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When you were tracking Andromeda for that hour how far out was the tracking visually. Did it drift completely out of the field of view of the camera or wide field eyepiece ? I use EQMOD so can't really comment on the handset, but if it's really fast could it be that the tracking rate is set to luna if it's faster than sidereal ? I've never tried centering a star in the field of view and then let it track without guiding to see how well it performs on a PA mount, but given the mass production, and pricing point, I wouldn't have thought that the mount wouldn't drift over an hour even if the mount was belt driven to remove some of the backlash. Rather than use a large target such as Andromeda, re-do the experiment using a bright star such as Rigel or Betelgeuse. Center it, set it tracking in sidereal rate and set the stopwatch running. It should be a simple matter of establishing the field of view the camera or eyepiece has, and then time it to see how long it takes for the star to drift out of the field of view. This might help establish if there is a real issue, or if it's just the tolerances of the mount in question.

No they are not a direct swap out. The hardware is the same, but the firmware will be different as the gearing of the mounts are different. The EQ3 has a gear ratio of 715:1 with 35200 microsteps per worm revolution, whilst the EQ5 has a ratio of 705:1 and 31288 microsteps.... However the firmware can be flashed using the application and firmware from SkyWatchers website, using an EQDIR cable or the handset and a PC-Direct cable. http://skywatcher.com/download/software/ It's a straightforward process to flash the firmware. Naturally if you purchased an EQ5 unit, flashed it with the EQ3 firmware and you bricked it you would technically have voided the warranty....

Just call or drop FLO a mail - I'm sure they will advise you what connects to where. Or RTFM https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/manuals-guides

Glad to hear the USB connectivity has been restored. If you are controlling the camera from a PC then it doesn't matter if the screen is dead as long as the camera still functions and you can take images. I was lucky when I modded my 400D, but I have been around electronics since leaving school in '78 so it wasn't so much of a daunting job at the time.

By moving the sliders for RGB on the completed stack I copied the single image 5 times, stacked, and then move dthe RGB peaks so that they gave the contrast and corrected the image - Naturally with darks, bias and light frames the image will be better - No need to use imaging processing - DSS has the ability to correct and stretch the data

Hi Steve and welcome, not only to the forum, but to the observatory owners club I echo the comments about running the marathon... It's all too easy to spend money on stuff you don't need, or get all the gear and then find it becomes complicated to co-ordinate the equipment and you spend more time sorting out technical issues rather than imagine. To start with use your existing equipment. It will allow you to get to grips with the basics such as mount control and the software behind it. Before splashing out on a nice CCD camera and filter wheel, pick up a cheap canon 450D or above with live view. Purchase the 9 x 50 finderscope / guide camera packages that FLO or RVO offer for under £200 so you can become familiar with the guiding process. The 150P on the EQ5 inside the dome should get you started for DSO's. For solar system images you need magnification and large aperture, so the 150 would be pushed to work as a planetary scope. You will get images of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, but adding barlow lenses to increase magnification reduces brightness and resolution, however upgrading the scope and the mount at a later stage can always be treated as a second phase of the project. For controlling the mount you will need some form of computer. For simplicity a lot of us with observatories use an old windows based PC. It doesn't have to be the fastest machine as most software is fine on hardware that is circa 10 years old ! Other systems such as a Raspberry Pi running Linux and INDI are a possibility, it all depends on what you are comfortable with. On Windows, most of us used EQMOD as the "driver" and the ASCOM platform as the common interface between applications. A £30 EQDIR cable is used to connect between the PC and the mount. The PC also runs applications such as APT or BackyardEOS to control the DSLR camera, and if you have the dome automated, the software to control that too. Then its a simple matter of remote desktopping into that PC from the one in the lounge so you can do all your imaging from the comfort of the house. Once you have mastered the basic setup, then you can look at upgrading the mount, the scope, and replacing the dSLR with a dedicated astro camera as your ability and experience grows. A good friend of mine (and an SGL member) started off using his EQ6 and a basic scope which if memory serves me correctly was a 200P or an ED80... He now has a 200mm Ritchey-Chretien sitting on an EQ8 and a QSI 638 camera, and prior to that had a SW 10" quattro, which gave him no end of issues...The amount of data he puts in, often with 100's of single images to stack and grade has resulted in several images being featured in Astronomy Now and other mainstream publications. The point is that he didn't do that overnight and straight off the bat.. it too time and it evolved as his experience grew and his budget allowed (hard to accept that his camera cost more than my car did !) If you have yet to control your EQ5, then order an EQDIR cable form FLO, download ASCOM, EQMOD and an astronomy planetarium program such as Cartes du Ciel and then have a play. There is something quite magical experiencing the action of moving a scope at the click of a button

