Help! Heq5 making loud noises

[cuivenion]

Bit of background to this. It always seems to happen in the declination axis and it's very intermittant. It can run fine all night and then start with the noise and juddering as I park for the night. Or it can do it on the first slew. Its rare that I don't have a problem with it. It's been like this since I bought it last year, but because I'm not used to the HEQ5 I thought it might be something I was doing wrong, such as bad weight distribution. I've worked on that as best I can.

Before I took this video the mount had been fine apart from one very slight judder several slews before. I'm at a loss, and to be honest a bit annoyed. I spent a lot of money buying this mount.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Grant]

How are you powering it? Is the red power light flickering when this happens?

If the motors aren't able to get enough current, then this is the type of juddering you often see which is why it particularly can happen on fast slews.

That would be the first place I would look / check.

[spillage]

I do not have the eq5 myself but I would strip and regrease. Its not sounding like the worm gears but a dry contact area or one of the teflon shims may of failed.

May just be worth checking if there is any play in the the RA shaft. This can be adjusted using the retaining screw near the polar scope.

What is the backlash like in Dec and RA?

 

(reposted here)

[cuivenion]

5 hours ago, Grant said:

How are you powering it? Is the red power light flickering when this happens?

If the motors aren't able to get enough current, then this is the type of juddering you often see which is why it particularly can happen on fast slews.

That would be the first place I would look / check.

Hi I've not noticed the light flickering but it would be hard to catch due to the intermittant nature of the fault. I have thought of this though and upgraded the power supply a while ago. This is the one I use now:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fusion-100W-13-8V-Power-Supply-PS101-PSU-O-FS-PS101-Regulated-Single-Output-/361463548159?hash=item5428e808ff

[cuivenion]

15 minutes ago, spillage said:

I do not have the eq5 myself but I would strip and regrease. Its not sounding like the worm gears but a dry contact area or one of the teflon shims may of failed.

May just be worth checking if there is any play in the the RA shaft. This can be adjusted using the retaining screw near the polar scope.

What is the backlash like in Dec and RA?

 

(reposted here)

I think its just the dec thats the problem. There is minimal backlash in both axis. One of the good things about the mount.

[Grant]

That power supply should be OK but I would probably still try another just to rule it out and also check the power connection is nice and strong and your using a decent cable. The number of times that issues with these mounts turn out to be power supply related would surprise you - it's very rarely a mechanical issue.

Beyond that I would try and find a pattern - is it always at the same point in the rotation?

[david_taurus83]

How are you connecting to the power supply? Are you connected directly or through the cigarette socket? I've had issues with mine that I traced to the cheap cigarette socket I was using. Voltage was dropping to below 8v. However, if the mount doesn't receive enough power it should stop slewing completely where your RA seems to keep going and is it the Dec making the noise? Do you have the handset? You can monitor the voltage on there while your skewing.

[cuivenion]

3 minutes ago, Grant said:

That power supply should be OK but I would probably still try another just to rule it out and also check the power connection is nice and strong and your using a decent cable. The number of times that issues with these mounts turn out to be power supply related would surprise you - it's very rarely a mechanical issue.

Beyond that I would try and find a pattern - is it always at the same point in the rotation?

Unfortunately no. When I was testing in the video I slewed to the same point near the southern horizon three times and back to the park position. The fourth time the noise started. The 5th time the noise started again. I have checked the voltage from the power supply through the wire with a voltmeter and its ok. The previous supply should of been ok to as it was 5 amp. but I thought I'd beef up both the supply and the wire. The connector seems to stay in place as far as I can tell.

[cuivenion]

6 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

How are you connecting to the power supply? Are you connected directly or through the cigarette socket? I've had issues with mine that I traced to the cheap cigarette socket I was using. Voltage was dropping to below 8v. However, if the mount doesn't receive enough power it should stop slewing completely where your RA seems to keep going and is it the Dec making the noise? Do you have the handset? You can monitor the voltage on there while your skewing.

My current supply is connected via banana plugs, plugged directly into the supply. I did try using the handset instead of EQMOD and this problem didn't occur. I slewed and tracked for about 15 minutes using the handset. However to to the problem being intermittant that might not mean a lot.

[Synchronicity]

I had similar on my 2nd hand EQ5 but it was worse at slow speeds.  I plugged the RA cable into the Dec socket and it worked fine every time.  I eventually traced the problem to the control unit.  There are inline connectors that take the signals from the PCB to the external sockets.  The plug for the Dec was very loose and the problem disappeared when I reseated it.

I also had intermittent freezeng of the hand controller.  The mount would continue to track but the controller was unresponsive.  That was down to poor connection at the power input socket.  I had bought a 5m extension lead and when I plugged that in the problems stopped.  Close examination showed that the connectors were slightly different and so the one on the PSU was breaking connection momentarily where the other was, and remains rock solid.

I did a lot of googling trying to fix these and most of the issues I came accross ended up being power related.

All the best

Michael

[cuivenion]

Thanks for replies by the way.

