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I think my Nexstar SLT mount is broken..


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This night I took my rig out, the usual 127 SLT. Everything was going smoothly getting Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune, but when I went to slew to Uranus, the mobility of the telescope mount started behaving strangely. The telescope wont move sideways normally anymore and would be slow and I set the motor speed to 9 but the movement is still stubborn. But I can move the telescope up and down, now I can’t move it sideways. When I point at a target the telescope was just getting lost into oblivion and I tried turning everything on and off my unplugging the extension lead to the power adapter itself, still had the same problem. I am convinced my 3 year old Nexstar SLT mount has had it and I need to get another computerised go-to mount but it has to be affordable. :(

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I would have said it sounds like a power issue if using a battery(s) etc, but as it was running from mains this seems unlikely, although possibly might be worth checking if you are getting a steady voltage to the mount with a multimeter if you can just in case it is power related. There is a Celestron 6/8 SE goto mount up for sale in the ads on here. I own one also and get pretty good results with it, and the price they want for it is not too bad if in the worst case the mount has fully gone.

Edited by Knighty2112
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There are various things you can check in the daylight before binning the mount, e.g. has anything happened to jam the movement? Is the azimuth motor actually running? Are there any fault messages on the handset? Will moving the connectors clear a bad connection?

(Note that the altitude and azimuth motor/gear units appear identical and could be swapped over as a test.)

Most of the small GoTo mounts you can buy separately come from Skywatcher, and having used a Nexstar you may not like the Synscan operating system much. 🙄

If you do buy another mount, beware the effect of not having the support on the same side of the scope as with the SLT.

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I have checked the mount again and even set it back to factory default and still, I think the motor is pretty much had it. I could either get it repaired via Celestron or buy a new GOTO.

2 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

There are various things you can check in the daylight before binning the mount, e.g. has anything happened to jam the movement? Is the azimuth motor actually running? Are there any fault messages on the handset? Will moving the connectors clear a bad connection?

(Note that the altitude and azimuth motor/gear units appear identical and could be swapped over as a test.)

Most of the small GoTo mounts you can buy separately come from Skywatcher, and having used a Nexstar you may not like the Synscan operating system much. 🙄

If you do buy another mount, beware the effect of not having the support on the same side of the scope as with the SLT.

 

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On 17/09/2022 at 04:30, WilliamAstro said:

This night I took my rig out, the usual 127 SLT. Everything was going smoothly getting Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune, but when I went to slew to Uranus, the mobility of the telescope mount started behaving strangely. The telescope wont move sideways normally anymore and would be slow and I set the motor speed to 9 but the movement is still stubborn. But I can move the telescope up and down, now I can’t move it sideways. When I point at a target the telescope was just getting lost into oblivion and I tried turning everything on and off my unplugging the extension lead to the power adapter itself, still had the same problem. I am convinced my 3 year old Nexstar SLT mount has had it and I need to get another computerised go-to mount but it has to be affordable. :(

Depending on how confident you are with DIY it'd be worth stripping the mount, removing the old chinese glue / grease, regreasing with white lithium grease. I've had a couple of celestron goto mounts including a GT which is very similar to the SLT one and they are fairly simple to take apart, just take pictures as you do it.

If it's broken and you are thinking of replacing it anyway it's got to be worth a shot? Some instructions here to help - https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/569987-disassembly-guide-for-celestron-slt-gt-mounts/

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@RobertI had a similar issue with his Skyprodigy which is the same class mount. I believe he replaced the motor for £40-ish and all good again, I assume it still is as it’s still listed in his signature. Maybe this is something you could explore.

Edited by lvan
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On 17/09/2022 at 13:10, WilliamAstro said:

I have checked the mount again and even set it back to factory default and still, I think the motor is pretty much had it.

3 hours ago, lvan said:

@RobertI had a similar issue with his Skyprodigy which is the same class mount. I believe he replaced the motor for £40-ish and all good again, I assume it still is as it’s still listed in his signature. Maybe this is something you could explore.

Correct @Ivan well spotted. Yes I did have exactly the same issue with my SkyProdigy which I believe has many of the same internals. I replaced the azimuth motor and it solved the problem, works smoothly and quietly now. I can’t honestly remember what troubleshooting I did but I thought it was worth a go for £40. Obviously can’t guarantee that’s the problem but seems to be a common problem. Changing the motor was actually pretty straight forward from memory - I think I just ‘winged’ it in the end and I’m not a technical expert and only have limited tools. I’ll see if I can dig out the relevant threads. 

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