EQ4/5 drive question

[Kenny_10_Bellys]

I recently got myself a spiffy Orion ED80 on an EQ5 mount with the add-on RA and Dec drive. Unfortunatley, due to the cracking Scottish weather I haven't had a chance to get it outside for a tryout yet, and I have some questions about the drive system itself.

The only instructions I can find are these...

http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/documents/41.pdf

..and they make no sense. It actually says that when the system is turned on and all buttons are depressed the scope will turn automatically to compensate for the Earths rotation. All buttons depressed? I have to press them all at once and hold them? Sounds like kack to me. Anyone got any experience of one of these systems that can set me straight?

[Tinkerbell]

Lo Kenny

I think it is just badly translated but it is confusing. Basically once you power up the drives the mount will start tracking. The better Your polar alignment is the longer a star can be tracked without you having to correct it with the hand set.

Hope this helps.

[GazOC]

Kenny,

I think its just bad translation, the gist should be "when the unit is on and no buttons are being pressed". Thats how mine have always worked anyway....

depressed/unpresssed/not pressed....??

Gaz

[Kenny_10_Bellys]

You sure? I left it on for a few hours there and nothing changed. I'm not sure if the speed selection has anything to do with it, one of the speeds is marked in white and the other 2 darker. It's one of the problems of buying second-hand I suppose.

[GordonCopestake]

Are you SURE nothing changed? RA tracking is very slow and you wouldn't be able to see it moving unless you looked very closely

[GazOC]

I've owned a few and they have 4 direction buttons and two switches. A speed switch and a on/off switch, as long as the switch is "on" the RA should track.

The only thing I can think of is that you turn the handset on, then press the four buttons at the same time once to start the tracking? I've never owned one like this but I can't see those instructions can mean anything else?

[Kenny_10_Bellys]

Until I get it outside and polar aligned I suppose I'll never know.

I turned it on and left it for a couple of hours and expected it to have turned 30 degrees in RA during that time, but it hadn't moved. Seems a bit odd to me.

[GazOC]

Dumb question, but are clutches engaged on the mount and is there power getting to the motors? You should be able to see them move if you put the handset to x16.

Just checking, sorry in advance!

[MartinB]

Don't know about your mount but the super polaris has manual slow motion controls. There is a clutch for each of them which has to be released to disconnect the motor and allow use of the manual control. If you have these and haven't tightened them up the drives wont do anything. Of course your drive may not have these, just a thought.

[The Warthog]

Why not phone the number at the bottom of the page? It's in British Columbia, and they do speak English there. I'm sure they'll be glad to give you some suggestions. They are eight hours behind Great Mitten Time, though.

[Kenny_10_Bellys]

I think MartinB might have hit it on the head. I never realised there were clutches involved, I've checked them out and I'm running my 2-hour test again.

Warthog, which number? There's 5 or 6 adds for astronomy websites but that's it. I speak a little French anyway, Quebec holds no fear for me. In fact I might be looking to emigrate there in the next year or so.

[GazOC]

Dumb question, but are clutches engaged on the mount

[Kenny_10_Bellys]

Sorry GazOC, but I thought you meant the actual clutches on the mount that allow you to swing it around freely, not the clutches I didn't know existed between the small drive motors and the manual controls. I've done it before on my ETX-105, disengaged the main azimuth clutch to swing it around for something and then sat with my finger on the controls wondering why the damn thing wont track!

I tightened the clutches and I could actually feel the stepper motor running when the drive control box was switched on, so i assume that's the problem solved. Thanks guys, invaluable stuff.

[MartinB]

[The Warthog]

Warthog, which number? There's 5 or 6 adds for astronomy websites but that's it. I speak a little French anyway, Quebec holds no fear for me. In fact I might be looking to emigrate there in the next year or so.

At the very end of the document there is a technical support number with a 604 (British Columbia) area code. For future reference, now that you have the problem solved. When I said they speak English, I meant they don't speak Chinese.