Controlling mount with EQMOD via SharpCap and Stellarium - newbie!

[woldsweather]

I am only on to the 2^nd evening of trying to control my  EQM-35 PRO with EQMOD via SharpCap and Stellarium.

Last night it took 10-20 seconds for the mount to respond to an instruction. Tonight it was briefly instant for about 30 seconds, now it won’t move the mount at all and occasionally stops responding when its not responding SharpCap doesn’t respond to any instructions either. EQMOD does connect to the mount OK.

I am running a Windows PRO HP Laptop i3 with 16Gb RAM and a 1Tb SSD.

I would very much appreciate some help.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

How are you connecting between the PC & your equipment, and power supply you are using ??

[bottletopburly]

Using the slew buttons in Eqmod ,setting to slew speed 4 does it respond correctly or is it a backlash problem.

[malc-c]

14 hours ago, woldsweather said:

I am only on to the 2^nd evening of trying to control my  EQM-35 PRO with EQMOD via SharpCap and Stellarium.

Last night it took 10-20 seconds for the mount to respond to an instruction. Tonight it was briefly instant for about 30 seconds, now it won’t move the mount at all and occasionally stops responding when its not responding SharpCap doesn’t respond to any instructions either. EQMOD does connect to the mount OK.

I am running a Windows PRO HP Laptop i3 with 16Gb RAM and a 1Tb SSD.

I would very much appreciate some help.

Communication issues are often related to poor power supply.  The mount will draw around 2 - 2.5 amps at 12v when slewing.  If the power supply is not able to maintain 12v when that current is drawn then the mount will drop out and could stop responding.  Another cause could be a brake in communications, so describing how you connect the laptop to the mount will help.  If using a direct EQDIR cable, please state the make.  Also is the laptop under battery power or are you running it of the mains?.  Finally, are you using any long USB cables between the laptop to a hub, if so what type (active or passive) and their length.

This information is really the minimum information we need to try and rule out possible areas of investigation