Synscan - can't manage to star align successfully

[happy-kat]

What are you using to power your mount?

[Cornelius Varley]

6 hours ago, msacco said:

I don't think it can be the case for me as well, as I'm not using the home position to star align since I can simply move to the first star manually, so I wouldn't expect it to be accurate on first align.

I actually bought my mount and scope second hand, pretty sure he bought the mount with the GOTO.

Start from the home position and allow the mount to slew automatically to where it believes the first star is and then release the clutches, if necessary, to get the telescope closer to the star.

Does the mount have a metal disc on the side ? Does it say EQ5 or EQ5 Pro ? Did the previous owner have problems with the mount ?

[JOC]

3 hours ago, happy-kat said:

What are you using to power your mount?

That's a good call, there have lots of reports on SGL of people resolving problems with a better power supply.  For the auto Dob I use a massive car jump-start pack (18Amphr), but I've also got a mains adaptor just to be sure and I use that when I can.

[dph1nm]

On 16/06/2019 at 12:02, msacco said:

So after finishing with the 3-star alignment, it says that the alignment is successful, but it's simply completely off.

Some simple tests: after the 'successful' 3-star align get the mount to GOTO to the same stars you have used for alignment (using the named star option in the hand-controller). Does this work? If not, just do a 1-star align and  repeat the test (i.e. GOTO the named star you have just used for the alignment). In this case mount should (hardly) move and the star should remain in the eyepiece. If it does, then randomly move the mount off to some other part of the sky (with the hand-controller buttons) and repeat. Does it go back to the alignment star?

NIgelM

[dph1nm]

... I reckon that if it fails the 1 star test then you either have a mechanical or software problem with the mount.

NIgelM

Edited June 18, 2019 by dph1nm

[msacco]

11 hours ago, happy-kat said:

What are you using to power your mount?

I have a fairly new(less than a year) 75 AH AGM deep cycle battery, I'm also using a step up converter to have the voltage remain steady on 13V, I don't think that's the issue

7 hours ago, Cornelius Varley said:

Start from the home position and allow the mount to slew automatically to where it believes the first star is and then release the clutches, if necessary, to get the telescope closer to the star.

Does the mount have a metal disc on the side ? Does it say EQ5 or EQ5 Pro ? Did the previous owner have problems with the mount ?

So I just tried something now, let me know what do you guys think, I did it in my room.

I've set the mount approximately to the CNP, and setting my mount to home position, I've tured on the synscan and set up all the details as should, then began the 1-star alignment.

I've let it slew to Antares and then when it finished(completely off staring at the ground), I've manually set it approximately on Antares and then finished the alignment. I've then set it to jupiter and it looks like it went correctly to jupiter, then set it back to Antares and it also seemed to work properly.

The next think I've tried is setting it back to the home position, but here it actually wen't completely off. I've manually set it to the home position and turned off the mount.

Then I turned it on again and tried again 1-star alignment to Antares, once again it went completely off.

A few things to note:

I did it in my room, it was not suppose to be very accurate, but I was able to approximately see where it behaves as expected and when it doesn't.

The mount was not balaced, but from what I understand, telescope balance shouldn't cause such differences(talking about differences of 30-40 cm, and not slight difference which would make sense by an unbalanced telescope).

I'm really confused by the results, if the telescope correctly knows I'm looking at Antares or jupiter, why does the home position is being so off?

Doesn't really make sense to me.

7 hours ago, JOC said:

That's a good call, there have lots of reports on SGL of people resolving problems with a better power supply.  For the auto Dob I use a massive car jump-start pack (18Amphr), but I've also got a mains adaptor just to be sure and I use that when I can.

See above reply

6 hours ago, dph1nm said:

Some simple tests: after the 'successful' 3-star align get the mount to GOTO to the same stars you have used for alignment (using the named star option in the hand-controller). Does this work? If not, just do a 1-star align and  repeat the test (i.e. GOTO the named star you have just used for the alignment). In this case mount should (hardly) move and the star should remain in the eyepiece. If it does, then randomly move the mount off to some other part of the sky (with the hand-controller buttons) and repeat. Does it go back to the alignment star?

