Lodestar not guiding

[stevear]

I have been successfully using a Lodestar on an NEQ6 for over 12 months. For the last two nights it will no longer guide in th dx direction. The cross, although the reading jumps about a bit as normal, slowly drifts off to the left.

The drive motors are making the usual sounds, the green LED at the back of the Lodestar is flashing "green". I have tried altering E/W N/S directions and the "pixels per second in RA and Dec to a higher value. This made no difference. I have checked as far as I can the cables. Why should it work one day, and not the next? It has not been disconnected or removed either. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Steve

[sloz1664]

high Steve,

What guiding software are you using?

cheers

Steve

[stevear]

Its the SXpress software, that has worked fine for many months. I have tried PhD guiding but when calibrating it takes ages and then says insufficient difference to calibrate!! Unless I have a setting wrong on the PHD software somewhere. Cant work out why it suddenly stopped guiding in one direction. Have checked scope balance, there are also manual move scope movement controls on SX software, these work fine in all directions. Cables and connections are all fine also.

[Lars]

Unless the calibration steps are much too short it does sound like a cable or connection problem. /Lars

[sloz1664]

Hi Steve,

As Lars says it could be something as simple as a cable fault, that would be my first investigation. Swap all leads and see if that cures the problem.

If not, let me have your guider specifications and I will post phd settings so you can at least try a different software option.

cheers

Steve

[stevear]

Thanks Steve for the advice,

I too think it might be a cable issue. I have re-balanced the scope, tried driving the scope with the move buttons at the bottom of the SX software page, successfully. If you look at the cable that fits into the Lodestar, the white one, to me is a flimsy design. I am waiting for a clear night to try it but found it was loose.

However I have a suspicion that it might be a backllash problem. The object I moved the scope to was UGC10822, not in the NEQ6 data base, moved to by pressing the handset direction buttons from Rastaban. But during an hours exposure, it should have taken this up.

Steve

[ollypenrice]

That white cable is flimsy to anyone who looks at it. Why SX persist in this silliness is a mystery to many people.

Olly