CG-5 Drives, how to get them working?

[Earl]

Im a bit stumpped at why the Drives dont work, I get a little chatter noise from one, the green light shows up on the handset, but they do not respond.

Is there a way I can remove them, test them out of the Mount then reinstall them?

Earl

[GuillermoBarrancos]

Is this a brandnew Celestron CG-5 GT mount?

And how do you power it? With a 12V battery pack or a DC 12Volt adapter?

If you use a 3rd party DC 12Volt adapter (like I do) you have to be really really careful and be absolutely sure it's 12Volt and not exceeding 13Volt 2,5A !

Otherwise you will ruin your mount and void your warranty on it!

[Earl]

Its a second hand mount so warranty is not a worry

The handset uses a 6V battery pack or power pack, I have set the power pack to 6V and all i get is what i first discibed.

[Cornelius Varley]

Have you checked over a period of time ( 1 hour ) that the RA drive is running ? At its normal tracking rate the mount will rotate on the RA axis 15 degrees per hour.

Peter

[GuillermoBarrancos]

Its a second hand mount so warranty is not a worry

The handset uses a 6V battery pack or power pack, I have set the power pack to 6V and all i get is what i first discibed.

Then that explains it. The mount needs 12Volt. At least the Advanced CG-5 GT mount I have.

I don't have a Powerpack myself yet. But still had an old 3rd party variable DC adapter lying around.

I set it to 12Volt 500mA and my mount works like a charm!

Just make sure when you use a DC Adapter, that it's 12Volt and absolutely sure that it doesn't exceed 13Volts and 2,5A !! Otherwise you will fry your GT gear!

[Earl]

Its a 6v unit piccy attached.

there is no responce from any of the buttons

[GuillermoBarrancos]

Its a 6v unit piccy attached.

there is no responce from any of the buttons

Ok. Than it's one of the older CG-5 mounts.

The new Advanced CG-5 mounts are 12volt.

[Earl]

In theory can I unattach the motors have them on a table and working withought been attached to the mount?

[Merlin66]

Yes, you can remove the motors to test them, no problem.

If the centre LED goes green then it usually suggests that the power is going to the motors.

Have you hand tightened the chrome knurled clutch rings on each axis?

Ken

The Dec motor at x4 should show obvious movement of the drive gears......

[russ]

Are the drives moving the mount when set to max speed (8x)? Remember, even at max speed you'll have to watch the cogs closely to see them move. For the normal RA tracking and even 2x slew, you'll be hard pushed to see anything move. But if you put your finger on a cog you can feel the movement.

The chatter noise from one sounds right, that will be the RA drive tracking. Have you had this out under the stars? I think you'll find it's working OK.

[John]

Its a 6v unit piccy attached.

there is no responce from any of the buttons

I have one of those drive systems fitted to a CG5 mount. If you are getting a green light then your batteries and the connection to the battry pack are OK which is a good start.

As soon as you switch on (move the left hand switch to the "N" position) the RA drive is running but you wont notice movement in the mount, just a gentle "ticking" if you put your ear to the RA drive. Obviously the clutch needs to be tightened and the RA clamp on the mount tight to transfer that motion to the mount axis itself.

If you switch the right hand switch to "8X" and press the keys you should notice the cogs / clutch mechanisms rotating slowly (even 8X siderial is still not very fast !) then reversing when you change direction - there will be some delay ( a few secs) in this, I think it's called backlash.

If nothing is moving at all despite doing the above then it may be a connection issue. On my DEC drive one of the 4 contacts on the "in-phone" type connector (the one that actually connects to the motor) was obscured by some excess plastic so I had to carefully trim the connector to fully expose the metal contact - it then behaved itsef normally. The syptoms of this were erratic behaviour from one drive (the one affected) only though - the other worked OK.

Hope that helps.

[haitch]

Mine aren't original Celestron drives, they are DK3s from another manufacturer which I fitted myself but I would imagine they attach the same way with a bolt through the mount head.

The RA axis should be located in a hole just above the latitude adjustment adjustment bolt on the opposite side to the motor and the Dec motor's bolt goes through the top by the dovetail clamp.

The housing for the RA motor should pull straight off.

Before you remove them do your's have clutches on the motors that need to be disengaged?

[Earl]

Cheers for all the input.

I have a feeling that things are working and im just expecting way more movment that is actually there.

When i get home this evening ill try again.

Can someone explain the corrct Clutch settings while we are at it here

[Merlin66]

The clutches, at least on the original EQ drives just need to be hand tight.... if you can still operate the worm drives with the flexible hand knobs....they are not tight enough....that simple!

Ken

[Cornelius Varley]

Cheers for all the input.

I have a feeling that things are working and im just expecting way more movment that is actually there.

When i get home this evening ill try again.

Can someone explain the corrct Clutch settings while we are at it here

Paint dries faster than an EQ mount's RA drive at sidereal speed.

Peter

[John]

Can someone explain the corrct Clutch settings while we are at it here

You tighten the clutch to transmit the drive motion to the axis, loosen the clutch to let the axis spin freely. If the clutch is tightened (and it's so easy to forget to do this) you must release the locking clamp on the mount to move the scope otherwise you will damage the motor / gears.

It is a bit fiddly, especially in the dark, but you do eventually get into a routine.

So to get drive to an axis you need both the clutch and the locking clamp tightened. To move the scope I generally just loosen the locking clamp then tighen to re-gain the drive motion.

At the end of a session or when the drives are powered off I release both clutches to avoid the chance of damaging things.

Hope that makes some sense !.

[Earl]

Well I have tried them out and agiain nothing but a quiet chatter from both motors, there is no bite when they are set to move on any of the speed settings.

Both motors have a little move in the cog, I belive this is part of the backlash?

Is it possible that the motors are stuck?

Is there anywhere I can send this to get them looked at?

[John]

The brass gear wheels are held onto the drive shafts coming from the motors by small grub screws that need hex keys to adjust - it would be worth checking that the gear wheels are tight on the shafts otherwise the shaft will simply rotate fruitlessly.

Were the motors new or used when you bought them ?.

[Earl]

Both the hex bolts are tight, im sure there is no problem there, they came with a scope i picked up second hand.

[Earl]

I have just noticed that FLO is doing the set new for £90.00

So i figure unless i can get these sorted on the cheap id be better off buying a new set?

Is it possible that using a PSU and not batterys is the problem? The PSU is the correct voltage though.

[Cornelius Varley]

Have you been using the drives with an unregulated PSU ? A cheap unregulated PSU may not be suitable for this purpose.

Peter

[John]

I'd try it with the battery pack it was designed to work with before writing it off - drive systems can be very fussy about power supply. Scopes N Skies have one for sale in their Astro Boot section I think.

[Earl]

Im using a regulated PSU i bought for my nexstar (multi volt)

Ill dig the battery pack out and try that

[Tantalus]

I have the identical controller to yours, Earl, and I'm not an expert but at 8x slew you should be able to see the cogs slowly rotating. Have you tried the motors with just the battery powerpack?

[Tantalus]

Shoot! Jahmanson beat me to it...