NIgelM

Once again, I'm completely confused by the results.

I've tried to 1-star align with Antares, it seems to be working only for the same sky direction of Antares, for example, jupiter, saturn, Albali and Altair all seemed to be pretty much in the correct direction.

On the other hand for example, Arcrutus, Vega, Alioth were pretty much completely off, some were aiming almost at the ground, some were just not really in the correct direction, when I slew back to Antares, it seemed to be at the 'correct' position again.

I also tried to 3-star align with Antares, Vega and Arcrutus. But again, after the first star align with Antares(which seemed to be working with the above stars I've mentioned), I went to Arcrutus and that was really off. I've set it pretty much on the direction and then went to Vega. That was also off and I set it correctly.

After finishing the 3-star align it says that the alignment might be poor(not sure if that's because it makes sense due to the fact that it was only approximate, or something really was off), but then when I tried to get back to Antares, it was off again.

Any ideas? :[

Thanks!

[Cornelius Varley]

1 hour ago, msacco said:

I have a fairly new(less than a year) 75 AH AGM deep cycle battery, I'm also using a step up converter to have the voltage remain steady on 13V, I don't think that's the issue

What is the specification of the convertor ? Have you tried using the battery direct at the standard voltage ?

[msacco]

14 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

What is the specification of the convertor ? Have you tried using the battery direct at the standard voltage ?

I had an issue with the voltage dropping when slewing on full speed 2 motors, and I've also seen many others which it happened to them, so I did this.

But it also happens when using wall plug, so I really don't think that's related.

[JOC]

Given your location, i.e.considerably South of many of us I wonder where your scope was shipped from.  Is there any difference in the Synscan software when they are programmed with the intent to view Southern hemisphere objects.  Could it be something like using a scope set up for and shipped from  the southern hemisphere in the Northern hemisphere.  It sounds in places like it is 180 degrees out.  I have seen almost the same issue when I've done something daft with the lat/long setup maybe misding leading zeros or forgetting minus signs or E/W designations.  OK he S. Hemisphere idea is only me thinking outside the box, I have no idea how these things work in reality, but someone on SGL will know.

Regarding the weight issue.  OK I know I have a complerely different system, but the difference in weight of just one  large EP is sufficient to pull my tube completely down to the ground, not just be a few cm out.   I wonder if your setup has sufficient 'sticktion' in the system or if something is slipping that shouldn't be.

[msacco]

7 hours ago, JOC said:

Given your location, i.e.considerably South of many of us I wonder where your scope was shipped from.  Is there any difference in the Synscan software when they are programmed with the intent to view Southern hemisphere objects.  Could it be something like using a scope set up for and shipped from  the southern hemisphere in the Northern hemisphere.  It sounds in places like it is 180 degrees out.  I have seen almost the same issue when I've done something daft with the lat/long setup maybe misding leading zeros or forgetting minus signs or E/W designations.  OK he S. Hemisphere idea is only me thinking outside the box, I have no idea how these things work in reality, but someone on SGL will know.

Regarding the weight issue.  OK I know I have a complerely different system, but the difference in weight of just one  large EP is sufficient to pull my tube completely down to the ground, not just be a few cm out.   I wonder if your setup has sufficient 'sticktion' in the system or if something is slipping that shouldn't be.

As far as I know it's a telescope+mount that has been bought in from the country I live, and I don't really think it should matter since you can change it to either E/N/S/W I guess, but maybe..

As for the eyepiece, that would be shocking for me really, how can a weight of a different eyepiece do that? 

[michael8554]

11 hours ago, msacco said:

I've let it slew to Antares and then when it finished(completely off staring at the ground)

1.   It would be useful to know where the scope is pointing to after the first slew to Antares. 

If you go to the home position and set the Dec and RA setting circles to zero,you can then report where the mount is pointing to after the slew. 

