EQ6R Pro not tracking

[Doug64]

Hi, 

I wonder if anyone can offer any advice.

I'm helping a friend set up his telescope for imaging using N.IN.A, we have everything communicating so it can be run remotely however last night we ran into a problem, it appears his mount is not tracking properly in RA.

We started off the evening with the mount which is balanced in the home position, weights down pointing towards Polaris. We did an Auto Focus routine which ran perfectly, we then  intended doing the Three point Polar Alignment using the plugin.  We set the parameters for the Three Point Polar Alignment and started to run it.  The first image was taken, this plate solved within seconds using ASTAP.  The mount then moved to the second point as it should and an image was take, this image could not be plate solved as the stars in the image were elongated.  We tried the three point alignment routine a second time with a 10s delay for the mount to settle before image was taken, the same thing happened.  It appears as if the mount was not tracking correctly and the starts became elongated so could not be plate solved.  

To check what was happening I opened up PHD2, I ensured the tracking was set to sidereal in both EQmod and N.I.N.A, I moved mount to clear part of sky and started to loop the image.  Whilst looking at the image you could clearly see the stars slowly moving across the screen.  The mount was not tracking correctly, the RA axis was moving very slowly and sometimes it appeared to stop, obviously this movement is exaggerated in the 80mm scope.

I've checked location height etc. are correctly entered in EQmod and N.I.N.A, I've checked the baud rate is set correctly to 11500 and that EQmod is set at 0.9.

Does anyone have any advice as to what may be happening and how to fix it, I'm at a loss.

Thanks for any help

Regards

Doug  

 

 

 

 

[michael8554]

Hi Doug

Does the EQ6 Pro have PEC ?

Perhaps it was enabled, and has a very poor PE correction from the factory ?

Run the PHD2 Guide Assistant for a worm period.

Or the RA drive is faulty

Michael

Edited February 7, 2023 by michael8554

[jacko61]

I've had similar with my EQ8R pro and APT.  Sometimes if I connect the mount in APT it appears to stop tracking even though EQMOD says it's SIDEREAL.  It's as if APT is overriding EQmod when it starts up and stops the tracking without informing EQmod.   Stopping and Starting tracking in EQMOD has fixed this.  ( Eqmod itself starts up under Stellarium so maybe there's too many cooks spoiling the broth).

Graeme

[Doug64]

43 minutes ago, michael8554 said:

Hi Doug

Does the EQ6 Pro have PEC ?

Perhaps it was enabled, and has a very poor PE correction from the factory ?

Run the PHD2 Guide Assistant for a worm period.

Or the RA drive is faulty

Michael

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, I checked PEC , nothing was active, the mount has never been pec trained.  

I can't pec train the mount at this time even though I'd like to, to train the mount my understanding is that the mount also need to be guiding, we cant guide as the stars  keep moving across the screen so PHD2  cannot lock onto a star to guide.

I'll keep looking for solution, thanks for reply.

Doug

 

 

[Doug64]

41 minutes ago, jacko61 said:

I've had similar with my EQ8R pro and APT.  Sometimes if I connect the mount in APT it appears to stop tracking even though EQMOD says it's SIDEREAL.  It's as if APT is overriding EQmod when it starts up and stops the tracking without informing EQmod.   Stopping and Starting tracking in EQMOD has fixed this.  ( Eqmod itself starts up under Stellarium so maybe there's too many cooks spoiling the broth).

Graeme

Hi, thanks for the reply.

When using N.I.N.A I don't need to use Stellarium so this isn't starting up EQmod automatically.

I've had N.I.N.A open with the telescope showing Sidereal and this has also been turned on and off in EQmod directly, the same thing happens no matter what we do, the mpunt doesn't appear to be tracking in RA, the starts keep moving across the screen.

I've even downloaded and installed GreenSwampServeer to see if this made any difference, it didn't, the same thing happened, the mount wasn't tracking.

I'm starting to thing that this may be mechanical or a faulty lead.

Doug

 

 

 

[Paul M]

I'm not familiar with 3 star polar align. I use Drift Polar Align in PHD 2. It's a dynamics process where the guide camera is used at whatever frame/guide rate is selected. Usually 1.5 or 2 sec in my case. No time for stars to trail and it doesn't solve the image anyway.

In my mind. if you are using your imaging camera with an exposure of more than a few seconds, you will get trailing if the starting point for polar alignment is way out even if the mount is tracking.

Do you roughly align the mount with a polar scope first? When my NEQ 6 Pro is tracking or guiding I can hear the sweet chirp of the stepper motors doing their thing. Can you hear your mount drives when it's tracking?

Anyway, my first course of action would  be to use the shortest usable exposure time for the alignment images. That will minimize any trailing. You just need enough stars to be captured for ASTAP to be able to solve.

Edited February 7, 2023 by Paul M

[Varavall]

18 minutes ago, Doug64 said:

the starts keep moving across the screen.

Hi

Any possibility of cable snag or, as I discovered on my HEQ5 once, the head of the counterweight lock screw fouled the head of the altitude adjustment screw on the mount. Has the backlash been adjusted? Or even what I just sorted on my mount, which had tracking issues, was a deformed Rowan belt. A few ideas to consider.

Adrian

[Varavall]

3 hours ago, Doug64 said:

We started off the evening with the mount which is balanced in the home position

PS Is the scope balanced wherever it is physically pointed and with the clutches disengaged?

[Doug64]

40 minutes ago, Paul M said:

I'm not familiar with 3 star polar align. I use Drift Polar Align in PHD 2. It's a dynamics process where the guide camera is used at whatever frame/guide rate is selected. Usually 1.5 or 2 sec in my case. No time for stars to trail and it doesn't solve the image anyway.

