HEQ5 sounds

[FarAndBeyond]

On 02/12/2018 at 16:03, Owmuchonomy said:

Nobody it appears has mentioned the ‘clutch’ sound that is indicative of either a worm adjustment that is too tight or a poorly balanced OTA.  Having lived with an HEQ5 for 7 years I wouldn’t do anything until I had adjusted the worm float for both axes. Use the astrobaby link posted by @vlaiv. It’s not unusual for this mount to be noisy. I eventually did a Rowan mod but only to remove backlash in imaging. It didn’t make much difference if any to the noise level during slewing.

Interesting, can I ask you which clutch sounds you mean, when and  where is that sound coming from?

Also I noticed that when the mount is powered OFF and the RA axis clutch is locked and I grab the RA axis piece of the mount and wiggle it back and forth it has some play even though the clutch is very tightly locked, its not that much but its still clearly there, do you people also have this play on your mounts? I can imagine its the gear that has some play, or maybe its something else, and I guess that is whats allowing for backlash since the RA axis can move back a little bit to the other direction than its intended to move (track). I was/am a bit worried that it could affect tracking, but shouldn't the gear system keep "pressure" on the RA axis to the direction its tracking so it doesn´t all of a sudden move back a bit due to the play in the axis, since its constantly moving in the tracked direction one would think that that keeps it from experiencing backlash in the middle of tracking? At least on my ETX70 with a ALT/AZ GOTO mount the backlash only happened when the mount started rotating in some direction, not during the tracking movement. 

[Owmuchonomy]

That’s why I suggested you don’t do anything until you have adjusted the worm float as described in Astrobaby’s guide. Do that first so you know the mount is tuned then decide if there are other issues. A belt mod may not be what you need.  I never used the polar scope. It is rendered superfluous by the excellent polar alignment routine on the Synscan handset. You only need to align your RA axis roughly in the direction of the NCP to run the handset routine.

[philj]

On 01/12/2018 at 11:01, Stub Mandrel said:

Finish Line Teflon Grease (sold for bicycles). I adjusted the positions of the gears/steppers to be as close as possible without binding.

Yeay, thats what I used  smells nice too

[Skipper Billy]

A wee tip - when I had a HEQ5 I spent ages tuning out the backlash only to find that when used in anger outside, the backlash had reappeared.

Eventually I figured out that when it was adjusted at indoor room temperature (22º) then taken outside (-5 to +5º) everything contracts creating backlash !

So make any adjustments when the mount is roughly at the temperature at which you will be using it at !

The belt mod didn't make much difference to performance except it was a bit quieter.

The thing that made an enormous difference was changing the bearings for good quality ones from FAG/SKF etc and cleaning everything before regreasing with 'SuperLube' - quieter, smoother, better tracking and much better guiding.

 

[FarAndBeyond]

So what amount of time Is considered normal for an unmodified HEQ5 to keep the tracking of an object, and also does a Rowan belt modded HEQ5 manage to track longer than an unmodded HEQ5?

And what about an autoguider, do they work miracles in improving the tracking time for long exposure AP?

[Stub Mandrel]

11 hours ago, FarAndBeyond said:

So what amount of time Is considered normal for an unmodified HEQ5 to keep the tracking of an object,

A couple of minutes or more with good polar alignment and a scope of 5-600mm focal length. Modding wont affect this.

Autoguiding allows you to track almost indefinitely.

[FarAndBeyond]

On 06/12/2018 at 18:09, Stub Mandrel said:

A couple of minutes or more with good polar alignment and a scope of 5-600mm focal length. Modding wont affect this.

Autoguiding allows you to track almost indefinitely.

 

Okay so it seems an autoguider is very important then? I guess its the same with autoguiders as with everything else that you get what you pay for, or does the cheaper ones work good as well?

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, FarAndBeyond said:

 

Okay so it seems an autoguider is very important then? I guess its the same with autoguiders as with everything else that you get what you pay for, or does the cheaper ones work good as well?

I don't know, to be honest. I use a camera with PHD2 on my laptop, and the results I get seem to be in line with what other people get with an HEQ5.

