newbie alert

15 minutes ago, Trippelforge said:

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?

If you fully crank on the clutch lever you push the ring gear sideways causing binding on parts of the axis travel

1 hour ago, Trippelforge said:

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'm not that familiar with the CG-4 but I'm guessing it's the predecessor to the Avx... As they're all made by synta they all work on the same principle... The motor turns a gear on its shaft that is linked into a gear that's on the end of the worm shaft, the middle of the worm shaft is linked into the main gear( ring gear) which drives the mounts axis

You have two areas of meshing...

1. The cog on the motor to the worm on the worm shaft

2.  The worm mesh setting which sound like the one you done, which as you know needs very little adjustment from having quite abit of slack to fully locking up.. Did you test after tightening the bolts on the worm housing?

Another thing to look at is the locking nut on the bottom of the shaft where the bearing is, only needs to be tight enough not to have lateral play, don't over tighten as that can sandwich the axis up

Hope this helps

You may need to compromise abit of backlash on your gear mesh, having them too tight can lock the axis up...just one of the many things to stop it from performing 

Are you sure you have your spacing correct, stars pointing to the center indicate that you need more

17 hours ago, Shimrod said:

I'm using it on an AVX - it doesn't take too much to cause a bit of vibration which can be a hassle when trying to fine focus. 

As for problems, you implied that there were some common issues with the focuser - I can see that people occasionally have issues with them, but no more or less than you can find for any other. 

 

I've used a Avx, can't say that I remember having any problems focusing with a eyepiece, planetary cam, CCD or a DSLR.. 

Common issues, or do you mean design faults?

It most definitely microlensing effect from the 1600

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

Because it’s the Nexstar SE single fork mount and shakes like a tumble dryer when manually focusing. I fitted the Skywatcher electric focuser on my 127 Maksutov and that was as smooth as butter focusing with no shake/vibration 

I'd save my money towards something that doesn't shake like a jelly on a plate 

25 minutes ago, Geoffw said:

My problem is I ordered from Wex who were, and still are quoting 3 to 7 days fulfilment..  but traded in a couple of lenses and accepted credit to purchase the focuser.  I am now stuck with them as I am having difficulty getting the credit back so I can go elsewhere.  

FLO have 19 in stock atm

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-accessories/zwo-electronic-automatic-focuser-eaf-5v.html

17 minutes ago, Shimrod said:

I use the Celestron focuser on my Edge 8" - it means I don't have to touch the OTA while focussing and reduces any wobble I would otherwise introduce. 

I haven't read of any particular issues with them though, so I would be interested to know what you have seen. There were reports on here of the ZWO focuser not going full range with some Celestron equipment(software?) but I that has been fixed.

So your using a  8 inch tube on a wobbly mount then

You can find theses issues if you look/ research on u tube/ Google... If you don't then you won't find them

Nice set of images

Why aren't you impressed

It would be better with more data, 20x3 mins of luminance is an hour, and I'd double the luminance to the rgb

I'd be doing 5 min subs instead of 3 for the RGB and I'd be doing 10 mins on the Ha 

With any camera a few hours of integration the data is far easier to work with than just 1

Load up a single sub or the stack output... Most of what I'm seeing is processing artifacts.. so eliminate those and see if there's any other issues 

53 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Do they fit on a Celestron 8” SCT? And the new EAF only works with USB 2 cables now (5V) which will entail needing a laptop outside. I just want one for visual.

You can buy different bracket to fit different focusers

I just want one for visual....

What do you need a autofocuser for visual, just use a bahtinov mask 

Does it need to be a Celestron? Feedback suggests that they have large numbers of the same problem.... I'd buy a zwo EAF personally 

Have it on full and I have it a little Infront of the cell as you want it heating the air rather than the cell itself... Never personally had an issue with my esprit 

Yes nice Stuart, must be pleased with that..

If you have another laptop then just use TeamViewer or anydesk and use it remotely through your WiFi 

1 hour ago, Wonderweb said:

Maybe its better to let phd2 deal with a bit of backlash than have it fight binding?? 

Before you adjust things it may well just be down to atmospheric conditions.. thin high cloud isn't always seen by the naked eye but it will have an effect of guiding, did you notice the FWHM or hfd of the guide star a higher figure than normal.. maybe worth another trial before you adjust.. only adjusting if you really need to

Did you set the worm whist inside, say for instance its 20 degrees and then using it at say -4 that could be enough depending on how finely you set it, did you check again after tightening the worm bolts, I'd also have it loaded as that's how it's going to be used

You could have binding issues from how tight the shafts locking nut is, many have experienced that from being factory set..

Have a look here and download

Looks like 6.6 is the latest version 

https://www.ascom-standards.org/Downloads/Index.htm

Looking at the specs with the flatener the 150 has a image circle of 44mm , with the reducer it shrinks this down to to 36mm and from the blurb it says up to APS-C sized sensors.. I'm not sure if it be ok without the reducer if a as the asi 2400 has a sensor diagonal of 43.3, I'm sure I read somewhere that it needs 2-3mm under tollerance...

2 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

As you can see from the pictures above these are included in the big download file and @teoria_del_big_bang has put both directories in the settings as the instructions indicate.

Or are you asking if they are needed? Not that I know the answer to that!

I use ASTAP and sometimes platesolve2.. when I installed platesolve2 I had to also install the UCAC3 file... Tweak the settings and I've never had an issue... Assume the platesolve3 to use the UCAC4 and direct it in the same manner 

2 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

Not how I imagined you looking to be fair 😀

Only on a good day

39 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Not sure this is the correct thread for this image….🤔

No there's a mount under there somewhere 

I wish!!