I use the stock SW 9 x 50 finder with an adaptor to suit my old guilde camera to guide my 200P / HEQ5 - works just fine using a PC running PHD2 and EQMOD - no need for expensive interface boxes

If you connect the handset and you don't get any error messages such as "failed both axis" or similar, and you can run through the setup and manually, set the slew rate to 9 and slew the scope then this would suggest that the motorboard in the mount is fine and the issue is with the AsiAir devices. Now I've not had any experience with these devices, so not best placed to advise, but reading the manual it seem that the device is power and USB hub with wi-fi connectivity. Connectivity between the mount and the device suggests an EQDIR cable for mounts that do not have USB control such as the NEQ6. You could therefore check that cable directly by plugging the EQDIR cable into a PC and directly into the mount. However you would need to install the driver for the USB/RS232 chipset the EQDIR cable is based on. Once the driver is installed the com port should show up in device manager and running EQMOD Toolbox on the PC to configure the port used will hopefully connect to the mount. If after installing the driver the EQDIR cable is not detected then it may have been damaged in some way and a new EQDIR cable will resolve this issue.

what are the EQMOD pulse guiding settings like. If you expand the EQMOD window using the spanner, 3rd column along is a panel that has ASCOM pulse Guide Settings. I think by default these set themselves to x0.10. Ensure they are checked and increase the sliders to x0.90 for both. If that becomes too aggressive then back them off an increment at a time.

There is a way to view the PHD2 logs which should show corrections being made and what pulses are being sent to the mount. https://adgsoftware.com/phd2utils/ I'm no expert, but if you can select a target via an planetarium application such as CdC and the mount slews to that position then the EQDIR cable and the mount is working fine. All guiding function would be PHD2. It doesn't know about stars etc, all it does is look at the incoming picture from the camera and compare the brightness of adjacent pixels around the target bright pixel's initial point. If the adjacent pixel are brighter then it sends a guide pulse or pulses to counteract that movement based on its calibration. Now if it sees a large movement due to noise, or some other factor then it will mistake that for a sudden jump and all goes haywire - same as when the clouds roll pass the guide star and the tracking is lost. If you can, do you have the means to set up a guide scope rather than use the OAG. It would simply be a way to rule out the OAG as the factor. I've not used one so don't know if the signal to noise ratio for a given star is affected by the mirror is some way (straw clutching). The only other possibility is that PHD2 has lost communication with the mount. This could be software related, in that ASCOM has failed and dropped the PHD2 or EQMOD so that neither can share the communications. Or it might be USB related (power savings on the laptop turning off USB after a set amount of time? - again straw clutching)

There are no physical encoders in the HEQ5 so the positioning is all mathematical in code. Either delete the previous EQMOD configuration settings using the EQASCOM Toolbox, or (presuming the location settings are correct) simply release the clutches on both axis, set EQMOD to the correct coordinates for the default home position (either manually using the NSEW buttons - or the default park to home button) and then position the mount in the weight down default home position and lock off the clutches.

Steve, I'm beginning to question being a member of this forum. Seems these days I seem to unintentionally end up sticking my foot in it and upset people. My comment was based on what Terrac posted. Naturally there are two sides to any story, and that is why I included the IF statement in my post. By that it could have been a case that the last one of these mounts had been sold that morning, and now you were awaiting new stock which naturally will be at the new price. IF on the other hand the item was in stock, and had been purchased from OVL at the pre-increase price then it would seem as I suggested, which given FLO's reputation would be most out of character, and hence why I suggested Terrac made contact with you. None of us know what's transpired before... I don't monitor your prices on a daily basis just so I can correct what appears to be a false statement by Terrac. It's a public forum, where people make opinions and posts replies based on what's been posted by others. His post didn't seem like they were having a pop at UK retailers pushing up the prices, it seems as if he was looking for the sort of response I gave him, by that it would seem a different supplier is advertising the same product at a lower price and claim to have stock. You have accused them of joining SGL just to slagg FLO off... and have called them out over the pricing claims... which I can understand if that is indeed the case (as I said, I don't monitor your prices so can't really comment on that). As for all those excellent companies you list... again, I have no information on what influenced them to close and stop trading. There are no doubt old stories floating around where they may have served in injustice and made money off the back of one or two customers, but again, that's hearsay and is now water a long way under a bridge, but if true that poor reputation could have been the deciding factor.... Anyway... time for me to just lurke and browse the forum, rather than try and contribute or voice an opinion

Their website is showing stock. - Naturally I've not telephoned them as it's nothing to do with me.