For instance, it slewed 80 degrees down in Dec, and 8 hours anticlockwise in RA (viewed from the north end of the mount). 

This will give a real measure of the error, "30 to 40cms" is meaningless. 

2.   The alignment seems correct after correcting the initial error in slewing to Antares. 

But after you switch off and repeat, the error is back again. 

Did you have to set date and time again.? 

Then despite your protestations, you are setting location, date, or time incorrectly. 

Michael 

 

Edited June 19, 2019 by michael8554

[JOC]

1 hour ago, msacco said:

As for the eyepiece, that would be shocking for me really, how can a weight of a different eyepiece do that? 

Well in some cases they are socking great big lumps of glass and metal and weight of larger ones can 'considerable'!  Stick that some distance from a fulcrum and its influence on tube balance can be significant esp. if your 'sticktion' quotient is not huge.  In addition folks can add all sorts of other bits to tube ends like dew protectors which add to balance issues.  I don't have the same type of scope as you and maybe your motors are better than mine, but I DO notice balance issues and motor drive issues when I load mine too much at one end and then ask it to drive.  Balance can be such an issue that I have seen reports on SGL of folks adding magnetic weights to Dob tube ends to maintain the balance.  Now when I callibrate I only do it with scope in its 'naked' as shipped state with really light EP in place, often the one it was shipped with.

I also agree with comment above, check the Synscan settings, they don't automatically update and you do need to reset them each time/day you switch it on.

[Erling G-P]

If there's doubt whether lack of balance combined with potential heavy eyepicece might affect the alignment, then why not just balance the scope with the eyepiece used, before doing the alignment ?

Have you asked the seller about this problem ? Maybe it's something he (she?) has encountered and perhaps knows the explanation for.

[Geoff_L]

12 hours ago, msacco said:

I had an issue with the voltage dropping when slewing on full speed 2 motors, and I've also seen many others which it happened to them, so I did this.

But it also happens when using wall plug, so I really don't think that's related.

That said, something's awry if you notice a significant voltage drop when using a 75Ah AGM battery to power the mount. Even on full speed, the current draw should be minimal. FWIW, I have an EQ5 Pro mount carrying a Skywatcher Explorer 150PDS with a piggy-backed Orion ST80 complete with a DSLR imaging camera and Bresser eyepiece camera that I power with a 17Ah car jump-start pack that also provides power for my laptop and a powered USB hub without issue. I suspect that your mount is greatly unbalanced, something mechanical is binding or you have one or more electrical issues (e.g. bad connection, defective connection cable, etc.)

Have you checked the mount balance (both in RA and DEC)? Does the mount rotate freely when unclutched?

Is the error repeatable (i.e. does the mount always slew to the same, erroneous position when you slew to the first alignment star)? The cable between the control box (the one that clips to the mount, not the handset) and the RA unit and the one between the RA and DEC units are interchangeable. So, if the error is repeatable, try swapping the cables (with the power disconnected) to see if the mount slews to the same position when you slew to the first alignment star. If the mount still slews to the same (repeatable) position, the issue is probably not with the cables. However, if the position changes to a new, repeatable one, you probably have a defective cable.

FWIW, when I got my EQ5 new, the DEC drive unit wasn't correctly aligned with the corresponding input shaft on the mount and skipped the occasional gear tooth. I had to adjust the position of the DEC unit to get the mount to slew accurately. I can't find the guide I used to help sort my mount out, but there the information is out there if you search. HTH, Geoff

[msacco]

13 hours ago, michael8554 said:

1.   It would be useful to know where the scope is pointing to after the first slew to Antares. 

If you go to the home position and set the Dec and RA setting circles to zero,you can then report where the mount is pointing to after the slew. 

For instance, it slewed 80 degrees down in Dec, and 8 hours anticlockwise in RA (viewed from the north end of the mount). 

