new and struggling

[starpusher]

Thanks.....I will have a look at the emulator. It is V1.10. I am now thinking that backlash may be the cause of my troubles.

Regards,

Richard

[steppenwolf]

Hi Richard, at least the second (last) test you did confirms that the guide camera is driving the ST4 properly and it is hard to imagine that the ST4 port is only 'half working' so it is a reasonable assumption that as you can hear the tonal changes, this aspect of the mount is working OK.

It is not uncommon to have a little backlash in the DEC axis on this mount that you can feel as a tiny (and I do mean tiny) 'clonk' - definitely more something that you can feel but not see. The RA axis should not normally have any backlash that you can detect by hand although there will be some that the autoguiding system can detect but this won't be enough to stop calibration. If you have more movement than I have described, this will not help with the calibration routine and you will need to adjust the meshing of the worm drive - there are several excellent internet guides to doing this but I cannot add to the wisdom here as I have never had to do it!

[Taff]

Hi welcome to the forum.Mark

[starpusher]

Steve,

I had a word with Chris today and he told me that I could not only tighten the upgrade gears but also the worm drive within mount. Apparently there are grub screws to adjust, externally accessible on the mount, which when turned should reduce backlash. I have tightened the upgrade gearing and I have located grub screws that fit Chris’s description. However, when I turn the grub screws, the backlash is not altered. So I will check this with again because he was referring to an HEQ6 mount and assuming a similar arrangement on the HEQ5.

Regards,

Richard

[Davei]

Hi, Starpusher. I found that if the HEQ5 tracking rate was set to x 0.5 or less PHD would give up as the movements take too long and it appeared that there was no connection. to the laptop. Also, the RJ4 connector can make a poor contact. Good luck.

[starpusher]

Hello Steve,

Found Astrobaby's excellent instructions for adjustments (thanks for that). Now, there's no backlask that I can feel in RA and only slight backlash in DEC i.e. similar to your description. With a little bit of luck this will have solved the problem.

Regards and thanks,

Richard

[steppenwolf]

Excellent, I hope this does resolve the issue. Astro-baby's instructions are indeed excellent, what she needs to do now is buy and EQ6 and do the same for that!!

[Captain Tripps]

Hi from me

Lee

[starpusher]

Steve,

It works!

I treid it last night and the PHD calibration only took a couple of minutes. so your suggested reason for the problem was spot on... too much RA backlash. I had to readjust it a couple of times because the motor / gears did bind... I must have had it too tight. My next step is to sort out focussing of the DSLR. The photos of the stars wer a bit blurred but it was pretty windy. I guess I will have to get on with my observatory plans.

Regards,

Richard

[steppenwolf]

Hi Richard, that is great news - delighted that you have resolved the problem. With regard to focus, this is always an issue but you could consider getting a Bahtinov mask as this is a great tool -even this mask won't help with the wind though!!