CG5 mount issues.

[ryandsimmons]

Last night I was trying to set up my scope for the first clear night in ages, and the initial set up was fine, the 2 alignment stars were found easily.  1st calibration star... perfect.

Second calibration star... scope seemed quite far out.

By the time I reached the fourth calibration star the scope wasn't even close.

So I reset everything, and started again.  This time I used Castor for the first alignment star and the scope swivelled to just left of polaris!

One factory reset on the handset again, and everything seems to be fine.  But this is not the first time this has happened.  I bought the scope second hand a few months back and this is the third time I have had to do the factory reset as the more I use it the more errors creep in.

Is this a normal issue with CG5 mounts?  Should I just do a factory reset before every session as a matter of course or is this something I should take up with the shop?

On a similar note, I balance the scope with the camera etc attached, then remove the camera for the calibration stuff.  Doing this leaves the balance way way off, and I am not sure if that is good for the motor.  Is there any way to avoid this?  Or does it not matter?

[ryandsimmons]

Hmm...  looks like it is a known issue.  From another forum I found this post:

There are 2 kinds of CG5-GT mounts, the one that has "freaked out" and the one that is going to "freak out".
In the 8 months I have had mine, it has performed flawlessly or just "freaked out".
I would say that everytime I set it up there is a 50/50 chance it will work. I have even had lengthy conversations with Celestron about it.
Unfortunately their response is always "send it to us and we will make it better". My cost to ship to and from, plus estimates of up to 3 months for return.

Good thing is I always know when it is going to "freak out", during the alignment process if it doesn't hit the chosen stars might as well shut her down.
The slews will deteriorate untill the mount can't even find home position and occassionaly a runaway which will definitely freak you out as you scramble to prevent it from banging you OTA into the mount. Sometimes I just get lucky and it advertises the "No Response 16 error" and I don't waste a lot of time. Interesting thing is 1 hour later, she may be good to go

[valleyman]

What OTA are you using.

It is not a good idea to align out of balance.

I have a reflector with a 3rd Ring fitted that acts like a safety collar. this enables me to loosen the 2 rings on the Vixen and adjust the balance by moving the tube without spoiling the alignment.

Have the weights very slightly biased this will allow for the extra weight of the Camera.

See picture

[Hootsitabernacle]

I had the same issues with mine but I found out if your power supply us not pure and plentiful then it will muck around

[valleyman]

I agree with the power supply as well.

You need to get a 240/12v converter with at least a 2mp supply

avoid AA batteries

[ryandsimmons]

I bought quite a hefty powerpack from Halfords.

http://www.autosessive.com/products/61542/powerpack-with-inverter-12v-800a?gclid=COrLuM7-rb4CFbDJtAod1EsAGw

Surely this is up to spec?  I went for the biggest one they had.

I will need to check my diary, but I am pretty sure that I had these problems before I got the powerpack and I was running off of mains.