AZ-EQ5 seems to be 90deg. out

[KenDavies]

Hi all,

I have an AZ-EQ5 purchased about 6 months ago which has worked perfectly up to now. Last night I set up (first clear night since before Christmas) and after polar alignment, if I tell the scope to point West (using Stellarium or the EQMod buttons) then only the declination motor moves and the scope remains pointing north but at 90 degrees from where I started. If I instruct it to point south the it turn the RA axis to point the scope West.

The coordinates and time are set correctly is EQMod using a GPS plugged in to my laptop.

Has anyone got and idea what I could be doing wrong? I set the mount up in the lounge this morning and exactly the same thing is happening.

TIA,

Ken

[Cornelius Varley]

What happens if you use the Synscan handset ?

[KenDavies]

Unfortunately exactly the same thing. I'm at a complete loss.

[lenscap]

9 hours ago, KenDavies said:

then only the declination motor moves and the scope remains pointing north but at 90 degrees from where I started.

I don't understand this.

If you start with the scope in the Home position, (weights down, scope pointed at the NCP), and only the DEC motor moves the scope will end up pointing anywhere but North?

[KenDavies]

1 minute ago, lenscap said:

I don't understand this.

If you start with the scope in the Home position, (weights down, scope pointed at the NCP), and only the DEC motor moves the scope will end up pointing anywhere but North?

Sorry I may have mis-typed that, I'm not yet familiar with the terms. The mount moves such that the telescope and weights rotate on their axis (RA?) so he scope ends up pointing in the same direction but the scope/weights are parallel to the ground and the scope is still pointing north. If that makes any sense...

[lenscap]

OK so when you press W it is the RA motor which is moving the scope to the W (but still pointing N) which seems correct.

And, if I understand you correctly, when you press S it is the DEC motor which rotates the scope away from the NCP so both motors seem to be working.

After polar aligning & putting the scope in the Home position have you attempted a 2 or 3 star alignment and if so does the scope slew correctly to the alignment stars?

[david_taurus83]

You sure you've set it to EQ mode on handset and not AZ mode?

[michael8554]

Still not clear to me what's happening.

Moving west or east should cause the lower motor to rotate (the RA drive).

Moving north or south should rotate the upper motor (the Dec drive).

In images of the mount I see an external cable to the Dec motor, is there one to the RA motor, are they in the correct sockets ?

Michael

[KenDavies]

Thanks all for the help but I think I may have solved it. I figured that (barring a cabling or mechanical fault) there should only be a limited number of things that could be wrong. The most obvious was the location data which I now get from a GPS dongle (having cocked it up enough previously) so that was fine. Then I wondered if EQMOD was assuming the wrong date/time. I couldn't see why but I did notice that it was misinterpreting both the date and time from the GPS, although this had never happened before. I removed the GPS from the equation, rebooted everything and had exactly the same problem. As a last resort before taking a hammer to the whole kit I searched for where EQMOD keeps its configuration file. In the file I found an entry "TimeDelta=-7168" and figured it must be wrong as I'm UK based and therefore GMT. I set the value to zero and did the whole restart everything bit and it works!

Now to ponder what I've learned from all this after missing easily the best viewing night of the year so far last night.

Thanks again for all the help.