tooth_dr

19 hours ago, AKB said:

Oh, excellent news!  I’m hoping this set you back a lot less than buying a whole new controller, because it was a mammoth effort.

Anyway, you’re there now.  All you need is some good weather…

Tony

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.

22 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

I have carefully inspected the entire optical train with a really bright torch looking for anything that is reflective.

The only thing I can see that is reflective are the screws that hold the camera together - see attached. (The inside of the scope is beautifully baffled and darker than a coal hole!)

Is it possible that light is passing through the filter hitting the screw heads and bouncing off the back of the filter into the camera causing the halos???

I am toying with the idea of making a mask to cover the screw heads from stiff black card and sandwiching it between the filter wheel and the camera.

 

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.

1 hour ago, symmetal said:

Just for you Adam, how's this 😊

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.

3 minutes ago, tomato said:

As it was a Sitech II it might be the array of screw in terminal blocks that connect all of the encoders/motors wires to the unit, however I've just re-read the post and the OP does say  in the sitech II controller.

I checked the terminals for tightness when I took delivery of  my mount 10 years  ago, I haven't touched them since.🤞

Ah yea I read that wrong 😳

4 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Hmmm, I have had a few Atik CCD in my time and never seen that, I think @ollypenrice used to use an Atik 16200 too, just never noticed the spikes before, especially with a frac…but then maybe you re correct…👍🏻

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 👍🏼

1 minute ago, Stuart1971 said:

Peter…?

It was Skipper Billy’s image, and he has the Tak 106 with Atik 16200 CCD camera..

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

3 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

…you have full blown spikes..

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.

10 hours ago, dan_adi said:

Had a similar problem way back. After unparking the mount started skewing on its own with no input from me or other software. The motors went to blinky.

The problem was a loose wire in the sitech II controller. 

Never liked the idea of the wires being exposed to the elements but what can you do ...

Most likely it's a controller problem

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).

47 minutes ago, Chrb1985 said:

Whats smart, and whats not

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?

1 hour ago, gorann said:

I am following this thriller. Hopefully it is "just" to replace the Sitech box. It is a bit expensive but it would be even worse if you had a Mesu 200 Mk I like I have with the Sitech II. It costs 1100 USD in the US. Fortunately I have had no problems with mine so far.

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.

On 11/01/2024 at 10:48, AKB said:

Your experience echoes mine, although the actual fault is slightly different.  I had all the same doubts about being sure what was wrong.  This is why I prevaricated for so long.  Although it's an expensive controller replacement (and VAT and handling added about £100 to that) it is only a fraction of the overall cost of the mount.  I diluted the pain, in a strange way, by buying an expensive telescope to go with it...!

The acid test, of course, would be to borrow a controller from someone nearby.  If I was closer, I'd happily do the honours – someone else here offered to do the same for me.  In the end, after SiTech's diagnosis, I just went for it without trying a replacement.  Received wisdom is that the controllers rarely fail, so much so that Lucas has actually glued them on the underside of the mount in some incarnations.

It's a bit like buses... nothing happens for ages then two come along at once.

Tony.

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. 

36 minutes ago, AKB said:

Here's mine... and I see that Equaltorial is not checked for me either.

 

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.