EQ6-R owners club

[Merlin66]

I use an HEQ5 and a NEQ mount.

For the past ten years I’ve successfully used a 12v to 15v converter rated at 120w to power them. No issues, no drama - no low voltage concerns.

 

[f300v10]

Second night out with the mount and again it was stalling and making a loud whine on goto commands.  The power LED did not flash, so I don't believe the battery I'm using is the issue.  At this point I believe I'm going to return this unit and get a new one, it is unusable as it is.

[Stub Mandrel]

7 hours ago, f300v10 said:

Second night out with the mount and again it was stalling and making a loud whine on goto commands.  The power LED did not flash, so I don't believe the battery I'm using is the issue.  At this point I believe I'm going to return this unit and get a new one, it is unusable as it is.

Check it isn't just the worm set too tight.

I over-adjusted my backlash and caused exactly those symptoms - but only with the extra weight of the scope on the mount (I assume that the scope is balanced).

[blinky]

8 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Check it isn't just the worm set too tight.

I over-adjusted my backlash and caused exactly those symptoms - but only with the extra weight of the scope on the mount (I assume that the scope is balanced).

Yep I did the same, although if the mount is brand new I would not be expecting to do this myself so I would send it back for replacement

[f300v10]

This morning I did some testing at home with the mount to see if I could re-produce the stall/noise again.  I set the hand controller to display the power voltage and from the start it was only 11.4V.  When I used the pointing arrows to slew the mount the voltage dropped to at or below 11 consistently and I could get the mount to stall at will.  This would seem to confirm it is insufficient power and not a fault with the mount.

I'm going to get a battery the should provide 13V and see if that helps.

Edited October 5, 2018 by f300v10

[mikey2000]

It’s not just the voltage but the amps too.   I have a mains adapter that converts UK 240V to 12V and rated at max 5A.  (Mains wall plug leads to a black box which leads to a female car cigarette lighter outlet) It hasn’t ever let me down....   (it sends + to the inside terminal in the cigarette lighter style socket)

 

it was hard to find one with a decent amp rating.   Many on amazon/eBay are lower Amp rates...

[f300v10]

10 minutes ago, mikey2000 said:

It’s not just the voltage but the amps too.   I have a mains adapter that converts UK 240V to 12V and rated at max 5A.  (Mains wall plug leads to a black box which leads to a female car cigarette lighter outlet) It hasn’t ever let me down....   (it sends + to the inside terminal in the cigarette lighter style socket)

 

it was hard to find one with a decent amp rating.   Many on amazon/eBay are lower Amp rates...

I would love to be able to plug it into the wall, but sadly I have almost no view of the sky due to the trees from my yard.  So my power supply must be mobile.  I'm going to try a battery made for wheelchairs.  Moving a telescope around slowly must need less power than running wheelchair with an adult sitting in it right?

[Stub Mandrel]

 

13 minutes ago, f300v10 said:

I'm going to try a battery made for wheelchairs. 

I use a 7aH sealed lead acid battery for my HEQ5.

It runs the mount for 6-7 hours and the voltage is still above 12V, but i don't do a huge number of slews (I'm usually imaging).

Make sure you use a decent supplier and ask for one suitable for traction purposes (like stairlifts, electric golf bags etc.) not the cheapest burglar alarm/fire alarm standby battery type.

[f300v10]

Thanks Neil.  I purchased an 18aH sealed lead acid.  That should give me plenty of time per charge.  Now I just have to rig up a way to connect the battery to the mounts power cord.

[f300v10]

I spliced a battery connector onto a spare 12 volt female adaptor and connected the mount to the SLA battery I purchased today.  The mount now slews just fine with no stalls or loud noises.  When they say 11 Volts is the minimum they mean it.

Thanks for the help in figuring this out, I really appreciate it.  Hopeful the good weather will hold and I will get to use the mount and see it work as it was intended to.

Thanks,

Scott

 

[Merlin66]

I use two 20Ah gel cell golf buggy batteries which are now 12 years old and still work 100%.

You will need at least a triple stage charger.

[Stub Mandrel]

5 hours ago, Merlin66 said:

You will need at least a triple stage charger.

iMax B6 and clones are ideal and have the advantage of charging other chemistries. The downside is they need an external supply.

I put some very old (>20 years) nicads through multiple cycles on it and it brought most back to full or near full capacity

[Miguel]

On 18/07/2018 at 23:53, mikey2000 said:

Once again, happy to help!  If I may be so bold as to offer some more advice....   Go out and get the cable now.  You can end up spending rather longer than you want getting it all to work and all of that preparation can be done way before winter, even in broad daylight if you like.   Getting it all operating is non-trivial...  I had all sorts of USB issues just getting things to connect properly.  Then after that, getting PHD2, APT and EQMOD all working together nicely was a bit of a job too.  PHD2 will happily guide under less-than-perfect skies.   In fact, you can still get decent pics even under summer skies.

