The Trubble Telescope

Hi all,
Sorry for the delay in posting.
Just giving an update on the damaged CGEM mount.
Sent the mount off to the Celestron Dealer in Thatcham Berkshire.
The Celestron team were very helpful and said the RA motor needed replacing and that it would cost £96 What a relief that there wasn't more serious damage as I feared the worst.
I dealt with Daniel who was very friendly and helpful and easy to talk to, he kept me informed of progress on the mount and made sure that everything was working ok before sending it back. 
I am extremely pleased with the Celestron support team, and wouldn't hesitate to contact them again if needed.
Thanks again to Daniel.

I have since wired in a little red light that comes on when the mount is switched on and shines though a little hole in the side of the obsy right next to the lock, so I can see it when I lock up even in daylight. Thanks to everyone's suggestions, I don't think I will let that happen again.!

Also wanted to mention that I had my DSLR camera ( 600D ) modified by 'Astronomiser' in Derbyshire. Rear filter removal and sensor repositioning £90. Some people try it themselves, I would rather leave it to someone who knows what they are doing and Astronomiser obviously does. He also has new and used cameras for sale.
Clear Skies

1 hour ago, tonylumley said:

thinking about this situation, would it be possible to build an isolation switch (like they use on factory floors to isolate plant) into the sliding roof, ? I am assuming you don't need the mount to power up when the roof is closed, and unattended, this could ensure that when the roof is shut there can be no power to your mount,  just found this on google Emergency Electrical STOP Switch 240V "8.98 at the moment, but even at £19, 63 could be worth an investment, further details, further details  SolenoidValves,  01454334990  in Bristol, 

Another useful suggestion, Thank you

2 hours ago, gajjer said:

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

2 hours ago, gajjer said:

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

2 hours ago, gajjer said:

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

2 hours ago, gajjer said:

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

2 hours ago, gajjer said:

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

2 hours ago, gajjer said:

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

The CGEM is definitely damaged, motors still whirring after it's stopped slewing , very juddery motion and it continues to slew  ( on max speed ) for about 12"- 15" after button relese. Well either way it's on it's way to a celestron workshop.  They said they would assess the damage and let me know ( stay tuned ! ) At least they are going to update the firmware for me, never been done, mount 7 years old. Tried doing it myself but if you know me you know that me and technology don't mix.! 🤣 

4 minutes ago, JOC said:

What a train of disasters!  I like the idea of the light on the outside of the building and think theidea of the use of the lamps that are used on tailboards could be really useful as they are surely waterproof!

Yes I've had a few helpful suggestions from SG members ( thank you all )  just looking into the best wat forward for me.

1 minute ago, JSeaman said:

I used an Amazon smart plug, £15 ish and no electrician needed. Just plug that in to the feed to the scope

Ok mate thanks I'll check that out

16 minutes ago, JSeaman said:

It seems you're not alone in this from the responses! It's not an issue I have ever had but I made my set up do a lot of the work for me - I have a single smart plug which is in the chain to everything. I have a dynamic timer on that which is set every time I am imaging but with a failsafe timer at 6:30 every morning which will turn the plug off. I haven't needed the failsafe yet (several years later) but it's nice to know it is there!

That sounds like a good idea, I'm no good with electrics but I will get an electrician to install something for me even if it's just a simple circut breaker which will be the last thing that I ALWAYS turn off when I leave the obsy.

On 26/02/2021 at 22:19, Nigella Bryant said:

Sorry to hear your awful news. I hope you're able to get it fixed at not to much expense. I feel for you. So easy to do when your closing up. 

Thank you, well it goes off to a celestron workshop today for evaluation  . The expense has already started  £80 to send , mostly insurance cover  🤨

14 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Hi @The Trubble Telescope, welcome to the forum and also welcome to the 'I forgot to turn off the mount tracking' club. Your horror story is very similar to my own experience, soon after I set up my new observatory back in 2016. After a couple of days poor weather I was itching to get out under the stars, but when I tried, I too found my C14 jammed in the rafters. The mount was no longer tracking as it had wound the 'Y' cable that serves both axes around the mount, until it tore in half cutting the power as seen below....

It took me a few hours to reconnect all the coloured cables, so that it worked again and about £180 to buy a new cable from Astro-Physics, which I had a cousin bring over from USA when she visited a couple of months later.

I hope that you can get your mount fixed without too much expense, or delay.

 

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear you had that experience but it does make me feel better knowing that I'm not alone. This is the first time I've ever been on a forum ( everyone will have to forgive me if I get things wrong, I'm not very good with technology ) everyone has been so kind and helpful with their comments and advice.

31 minutes ago, tomato said:

Sorry to hear and hope its not too costly in time or money.

+1 for some kind of poster reminder, here is mine after I tried to open the powered dome shutter with padlock on...

 

Ha ha, Love it. I'm gonna do something similar !

2 hours ago, skyhog said:

Sorry to hear this. I have often wondered if I've turned the scope off when I roll the roof back and leave everything for a while. I find it hard to believe in this day and age that an expensive piece of mechanical equipment would damage itself beyond repair at worst, or cause an expensive repair at best. I don't think you should be too hard on yourself here, there are many ways a mount could be stopped from moving apart from striking an observatory roof. I've had a slewing scope come to a complete stop because a camera cable wrapped itself around the mount for example. Surely manufacturers would expect a mount to foul in a number of easily imagined scenarios. 

Anyway, I hope you get it sorted and look forward to hearing the outcome.

Thanks, yes totaly agree.  I'm waiting for a reply from Celestron I'll post what they say if I get a reply from them

2 hours ago, oobydooby said:

First I hope you get the damage repaired, up and running soon without too much financial or physical problems.