[FarAndBeyond]

So just to be clear, the earlier mentioned  "play" i´m experiencing in the RA axis when I grab hold of the RA axis and "wiggle" it back and forth, is it the same thing thats also causing the common backlash that most mounts seem to have, or is that something else?

And for the people having the Pro version of the HEQ5 mounts, the manual states that the mount should be powered with a power supply with a voltage between 7.5-12 Volt, but when I connected the power cable for the car (with the cigarette lighter socket) and I measured the voltage that came from my car cigarette lighter socket it showed 14.3 Volts.

So does the mount handle 14.3 Volts ? I haven't connected the mount to the car yet, I just measured the cigarette lighter port voltage with a multimeter. But most cars are giving out more than 12 Volts through the cigarette lighter port, so that would be strange if the mount only would handle up to 12 V but still is advertised as being able to be powered from the car? So what is the maximum voltage that the mount can handle without damaging or being harmful to the mount? Also the manual stated that the power supply should be at least 100mA, does the HEQ5 Pro really only use 100mA, I thought it used around 2-3A?

[FarAndBeyond]

On ‎29‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 11:42, Spaced Out said:

I thought the same but I tried the HEQ5 & 200PDS combo out for the first time recently, this is my first image with this set up using a DSLR (16 subs, no calibration frames). Its not perfect but I was happy as first attempt with what I thought might be quite difficult equipment.

I used an OAG to keep the weight down and was getting 10 minute exposures no problem. Yes, I guess it’s probably near its weight limit for imaging but with suitable conditions it worked OK. I’m looking forward to doing some more with 200PDS now.

Good luck ! ?

 

By the way, nice looking photo, thats my goal as well to take nice Astro photos.

 

On ‎05‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 17:33, Owmuchonomy said:

That’s why I suggested you don’t do anything until you have adjusted the worm float as described in Astrobaby’s guide. Do that first so you know the mount is tuned then decide if there are other issues. A belt mod may not be what you need.  I never used the polar scope. It is rendered superfluous by the excellent polar alignment routine on the Synscan handset. You only need to align your RA axis roughly in the direction of the NCP to run the handset routine.

I checked Astobaby´s adjustment page, there seems to be a sweet spot as she called it. She says the following:

"The worm setting procedure - especially for the RA axis is very hit and miss and you will probably need to go through it several time to find the 'sweet spot' where there is both no play in the mount and the RA motor can turn the mount smoothly with no motor stall or gear binding".

So is it hard to achieve this sweet spot or does it take time and hard work to achieve it? I dont want to end up making it worse than it was before I started the adjustment. 

You also mentioned about the polar alignment routine that you use the "SynScan Handset routine", what is this handset routine you are talking about?

[Danjc]

52 minutes ago, FarAndBeyond said:

So does the mount handle 14.3 Volts ?

I can’t comment on 14.3v but I have just measured the output voltage from my Nevada Power supply and it reads 13.71v and that’s what I power my HEQ5 Pro from. 

Noise wise I was actually expecting mine to be a little noisier and think it’s pretty quiet. I can only base this comparison on a Meade ETX90 i had years ago. My mount is standard without the belt mod.

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

4 hours ago, FarAndBeyond said:

So just to be clear, the earlier mentioned  "play" i´m experiencing in the RA axis when I grab hold of the RA axis and "wiggle" it back and forth, is it the same thing thats also causing the common backlash that most mounts seem to have, or is that something else?

And for the people having the Pro version of the HEQ5 mounts, the manual states that the mount should be powered with a power supply with a voltage between 7.5-12 Volt, but when I connected the power cable for the car (with the cigarette lighter socket) and I measured the voltage that came from my car cigarette lighter socket it showed 14.3 Volts.

So does the mount handle 14.3 Volts ? I haven't connected the mount to the car yet, I just measured the cigarette lighter port voltage with a multimeter. But most cars are giving out more than 12 Volts through the cigarette lighter port, so that would be strange if the mount only would handle up to 12 V but still is advertised as being able to be powered from the car? So what is the maximum voltage that the mount can handle without damaging or being harmful to the mount? Also the manual stated that the power supply should be at least 100mA, does the HEQ5 Pro really only use 100mA, I thought it used around 2-3A?

