EQ3-2 motor controller

[WWiggins]

Hello,. I purchased a second hand 6" reflector sky-watcher scope that has an EQ3-2 motor drive (not a go-to ).  I am very new to this whole scope thing with limited knowledge so really hoping someone may be able to provide some feedback.

I was getting familiar with this scope and drive and noticed that the DEC drive was not working. After trying a number of things I removed both the DEC and R.A. motors.  For the next series of tests I put the controller on 8x speed and used the DEC or R.A. buttons on the controller.   

In hand I tried the R.A. drive and it appeared to be working fine. I then took the R.A. cable and plugged it into the DEC drive and it too appeared to be working.  My next test was taking the DEC lead and plugged it into the R.A. motor and again seemed to work. I then plugged it into the DEC motor and though it worked, it seemed to be quite slow.  I know they are slow but it ran slower compared to using the R.A. lead I feel. 

I also noticed that when I plugged in the DEC lead and R.A. lead into the R.A. motor I could feel the motor was pulse (while working in normal mode).  When I plugged the DEC lead into the two motors I could not feel anything but only when I would press the control buttons to make it go at 8x speed (note, in all my tests I did not use the 2x or 4x speeds)

So some question I have are:

1) Do you know if he DEC and R.A. motors have different gear ratios?

2) I believe the DEC addJustment is more important (could be wrong) but could I just swap the motors?

3) If no to 1, does this sound like the controller may have an issue

3) My initial thought was the DEC motor is not work but some of my tests, in particular using the R.A. lead on the DEC motor gives me the impression it is the controller... Any thoughts on this?

4) I am in Canada, so does anyone know where I could possibly find replacement parts (Cnd, US or possibly UK)?

Thanks and appreciate any feedback.

Cheers,

 

 

 

[lenscap]

Hi & welcome to SGL.

When your dual-axis drive is switched on and tracking (no buttons pressed) only the RA motor will run. With EQ mounts the Dec axis does not need to turn to track celestial targets. (The mount must be polar aligned to track objects.)

The RA worm drive ratio on the EQ3-2 is 130 and the Dec ratio is 65 so when using the buttons to slew the mount at say 8x siderial the Dec motor will run at half the speed of the RA motor.

Seems to me your kit may be working as expected. Try approximately polar aligning the mount, point the scope at a recognisable star and see if it tracks. It wont be perfect unless your Polar Alignment is good but it should keep the target in the eyepiece for many minutes.

 

[Seelive]

1 hour ago, WWiggins said:

Hello,. I purchased a second hand 6" reflector sky-watcher scope that has an EQ3-2 motor drive (not a go-to ).  I am very new to this whole scope thing with limited knowledge so really hoping someone may be able to provide some feedback.

I was getting familiar with this scope and drive and noticed that the DEC drive was not working. After trying a number of things I removed both the DEC and R.A. motors.  For the next series of tests I put the controller on 8x speed and used the DEC or R.A. buttons on the controller.   

In hand I tried the R.A. drive and it appeared to be working fine. I then took the R.A. cable and plugged it into the DEC drive and it too appeared to be working.  My next test was taking the DEC lead and plugged it into the R.A. motor and again seemed to work. I then plugged it into the DEC motor and though it worked, it seemed to be quite slow.  I know they are slow but it ran slower compared to using the R.A. lead I feel. 

I also noticed that when I plugged in the DEC lead and R.A. lead into the R.A. motor I could feel the motor was pulse (while working in normal mode).  When I plugged the DEC lead into the two motors I could not feel anything but only when I would press the control buttons to make it go at 8x speed (note, in all my tests I did not use the 2x or 4x speeds)

So some question I have are:

1) Do you know if he DEC and R.A. motors have different gear ratios?

2) I believe the DEC addJustment is more important (could be wrong) but could I just swap the motors?

3) If no to 1, does this sound like the controller may have an issue

3) My initial thought was the DEC motor is not work but some of my tests, in particular using the R.A. lead on the DEC motor gives me the impression it is the controller... Any thoughts on this?

4) I am in Canada, so does anyone know where I could possibly find replacement parts (Cnd, US or possibly UK)?

Thanks and appreciate any feedback.

Cheers,

 

 

 

 

The RA and Dec of mounts normally have different gear ratios, generally the RA will have a higher gear ratio than the Dec as the RA is usually the most important to be most accurate (see here for examples https://www.astroeq.co.uk/tutorials.php?link=ratios#eq3-2_alternate) So, if you plug the RA motor drive into the Dec motor, it will probably seem to move faster and visa-versa?

[WWiggins]

I thank you both Lenscap and Seelive for your quick replies and feedback.  I will reinstall the motors and try to prominent star and see how it goes.  Thanks again, wish me luck.... Cheers

Also learned some as well in that I thought the DEC was the more important of the two for tracking.  As you both (Lenscap and Seelive) appear to be rather knowledgeable in this area, do you have one or two sites you may recommend for a beginner?  All the best

 

 

[WWiggins]

Ok, maybe disregard my last comment about site suggestions for a beginner…. Just been looking more at the stargazerslounge and very excite to see there us so much information right here and guessing I will not need to go elsewhere….