Trippelforge

Ya I took the housing to the worm gear off which also exposed the main axis gear. I cleaned the grease off of the worm gear, and most of the gunk on the main gear. Then lightly applied new grease, put it all back together and started tweaking it. I got it to where it felt smooth and fairly easy to turn (via set screw adjustment), then tightened everything back down snug. Considering I did this in 20 minutes total, I am obviously missing something. How did you test it while making the fine adjustments? I am going to assume just twisting the knob isn't accurate enough. Since I am going to obviously have to revisit this, any guidance on what I am looking for as an end result? The backlash on the RA axis is weird. For instance I can turn the worm gear and advance the mount. When I stop I can rotate the axis slightly with my hands. I can rinse and repeat that process forever, however I "think" it gets harder to move when I fully crank down on the clutch lever. Each time I do it though it bottoms out on something, such as I can't just freely spin the axis around. We are talking like 8mm in movement. There is also "lag" during movement of the worm gear when I change direction, perhaps that is the backlash and the other is something loose?

Maybe I am confused on what the main gear is. It was the one that the worm gear rides on. I only mention it because I don't understand what "all the way up" means. As the only thing I could see were the teeth, so I lightly applied grease all the way around them. I did notice when I first opened it that there were globs of factory grease randomly. I tried to clean all that off though. Would that simply be done with raising the worm housing a bit using the set screw? I did do that a bit until it seemed to turn OK. But I am not sure how tight it still is, or well how loose it can be. I do notice when I turn the axis there is lag between each direction before it starts moving. Is that what is considered backlash in this case?

I have a lightly used (purchased new) CG-4. I lost tracking capability after the temperature went from 3'c to -7c which seeming caused the worm gear to tighten up. I ended up taking it out and cleaning it, plus re-lubed prior to re-assembly. I also cleaned the internal main gear and lubed that as well. I then tweaked it until it moved freely but yet lacked any play. But now I cannot track... max amount of exposure time I can get is 15 seconds, prior I was getting 1 1/2 minutes. I tried two motor systems (old Celestron / new go-to), as well as a perfect polar scope alignment. Nothing helped. Any idea on why this situation completely shut down tracking capability? Is there something I am missing in regards to re-installing the worm gear? It's been really frustrating, and yes I know the CG-4 is far from an optimal mount for AP. But up until now it worked great and still is in pretty new condition. Thanks for any tips / help!

OK so basically you setup your mount and polar align and your good to go. That makes sense to me now. And the park option is just simply called "hibernate". Ya I messed with it indoors a bit, then ran into the issue where I could no longer get it to connect to the settings software. It was fine on day one, but luckily Alex cleared it up and told me that Wifi cannot be turned on during that process. I haven't tried it since but it was a relief that it was so simple. I don't know however if anything should be changed, or what is safe to change anyhow. lol I got clear skies tonight, but 20'F temps... stupid worm gear got tight the last time, so I am crossing my fingers. Thanks for the help!

Interesting, that sounds very plausible. I have been having some issues with it's movement, and keep tweaking it trying to lighten up the torque it's exerting on the motor. I wonder if there is some slop in it if I could use some very thin plastic washers, or something to eliminate it. Thanks for the help, I didn't give that any thought.

Is there a way to adjust that? I planned on taking it all apart tonight, cleaning and re-greasing it.

Will do, thank you! I ordered a proper kit today as well!

So currently I am running into a new issue with my mount that I have not noticed before. When I move the RA axis with the worm gear it advances smoothly. But each time I stop I am able to grab the mount and twist it forward about 6mm. If I heavily tighten the two upper worm housing bolts it seems to make it tougher to move, but it still does. I need to probably take a video as it's hard to explain, but I was hoping maybe someone would understand what I dealing with. And if so know what component causes it to do this so I can attempt to fix it, even if it means a rebuild. Thanks for any help!

So I got all of my AP equipment setup and started shooting with my new (second hand mod) DSLR. To my surprise the sensor had a lot of particles on it, it was getting late and I really wanted to get some imaging time in. So I took the camera inside and blew it off (manually), took some test shots and it was still there. So I got some isopropyl alcohol and a few swabs, and very carefully cleaned the sensor. It got rid of all of the spots but it took a few tries. Only afterwards did I learn you were NOT suppose to use it as it can leave impurities behind, which are very hard if not impossible to remove. So I wanted to know if there is anything to worry about, or if there is actually something I can can do in order to clear it up? Visually the sensor looks clean, but I ended up not being able to get back to imaging because I ran into mount issues (ugh). Thanks!

So does the app have a "park" option, and does it just move it back to where you aligned it to begin with? I haven't had a chance to dive back into it as it's been cloudy again.

