HEQ5 and Synscan aligning now - help!

[Fordos Moon]

Hi all!

Following my earlier post things slightly better but...

30 secs after plugging in Synscan red light is flashing. Mount is slewing to find stars but when I get to "use directional keys to adjust" i assume these are the 4 keys on handset but when i press them nothing happens?

Help me, is it as I dont have enough power (confirming my maplins jumpstarter is rubbish)?

Thanks

Bob

[Jiggy 67]

Are you sure nothing is happening?? Initialy the slew rate when using the keys is really slow, you can change the rate of slew by pressing the "rate" button, then a number key, 1-9 and then enter (quickly), this changes the speed of slew, increasing relative to the higher key you press

[Fordos Moon]

Lol just noticed that! Am trying again, thank you!

[Jiggy 67]

Made the same mistake myself first time, let us know if that works

[Fordos Moon]

It worked!!!

[Jannis]

Glad it worked, i did the same misstake the first time as well to be honest..

The slew rate 1-3 i normally only use to fine adjust the star as it's very very slow. For normal quick alignment, i use rate 4-6. If rate 7-9 is needed because scope is way off, then i normally recheck polar alignment, that the mount is level, and start over again with setting the time as i probably have messed something up somewhere.

By the way - if the red lamp on the mount is flashing it means it's not really getting enough power. This is usually due to low battery if using that, or a bad connection at the battery or in the power plug at the mount (quite a few people have this problem).

Could also be if you use very thin cables or if you use a 12V DC power supply wich isn't quite strong enough for the mount.

The mount won't normally take any damage from this, but when it's flashing, it's not much power loss/voltage drop that is needed for mount to stop working = need to start over again with setting data/time, aligning and all that.

[Fordos Moon]

Thanks for the advice, was hoping to try it again tonight but alas, clouds!