This will give a real measure of the error, "30 to 40cms" is meaningless. 

2.   The alignment seems correct after correcting the initial error in slewing to Antares. 

But after you switch off and repeat, the error is back again. 

Did you have to set date and time again.? 

Then despite your protestations, you are setting location, date, or time incorrectly. 

Michael 

 

Setting the wrong information in the synscan is something I'll probably never do, I'm following on the information with the synscan app writing it exactly as it is(up to the exact same second in the date).

I'll need to try that, but I'm not really sure when I'll have enough time for that.

13 hours ago, JOC said:

Well in some cases they are socking great big lumps of glass and metal and weight of larger ones can 'considerable'!  Stick that some distance from a fulcrum and its influence on tube balance can be significant esp. if your 'sticktion' quotient is not huge.  In addition folks can add all sorts of other bits to tube ends like dew protectors which add to balance issues.  I don't have the same type of scope as you and maybe your motors are better than mine, but I DO notice balance issues and motor drive issues when I load mine too much at one end and then ask it to drive.  Balance can be such an issue that I have seen reports on SGL of folks adding magnetic weights to Dob tube ends to maintain the balance.  Now when I callibrate I only do it with scope in its 'naked' as shipped state with really light EP in place, often the one it was shipped with.

I also agree with comment above, check the Synscan settings, they don't automatically update and you do need to reset them each time/day you switch it on.

Well even though the 200p is considered fairly heavy for the EQ5, I'm not really using any other fancy equipment, and the eyepieces are really only a few grams.

My telescope wasn't balanced at all though. The thing is, if my set up is not balanced for example, if I'm currently aiming at a correct location and the synscan knows it, then when I slew to something else the position is off, but when I slew it back to the same first position it is on the correct position, if it was due to the balance, it would make sense that it wouldn't have been slewing back to that same first position, but it does. That what my logic tells me, what do you think?

11 hours ago, Erling G-P said:

If there's doubt whether lack of balance combined with potential heavy eyepicece might affect the alignment, then why not just balance the scope with the eyepiece used, before doing the alignment ?

Have you asked the seller about this problem ? Maybe it's something he (she?) has encountered and perhaps knows the explanation for.

Well usually when I'm out I do make sure everything is balanced of course, I've asked but he said that it worked well for him.

10 hours ago, Geoff_L said:

That said, something's awry if you notice a significant voltage drop when using a 75Ah AGM battery to power the mount. Even on full speed, the current draw should be minimal. FWIW, I have an EQ5 Pro mount carrying a Skywatcher Explorer 150PDS with a piggy-backed Orion ST80 complete with a DSLR imaging camera and Bresser eyepiece camera that I power with a 17Ah car jump-start pack that also provides power for my laptop and a powered USB hub without issue. I suspect that your mount is greatly unbalanced, something mechanical is binding or you have one or more electrical issues (e.g. bad connection, defective connection cable, etc.)

Have you checked the mount balance (both in RA and DEC)? Does the mount rotate freely when unclutched?

Is the error repeatable (i.e. does the mount always slew to the same, erroneous position when you slew to the first alignment star)? The cable between the control box (the one that clips to the mount, not the handset) and the RA unit and the one between the RA and DEC units are interchangeable. So, if the error is repeatable, try swapping the cables (with the power disconnected) to see if the mount slews to the same position when you slew to the first alignment star. If the mount still slews to the same (repeatable) position, the issue is probably not with the cables. However, if the position changes to a new, repeatable one, you probably have a defective cable.

FWIW, when I got my EQ5 new, the DEC drive unit wasn't correctly aligned with the corresponding input shaft on the mount and skipped the occasional gear tooth. I had to adjust the position of the DEC unit to get the mount to slew accurately. I can't find the guide I used to help sort my mount out, but there the information is out there if you search. HTH, Geoff

I've talked with many people who have quite a lot of knowledge about electricity, and they all said that it would make sense as AGM battery voltage is fairly low generally, and since slewing with full speed on 2 motors when the battery is not full cause slight voltage drop, it sometimes reached the point where one motor stopped.