[david_taurus83]

It does sound like how mine (EQ6) sounded when it wadnt receiving enough power. But the light was blinking and the manual says the mount should stop itself to prevent damage. I wonder if there's an internal power distribution error in the mount. Might be worth putting in some time with both the hand controller and Eqmod and see if it affected on both or just Eqmod. I'd have thought that if there was a lubrication issue it would be constantly grinding.

[cuivenion]

1 minute ago, david_taurus83 said:

It does sound like how mine (EQ6) sounded when it wadnt receiving enough power. But the light was blinking and the manual says the mount should stop itself to prevent damage. I wonder if there's an internal power distribution error in the mount. Might be worth putting in some time with both the hand controller and Eqmod and see if it affected on both or just Eqmod. I'd have thought that if there was a lubrication issue it would be constantly grinding.

Thats true. If it is just happening under EQMOD and not the handset what does that mean?

[cuivenion]

6 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

It does sound like how mine (EQ6) sounded when it wadnt receiving enough power. But the light was blinking and the manual says the mount should stop itself to prevent damage. I wonder if there's an internal power distribution error in the mount. Might be worth putting in some time with both the hand controller and Eqmod and see if it affected on both or just Eqmod. I'd have thought that if there was a lubrication issue it would be constantly grinding.

To be fair when the mount works its very smooth, thats why this fault is so maddening.

[david_taurus83]

3 minutes ago, cuivenion said:

Thats true. If it is just happening under EQMOD and not the handset what does that mean?

I have no idea! I was going to suggest a firmware update until I read you were using Eqmod. Has it ever happened with the hand controller? Also, does it do it with the scope off?

[cuivenion]

7 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

I have no idea! I was going to suggest a firmware update until I read you were using Eqmod. Has it ever happened with the hand controller? Also, does it do it with the scope off?

I only used the hand controller for the first time today for testing it didn't occur during that test. It has done it with the scope off before.

[david_taurus83]

So you can rule out a balancing issue. I'm no expert on these things but I'd have thought if it was a mechanical issue, the problem would be more evident as if something is broke inside, it's always broke. The fact that it can run perfectly seems to indicate that it's a power to the Dec motor issue or it's a software issue. I would try and replicate the issue with the hand controller. If it doesn't do it then it would seem there is an issue with Eqmod and the mount. If it does then it would seem to be something internally and that would require disassembling for further investigation.

[cuivenion]

3 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

So you can rule out a balancing issue. I'm no expert on these things but I'd have thought if it was a mechanical issue, the problem would be more evident as if something is broke inside, it's always broke. The fact that it can run perfectly seems to indicate that it's a power to the Dec motor issue or it's a software issue. I would try and replicate the issue with the hand controller. If it doesn't do it then it would seem there is an issue with Eqmod and the mount. If it does then it would seem to be something internally and that would require disassembling for further investigation.

Makes sense. I'll give it another test as soon as I can.

[david_taurus83]

Just thinking, I know you said you checked the power supply and it was fine. But if your going to try with the hand controller then set slew rate to 9, go into utility function, display information and select voltage. While slewing each axis and both at the same time you can monitor what the voltage is doing from the inside. Just to rule out your power supply.

[cotterless45]

Before you try this , http://www.astro-baby.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-we1.htm

Remove the cover and check with the clutch released that you can move the main cog round freely with fingers. Once adjusted the mount should run quietly. You video noises sound very much like adjustment required,

Nick.

[cuivenion]

18 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

Just thinking, I know you said you checked the power supply and it was fine. But if your going to try with the hand controller then set slew rate to 9, go into utility function, display information and select voltage. While slewing each axis and both at the same time you can monitor what the voltage is doing from the inside. Just to rule out your power supply.

Thanks I'll check it out.

[cuivenion]

12 minutes ago, cotterless45 said:

Before you try this , http://www.astro-baby.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-we1.htm

Remove the cover and check with the clutch released that you can move the main cog round freely with fingers. Once adjusted the mount should run quietly. You video noises sound very much like adjustment required,

Nick.

The weird thing is if that were the case you would have thought the problem would be less intermittent. I will check though thanks.

[spillage]

How are you running the mount and eqmod. Is this with a laptop or do you have a computer in the obs. If you have another laptop or pc have you tried installing all the software there and trying that?

I take it the old psu is working but the mount was doing the same with the new supply? I cannot see that two psu's would be faulty. Take the advise from @david_taurus83 regarding monitoring the voltage with the handset (you might find a connection with the eqdirect lead is the cause of this)  and the advise from @cotterless45 with regards to the clutch.

When this happens when does it stop? do you take the mount down and its okay next time or do you just leave it setup without touching anything and it seems okay the next time?

 

[cuivenion]

Hi yes I've tried two psu's , it's the same with both. I'll follow the advice and report back. The fault is arbitary, it doesn't always happen in the same place as far as I can see, but it is always the dec axis. Although an eqdir cable problem is possible I did originally use a eqdir bluetooth, and I had the same issue's with that. When the fault occurs it can last for a slew and then start working correctly afterwards. In the video test I had done the same slew back and forth three times before the fault occurred with no problems. There doesn't seem much rhyme or reason I'm afraid apart from its always the dec axis.

[spillage]

Just a quick thought. Try removing the clutch lever and moving it over a few clicks as this might not be locking the clutch down enough and its slipping.