EQ6 high power vibration

[Kai]

I suppose its because you expect to deal directly with the manufacturer with high end kit rather than with dealers / importers / a factory in China with the mass produced so somehow its more personal and you are less likely to openly critisise.

[mike bacanin]

Hi Kai,

thats pretty much it.

you pay your money and you get what you get. I still wonder what happens with even higher specs Synta mounts after the warranty is out.

Can you send in the mount to dealer for stripdown or whatever,even at a charge? can the dealer handle stuff that complex?

is this why the net is full of stories of countless EQ6 rebuilds?

This troubles me even if i were to consider the Pro/Syntrek.

Mike

[Whippy]

Mike, I used my old Intes MK66 on my EQ6 Pro with a Baader 3.5mm Hyperion (approx x514) and there was no vibration from the mount. I regularly get my Mak-Newt up to about x300 and beyond without any vibration either.

I guess if there was issues with the motors on the EQ6 pro's then imagers wouldn't use them.

Tony..

[adamsp123]

Mike, what is the mount standing on, solid concrete or patio if that is a yes try it on grass, I mean lawn, not the class B stuff.

[Astro_Baby]

I think a lot of the Synta mount rebuilds are down to people who take things to bits because they can

I took mine to bits because the GoTo upgrade produced problems and the only way to satisfy myself that all was well was a strip-down. It paid dividends in the mount being better tuned.

With that said I have seen other people take various other mounts to bits to sweeten them up. I bet somewhere out there someone is pulling a Losmandy to bits even as I post this.

I doubt you could do a strip down on a mount as a business and make a profit unless the price were truly horrific. To take mine to bits and rebuild and tune was probably the bet part of two days work. I could imagine you could get it down to 8 hours if you were doing it a lot.

(note some people will claim it can be done quicker but remember you'd have to degrease, clean, polish any bits up, emery cloth some parts, rebuild and the worm engagement alone could take you an hour to tune it right)

Lets take that an HEQ5 as an examble - 8 hours to strip, clean and rebuild and relube. I have a mortage to pay so would need to earn at least £1,200 a month. That means I'd need a mount every working day to strip. So lets assume 20 working days a month - that means £60 a mount. But there a catch - I have to pay tax and VAT. So I'd need to double that number and add 15% so you now talking about £141 a go.

Throw in the fact that I probably wouldnt get 20 a month but still have to pay the mortgage so lets be generaous and assume I would base it on 10 a month (even thats a high number) so now your talking about £282 a mount.

If I have to spare up to cover any breakages then I need to factor that in so my bet would be I wouldnt (assuming I were doing this as a business) consider it for less than £350 a mount.

And thats just if I limit it to HEQ5s - if I wanted to offer the same service for EQ6s, Vixen, Meade et all the sparing costs go higher and to cover cash tied up in inventory the charges to the customer would have to go higher still.

Top that off with postal charges for big, heavy and expensive items and you start seeing an extra £80 thrown in to get the mount to my workshop and back to you again. £450 a mount - maybe - assuming nothings broken.

You can see it starts to look pretty unattractive both for me as the maintainer and you as the customer.

I just dont think you could make a business from it and I am especially sure having seen a few hypertuning engineering companies pack up and go home.

They arent actually that hard to take to bits and rebuild and with so many people doing their own I dont see how a supplier could make any cash doing it unles it was a 'bolt-on' service to something else.

Yes you could have precision engineering from the factory but it would cost and the chances are sooner or later it would still break down because you cant QC out all the problems. Thered always be one where a bearing jams after a few months use or a motor controller board fails and the more precsion you make it the more expensive it becomes so the more you have to charge both for sale and for after sales service.

With that said - if anyone wants to drop one off at my door I'll tune it for you for £250 - BARGAIN !!! Dont delay - buy today

[beetlejuice]

It would be good to hear from EQ6 Pro/Syntrek owners if they actually see this problem or not in actual observing at fairly high powers. And the only way to be sure is to compare the image with the drive running and then turned off for a few seconds.

as i said earlier, i'll gladly change my perception if the high spec versions are up to the task.

Mike

Hi Mike

I have an EQ6 Pro and I must admit I haven't noticed this problem. I usually observe at max. x240 with my C9.25 (my urban skies don't lend themselves to many steady seeing moments) but occasionally go up to 360 (the max. I can do without a barlow) but the image is usually terrible - dancing about with the poor seeing. The mount is very quiet when tracking and no vibration is evident. I usually set mine up on the lawn, so may be that has some damping effect.

Bob

[mike bacanin]

The lawn is not an option, i don't have one!

can i suggest if anyone tests this out with their EQ6 Pro, to use Jupiter's moons as i did.

i would never have noticed the problem on the disk, it is subtle.

but it was obvious on the 4 moons.

Mike

[beetlejuice]

The lawn is not an option, i don't have one!

can i suggest if anyone tests this out with their EQ6 Pro, to use Jupiter's moons as i did.

i would never have noticed the problem on the disk, it is subtle.

but it was obvious on the 4 moons.

Mike

I sometimes set it up on the concrete patio and use a set of Meade anti-vibration pads. Next time I set it up I'll have a closer look. I'm sure though if it was a widespread EQ6 Pro problem the astrophotographers amongst us would be the first to complain.

Bob

[Ben Ritchie]

It is common knowledge in the trade that its power-boards blow yet we don't see any mention of it on forums or user-groups

Common knowledge for anyone who seriously considers buying one too Steve, I did (and didn't).

The AP discussion tends to be on the excellent Yahoo! groups, everything about the AP kit - mounts and 'scopes - is common knowledge there, with Roland (and Howard, their main tech support guy) posting there frequently. Many queries on places like CN get a response "ask on Yahoo!", and I think it's registered group members only so you don't find the discussion unless you seriously look.

The other advantage to the high-end kit is that you can call and speak to the guy who made your mount, they manage superb levels of customer service so no need to ask around online.

[mike bacanin]

After a very helpful discussion with AWR today, i am happy that the issue is indeed the spec of step rate in the std EQ6, and that the Syntrek's motor/gearbox spec should give a much better result,so i'll go that route for now.

Mike