In my mind. if you are using your imaging camera with an exposure of more than a few seconds, you will get trailing if the starting point for polar alignment is way out even if the mount is tracking.

Do you roughly align the mount with a polar scope first? When my NEQ 6 Pro is tracking or guiding I can hear the sweet chirp of the stepper motors doing their thing. Can you hear your mount drives when it's tracking?

Anyway, my first course of action would  be to use the shortest usable exposure time for the alignment images. That will minimize any trailing. You just need enough stars to be captured for ASTAP to be able to solve.

Hi,

Mount balanced and roughly polar aligned using polar scope.

I will have time check for chirping sound when next around at friends house.

Exposure rate already short, still trailing stars.

I'll certainly check sound to hear if mount tracking.

thanks

Doug

[Doug64]

44 minutes ago, Varavall said:

Hi

Any possibility of cable snag or, as I discovered on my HEQ5 once, the head of the counterweight lock screw fouled the head of the altitude adjustment screw on the mount. Has the backlash been adjusted? Or even what I just sorted on my mount, which had tracking issues, was a deformed Rowan belt. A few ideas to consider.

Adrian

Hi,

No cable snags  will check belt.

Thanks for thus idea.

Doug

[Doug64]

41 minutes ago, Varavall said:

PS Is the scope balanced wherever it is physically pointed and with the clutches disengaged?

Hi,

Yes, the mount is balanced in all 3 axis.

Doug

[gaz81]

With mine I use Green Swamp Server, but that connects via the ASCOM device hub. 

Then PhD2 and Nina connect to the device hub and not Green Swamp directly. 

This helps with different apps talking to the mount at the same time and confusing it… at least that’s been my experience. 

Are you doing a polar align with the polar scope first, or is that view blocked? Might be worth trying the traditional way first 🙂 

That way you can rule out the polar alignment being so far off it always drifts?

That said… I’m also lazy and have a Polemaster… love it 🙂 

[michael8554]

Hi Doug

This needs a step-by-step approach to finding the problem.

1.  Mount on its own, EQMOD only , is it tracking ?

2. Connect to PHD2, loop exposures, is it still tracking ?

3. Try a PHD2 Cal, is it successful ?

4. Add other softwares until it fails.

Michael

[Doug64]

On 07/02/2023 at 23:57, gaz81 said:

With mine I use Green Swamp Server, but that connects via the ASCOM device hub. 

Then PhD2 and Nina connect to the device hub and not Green Swamp directly. 

This helps with different apps talking to the mount at the same time and confusing it… at least that’s been my experience. 

Are you doing a polar align with the polar scope first, or is that view blocked? Might be worth trying the traditional way first 🙂 

That way you can rule out the polar alignment being so far off it always drifts?

That said… I’m also lazy and have a Polemaster… love it 🙂 

Thanks for advice

[Doug64]

23 hours ago, michael8554 said:

Hi Doug

This needs a step-by-step approach to finding the problem.

1.  Mount on its own, EQMOD only , is it tracking ?

2. Connect to PHD2, loop exposures, is it still tracking ?

3. Try a PHD2 Cal, is it successful ?

4. Add other softwares until it fails.

Michael

Thanks for advice,

This is what we're going to try next.

We're going to start with the basics - balance, correct home position, polar alignment then one at a time check software as per your suggestion.

 

[Doug64]

Hi,

 

Thanks so far for all the help.

 

Last night I went around to my friends to start trying to resolve the tracking issue.

One of the things we found that is very confusing was when we tried to do a Three Point Alignment using the N.I.N.A app.

When we clicked start, the RA axis moved very slightly then the Dec axis moved as if it was the RA axis, in other words, instead of the RA axis moving to do the TTPA the Dec axis moved which should not happen.

Any ideas what may be causing this, I haven't a clue, my friend stated he had a new PCB fitted to the mount, could this be wired up wrong.

Doug

 

 

[scotty38]

TPPA will move both axes depending on your altitude and azimuth settings.

[Doug64]

2 hours ago, scotty38 said:

TPPA will move both axes depending on your altitude and azimuth settings.

Hi,

I'm at 53 degree north and my friend only lives down the road, so he has basically the same settings as me.

When I do a TTPA the only thing that moves is the RA axis and I can go through the TTPA routine and get excellent polar alignment.

From the home position, when he tries to do a TTPA his RA axis only moves about an inch then the Dec axis moves to a horizontal position does this point to their being some error in his longitude/latitude and height settings in Eqmod/N.I.N.A 

I hadn't thought of this as the RA only moves when I do a TTPA so thank you very much for your reply.

Doug

 

 

[scotty38]

I'm not sure that there's necessarily anything wrong but whatever is set and also if it's set to run from the current position will determine what moves or doesn't and by how much. I'm at 53 degrees too and these settings move both axes. I "forgot" to tidy up the Altitude hence why it's a little specific 🙂

Edited February 14, 2023 by scotty38

[Doug64]

Hi,

We finally got to the bottom of the tracking problem.

After a process of elimination following the advice given we established that my friend when replacing a burnt out PCB on his EQ6 got the RA and DEC wires crossed so signals sent to RA were moving DEC and vise versa.

Simple error that I wasn't aware of until this week.  Once wiring changed tracking has been restored.

Thanks for all the advice.

Doug

 

 

[Peter baldwin]

Hi guys I have the same issue with My HEQ5 pro and EQMod5.

The only way I can make it work is to start the 3 point polar alignment, after the first plate solve is done wait untill the mount stops slewing and then click on the sidereal button on the eq mod control (You will notice it says Custom Rate). It will then solve the second position fine,  just repeat this for the last plate slove after the mount has slewed.