I would contact FLO in that case. The price increase should only affect new stock arriving. If this is stock that FLO have in their showroom / warehouse form their last order then IMO that's just a rip off as they (along with other retailers) are profiteering form the new pricing announcement.

Seems everyone has applied the same increases - RVO have it listed for the same amount. However Harrisons are showing it as in stock and at £299 for the mount and tripod Here

Excellent clear picture and that 8-pin package does indeed look fried. I've no idea what it is, but given the type of package then unless you have a hot air solder station you are going to struggle trying to repair that chip. You might just have to purchase a new hand controller

Post a clear picture of the board and someone might be able to help. We also need to know the handset version as the PCBs are different

Well it looks to be a no go.... Having checked out the J-Link programmer and the QFN64 adaptor board to accept the processor for programming, the cost would be over £120 by the time you add in the cost of the chip. Regretfully I wouldn't be programming enough of these devices to warrant that investment

Damm.... I found an image on a cloudynights forum about changing the RTC battery and could make out it's a MK20DX256 - which is an ARM Cortex processor, which my PICKit2 doesn't support

Firmware file has been converted Just need to ID the chip (zooming in on the image above its just a blurr) and see if my PIC programmer supports the device, and then find a way of programming it !

OK I had to download the Celestron utility which then downloaded all the firmware packages to the installation folder... but there are two files CGXL_BOOT_3.1.9120.cfm and CGXL_APP_7.17.0031.cfm Now I'm wondering if the BOOT file is the bootloader, which if it is then that could be burnt to the micro and then the updater application used to squirt the firmware to the PIC (SW code is one file with the bootloader included in that one single file). I'll see if the binary can be converted, but then we would need to know the micro used before removing any config bits etc

Can't say I have experience with Celestron mounts, but have repaired around half a dozen Skywatcher mainboard for fellow SGL members by reprogramming the PIC micros with the SW firmware, and that was easy compared to this board as SW used 16F chips. The firmware files that SW use need converting to hex and some additional work done on the configuration bits. Not tried looking for the binary firmware file for this mount, but if its available then the same process should work to convert the file to HEX. Removing and replacing the chip is the easy part, as you say, just cut the legs as they enter the package and then desolder the legs from the board. However for me programming the replacement would be an issue as I don't have a board / adapter that accepts that package. I agree, if a micro gets hot it tends to be toast. If nothing has been plugged into the board incorrectly (as in the case of the previous SW board repairs) then it would suggest a failure in another component which lead to the micro failure, and I agree with the above post that voltage regulation, or possibly failed inductor may have caused an overvoltage. @seanpius2020 can you post up a close up of the processor, or post up the identity / part number and maybe we can see if this board can be repaired

But look at all the companies that used to make scopes, that are no longer around dues to inroads Chinese mass production had. All of the components would need to be made in the UK, otherwise it somewhat defeats the object as you would then have to inflate the RRP if half the parts cost you 30% more due to the issues described here. Back in the 80s you had manufacturers such as Superscopes in Bedford, Fullerscopes in London, and Astrosystems in Luton to name a few. Most used Optics made by David Hinds. But these were more or less made to order or in small batch runs, so you couldn't really visit and walk out with one like you can these days (well pre-covid !). They also lacked the refinement of the Vixens and Celestrons that were starting to become popular, at least not for the regular models, like the 6" from Astrosystems. I think that it would take considerable investment to set up a telescope manufacturing plant in the UK that didn't source the raw materials from overseas, and that could provide the output to meet current demand

If you look at the two boards, the e-bay listing is not the same as the one in the OP. - The part number on the suspected faulty board refers to a CGX-L range - the listing is for a CGE Pro series. I would check with the importers as to the availability and price of a replacement board before parting with £120 to a vendor on e-bay for a board that will most probably be totally incompatible, even if the connector blocks fit !

Stu... you need to go to specsavers --- that was Marvin... not me........ 😉🙂