 

I'm smack in between Milton Keynes and Luton (UK) and it doesn't get astronomically dark here at all in July.  But from 11:30pm to 2:30am or so, it's nautically dark and if aim high in the sky, I can still grab things like this:

I can't find the name of this one but its at 19h59m RA, +15deg 18' Declination. In the constellation Cygnus, not far from the Crescent Nebula (this mystery nebula shows quite clearly in Stellarium..

 

Hi. This is called "The Tulip Nebula", or Sh2-101. I imaged it from my in-the-middle-of-the-city heavy polluted site, with much worse results (in spite of many hours of light).
Great job.

 

PS: Initially, I spelled the name wrong (as "tupip"). Sorry (and corrected).

Edited October 8, 2018 by Miguel
typo

[Stub Mandrel]

10 hours ago, Miguel said:

Hi. This is called "The Tupip Nebula", or Sh2-101. I imaged it from my in-the-middle-of-the-city heavy polluted site, with much worse results (in spite of many hours of light).
Great job.

Thanks both, I've often wondered what that object in Stellarium is, and if it's worth imaging - clearly it is!

[Dinglem]

I see Trevor from AstroBackyard has joined the club, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rPVOg_l3Dw

 

[Shelster1973]

I have just watched this and he is getting some great results.

even spookier is he is using the Esprit 100ED, which I currently have sitting in my shopping basket ready to push the button on.  He did an unboxing video on this scope too.  What did raise a question is that the one he received had a field flattener in it.  Am 99% sure that we need to get this extra to then scope.  All I can think is that it was part of the kit that SW sent to him as an ‘all up’version.

[Adam J]

6 hours ago, Shelster1973 said:

I have just watched this and he is getting some great results.

even spookier is he is using the Esprit 100ED, which I currently have sitting in my shopping basket ready to push the button on.  He did an unboxing video on this scope too.  What did raise a question is that the one he received had a field flattener in it.  Am 99% sure that we need to get this extra to then scope.  All I can think is that it was part of the kit that SW sent to him as an ‘all up’version.

You should take him with a pinch of salt as he is effectively sponsored. Also gets things wrong all the time. I suspect it was included as a review package. That being said the Esprit 100 is a scope I would love to own myself. I would consider having it checked and tuned via Flo considering the investment. 

 

Edited October 15, 2018 by Adam J

[Obi Wan Ken00bi]

Haha yeah I saw his video too. Most of us have to save up to get a mount like this. A once in 5 year purchase (for me at least). He has a HEQ5 and a CEM60 standing, AND now an EQ6R Pro as well for free. Life isn’t fair eh?

btw, would it be fun for this owners club to meet up one day? If night preferably....

[Dinglem]

I believe he gets loaned these mounts to do a review of them, like a couple of members on here do. From what he was saying I think the CEM60 has gone back to the supplier.

 

[Miguel1983]

I have been following Trevor since l the end of last year i think, and his channel really boomed this year.

Love his video's, and he knows very well that he has to thank his followers for all the gear they send him, so he's quite humble about that.

I'm glad that i'll get to see our mount more frequently on YouTube, as i mentioned on his channel, there are not a lot of video's about it yet.

 

Edited October 18, 2018 by Miguel1983

[Stub Mandrel]

5 minutes ago, KevS said:

Out of curiosity after mis- alignment tell mount to goto Mars, handset  tells me "below horizon".

You didn't mention setting the date?

Or you could have miscalcuated lat/long or still be using summer time?

[f300v10]

Kev, it sure sounds like either the time zone or location data is off with the hand controller, but I am sure you have already double checked that.  Sorry but I can't think of anything else it would likely be.

[mikey2000]

1 hour ago, KevS said:

Ok, I have pulled the trigger on a EQ6-R mount. Arrived today, out tonight to have a play and its all gone a bit "squiffy". Go through the initial set up routine set polar alignment, Lat/Long, set time, try to do a 3 star alignment and the pointing is miles away; seriously miles away!  Correct for mis-alignment on star 1, mount tells me I am so far off to check and re-align mount (or words to that effect). Out of curiosity after mis- alignment tell mount to goto Mars, handset  tells me "below horizon".   Running the mount off a laboratory  stabilised power supply so do not envisage any problems there.  Reset encoders on known star, ask it to go to Mars and still tells "below horizon".  Reset handset back to factory settings, go through same routine no joy. Am I being thick here and missing something fundamental?

When I first got my EQ3 Synscan, I had a similar frustrating moment.  It turned out its the time of year you need to be careful with your date format.  mm/dd/yy I think is correct.  01/11/2018 is quite different to 11/01/18, depending on your date format!

[Stub Mandrel]

13 hours ago, KevS said:

I twigged about 2 milliseconds after I posted

Sometimes I need to set out a problem to someone else before I can figure it out for myself.

[f300v10]

15 hours ago, KevS said:

Thanks to everyone for the prompt replies, I twigged about 2 milliseconds after I posted that I had entered the date in the wrong format. Think its an age thing. The mount is now running like, well a mount. 

 

Cheers everyone

 

K

Glad to hear it was a simple problem and nothing actually wrong with your new mount.  Enjoy your new EQ6-R.