GOTO reliability (mechanical/electrical)?

[Alfian]

Thinking about maybe adding another mount to the stable later in the year and a GOTO keeps crossing my mind, amongst others. What I'm wondering is that freedom find aside if a GOTO fails for whatever reason you have useless mount,  so how reliable are GOTO mounts like the Syncscan in terms of their mechanical and electrical components? Can you expect to have a good few years use out of them?

[des anderson]

Everything has a draw back, and yes GOTO`s can go wrong, but for finding faint fuzzy`s you just can`t beat them, being a visual observer myself, I`ll give them a big thumbs up. Des

[JAO]

I spent many years finding very faint objects wit a Telrad and chart. Eventually I began to use JMI NGC Max 'push to' systems, principally to increase productivity in the vagaries of the British weather. I have in recent years owned and used three different Goto Systems. Meade LX200, AWR Goto and Skywatcher Synscan. All have preformed well with minimal tweaking, adjusting and maintenance, mainly the mechanical side rather than the electronics. All systems have also lived outside in observatory. Modern systems are pretty reliable in my experience and in real terms very cheap compared to when Goto first emerged.

[Peter Drew]

I have several Goto telescopes but never use the function as the objects I'm interested in looking at are easy enough to find without. 

[nightfisher]

If its any help as you know i had the goto mount, it seemed to work well for the first few object, then it seemed to lose its way a little

[happy-kat]

Freedom find is useful for two reasons.

1- if the power battery goes flat you can carry on observing.

2- observing with others if the telescope is moved then just select the object again and the mount will slew to it. The mount knows where it is without realignment.

[Alfian]

8 minutes ago, nightfisher said:

If its any help as you know i had the goto mount, it seemed to work well for the first few object, then it seemed to lose its way a little

Yes, I remember you had a star discovery I think complete with home made pier. A pity it didn't work out. I've read quite a lot of comments about Goto accuracy or not as the case may be. Proper set up seems to be a must and a good power supply too. Some seem to locate and track pretty reliably and some not which is not that encouraging but I figure if I bought new (gulp!) and it wasn't good I could return it.  My main concern here is longer term reliability, ie is the investment worth it? To put this into some kind of perspective, I had started out looking for a manual fairly compact  light-ish weight stable mount for a small scope to use at our caravan. (Pronto/AZ5?) That has led onto a tracking mount (Supatrak?) then thought, why not go the whole hog? The idea is still in the floaty stage and it will take some time to gather up some funds but the lighter nights of summer are before us so time is on my side.

[Ronclarke]

I've had 2 Goto's, an EQ5 Pro and a HEQ5 Pro, both have served me well for many years. I now use the SW WiFi app and the goto facility is much enhanced and as an imager saves me time and much frustration!!

 

Ron

[happy-kat]

I've had my virtuoso a number of years now and it works well if the power is right so I now use a small lightweight liFePo4 which also doubles up as a light and phone charger.

I bought the mount only from astroboot and a couple years later a handset, and then a battery when on offer from FLO, I already had a scope for it.

Maybe see if by the summer the azgti can get the head only and see if it could did be used on your eq3-2 tripod legs.

[Alfian]

Thanks for that idea, something similar had crossed my mind. The AZgti looks interesting but I like the idea of using a handset rather than a tablet but there's time to be persuaded otherwise I suppose. Putting a package together from Astroboot (Syncscan?) might work with the attendant savings, postage apart.

[happy-kat]

As far I know can't you plug a synscan handset into the azgti head?

Check which ports it has.

[Alfian]

Yes, you're right it's can be added as an extra, so could be bought separately. More food for thought!

[Owmuchonomy]

I have used Synscan since 2007 on an HEQ5 or now on an AZ EQ 6. It has never missed. The latter mount has inbuilt encoders so even if you bash the mount it knows where to go back to your object.

[Cosmic Geoff]

I think one should not worry much about GoTo reliability. Modern manufacturing produces products that don't often fail in service. I have had cars full of electronic and other gadgetry including ABS and none of it ever went wrong. I can't say the same for the engines (wore out at various high mileages) and bodywork (rust). Mostly the bodywork.  Ditto a collection of home audio and video products. And most of my computers got retired because they became obsolescent, not because they were faulty.

Returning to GoTos, it seems that such problems that occur are generally down to the operator or the vagaries of the power supply, not the product reliability.  If you have ever dismantled one you will know that there is not much inside to go wrong!

 

[Alfian]

10 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Returning to GoTos, it seems that such problems that occur are generally down to the operator or the vagaries of the power supply, not the product reliability.  If you have ever dismantled one you will know that there is not much inside to go wrong!

Reassuring words, Geoff thanks. Electronic stuff does tend to be pretty reliable these days, except in my experience electric kettles and irons! I have an old spare backup computer, 2006 I think, that still works just fine, and not that slow and regarding your last comment, as one who has built my own PCs for that last 20+ years, the building blocks are pretty simple, like Lego. I was just curious how this combination of chips, GPS and motors and weight loading bearings, I assume,  stand up to the rigours of use over time. Seems like there is not too much to worry about.

[happy-kat]

I've even read a guide on stripping one type of mount to sort the burr build up on the bushes.