Jump to content

HEQ5 power in the cold

m37

Recommended Posts

m37

m37

Posted
Posted

Hi all

I've had much success with my HEQ5 recently, fixed tripod means polar aligning and star aligning has been a doddle. I've been guiding like a maniac. Brilliant. 

Except tonight I had much flickering of the red light, even going out when slewing large distances at full speed. Everything is exactly the same, I am using the oft recommended L25AY linear power supply from Maplin which permits a maximum of 5A current draw, and I have a heavy duty power cable from Astronomiser.

All has been well, but tonight the mount was all over the place and I could not get star align or polar align to play ball. It really was way out. The only difference i can think of is the temperature. Nice clear skies but it was down to around zero or -1. Could this have been the cause and if so, does anyone know what i can do about it.

Otherwise, my setup is exactly the same from night to night. Scope is beautifully balanced on all 3 axes, cable management is a wonder to behold, separate power for the dew strip controller, camera, focus controller.

I also have an RCD on an exterior grade mains cable with a weather shield into an IP55 rated box to keep everything dry.

cheers, frustrating to be missing out on the prime imaging opportunities!

Christoph

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PhotoGav

PhotoGav

Posted
Posted

Mmmm, strange, I think it must be the full moon gremlins (aka The Clangers) as my HEQ5 mount was suffering this evening too.

I have just started using a 75Ah leisure battery and had a great session last week with it, but tonight, all the same set up, but the red light was flickering and even off during large slews. It was solid when just tracking, but I couldn't get good tracking at all. I put it down to the battery not being fully charged, it seems to have lost some power since it's full charge after the last session as it hasn't been plugged in for a trickle charge.

However, you are reporting similar issues using mains power... So, it must be the Clangers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
m37

m37

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Well I tried out jambo's idea and found the voltage display in the Synscan handset menu. I can report that indoors in the warm the voltage from the maplin L25AY power supply was 12.2v when not slewing. When slewing in RA it dropped to 11.9V and, when the weight got round to parallel with the ground (heaviest load), it dropped to 11.7 and the light started to flicker. When I engaged DEC motor too It then dropped to 11.6V and the light was doing the slow blinking and I could see the motor was sticking a little at certain points.

Looks like the power supply is just not consistent enough. With a shorter, thicker gauge cable it *only* dropped to 11.8V.

I have a number of PSUs from musical equipment etc and found a tip positive 1.5A 12V supply from a Seagate hard drive (boy did I check the polarity of that one a few times!) with the exact same sized tip. This delivered a consistent 12.2V regardless of load, position or temperature of hand set.

Now I guess I just need to find a slightly higher rated PSU (2 Amps I believe?) with a slightly better cable on it and I should be sorted. I can keep the Maplin one for dew controller, focuser, camera etc.

As for why I only experienced this last night for the first time, I wonder if the sub zero temperatures made the grease a bit more viscous and put just that little bit more strain on the motors.

Thanks again for all your advice and, as always, for taking the time to respond.

Cheers

Christoph.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
HAL9000

HAL9000

Posted
Posted

Hi, just another thing to consider if you're still having problems - I had a problem with my HEQ5 pro with lots of LED flashing (sometimes it would be off completely), and it even began resetting itself or tracking would just stop. I took the big side panel off & discovered there are a couple of ribbon cables plugged into the circuit board, which had worked themselves loose - one was almost disconnected! Pushed them back in & it's been fine since. I still get some LED flashing while slewing fast due to a cheap PSU & long cable run, but this doesn't seem to affect the operation of the mount at all.

Chris.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.