starsense failure

[rwc23q]

Good morning all,

I recently purchased starsense for my 127slt. Tried to use it Sunday night, but the alignment process result was awful, and way off line.

I decided to do a firmware upgrade as read that this may well be the problem.

Did the upgrade, it didn't recognise mount but upgraded the camera and the handset, but now the camera does not seem to work (handset said waiting for camera to initialise), and handset says there is a critical error and now will not work the mount.

Changing the handset back to the nexstar+ moves the mount, so I know the mount is not dead, but really dont know what has happened to the camera and handset.

Any thoughts?

Thank you in advance.

Rob

[Cosmic Geoff]

The Starsense, I have discovered, can produce a lousy alignment even when there is nothing wrong with it.  It does not seem to work well in bright skies.  On the other hand it will still work with partial cloud cover.

As you have just learned, updating equipment firmware is not a cure-all for all problems. 😕

I suggest two things: restore the firmware to the version it had when you bought it.   Or  Google/Bing for the message that appears in the handset display and see if you can find anything relevant.

[JG777]

The camera firmware has not had an update for years whereas the HC has had many and in nearly all cases has improved things. What version do you have? When you say a critical error what exactly is the message? Are you absolutely sure you are inputting the correct data? Also did you buy from new or second hand? If it is second hand ask the previous owner if they took the camera apart perhaps to clean the glass in which case it is near impossible to get it realigned.

SSA working properly will work excellent even in bright skies and can align before dark as well so sky condition other that total cloud does not really factor in. The camera should resolve 100 stars , any less and there is a problem , either clouds, or some other obstruction in which case a manual alignment is required.