SolarQuest - Failure at new, Good ending

[Alan White]

After the long wait for UK stock to arrive and subsequent delivery, my new Solarquest will not track the Sun ☹️

It finds the GPS, adjust the mount level and the rises to the correct altitude, then just keeps swing past the sun and doing the full 360 and repeat.
I have removed the film covering from the sensor window and it was not cloudy (amazing as it was day of delivery).

After some questions and supplier talking to OVL, its going back under warranty to my supplier (not FLO on this occasion).
Watch this space.

As a thought, is this a common issue?
or is my luck running at its normal level...

Edited August 9 by Alan White

[happy-kat]

How are you powering the mount? 

[fireballxl5]

Just been using mine today,  tracked the sun well for over 6 hours, excellent.  With mine I've found that it doesn't take much cloud obscuring the sun to cause the problem you describe.

[Alan White]

15 hours ago, happy-kat said:

How are you powering the mount? 

Brand new Duracell AA's. 

[JeremyS]

Sorry to hear this Alan. Mine operated flawlessly straight out of the box.

[Geoff Lister]

Mine works fine. I tend to use it with a 12V 1.5A plug-top mains supply.

Geoff

[Alan White]

It’s posted back this morning, watch this space.
Oddly the scope doing nice 360 rotations and the sun bisecting the sol finder on each pass, 
was oddly enjoyable, although not desirable watching.

I have reasonable expectations of the mount with my Lunt ls40.

[Carbon Brush]

Sorry to hear of the failure.
With any equipment there is risk of failure from new.
Basically the price tag on most amateur astro kit does not allow a proper soak test (tens of hours) before shipping to catch early component failures, poor connections, etc.
99% of the time it does not cause issues.

The good news is that the Solarquest is a great mount. I have two that track really well. One for WL the other for Ha.
I set them going in the morning, take a look, go away and do other things, and keep returning at intervals.
When there is intermittent cloud (after setup) the scope just continues on its internal clockwork and when the sky clears, the sun is still in the eyepiece.

The Ha scope is a Lunt LS60. Obviously I ensure it is balanced. But the mount has no issues with the weight.
Power has been Duracells, or 1.5V lithium rechargeable cells, or external 12V. All have worked without issue.

I think you have just had a bit of bad luck and it will be a matter of seeing how well and how quickly your retailer deals with the failure.

[Alan White]

After much concern that the returned mount has gone missing on way back to retailer, it’s arrived today…
terrible for a next day before 13:00 parcel sent on Wednesday morning at 7 am.

Watch this space on update on the actual mount though.

[Alan White]

Good news comes to those who wait patiently.
The mount was faulty and a new unit has been sent in replacement.

It arrived today and its clear, so straight out and it picked the sun up straight away.

Happy with RVO customer service and SkyWatcher warranties.

 

Edited August 9 by Alan White