It didn't happen much, but when you have everything set up and one motor stops for a split second, the whole alignment screws up, so I just got this to make sure it never happens.

Anyhow, as I said before, I also used a wall charger, which I don't think should be related in any way.

When I was out I checked that everything is balanced, when made the test in my room the telescope wasn't balanced.

I will try what you said with changing the cables, and also about the DEC drive unit, what can I search in google to be more specific?

Thanks

[JOC]

53 minutes ago, msacco said:

if it was due to the balance, it would make sense that it wouldn't have been slewing back to that same first position, but it does. That what my logic tells me, what do you think?

When I have the issue with my motors I find it is predominately the vertical up down movement that is affect.  Horizontal it usually gets correct amd often I find the star in question by just swinging the tube through the vertical axis by hand.   Downwards is usually OK too, providing it doesn't get too carried away.  It's upwards that I tend to have most issues with, therefore I do believe it is possible to go from position North level around and up and get it wrong because upwards movement has not been succesful, but still be able to return to point zero esp. If requires a downwards movement.  Are you able tell if if it gets one or both axis positions wrong?  If it is motor issue I sometimes find things can be assisted to get started by a light push in the correct direction.  It's a rooky error, but I have also ended up with the telescope pointed at the ground when I have incorrectly picked targets that aren't current 'up'. 

Another point could be software you are using to identify stars that should be there.   I use Stellarium and that is somewhat prone to forgetting where it is, what date it is and what time it is locally and thus I have often picked things to view on the stellarium screen that just aren't there!  And have got them muddled up with just what IS in the sky

[Moonshed]

Seems very odd. Usually when having serious problems achieving star alignment it’s either down to wrong location data or using the wrong time or not allowing for summer/winter time changes. A friend of mine just starting spent ages trying to solve the problem before realising he had entered the Lat and Long data incorrectly, even starting off mixing up being east or west of the Greenwich meridian. You though appear certain you have done everything right. How do you do your polar alignment? You mention that after you have done it you set up the weights and tube. This seems to me to be an odd way of doing it, why not completely set up the whole lot, scope and weights and everything else you will be using, and then do your polar alignment? That way you will not run the risk of moving the mount away from polar alignment when you add the rest of the gear. Also try using the handset for all the stars, including the first, I have never released the clutches and moved the tube manually for the first star, seems a waste of time as it will not know where it is aimed at after starting from the parked/home position and makes that first star alignment rather pointless. After doing my PA, I use a Polemaster for photographic accuracy, I only use two star alignment as with my system that allows me to name the two stars I wish to use so I can select a good spread across the sky and both away from Polaris for better accuracy. I find that with both stars the mount will move close enough so that the star will definitely be visible in the eyepiece but will need a little adjustment using the handset to get it precisely centered. 

Anyway, keep trying and check everything, I am sure you will sort it out eventually and find it was something easy to fix. Good luck.

[msacco]

7 hours ago, JOC said:

When I have the issue with my motors I find it is predominately the vertical up down movement that is affect.  Horizontal it usually gets correct amd often I find the star in question by just swinging the tube through the vertical axis by hand.   Downwards is usually OK too, providing it doesn't get too carried away.  It's upwards that I tend to have most issues with, therefore I do believe it is possible to go from position North level around and up and get it wrong because upwards movement has not been succesful, but still be able to return to point zero esp. If requires a downwards movement.  Are you able tell if if it gets one or both axis positions wrong?  If it is motor issue I sometimes find things can be assisted to get started by a light push in the correct direction.  It's a rooky error, but I have also ended up with the telescope pointed at the ground when I have incorrectly picked targets that aren't current 'up'. 

