AVX, unable to drift align in PHD2

[rubecula]

I spent from 9.30 until 1.00pm last night tring to drift align the AVX mount and gave up in dispair.  Started from scratch, did a 2+4 calibration then an ASPA. Didn't re-do the calibration as I wasn't planning on imaging anything.

Did a Bahtinov focus in BYE and then did an initial calibration in PHD2.  Having said that it took me around 30 minutes to find a suitable star in the OAG to calibrate on.  Calibration went OK, using only 10 to 20 steps in each direction, so I started the drift align routine, again it took an age to find a star.  It was way off to begin with but after 3/4 drifts the magenta circle got to a reasonable size but then it wouldn't get any better each time the red line was about 15 degrees below and when I adjusted and drifted again - no change.

I gave up in azimuth after this attempt. Initially the star was in the bottom right so I nudged it to the centre and then reset on it, that's where the trace goes vertical but it continued on the same downward trend.

I had similar troubles in altitude and gave up.  At each stage I checked that the clutch locks were tight and that there were no cables snagged.

I later (in bed) realised that when I removed the Focal reducer I didn't re-balance the scope.  This all leads me to ask a few questions that I hope someone will be able to give me some help with:

Is there any easy way of getting onto a suitable star with an OAG?

Would the reduction in OTA weight caused by removing the Focal reducer cause the problems I encountered?

When changing from drifting in azimuth to altitude do you re-balance?

Sorry for such a long post, but I'm getting a bit desperate now.

Thanks for you patience in reading all this

[rubecula]

No worries chaps.  I've just discovered the PHD user forum where I should have asked the questions in the first place.  Hopefully they will be able to help me.

Sorry to have bothered you.

Thanks