Mount encoder fix?

[Mendrinos]

My Orion Starseeker IV mount has recently started acting weirdly in that it will continue to spew even after the movement buttons have been released, this will then render all buttons on the handset useless as nothing will work until it is switched off and on again. I contacted Orion and they claimed it may be faulty optical encoders but they haven’t yet replied on how I can fix it and I don’t really want to pay too much to fix it. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could fix it myself?

[Peter Drew]

Being as it appears to have worked originally I would start looking at its power supply or connections, weird behaviour often starts with issues in this area.  

[Mendrinos]

31 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

Being as it appears to have worked originally I would start looking at its power supply or connections, weird behaviour often starts with issues in this area.  

Thanks Peter, I have tried the mount both on battery power and plugged in using the supplied mains adapter but both yield the same results

[ChrisEll]

Is the fault in one motor or both? Hard to see how both encoders would go at the same time, so if both it may be something else like motherboard or handset.

Here's a thread on replacing a motor encoder in an Celestron mount... might give you some idea of what's involved.

[Mendrinos]

50 minutes ago, ChrisEll said:

Is the fault in one motor or both? Hard to see how both encoders would go at the same time, so if both it may be something else like motherboard or handset.

Here's a thread on replacing a motor encoder in an Celestron mount... might give you some idea of what's involved.

It is both motors which made me think it could be something else too... I don’t think you included the link in your post however (either that or my phone is not showing it)

[michael8554]

The suggestion is that a faulty encoder would cause the mount to continue slewing, waiting for the correct number of ticks to be counted.

But the encoders are only counting to where you have stopped with manual moves, they shouldn't carry on after you release the buttons, that's sticky buttons or power related runaways

You could test that theory by gotos between stars at the same RA, then at the same Dec.

If both are faulty, which is unlikely at the same time as Chris suggests, then you'll have to look elesewhere.

Michael

[ChrisEll]

7 hours ago, Mendrinos said:

It is both motors which made me think it could be something else too... I don’t think you included the link in your post however (either that or my phone is not showing it)

Sorry, here it is: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/551524-celestron-as-gt-ra-encoder/

[Mendrinos]

13 hours ago, michael8554 said:

The suggestion is that a faulty encoder would cause the mount to continue slewing, waiting for the correct number of ticks to be counted.

But the encoders are only counting to where you have stopped with manual moves, they shouldn't carry on after you release the buttons, that's sticky buttons or power related runaways

You could test that theory by gotos between stars at the same RA, then at the same Dec.

If both are faulty, which is unlikely at the same time as Chris suggests, then you'll have to look elesewhere.

Michael

Thanks Michael, I will give this a go and see what happens. 

 

7 hours ago, ChrisEll said:

Sorry, here it is: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/551524-celestron-as-gt-ra-encoder/

 

Perfect, thanks