Another point could be software you are using to identify stars that should be there.   I use Stellarium and that is somewhat prone to forgetting where it is, what date it is and what time it is locally and thus I have often picked things to view on the stellarium screen that just aren't there!  And have got them muddled up with just what IS in the sky

I'm actually not really sure I understood what you said, what is the cause for what you described?

Also, yes I am using stellarium, but also using another app to verify, I can fairly easily detect when it doesn't really point to the correct star.

6 hours ago, Moonshed said:

Seems very odd. Usually when having serious problems achieving star alignment it’s either down to wrong location data or using the wrong time or not allowing for summer/winter time changes. A friend of mine just starting spent ages trying to solve the problem before realising he had entered the Lat and Long data incorrectly, even starting off mixing up being east or west of the Greenwich meridian. You though appear certain you have done everything right. How do you do your polar alignment? You mention that after you have done it you set up the weights and tube. This seems to me to be an odd way of doing it, why not completely set up the whole lot, scope and weights and everything else you will be using, and then do your polar alignment? That way you will not run the risk of moving the mount away from polar alignment when you add the rest of the gear. Also try using the handset for all the stars, including the first, I have never released the clutches and moved the tube manually for the first star, seems a waste of time as it will not know where it is aimed at after starting from the parked/home position and makes that first star alignment rather pointless. After doing my PA, I use a Polemaster for photographic accuracy, I only use two star alignment as with my system that allows me to name the two stars I wish to use so I can select a good spread across the sky and both away from Polaris for better accuracy. I find that with both stars the mount will move close enough so that the star will definitely be visible in the eyepiece but will need a little adjustment using the handset to get it precisely centered. 

Anyway, keep trying and check everything, I am sure you will sort it out eventually and find it was something easy to fix. Good luck.

Well I remember seeing a tutorial about polar alignment, and that it's recommended to do it before putting the tube etc. But last time I went out I actually did it after setting the tube, so don't think it was related.

When I do polar align is I move the mount until I see polaris in the polar scope(of course I make sure that the polar scope is aligned correctly to the date and time), then I level the mount and start my polar alignment using the lat and long screws until it's on the target.

I'll keep trying. I'm extremely positive that it's probably an easy fix, as I learned everything by myself through youtube tutorials, even though I am pretty confident about most things I'm doing, but there must be something I'm missing, I'm just not sure what

[michael8554]

Regarding the two ways of centreing the first alignment star:

The scope slews to Antares. You release the clutches and centre Antares. You have told synscan that it was spot on in it's estimation of where Antares is. It should then slew pretty close to the next alignment star. But when you Park I'd guess it will be out by the amount you moved after declutching.? Unless it's clever enough to know that Park should be x and y from Antares. 

OR

The scope slews to Antares. You centre with the handset. Synscan will now know where Antares really is, and how far from Home/Park it is. The scope should slew pretty close to the next alignment star. It should also Park correctly. 

In terms of Alignment only, both systems work IMO. 

Back to the time and date issue.

Please supply the figures you have entered for timezone, lat and long, date, and dst. 

Michael 

[Geoff_L]

9 hours ago, msacco said:

[...]

I've talked with many people who have quite a lot of knowledge about electricity, and they all said that it would make sense as AGM battery voltage is fairly low generally, and since slewing with full speed on 2 motors when the battery is not full cause slight voltage drop, it sometimes reached the point where one motor stopped.

It didn't happen much, but when you have everything set up and one motor stops for a split second, the whole alignment screws up, so I just got this to make sure it never happens.

Anyhow, as I said before, I also used a wall charger, which I don't think should be related in any way.

When I was out I checked that everything is balanced, when made the test in my room the telescope wasn't balanced.

I will try what you said with changing the cables, and also about the DEC drive unit, what can I search in google to be more specific?

Thanks

FWIW, I'm not convinced about a 'wall charger' rather than a proper power supply. A 12v battery connected to both the mount and a charger should be OK. That said, you now have me wondering whether the AGM battery is good -- they wear out eventually. Do you have another 12v power source to try? Have you tried alignment with the mount unloaded (i.e. without any equipment on the mount except, perhaps, something to use for sighting [such as a rule or other straight edge]). With that, you should be able to sight along the straight edge accurately enough to check whether the alignment is way off with the mount as lightly stressed as possible and hence determine whether load/balance is a factor.