Second and more important... How did the shots come out? 

👍

Thank you, well the shots were ok and the 6.3 reducer gave a much better, wider field of view than the  f 10 on the 11" SCT however I also discovered that I need to do a collimation, which seems a bit irrelevant at the moment, I also took some test shots with a small skywatcher scope which was giving some good results. I intend to trade in my OTA for probably a Skywatcher Esprit 100ED Triplet, all feedback on them seems good

6 hours ago, Starwatcher2001 said:

Wow, that's horrible. So sorry to hear and hope you kit is easy to fix.

I have a breaker switch on my shed that switches power off to everything, but that doesn't help if you want to leave something charging.

Welcome aboard SGL.

 

Thanks, yes I'm going to do something like that before I get set up again

7 hours ago, banjaxed said:

Welcome to SGL. Sorry to hear about your mishap but I don’t think you will ever do that again.

That's for sure !

3 minutes ago, Nikodemuzz said:

Ouch, sorry to hear about your mishap! I can very easily imagine that happening to myself. Also, welcome to the forum!

From your description it sounds that some of the gears have been damaged. That doesn't necessarily mean that the whole unit is a write off. If you feel up to the task and have some tools lying around, you could follow this guide and disassemble the mount enough to see what has been broken: http://www.astro-baby.com/EQ6 rebuild guide/EQ6 Strip Down Home.htm 

It is for the EQ6, but the CGEM is essentially the same. I followed the same guide when I tuned and relubricated my CGEM.

I believe there is also an RA limit function in the CGEM handset, were you can set how far east or west the mount is allowed to move. I know this doesn't help fix your current problem, but might prevent it from happening again.

Thank you I'm not sure I've got the confidence or ability to do that, sounds scary ! Thanks for the info

1 hour ago, Kev M said:

I have my power supply situated where I can see the big red light on it to let me know that it is still on.

Might be an idea to connect a small red light to the outside of the observatory to indicate power is on ( hindsight is always too late ).

Best wishes 

Kev

 

You know what I think I'll do ? I think I'll connect a small red light to the out outside of the obsy. Thanks Kev, great idea ! 😉

1 hour ago, AbsolutelyN said:

With luck perhaps will just need a single component switching out. My mount got wet a couple of years ago and would not work at all ... thought it was going to need replacing or expensive repair but fixed with a new motherboard for £150. Good luck with it, hope it's not too costly. 

Thank You, I'll post the outcome

11 minutes ago, fifeskies said:

+1 for adding a highly visible light to the power supply output

I have done the exact same thing but luckily caught it before any damage was done.

A short run of low voltage cable to a red light is the way to go , just make sure it is away from the telescopes and ideally visible from afar.

I can see my "power on" indicator from down the garden.

👍 Good idea

1 hour ago, DaveL59 said:

Ouch that's not good at all and easily done when rushing about. It's a shame they don't engineer in some sort of loading/feedback control so that it stops the motor to prevent damage, much as they've had to fit to electric car windows to prevent injury. It can't be beyond the ability of the designers, more down to cutting costs and profit margins I expect.

That's what I've always thought, don't know why they haven't. I can't be the only one that's happened to. 🤔

1 hour ago, carastro said:

Oh my goodness, I see what you mean.  I have had the odd occasion when my telescope has clashed with the pier when I am imaging, and been pressing against it but could only have been for a very short time, luckily no damage done.

Welcome to SGL by the way.  Love the avatar name but not the story that went with it. 

Carole 

 

 

Thank You

1 hour ago, AbsolutelyN said:

With luck perhaps will just need a single component switching out. My mount got wet a couple of years ago and would not work at all ... thought it was going to need replacing or expensive repair but fixed with a new motherboard for £150. Good luck with it, hope it's not too costly. 

Well fingers crossed !

Hi all,
Just joined the forum so first time post. I just wanted to share my horror story and warn all fellow observers not to make the same stupid mistake that I did.
After spending months getting my new obseratory up and running, and with lots of problems along the way with the roll off and telescope set up ( hence my name ) I was finally ready to start
aquiring some images. I had waited ages for even just a small break in the clouds to try out my latest set up ( you've all been there ) Finally I got the chance, there was a break in the clouds, out I went
did a quick star alignment, didn't have to be accurate just wanted try out the 6.3 reducer on my 11" SCT and test the field of view. Just got some shots before the clouds started rolling in again. never mind 
I'd got something to look at indoors. Quick close the roof it's starting to rain !  Slewed the telescope and CGEM mount to horizontal position closed the roof and locked the catches as the wind was getting up again. Can't wait to see my results but it will have to wait until the morning now as it's 2.30am . Another 2 days of wind and rain set in, never mind I'll go to the obsy and get a bit of red film to put over a torch. Went in the obsy....What the!!....????? What's my telescope doing in the rafters !!!?? OH NO, in my excitement at getting some images and my hurry to close up before it rained, I had forgotten to TURN OFF THE MOUNT ! It had continued to track for 2 DAYS !! and had been pushing against the A frame of the roof for 2 days. Needless to say the CGEM mount is now ruined, making a horrible noise and juddering when slewing in RA, continuing to slew when buttons have been released then stopping suddenly, I can also hear the gears spinning round in the mount when it has stopped slewing.
Just waiting to hear back from Celestron support to find out if it can be repaired and for lockdown to end so I can take it somewhere to get the damage assessed. Luckily the OTA is undamaged... Anyone wanna buy a Knackerd CGEM mount ?

Goodnight All
The Trubble Telescope
 
Don't foget to turn the lights off when you leave, Oh ......and the mount !
Clear Skies