC supply that the mount can use. Two values that will determine if the supply is suitable are the voltage and current rating. It needs to be able to supply 12 to 14 volts under load, and the current rating needs to be 3Amps. If the power block you are using isn't able to supply 12v whilst delivering the current the motors will draw whilst both are slewing then the mount will not slew correctly.

Adding a belt drive to a mount that has a gear train with intermediate gears does improve backlash to a point as you are removing one or more areas where the it occurs. However I agree that there will be a lot of effort in sourcing suitable pulleys and machining them to fit, so the whole process may indeed not be worth the effort

@JDKay1 How are you powering the mount. In other threads with similarities they have resolved the issue by using a 13.8v regulated supply that can deliver upto 5amps

I gave up using NINA mainly as whilst the support for old Canon camera's with serial shutter releases is included it was never implemented and efforts to have it made available was met with, well let say "objection". I based my comment on information from another thread where I suggested connecting to EQMOD through NINA and was advised that was not required as NINA can control the mount directly. If that's not the case then I stand corrected. It doesn't help when the OP is not forthcoming with the details in his / her descriptions so a lot of assumptions have been made on the connectivity and software in used. My suggestion was just an alternative workflow to see if we get the same result. If after that the mount still points in a totally different part of the sky then it would suggest that the issue is hardware rather then software

If it were me I would try a different approach before buying more equipment. Assuming you have installed the ASCOM platform, download EQMOD and Cartes du Ciel. Un-install NINA for now. Enter the same data for your location in both EQMOD and Cartes du Ciel. (EQMOD install guide). Open up Cartes du Ciel and goto "telescope" select "telescope settings" and under "telescope" tab ensure its set to ASCOM, if not set it to ASCOM and apply. Then select "Telescope" once more and select "Connect Telescope" to launch the Ascom Telescope interface box - Under the ASCOM local tab click the "select" button and in the ASCOM telescope chooser window select "EQMOD HEQ5/6" and OK to close the ASCOM box. The Ascom interface box will still be visible. Click "connect" which will launch the EQMOD "driver" . You can then click the "hide" button to make the Ascom telescope interface window vanish. EQMOD will be displaying "Parked". It is expecting the mount to be in the default home position. (as described above). Click "Unpark". Now select a visible star in Cartes du Ciel and right click on it. on the pop up menu select "Telescope" and then "Slew: [target name]". The scope should then start to slew to that target. Keep the mouse pointer over the "stop" button of the EQMOD interface just in case the mount goes off in a tangent ! All being well the scope will end up pointing the right direction and very close to the target, or at least have the target in the field of view in a WA eyepiece. If you get this far then it would suggest that the issue is with NINA and how it is sending the commands to the mount (assuming you are using NINA's inbuilt driver). The next step would be to install NINA and rather than have it use the inbuilt driver, select EQMOD as the connection to the mount and see if the mount still slews to the correct location.

From my experiments with the HEQ5 over a decade ago (long before Rowan came out with their belt drive kit) I was told that you can ignore the interim gear and work out the ratio by using just the other two gears. So the worm is 37T and the motor is 27T so you could simply use that if pulleys of the same number of teeth are the same physical diameter as the gears. It would seem that the motors have a lot of torque if the motor gear is only 10 teeth less than the worm gear. One thing to consider is the clearance of the cover. I had to form a spacer in order to clear the machined pulleys as the gears are naturally a lot thinner. The problem you are going to be faced is locating commercial made pulleys with the same number of teeth in order to make the mount compatible with the handset. I opted to use EQMOD as the mount was in an observatory and could use standard ratios such as 4:1 by using a 60t on the worm and 15t on the motor and have EQMOD do the math..... This is where Rowan Engineering stepped in as they could machine pulleys to give the same stock ratios and thus allow the mount to use the handset.

To be honest, there seem to be a lot of posts where people have more connectivity issues with the wifi connectivity, both in built and dongles than those with EQDIR or handsets ! Updating the handset firmware is detailed under section 10 of the manual. The mount will have been supplied with the RJ12 to DB9 serial cable, and all you need (if the PC is modern and has no serial ports) is to use one of these to make the connection to the RJ12-DB9 serial cable and a free USB port StarTek usb to serial adapter

If the scope is moved by hand or by the handset, GSServer (or EQMOD) will have no idea where the scope is as both applications use the default home position as the starting point. I would agree with Steve, it sounds like an incorrect date and daylight saving error, given that 15 degrees is an hour of rotation. However, as mentioned, the software gets its time from the PC so check the settings in all applications to see if a check box is enabled that adds an daylight saving to what is already been added by the computer, so in effect the software applies +2 hrs to GMT.

We need a little more information as it's slightly confusing as it seems you are setting the scope up with the handset and then using a the laptop to control it? Reading between the lines it would seem you have both the Handset connected to the mount, and a PC connected via a USB A-B cable. If so remove the handset, it is not needed. GS Server is expecting the mount to be in the default park HOME position, pointing North, weights down, scope pointing towards Polaris. Most of the software will take the time form the PC's time, so that's one thing to check. The other is that all applications are using the same location and date values so long and latitude are the same in all programs. When you state that the scope is now where near the target, is it that it's more or less pointing in the correct area, or is it point in a totally different direction, ie West instead of East ? One possible cause is that you have the DEC axis 180 degrees out of phase. Try removing the scope, rotate the DEC axis 180 degrees so the two bolts that secure the dovetail are now on the opposite side to what they were and re-attach the scope. You can test in the daytime by leaving all the covers on the scope and place it in the same HOME position (approx) and then select the sun as a target and see if the scope ends up pointing more or less at the sun, or at least close to it rather than miles off

The HEQ5 tends to be very voltage sensitive and doesn't tolerate low voltages well. Running it form a 13.8v system works well.

In my experience the "no response both axis" message has been due to a fried motor board, but as the OP's HEQ5 mount functions fine when controlled from a PC using an EQDIR cable then this rules out an issue with the mount, and does seem to point to the handset as being fried. Appendix II (page 42) in the manual provides details on how you can run the self diagnosis communications test by linking the TX/RX lines as described. If the handset reports an error, then you could try flashing the handset with the new firmware and voltage patch using the SW serial cable (long grey cable with am RJ connector on one end and a 9 pin D type serial connector on the other). You will need a true RS232 to USB convertor to connect the cable to a computer without any serial ports. If (after setting the serial ports to the correct speed) the PC software fails to see the handset then that would indeed suggest the handsets UART has been fried.