As I wrote, I can't find the info I used but the thread I created when I had my issues is at https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/286642-sw-eq5-pro-synscan-dec-motor-which-cog/ You could also try searching for "EQ5 Pro Synscan tuning"

HTH, Geoff

[JOC]

5 hours ago, msacco said:

what is the cause for what you described?

Too much weight being at the top end of the tube, don't forget mine is a Dobsonian Newt so my EP's end up right at the open end of the tube - in a nutshell I am sure the added weight make it difficult for the motors to drive the scope in an upwards direction as they struggle to lift the added weight at the open end of the tube if I have it fitted with a weighty eyepiece or even a heavy dew shield.

[OJ87]

Hi, I would like to share my experience with EQ6-R , I have SynScan WiFi also and I use it for aligning.

first I have this problem sometimes after aligning with 1 or 2 star too, I can't say why, it's just happens, I fix it usually by home positioning , which means telescope heading north  AND the counterweight in the lowest possible position. After it you must align again.

If you are considering buying a WiFi adapter: it's a relief cus you don't need to give you coordinates and time every time you turn the device on, you can can find dso fast. But manually aligning the device is a pain, since you have only your phone's touch screen, but no physical buttons to feel and operate in dark. Also if you're planning to use it on iPhone, don't bother your self buy this,  you will have a lot of problems operating it since iOS doesn't allow it to operate in background.

Best regards,

[msacco]

On 20/06/2019 at 09:49, Geoff_L said:

FWIW, I'm not convinced about a 'wall charger' rather than a proper power supply. A 12v battery connected to both the mount and a charger should be OK. That said, you now have me wondering whether the AGM battery is good -- they wear out eventually. Do you have another 12v power source to try? Have you tried alignment with the mount unloaded (i.e. without any equipment on the mount except, perhaps, something to use for sighting [such as a rule or other straight edge]). With that, you should be able to sight along the straight edge accurately enough to check whether the alignment is way off with the mount as lightly stressed as possible and hence determine whether load/balance is a factor.

As I wrote, I can't find the info I used but the thread I created when I had my issues is at https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/286642-sw-eq5-pro-synscan-dec-motor-which-cog/ You could also try searching for "EQ5 Pro Synscan tuning"

HTH, Geoff

So I went out recently with someone who has fairly wide experience with telescopes etc(around 20 years). We tried getting it to work but we still didn't manage.

Up until now I thought I might be doing something wrong, but it seems like possibly there's really an issue.

We tried using his power supply, and also tried using his synscan controller even though I'm not really sure that's supposed to work(he has HEQ5), we also connected it to the PC and tried adjusting the gear ratios from here: http://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/prerequisites.html

That still didn't work though, it seems like it slews too much for a reason, about 1.5x what it should really slew.

So after this, I believe I'll go next week to the telescopes shop with my mount and ask them for help

I've searched a bit for what you said about the tuning, but not exactly sure that's the case, I've seen the following video for example:

It would make sense to me that motors tuning should help with fairly small error corrections, but if my scope slews 1.5x I believe that shouldn't be the case?

Might be wrong tho, I'll try watching it later on when I have some time.

So after eliminating any user errors, any more ideas I can try meanwhile before I go to the telescopes shop?

Thanks again to all!

[Geoff_L]

1.5x suggests to me (at least for the DEC drive) that you might have the wrong cog meshed with the cog on the DEC driveshaft. The smaller of the two cogs on the motor shaft should mesh with the cog on the DEC driveshaft. I've not had cause to strip the RA motor drive and so can't say whether the same applies to the RA drive. HTH, Geoff

[happy-kat]

Is it not at side real rate but set to Moon speed tracking on the handset.