Runaway NEQ6 Pro

[Demon Barber]

Hi All a small fault has developed my mount keeps tracking after it finishes a slew,a whole imaging run ruined,any ideas please?

Regards

Mike

[Physopto]

Which mount 5 or 6 

 

[Demon Barber]

6

[Uplooker]

Think it says it in the title "Runaway NEQ6 Pro" - that would be a 6

[Demon Barber]

Somebody`s awake!

[Uplooker]

Sorry Mike, I am not able to diagnose the fault - with your NEQ6

Hope you get it solved / get an answer soon.

[red dwalf]

powewr connections can be a pain and cause all sorts of problems 

 

[ronin]

32 minutes ago, Demon Barber said:

Hi All a small fault has developed my mount keeps tracking after it finishes a slew,a whole imaging run ruined,any ideas please?

Regards

Mike

No idea on the problem but you are going to need to supply more detail, just my first thought was:: It is supposed to keep tracking after a slew. Slew to the trarget then track it?

Is it the rate at which it trackes - any chance of you having been imaging or viewing the moon or sun and altered the default from sidereal.

Or is it galloping at too high a rate, or no rate.

Or the slew at whatever setting is carrying on and it is not "stopping" at the target.

Has it decided that iot is in the Southern hemisphere ? That would (I think) cause it to track the wrong direction so sort of 2x sidereal. My little one decided it was no longer Alt/Az one night and tried to run as an Eq.

Standard question is "Power source" ??

Have you always been in Northumberland? Sure/thought you had a different location.

[Physopto]

33 minutes ago, Demon Barber said:

Somebody`s awake!

Sorry Mike just tired. I'll come across as and when I get the time. 

 

[Physopto]

37 minutes ago, Uplooker said:

Think it says it in the title "Runaway NEQ6 Pro" - that would be a 6

Smartypants!  ?????

[Demon Barber]

Hi Ron,no always been Northumberland,just to clarify the mount slews to target,it then decides to overrun and keeps going rather like a clock ticking,power supply working okay ( bench supply).

Just put it to  bed,

Sorry Derek hope i did not wake you?

Ian did not know you had a pair of smartypants

R/D thanks for you reply.

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[1parsec]

Is there any difference when you do a East-West slew vs  West-East slew ? Does the extra movement continue indefinitely or settle to normal after a time ?

Can you post an image so we can see the tracking error.

It's always worth popping an eyepiece in the scope . That will tell you a lot about the error you're getting.

 

[jambouk]

It's difficult to know what the solution is without really knowing what the problem is; are you able to post a video of the issue?

When the mount GOTOs a target it does a slew on a fast rate first, then sounds like it has stopped slewing but then does fine adjustments which can take a few seconds  to complete. Might this be the "problem"? If the alignment is not perfect it might just be that the GOTO accuracy isn't great - lods of reasons for this.

other things which spring to mind:

- if the polar alignment is badly wrong then even if it could goto the correct object and tracking was turned on, the target might quickly scoot out of the field of view.

- is tracking turned on, again if not the target may scoot out of the field of view once goto'd.

- is the set up badly balanced.

- is there one of the direction arrows stuck down under the plastic casing of the handset, or a short inside the handset.

- are the clutches not fully tight.

- what version of firmware is on the handset; maybe reflash it.

- do you have a mate who has a synscan handset to try their handset to see if the issue occurs then.

[Demon Barber]

Dave and Jambouk,thank you for all your excellent ideas i` will be working  through them tomorrow so hopefully will find the culprit,

Regards

Mike

[Oddsocks]

I notice you said the imaging run was ruined, are you guiding via a guide camera and the external ST4 cable?

If so, run the mount without the guide cable connected, a damaged guide cable (or internal guide camera fault) can cause the mount to continue to drive in one direction at the programmed guiding speed if the cable has a short between common and one of the direction outputs.

Check also the ST4 guiding socket on the mount for corrosion, bent or damaged contacts touching each other, foreign bodies etc.

Finally, some makes of guide camera have to be powered up to maintain a "no output" signal on the ST4 socket, if the guide camera is connected to the ST4 socket but unpowered then the camera sends guide commands for all directions simultaneously but the mount will only respond to the highest direction command in the logic, usually RA, but this depends on the mount.