NexStar gone kaput

[Thingy]

Hello

It would appear that the Azimuth motor of my 8" Nexstar SE mount has gone kaput and kicked the bucket..... and lts left me feeling not exactly very happy.  

I guess that what happened is that one of the grub screws from the azimuth cog  came loose and maybe got in the way when the scope tried to turn. There was no sign of the missing screw and it could have easily fallen out of the mount base through one of the mounting holes. 

The grub screws are microscopic - through a process of trial and error I found that the required size appears to be M3 and only 3mm in length.  Here's a picture of them up against a standard SD memory card:

Even after fitting a new grub screw, the mount wouldn't turn properly.

Testing the motor with the mount in pieces showed that although the LCD screen was happy that everything was ok - NO error codes- the cog itself was barely turning and usually grind to a halt - sometimes it wouldnt even move and just buzz a bit,  

There was bit of a funny burning smell as well.

The Altitude (up down) motor works fine.

It just seems to be a bit weird that a telescope costing over 1000 quid is reliant on incredibly small screws that can come loose and that there's no clutch safety mechanism - if the base gets turned "left-right" or get's stuck etc  then things break.

I had thought about replacing the motor but then I think... well..... how do I know its not going to happen again ? 

For the amount of money that this scope costs... I'm really not impressed.

Sorry for grumbling

[Clockwork_Orange]

Sorry to hear this Thingy, how long have you owned it?

John

[Thingy]

Just over 2 years and hardly used.

I think the tubey bit is good and I've seen the usual planets, blinded myself with the moon plus a fuzzy blob called Andromeda, lots of sparkly star clusters, a  milky splodge in Orion and an eskimo, 

[Cjg]

Definitely worth emailing FLO - they arranged with the importers (David HInds in the UK) for my nexstar mount to be repaired - provided you are of course in the UK? 

Mine has had a lot of use and got very damp / wet over the past year. Worth at least getting an estimate to fix, even if you decide to mount the OTA on another mount, it 's a great scope.

Good luck,

Chris

[allcart]

Are you sure the grub srew isn't trapped in the teeth of the cog?