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GoTo/Alignment problems with the Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 GT mount when used with Sky Safari


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Everyone

I have received this reply from Skywatcher via my dealer today:

"The WiFi adapter and Sky Safari Pro application are not developed by Skywatcher, thus we can not do much to find and solve the problem. It is the developers responsibility to find out the problem and solve it if they want their products to support AZ-EQ6 mount.

Skywatchers hand control only supports a subset of Celestrons communication protocol, that might be the cause of the problem. We might implement the full Celestrons protocol in the future, but we have not setup a firmed schedule yet".

Needless to say this type of "not our problem" attitude demonstrates that these companies do not care about their customers and it makes my blood boil!. I have included (below) the response I have now sent to Skywatcher through my dealer and urge all other users affected by this issue to do the same with both Skywatcher and Southern Stars to raise the profile of this issue and persuade them to work together to get it resolved

"To Skywatcher,

This answer is unacceptable and does nothing to foster good relations with your customers. In fact, it is typical
of the responses consumers often get when both manufacturers are happy to wash their hands of the problem by blaming the other company's product.

This is simply not good enough - there are hundreds if not thousands of customers out there who have bought both products (AZ-EQ6-GT and SkySafari) in good faith in the hope that the two products used together will provide a superb way to explore the heavens. Unfortunately, due to the apathy demonstrated by both Skywatcher and Southern Stars all of us who find ourselves in this position have effectively wasted significant amounts of hard earned money.

I would remind you that Skywatcher support have already inferred (about a year ago) that this issue is down to
problems with the current hand-controller firmware (3.35) and promised to rectify this in the next release (3.36).
This has not happened, so what are you people now saying? - have you changed your tune and decide the problem is easier to deal with if you simply blame Southern Stars' Sky Safari product?

For their part, Southern Stars say they have not made any changes at all to their interface with the Skywatcher
handset so what works for other Skywatcher mounts should work with the AZ-EQ6-GT. This is why they say the issue has to be resolved by Skywatcher!

Ultimately, your customers really aren't interested where the problem lies, it is the responsibility of Skywatcher
and Southern Stars to work together to resolve this problem to keep the customer satisfied.

Rest assured I will be posting your unhelpful response (and my retort) on all the Astro forums I subscribe too and will be urging my fellow AZ-EQ6-GT owners to do the same, I will also be writing to most of the popular
Astronomical magazines to highlight this issue. After this fiasco, it is unlikely that I will ever buy another
Skywatcher or Southern Stars product which is a great shame because it would probably only take a little effort
with both companies working together to resolve this issue once and for all which in turn would create much happier customers".

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Interesting. I have one of the Skyfi units on my wish list but I was not aware that they didn't work with my mount. Will take off the wish list! You are also right that the firmware update for the mount is well overdue.

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Skywatcher "Synta" do have a point. The WiFi adapter and Skysafari have been developed to work with the Synscan handset, not the other way around. If the adapter doesn't work will your mount it isn't Skywatcher's responsibllity to change their product because something doesn't work with it.  It's up to the makers of the WiFi adapter and Skysafari to do that.

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Peter (Moderator),

I disagree, just over a year ago Skywatcher acknowledged the problem and said they would fix it in firmware 3.36. They have still not released this update . Now they say it's a Sky Safari problem - so which is it?

When this issue first became apparent, Southern Stars pointed out that they had made no changes to Sky Safari related to the Skywatcher interface since well before the AZ-EQ6 mount was released - and as there is only one interface for all Skywatcher mounts (via the Synscan controller) and as no other Skywatcher mounts presented pointing/GoTo issues with SkySafari the issue has to be with the Synscan hand controller and firmware - I'd say this logic is difficult to refute......

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Skywatcher are right in their approach. It us not up to them to facilitate third party products. Software bisquw, MSB etc dont get any special treatment and why should the development team for sky safari be different.

Yes it sucks but either return the goods as not as described or sit it out.

True this things will drive you nuts and I feel for you.

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  • 4 months later...

I don't know exactly what your issues have been with the SW AZ-EQ6 + Sky safari,  but what I can say is that for such a good mount the HC and it'sd firmware is total Rubbish. Since day one (and i'm on my second HC right after purchase) the HC decides to go bezerk on me when it feels like it. It either points L/Years away from target when doing Star Align, (and I have a fixerd pilar...no Polar align done. Just switch on and go), or crashes when "moving to object", or even doens't stop the mout when it's at faster speeds from sidereal rate (whe we're aligning) and goes on and on until i need to swithc everything off and restart.

I has been a nightmare sometimes. And I'm not complainging about the mount. It's the HC that is Rubbish.,..or it's firmware. Not sure which.

cheers

paulo Mesquita

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I don't know exactly what your issues have been with the SW AZ-EQ6 + Sky safari,  but what I can say is that for such a good mount the HC and it'sd firmware is total Rubbish. Since day one (and i'm on my second HC right after purchase) the HC decides to go bezerk on me when it feels like it. It either points L/Years away from target when doing Star Align, (and I have a fixerd pilar...no Polar align done. Just switch on and go), or crashes when "moving to object", or even doens't stop the mout when it's at faster speeds from sidereal rate (whe we're aligning) and goes on and on until i need to swithc everything off and restart.

I has been a nightmare sometimes. And I'm not complainging about the mount. It's the HC that is Rubbish.,..or it's firmware. Not sure which.

cheers

paulo Mesquita

Your problems could be due to an inadequate power supply.

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Cannot see what Skywatcher have done wrong, if Sky Safari want their product to work on the Skywatcher system then they need to make it work. Skywatcher may not be helpful in aiding them but that seems to be it. If a function is not fully implimented then Skysafari needs to work around it, this is not uncommon in software and it is down to Skysafari to solve it for their product. It is called Making Skysafari compatible with Skywatcher systems. Skysafari has the option of simply announcing that a feature cannot be implimented at the present time.

If you get a replacement remote for your TV then it is up to the maker of the remote that it is compatible with your TV not the TV manufacturer.

Have you/retailer complained to Skysafari their software is not compatible and they need better software and/or engineers?

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  • 3 years later...
On 11/22/2014 at 01:20, pmesquita said:

I don't know exactly what your issues have been with the SW AZ-EQ6 + Sky safari,  but what I can say is that for such a good mount the HC and it'sd firmware is total Rubbish. Since day one (and i'm on my second HC right after purchase) the HC decides to go bezerk on me when it feels like it. It either points L/Years away from target when doing Star Align, (and I have a fixerd pilar...no Polar align done. Just switch on and go), or crashes when "moving to object", or even doens't stop the mout when it's at faster speeds from sidereal rate (whe we're aligning) and goes on and on until i need to swithc everything off and restart.

I has been a nightmare sometimes. And I'm not complainging about the mount. It's the HC that is Rubbish.,..or it's firmware. Not sure which.

cheers

paulo Mesquita

Paulo,  Hi, i Came across this old post of yours and wondered if you ever solved it?  I currently have this problem with my AZ-EQ6 and don't know if its the handset or mount. I would be interested to find out.  Tam

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