Perhaps best explained by saying the play doesn't cause the backlash is IS the backlash.

I've run my HEQ5 on 14V without harm and off 12V lead acid batteries.

100mA seems low, but it only peaks during slewing. The figures of 2-3A seem way to high to me, I have run mine for 6 hours of a 7Ah battery and it was a long way from being flat at the end of the night.

[Owmuchonomy]

10 hours ago, FarAndBeyond said:

By the way, nice looking photo, thats my goal as well to take nice Astro photos.

 

I checked Astobaby´s adjustment page, there seems to be a sweet spot as she called it. She says the following:

"The worm setting procedure - especially for the RA axis is very hit and miss and you will probably need to go through it several time to find the 'sweet spot' where there is both no play in the mount and the RA motor can turn the mount smoothly with no motor stall or gear binding".

So is it hard to achieve this sweet spot or does it take time and hard work to achieve it? I dont want to end up making it worse than it was before I started the adjustment. 

You also mentioned about the polar alignment routine that you use the "SynScan Handset routine", what is this handset routine you are talking about?

If you want the mount to run smoothly and with minimal backlash then it's important to invest time in sorting it out.  That's why adjustment is provided.  Only you can judge if it is hard work.  The Synscan Handset has a routine that allows you to accurately set the Polar Alignment.  You don't need a Polar Scope, which is a pain in my view, just a rough axis alignment to start off.  It is fully described in the instruction manual and is part of the auxiliary function section (Sec. 11.3 page 36 in my manual).

[FarAndBeyond]

23 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Perhaps best explained by saying the play doesn't cause the backlash is IS the backlash.

I've run my HEQ5 on 14V without harm and off 12V lead acid batteries.

100mA seems low, but it only peaks during slewing. The figures of 2-3A seem way to high to me, I have run mine for 6 hours of a 7Ah battery and it was a long way from being flat at the end of the night.

Yeah I guess thats what I meant that the play is the backlash. Ok you are running your mount at 14V, in my case its 14.31V so I don´t know if those 0.3V extra would be the straw that breaks the camels back? It would be nice to hear some information about up to which voltage the HEQ5 Pro is safe to use?

Maybe I should send Skywatcher or Synta an email asking this?

[FarAndBeyond]

18 hours ago, Owmuchonomy said:

If you want the mount to run smoothly and with minimal backlash then it's important to invest time in sorting it out.  That's why adjustment is provided.  Only you can judge if it is hard work.  The Synscan Handset has a routine that allows you to accurately set the Polar Alignment.  You don't need a Polar Scope, which is a pain in my view, just a rough axis alignment to start off.  It is fully described in the instruction manual and is part of the auxiliary function section (Sec. 11.3 page 36 in my manual).

Yes I checked again in the manual and have read the piece you are referring to. This topic is highly interesting for me and I was about to ask about this thing in another thread, since I don´t have any visibility at all to Polaris from my balcony (where i´m planning to have my scope most of the time) and thus im looking for ways to make an alignment somehow without Polaris, the problem is that it would need to be a good enough alignment to be used for AP.

[Owmuchonomy]

2 minutes ago, FarAndBeyond said:

Yes I checked again in the manual and have read the piece you are referring to. This topic is highly interesting for me and I was about to ask about this thing in another thread, since I don´t have any visibility at all to Polaris from my balcony (where i´m planning to have my scope most of the time) and thus im looking for ways to make an alignment somehow without Polaris, the problem is that it would need to be a good enough alignment to be used for AP.

According to PHD2 and it’s alignment error function, the handset routine provided an extremely accurate PA.

[FarAndBeyond]

1 minute ago, Owmuchonomy said:

According to PHD2 and it’s alignment error function, the handset routine provided an extremely accurate PA.

Thanks, I will have to look into that routine, and check out PHD2 as well.