tooth_dr

Cheers Tony. It was under £100 total for repair and shipping both ways. I’m hoping get a free half day to swap over scopes and mount my new Vixen VC200L scope for some galaxy imaging.

Limited testing but it appears 100% operational - can slew, platesolve and autoguide as before. 👍🏼

Cheers Peter, Bryan For anyone still interested at this point! The item had been missing in the Republic of Ireland since 29th Feb. I made several calls to Irish post service at the start of this week and finally got an escalation to the 'international team'. Miraculously the parcel has now been found and has been sent to the UK. In fact my wife has text me to say that it is sitting at my house now. When it arrived into the UK from the USA on 15th Feb, it was for some unknown reason shipped to the Republic of Ireland. There should not have happened as the UK/Northern Ireland was the final destination, and it should have just been on a overnight boat to NI. The post office in the Republic of Ireland gave me three different answers to where it was over the past couple of weeks via online chats, until this week I got chatting on the phone and finally made the progress needed after giving off. I'm usually very happy with Royal Mail but in this case they messed up @whipdry it has come via Parcel Force, and no extra charges. I'm UK not Ireland. It should never have went near An Post in the Republic of Ireland, as that is a different country with a different currency and a different post service (a shockingly bad postal service at that). Lets hope the Sitech Controller is fixed 😂

OMG it gets worse! Sitech have chased it up and have been informed it’s now being sent back to them in America - it was classed as ‘undeliverable’ by Ireland post but no reason for why has been given. I’ve been given a copy of the address on the label and it’s complete and accurate and 100% right. I’m being ask to pay again for it to be redelivered… that doesn’t seem very fair.

Still sitting in Dublin customs, irish post office claiming large volume of post causing the delay. Thing is theyve been using this excuse for 3 years now, maybe time to get some more staff.

Those are pretty shiny indeed! Good idea to cover. Wee black round stickers would be handy.

Aw well, still stuck in Dublin now for ten days, so almost three weeks since it was posted. Good old irish postal service, this is third time I've had probems with them, including one time they 'lost' my APM scope, then it turned up 30 days later after i hounded them every day.

My Sitech controller is almost back from its trip to the states. Taj done a brilliant job repairing and testing and keeping me up to date.

Very very nice Goran, and nicely processed.

I like them both Alan, possibly somewhere in the middle would be ideal for me.

Very nice olly howing the spacial relationship of some common objects! @Adreneline Adrian, that is a nice mosaic of three frames. I had literally no idea that the Rosette was 'next door' to the Cone and Xmas tree. I started a two panel mosaic on the Xmas tree, dont think I have what it takes to extend to the right though as much as I want to lol

Sitech have been in touch and have been very helpful. I've the controller packaged up and ready to ship to the united states tomorrow, and they are going to take a look at it and see if it can be repaired 👌 The level of support from Lucas and now Taj at Sitech is nothing short of fantastic, and so a well deserved thank you from me.

Ah yea I read that wrong 😳

It was always in my KAF8300 images (I had three of those cameras) and I had an Atik 16200 as well, artefacts of the sensor, but quite pleasing imo to look at 👍🏼

The 16200 might be the reason for the spikes, if it shares the same architecture as the 8300.

I can’t see Davids equipment list, but these small neat little spikes are reminiscent of what I got with the microlenses on the Kodak KAF8300 sensor.

Misread that Dan, thought you had the same controller as me (well actually thought I had a Sitech II if I'm honest, but I was doing a quick reply whilst at work and didnt engage my brain).

Smart thing to do is leave it alone! Resist any temption to modify or dismantle until you've given it a good tesing over a few weeks/months, and decide then if it's necessary to do anything. I seem to remember a thread on a EQ6 that you 'modified' that didnt go particularly well?

Yes the Sitech II box is over double the price! Hopefully hear from Sitech today, Lucas is getting in touch for me. Lucas has been incredibly helpful and quick to reply to my questions and offer advice.

New cable made up, as suspected no difference. This must confirm fault with controller now.

Hi Tony, I'm currently trying to find a local mount to test.

Sorry to go on here… I’ve tested the mount again this evening and found that the fault is reproduced using both the hand controller and the pc software (hand controller removed). The fault also changes axis when I swap the power and encoder wiring for each motor, and occurs no matter if I use the hand controller or the pc software. I’m 100% now sure the motors and the encoders are not faulty. I’m also running the latest version of Sitech 95Z software. Ive checked the power jacks and the RJ45 terminals themselves on the board for continuity, and the soldering is 100%. I’ve ran a continuity test from the RJ11 end of the cable - that goes into the connector box (on both axes) - back to pins on the board below the plug and there are no breakages or bad contacts. I have to be fairly certain that the wiring is not at fault here. This only leaves the controller itself? Or am I’m overlooking something? Sitech support hasn’t replied, but only emailed them last night. Lucas has sent a few emails today already.

Thanks Tony. It’s been suggested that I make a new cable so I’ll try that later.

I've contacted Sitech, waiting to hear back. Lucas is being very helpful and is giving me a few more things to check over today. The Sitech controller I is now a whopping $500 + delivery + import so cant really afford to take a chance on ordering one unless 100% sure.