Throwaway2229292

I'm in need of some help. I was told of this group by someone else in another group for the sake of ease I will just Ctrl C - Ctrl V. Everything you need to know is in there, it might just seem a little weird as it was addressed to somebody. OK. Going to be a long one. I'll try to remember everything. This is what I have in terms of hardware. EQ6-R Pro, ASI 120mm, 750mm 6", 125mm guidescope, laptop. RJ45 to USB (FTDI chipset) (Mount control), USB to USB guidecam cable. Software, NINA, SharpCap Pro, EQmod (Says HEQ5/6 I believe), PHD2. Last week I got focus on the stars with NINA and now have it with PHD2 as well, just had to find the focus point with the cam by sliding it. Last night I finally got around to actually trying the guiding by combining what I had learnt and managed to do with PHD2 with now telling the mount where to slew. I plugged the RJ45 into the mount and connected it into every USB port I had on the laptop for reasons I will explain soon. I plugged it into a port on the back leftside of my laptop as the main port was taken by the guide cam, the guide cam didn't work otherwise in the other two ports. I tried running EQascom but it just opens up and instantly shuts and keeps doing this until I forced closed it with Task Manager. Once I actually managed to get it to stay open, I don't know if it was luck or because I forced the app to shut with Task, it was a long night. In any case I was greeted with this "EQ Modded Mount Not Found at COM1: 9600. I found out that in Device Manager you can change the properties and did so, I changed it 8, 9 & 15 and did the same with EQ Toolbox but it wouldn't work. I was never able to get EQascom to open and stay open with closing instantly. I don't really know what I am doing because the people who were helping me aren't answering any more. I was told to get EQmod, I've had to try and find it myself and I think when I type in EQ EQascom2 comes up and I run that. These two screenshots should add some extra detail.

XT10G

This is what it looks like, it already has some space on it. I'd be very surprised if it needs more. From everything I've been learning and from people who've been giving me advice they've all said more space is actually worse because it makes focusing harder or impossible and worsens the image quality.

I currently have the Neximage 5 and in all honesty I'm having a hard time getting on with it. I bought it years ago and just never got around to using it because of life. I have a newtonian scope and I've spent countless hours trying to figure it out and more hours reading up on how to use it and how to combat the effects of a newtonian. I just cannot seem to get an image of Saturn or Jupiter in it. I move it around very carefully and nothing. I slot my eyepieces in and have zero trouble. I put my barlow in and no problems. I've tried the camera on its own and with a 2x barlow, nothing. I move it around very carefully in each direction, nothing. I slot my eyepiece in and see it fine. I've tried the method of sloting the eyepiece or barlow in and out and focusing for the length of the camera, nothing. I have the eyepiece slotted up to the length of the camera and have it more or less perfectly focused and then slot the camera in carefully and getting nothing but a black screen with red, blue and green dots. Honestly getting very fed up. On doing more research on Neximage 5 in multiple forums I don't get a good look on the camera. Seems a lot of people don't like it and recommend something else.

I honestly don't know what to do from here. Because £150 is a lot of money to me. However I can't afford to pay a thousand to several for a completely different mount. I don't want to pay £150 for it to instantly fry or a few months down the line something happens and then I end up with another dead board.

The handset works. A previous problem was the handset needed updating. Another was a RA/Azm, which was the power. I replaced my Orion power tank battery and that went away. I have a feeling I or the tank blew the board up. I still use the power tank as I fitted a new battery and everything works fine, the tank is a 12V. I use the cigarette port to power. I was speaking to someone else somewhere else on the Internet and he has the same telescope and mount as me and he told me the following, "The board was £100 (Name). I was told the chips on the board are proprietry so unless it's a cap or resistor they wont be able to fix it. I think the SkyWatcher kit is the same as Orions, made by Synta. Had you recently done a firmware update when it blew?" "I am still gettng the same error and I bought a new hand control!! If I connect the Hand control to the main board only I get the message unable to connect to Azm, if I then connect the second motor board Both axis fail so now it looks to be a replacement Azm motor board!!!" When I spoke to Orion they told me the both axis no response could be the handset or the board. I had someone from a local astronomy club come around and try his handset and he got the same. We took the cover off and saw what is in the picture. He since then contacted me to tell me that he had heard from someone about the following, "It occurs to me that it would be worth asking Orion WHY the chip had blown. I have heard of mounts where a motor jams and the circuit board then blows. It would be a waste of money to buy a new board for the same thing to happen to the new one because one of the motors is jammed or had shorted out."

I have an XT10G. I don't know when because I've been having problems with my mount with various different errors which I have gotten rid of but one. I have a Both Axes No Reponse. It turns out my board is gone, one of the components has exploded. The more I learn about the dob mount the more I get worried. I've been speaking to some people and a guy said he'd heard of mounts getting stuck which cause the board to fry. I believe mine was because of a power problem. The reason I am concerned is Orion want to charge me £150/$187 for a new board. However from what I can see to find an automated mount that can hold my scope I'm looking at a thousand to several thousand. I have concerns that a new board will get fried.