Arg - what am I doing wrong ??

[powerlord]

I'm struggling to get my EQStarPro, fitted on my EQ5 to align with synscan.

I've done alignments plenty times with my AZ GTI in EQ mode, but I'm sure i still MUST be doing something stupid.

a picture tells a thousand words.. and a video more so - so see below.

I start with it in home north/polaris facing. no alignment set, everything restarted. i try a 2 star alignment, starting with vega which at this time is should be about 90 degrees east... but it turns the wrong way, then keeps going and going on the RA spinning around 360 degrees and ending up pointing north but with the thing tilted at 90 degrees!

binning that, and trying the '2 brightest star' and manually going to vega. tell it im there, and select deneb as second (roughly north) - but again it goes off on it's merry way spinning the RA through 360 degrees and ending up pointing at who knows what... with the degrees showing it getting closer for a bit... then further and further away up to about 180, then it starts coming down again, even though its just kept rotating the RA.

manually moves fine with joystick AND with synscan controls. What am I doing wrong ??

stu

 

[jambouk]

I don’t know this set up but things which come to mind are:

Does it work with the handset (as in is there an issue with the phone software / communication side of things?)

Are the leads to the RA and Dec the correct way around?

Does it have any encoders? Can these be turned off to see if they are causing problems?

Where does it all get it’s time, date and location from? Are these correct?

Ignoring alignment, does it track, and slew as expected?

If you do a one star alignment what happens?

At the start of the video you said something about azimuth 360 degrees, but then said something about 61 degrees, what was that?

Good luck

 

[david_taurus83]

Does your phone receive GPS signal while your inside? Doesn't the app use that to determine the location and time? Have you tried the PC version of the app? Or a handset?

[Dazzyt66]

I had an issue with the Synscan app moving mount in wrong direction - I had to reset it. It’s in the alignment menu. Put your mount in home position, go to alignment in the app and hit reset alignment, but I think you said that was greyed out - so I guess it’s not that? I am assuming that your gps is all correct at this point (I never had a problem with the app doing that correctly but it is worth checking) and that you have the app set to EQ mode rather than Alt Az? If you were using it with your other mount you should have changed this?

 

HTH 😊

Edited April 7, 2021 by Dazzyt66

[powerlord]

thanks chaps. I posted as I didn't know if I'd get much support from the manufacturer in Ukraine (astro-gadget.net) , language barriers, etc.

In the end, they replied almost immediately and after a few emails back and forth the issue is resolved ! I'd really recommend this kit to anyone looking to automate an EQ5 - for 100 quid more than a standard motor kit you get full servo precision, full goto and guiding and built in wifi - what's not to like !

anyhoo, the issue is I think a specific weirdness in how this works, but not having a 'real' sky-watcher goto kit, others will have to tell me if this is different or not.

Starting from everything fresh and reset, if you just follow the synscan app instructions it won't work. They mention hibernate, but only as a way of avoiding re-alignment every session IF you don't move your mount.

Hence, for most of us, who probably take it out and in every night on a tripod, it probably isn't used ?

Here, it must be or you'll get nowhere.

Here is the setup procedure (and if others tell me infact this is identical to regular SW kit - fair enough - I'd then say the manual is even worse than I previously thought!)

1. turn mount on and connect to app.

2. manually ensure that the mount/OTA is in home position (with hands) - this is mount pointing north, weights down, OTA pointing at Polaris.

3. Go into Utility menu, and choose hibernate. The mount will start moving. It will probably keep moving for a while and may twist up the cables, so it might be you have to either make sure it doesn't or unplug DEC cable at this point (if you unplug i found you need a power cycle before it works again)

4. once it's stopped it will be somewhere weird. No worries, manually move it (with hands) back to HOME position.

5. IF you unplugged cable, power cycle mount at this point, and stop app (remove from running), and restart app and connect.

6. If you now look at I (info) it should say its at 360 degrees and your home DEC (52.01 for me).

7. Provided you ALWAYS now use utility/hibernate to return the mount to the HOME before turning it off, you don't need to repeat the above.

8. You can now, and ONLY now go into alignment and do it. Now, say a 2 star alignment will actually move to the first star as intended, etc.

9. After alignment, you are good to GOTO.

10. At end of session, Utilities/Hibernate to move back to HOME position. NOTE: there's no encoders here anywhere, so it's not important whether you stopped using GOTO during session and started manually (with hands) moving it around - you still need to use Utilities/Hiberate at the end and let EQ5STARPRO at least THINK it's going back to HOME.

11. Turn off.

12. Next night or whatever, when turned on, FIRST THING is that it SHOULD offer to restore hibernate position - let it. If  you physically have it in HOME position it shouldn't move.

13. You can now either use previous alignment (if not moved) or more likely reset aligment, and setup again from 8.

phew. that sounds worse than it is. And frankly without Alexander's help at astro-gadget.net I'd never have worked that out.

Now I know the process all I need is a night I can actually see some stars !!!!

stu

[jambouk]

Interesting. If there are no encoders, it must have some kind of marker on the gearing, but whatever, glad it is working.

 

[powerlord]

I don't think so jambouk - it's servos - so what Alexander said was basically the hibernate is used so that the kit can work out the gearing accurately from the servo steps its done. Once it's done that it has all it needs ? A bit like the onstep ?