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Goto Motor advice. No longer tracking.


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Last night I noticed my goto has stopped tracking. 

A factory reset has not made any difference, should I strip the goto down or seek professional help on it?

I've never stripped it down, but willing to give it a go if I can fix it myself. 

Any advice or tips appreciated. 

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Mains powered

Does the psu have a regulated output ?  And what is the specification of the psu.

Does the mount slew when the direction keys are pressed ?

Can you do a normal star alignment or does the mount simply not track once a goto command has been successfully completed ?

The handset has or had three tracking modes, sidereal, solar, lunar and auto tracking, the latter makes the mount work as the Supatrak. There is also a stop tracking command. If tracking has been set to this the mount will not track. You should be able to find this in the handset's setup menu.

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An Alt/Az will track in both Alt and Az, that is how it simulates a polar movement. From what is described it reads that neither motors are actually driving.

Stupid but you have not managed to get it into Terrestrial mode ?

That way all tracking is disabled, since the idea is to observe a tree, or something, and they do not move.

OK not a terrestrial option as such and it seems to be a menu option - on one mount it is a pressing of 2 keys.

Check the Setup - Tracking setting.

You should have 4 options the EQ mount should have 5, make sure it is on Sidereal.

Setup > Tracking then press Enter, then scroll to Sidereal and (I assume) Enter again.

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Does the psu have a regulated output ?  And what is the specification of the psu.

Does the mount slew when the direction keys are pressed ?

Can you do a normal star alignment or does the mount simply not track once a goto command has been successfully completed ?

The handset has or had three tracking modes, sidereal, solar, lunar and auto tracking, the latter makes the mount work as the Supatrak. There is also a stop tracking command. If tracking has been set to this the mount will not track. You should be able to find this in the handset's setup menu.

The mount does slew when i press the keys, Normal star alignment was fine, but once trained on the Moon, and set to track Lunar rate, nothing happened at all. I tried Solar and Sidereal and still nothing.

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An Alt/Az will track in both Alt and Az, that is how it simulates a polar movement. From what is described it reads that neither motors are actually driving.

Stupid but you have not managed to get it into Terrestrial mode ?

That way all tracking is disabled, since the idea is to observe a tree, or something, and they do not move.

OK not a terrestrial option as such and it seems to be a menu option - on one mount it is a pressing of 2 keys.

Check the Setup - Tracking setting.

You should have 4 options the EQ mount should have 5, make sure it is on Sidereal.

Setup > Tracking then press Enter, then scroll to Sidereal and (I assume) Enter again.

Tried as you suggested lastnight and got no response, i am at a total loss on it. Perhaps a refresh of the handset program may be required too?

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By "still nothing" I assume that the target drifted out of sight ?

As the thing slews under the 4 cursor keys that would seem to imply that the motors work and the clutches.

So if they work then it seems they are not getting told to drive at "Sidereal" as a default when no key is pressed, so Sidereal may not being calculated or something stranger.

Cannot see a Southern Hemisphere option so a bit unlikely it is driving the wrong way - it would drift out of view but quicker.

Some data may have gone, or changed - which software version is in the handset?

I had one that decided it was suddenly on an EQ mount and not an Alt/Az one night, it had never been on an EQ mount.

I guess that a handset reset will be the obvious, it means entering all the data again for you.

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By "still nothing" I assume that the target drifted out of sight ?

As the thing slews under the 4 cursor keys that would seem to imply that the motors work and the clutches.

So if they work then it seems they are not getting told to drive at "Sidereal" as a default when no key is pressed, so Sidereal may not being calculated or something stranger.

Cannot see a Southern Hemisphere option so a bit unlikely it is driving the wrong way - it would drift out of view but quicker.

Some data may have gone, or changed - which software version is in the handset?

I had one that decided it was suddenly on an EQ mount and not an Alt/Az one night, it had never been on an EQ mount.

I guess that a handset reset will be the obvious, it means entering all the data again for you.

Yes, Target drifted out of sight.

I have just done a handset reset and im running Version 3.8 as of now. I have set up and input all details, now just to wait a bit and hope that this has fixed the issue.

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Update is, I think there is a bigger issue. I took off the cover, set scope on tracking and everything seems to be turning fine, yet still not tracking, I think it's beyond my skills and looks like I may need to invest in getting it repaired

Sent from my ME173X using Tapatalk

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This does not seem to add up.

If the motors are turning when on Track AND the mount moves via the handset keys then the mount should be moving when it is tracking.

The clutch is apparently OK, motors are turning, gears are meshing and the gears are not slipping on the motor shaft.

If it is tracking the right direction or at the right rate is different but it should be moving one way or at some rate.

Are you sure that the mount is not moving when on Track ?

Back to wondering if it is tracking the wrong direction - as if there is a Southern Hemisphere option and somehow that is being used.

The actual movement is slow, you may not see it by standing there looking, and the object would drift out of view.

As to potential repairs I suggest that you ask first as this does not sound like a sort of dead motor board problem and I would guess that until you can identify what is wrong you could spend money and get nowhere.

As the software is fairly old check the menu for a hemisphere option. I have a strange vague memory of one report/post concerning a handset defaulting to Southern Hemisphere. It was a while back, and no idea what mount etc. I would have thought that a Latitute value with "S" after it was read and taken as Southern Hemisphere.

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Something I have seen mentioned twice now:

Check: Utility Funct > PC Direct Mode, then Enter ?

It seems it may display “PC Direct Mode\Press ESC to exit”.

Read in one place that in PC Direct mode that tracking is disabled but it seems that movement by the handset keys is enabled.

At a guess if “PC Direct Mode\Press ESC to exit” is displayed then it is in PC Direct Mode and you have to press and hold Esc down for 1-2 seconds to exit from it. The duration is not a short press but at least a second.

Page 30 of the manual seems to be relevant.

The description of this feature would seem to match your description, but how any scope gets into it sort of by accident or by chance I have no idea.

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Many thanks to all for your assistance in helping. A friend came round and he had a look at it too. We tried everything you all mentioned above, it is now working, just not sure WHAT one of the above did the trick,but again, huge thanks for all the advice.

Sent from my ME173X using Tapatalk

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