Why Me! CEM40 Electronic issue?

[Icesheet]

I had my CEM40 mount out for the first time this evening and it quickly went downhill. I had downloaded all the drivers, ASCOM platform, iOptron commander etc and when I connected the mount to my laptop I got an error saying no iOptron product recognised. I then got an error message that the USB connection had failed. I had another USB-B cable so I tried that and got the no iOptron product recognised message again. I decided to try my ASIair Pro and this time I was able to connect to the mount but it made a strange noise when tracking. At first I thought this was related to the USB-B connection but the noise is apparent when tracking through the hand controller too. Furthermore, when I connected to iPolar it made my mouse pointer have a life of it's own (see attached videos).

 

Can anyone suggest what the issue might be here? I'm praying this does not need to be sent back!

[david_taurus83]

That doesn't sound good. What power supply are you using for the mount? My CEM25 is whisper quiet and its never made a sound like that. Are you using a quality serial to USB cable for connecting hand controller to laptop?

[Icesheet]

I'm using the 12v DC power supply that was delivered with the mount. Also, I am/ was using the USB B cable that was provided with the mount to connect to my laptop so that's not via the HC but straight from the laptop to a USB port on the mount. I did notice that the connection wasn't very secure right enough. The EQ6-R I had before had a similar USB port so I still had a cable from that. Tried that too. No success. 

Edited September 16, 2020 by Icesheet

[PaulE54]

One thought - you do have the scope and counterweights fitted, and the mount in balance in RA and Dec, don't you? A badly unbalanced mount might do that...otherwise, I'd be phoning the dealer. Hope you get it sorted.

Paul

[Icesheet]

3 hours ago, PaulE54 said:

One thought - you do have the scope and counterweights fitted, and the mount in balance in RA and Dec, don't you? A badly unbalanced mount might do that...otherwise, I'd be phoning the dealer. Hope you get it sorted.

Paul

Yes it had this on it (excuse the mess!). Balance was good. At least good enough anyway. Plus when it’s slewing it sounds fine. It only makes  that noise when it’s tracking in sidereal. Actually the sound isn’t something I associate with something mechanical. It’s more like a buzzing with something electrical. 
 

Ive emailed iOptron and informed my dealer so fingers crossed. 

[Icesheet]

Well, I've made some progress on this and mostly it is good news. I've only had an initial response from iOptron and since I only have about a week left for a return I decided to make use of some cloud free hours and load it up again.

It didn't start out well. iPolar wouldn't connect and neither would the mount via USB. I double checked all drivers and everything was up to date. I was about to pack it in when I tried one more time. This time I held the USB cable firmly in place and it finally connected. I tested this with the mouse pointer problem too and it seems it is directly related to the connection. When I held it in place the mouse moved normally, when I let go the pointer went crazy again.

Anyway, I managed to get polar aligned (turns out it wasn't that good) before Polaris clouded out. I slewed over to a clear part of the sky and put the mount on sidereal. For the first 5-10 secs it made the buzzing noise but then it suddenly stopped. I don't know why but it didn't come back for the rest of the night. I then set up the mount in PHD2, ran a calibration, guide assistant and let it track for about an hour.  The results are attached, which suffice to say I'm very happy with. If the GA is to be believed my PE (~6arcsec P-P) is actually even better than the provided curve measured by encoder (~10arcsec P-P). Could there an error in the PHD2 guiding assistant? 

So there appears to be no mechanical issues and I may even have a better than average sample so now I really don't want to let it go. Having said that I can see myself getting fed up holding the USB in place when I need to polar align or have to do anything on the laptop. It also may rule out a remote session and what if the connection drops out in the middle of an imaging run. Is there any way I can secure the connection myself without having to send it away to get fixed?

 

 

 

PHD2_GuideLog_2020-09-19_222040.txt

Edited September 20, 2020 by Icesheet