I got everything setup last night and messed around with it a bit. I am a bit confused on a few things and there obviously aren't many places to ask for help. So hopefully you guys don't mind answering a few questions that I have, which are probably very basic. At the moment I have everything setup and so far and only have messed with the settings application in Windows. And I also connected via Wifi to SyncScan Pro. The program looks pretty simple and does pretty much everything you need to use in regards to go-to capability. In regards to that why would anyone need SkySafari Pro? Is it just due to a pretty interface? SyncScan shows a few alignment methods (one star, two star etc). I am going to assume I need to polar align the mount as usual, then run one of them so the system knows where it's at. Once it knows, I can use the program to fully control tracking? That brings me to the question of what do people mean by having to park things after each session? I know what the term means, but considering you have to Polar align, then star align why would it ever need to go "home"? Alright so I opened the settings program in windows (as mentioned) and while looking at the manual noticed none of the settings matched up. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to tweak anything or not. The manual slew speed is non-existent right now. But I don't see when using go-to why it matters. Overall though did you guys find a few of settings making a positive difference when changing them? Lastly is this system supposed to be doing anything else outside of SyncScan as far as functionality? For instance AP software integration etc? I really appreciate the help, over all the system was pretty easy to setup. My motors do make noise, it's a higher pitched whine that "surges" rhythmically. If I hadn't known about it being normal I would've freaked out.

Thanks for letting me know!

I don't expect much from a budget USB powered dew heater. But it does have three heat settings on a little inline controller. I don't know HOW warm it's supposed to be to become effective though. I am going to imagine it's not going to have the same heating capability as a standard powered one. If anyone knows I can use my gun to measure it when it comes in.

Thanks for the great explanation! I feel like I now understand the entire process, the windshield example really cleared up the process. I am glad I asked for sure. So I assume this pocket of warmer air only can stick around so long and a dew heater is a must for longer sessions. My son and I have our scope out right now for about three hours or so. I setup prior to dusk, so the temperature swing sometimes is a lot. I am going to order one now regardless. Thanks, ya the ones I see that are cheaper and use USB just have a simple controller for low-med-high. I guess for 20 bucks I can try one out and return if it sucks. How warm are they supposed to be? I was just curious so I know if it's actually working well enough.

I see one with decent reviews (if you can trust them) for only 20, but it's powered via USB. Do you think a USB port would be able to output enough power to heat one up enough? I just noticed the Svbony doesn't come with a power supply, so it's prob more like 36 bucks.

Ya I do have a refractor, thanks that clears it up. I see some "budget" minded ones on Amazon. SVBony has one for like 26 bucks, are those OK? I only ask because I also have seen them for over 100. The only other powered thing connected is a DSLR, but I am going to guess they heat themselves up enough to protect from dew? I am going to assume motors, control units etc also keep themselves slightly warm. Thanks 😃

I have always been confused on how exactly a dew shield wards off dew from forming on the optics. My current scope has a retractable one, and when I was shooting last dew ending up forming on everything. The chairs, table, outside of the tube etc. But I didn't notice my images getting screwed up. So I got to ask, how does a sliding tube help? Secondly I don't own a dew heater, but the amount that accumulated was a bit alarming (it's usually really dry this time of year). So that made me wonder if I should be using a heater regardless. And I might as well toss this in, since I have a dew shield where do you wrap the band? Around the dew tube itself, or on the scope where meets? Thanks guys!

Welcome fellow North American!

So I guess technically no. I wasn't sure if you just needed to make sure the mount was due north, and generally aligned overall. And the system would correct any small errors. That would be pretty neat, but I guess that's kind of the point of running a guide camera. Anyhow thanks for the help, I am excited to get started.

Can it compensate for a slight misalignment? I just assumed I needed to be dead on in order for any tracking to work, and obviously I don't have a guide camera. I only ask due to manually PA being a huge pain. lol

Thanks Ian, I don't own an air, but I assume towards the end it might talk about connection that mirrors what we have to do? Ya I am not against Safari, I just am familiar with Stellarium. I will buy the PRO version and put it on my laptop. Side question; does it matter what AP software you use when setting everything up? I didn't know if you used Sky to slew, then opened something like NINA and ran that on it's own without integration. EDIT: OK just noticed Sky Safari is only mobile. Obviously you guys are not having issues connecting to it, but I did notice it had to be in WiFi mode. So how are you guys connecting when not near a router?

I finally got my new drive system in and setting it up over the next few days, (old one didn't connect to PC) and I use NINA for image acquisition. I was curious if people had these programs somehow "integrate" into their AP software. Or if they simply used them to slew to a target separately? EDIT: I just noticed Skysafari is only an app... so that kind of answers my question in regards to AP software integration I guess.

Do you happen to have a link to a good one to check out? I am going to start setting it up either tonight or tomorrow and currently going through the installation .pdf. It seems easy enough but I really want to make sure I do everything perfectly, especially the software steps. For instance it mentioned in the guide to install some virtual com-port software. It lists the exact executable name, yet the software package doesn't contain it. /shrug Side question for anyone that uses it, I see it mentions Sky Safari Pro on the product page. Does this system also work with Stellarium?

Thanks, I had no idea they made specific sizes. Ya I was always really careful with my previous camera, wouldn't even move the adapter without it flipped upside down incase something chipped. I guess the previous owner of my new camera wasn't so anal about it. It did luckily have the cap on it when it arrived. But I have one darker spot and a few small more transparent looking ones. I am really hoping it's just dust. The really dark one is way up top left so cropping it out isn't a biggie at least. It was modified, but only a Ha, I assume the sensor cleaner still works? I am a bit anxious.

I just got an update that says mine has just arrived at my local distribution center! It took about 48 days in total to make it to the US. 😬 Now I gotta install it and learn the process, but excited to do that with my son.