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skywatcher 300p auto not tracking

xboxdevil

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NickH

NickH

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Interesting these problems in some instances seem to "develop"

I know that in testing the goto proto on the auto, it was overshooting the target by some way...wonder if this was related?

tracking good though in these reports, which is different to Robins

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xboxdevil

xboxdevil

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Hi Robin

Before you send it back, I can tell you what I needed to do in order to get mine working (thanks again for all the help guys).

First you should set your local latitude - you only need to do this once, as you've not had it working properly yet it can't do any harm.

1. Turn on scope.

2. Get Polaris centred in a low powered eyepiece (manually or with handset).

3. Press buttons 2 & 3 together - all the buttons will light up simultaneously, local latitude is now set.

4. Keep tube facing North and level it out (manually or with handset).

5. Turn off, at this point the tube should be level and pointing North.

6. Turn on.

7. Press buttons 1 & 2 together - if button 2 starts flashing then it is in tracking mode, if button 1 is flashing just press button 2 and it will start flashing.

8. Manually swing it round to wherever you want and the tracking should still remain active.

Also test out that batteries are ok by using the handset to slew left/right as it takes more power to rotate the whole base than it does to tilt the tube up/down.

Good luck!

Hi NickH

Thanks for guiding me to this thread, which is better guidng than my Flextube 250 (joke)

Last night I finally found a way of making it guide by using the right & up arrows to centre the object. If I use left & down the object shot out of view. ( facing east) I believe you can use the down if facing west.

I does say in the manual that right & up enhances the guiding but did not mention that it was essential !!

I would be interested if anyone else has found this out or am I the 1st.

Robin

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robindurant

robindurant

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Hi Steve

This tracking is a laugh a minute!!

I tried your set up system tonight and you are correct, it does track now. The problem is that it tracks the wrong way. I faced it east, 40o alt and instead of tracking up and right it tracked left and up. I think it thinks I am in Australia. I will try your set again but this time I will point it South and see what happens

Robin

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NickH

NickH

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well i'll give you a heads up now that the goto version works on DSO's incredibly well (ask anyone at SSP), but try setting "Jupiter" as a goto target... have reported this as a bug, and it's also been replicated by others stateside

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NickH

NickH

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Robin, yes I know, I was just adding some new info on the overall SW dob status

Sorry to hear it's going back... I know James also had one that he liked (at FLO), so I am interested to see what they find with yours

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robindurant

robindurant

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Finally decided that there is a tracking fault on the Altitude side of the works. Contacted FLO Sunday, yes they replied the same day! and it will be replaced without quibble.

As a supplier of goods myself I sympathies with FLO. The manufacturing quality of mechanical / electrical / electronics equipment now days is very poor. I find quite a few items faulty on installation in my trade and all the manufacturers can say is " send it back & we will replace it "

This does not compensate for the embarrasment and inconvenience caused to and between dealer & client. Better if their quality control dept. did their job properly.

Anyway, thanks to FLO for their good communication during this problem and their speedy solution.

Robin

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  • 4 weeks later...
xboxdevil

xboxdevil

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D'oh! sorry missed your posts, I just found this on the Skywatcher website:

Setting for Northern/Southern Hemisphere operation

Power saving

The SynTrekTM. comes set up for Northern

Hemisphere operation. In order for it to track

correctly in the Southern Hemisphere, you need to

switch from the Northern to Southern Hemisphere

operation mode by press down and holding the SET

key while turning the unit on. Release the SET key

when the unit has successfully turned on and the

GUIDE key starts flashing. This needs to be done

only once. The SynTrekTM. will operate in the

Southern Hemisphere mode until it is switched back

to Northern Hemisphere mode using the same

method.

You can get it here:

http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtsupport/Instruction_Manuals/SynTrek%20040805V1.pdf

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WayBig

WayBig

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With mine, the direction you use to centre the object before turning tracking on is essential.

If I approach it from the wrong direction it wont track - I think this is because of the play in the gears - ie it's trying to track, but is just wheeling in the slack and therefore not moving the tube at all.

Even when it is tracking, it's not as smooth as my little celeston slt - at medium or high power, the object drifts, then is quickly pulled back to the centre, then drifts then is pulled back etc - quite funny to watch.

The slow-mo controls make it easier to manually keep the object in the eyepiece than nudging a manual dob though.

Sounds like the (official) "goto" has much more accurate gears than the "auto"...I guess that's what you pays your money for!

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WayBig

WayBig

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Robin: Does your new one track any better? Did it nosedive / overshoot targets?

I watched Dubliner's youtube vids - mine overshoots and nose dives in a similar way.....it is useable but I'm interested to know if the nose diving/overshooting/backlash tracking issues are faults, rather than eccentricities

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brantuk

brantuk

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You can add me to the list of successes lol. I got the Auto and never had a problem with it other than the keys sticking once in a while. Upgraded it to an Alt/Az goto handset and still absolutely fine. A little off target now and then but nothing a bit of PAE won't cure.

Balancing, levelling, and set up are critical though. I added adjustable feet to mine. Gotta put the counterweights on yet but mostly for big ep's/camera's etc. By "set up" I mean the "approach" to a star when aligning, depending on wether you're pointing East or west - the manual is quite specific on this. Otherwise it's perfect :)

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xboxdevil

xboxdevil

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I set mine up last night and the lift/right buttons would light up when pressed, but alas the tube did not move :-( up/down was fine though :-). I don't suppose anyone has any ideas? FLO already sent me a replacement handset, but alas it wasn't that.....

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NickH

NickH

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GOTO version, you do have to manually move it for the first alignment star...it's not that is it (which threw me initially at SSP sans manual, expecting it to work like the EQ6!)

Not the cable connection to the mount (axis)?

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robindurant

robindurant

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Hi Guys.just picked this up again. FLO sent me a new Base which did prove that the old one was faulty. However, to track seems to be a Knack of knowing what to do, If you follow the manual you will not get it to track as you would think it should.

There is a considerable play in the Alt and Az bearings and as someone else mentioned you need to take up his slack manually or you have to wait yonks for it to start.

Also I have made lots of experiments in doors with the tracking and I have come to the conclusion that you need to level the scope , raise it to your alt setting every time you start viewing and if I switch off the mains to my scope and switch on again it will not track, so I have to go through the set up routine all over again. Does anyone know if this is as it should be, The manual again does not mention this but to me it makes sense.

Another thing I did to make manual movement easier was to slacken the clutches slightly. When I received it new and turned it by hand I could feel & hear it fighting against the gears. I cant think that this rapid racing of the gearing does it any good. I am not convinced that this Dob's clutches were set up right at the manufacturers.

I have added a balancing weight to compensate the slacker alt clutch or it nosedives when adding a heavier EP

I would be interested in any ones comments as to mine.

It is a pity that we cant speak to SW about these issues, You can with Celestron direct.

Robin

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NickH

NickH

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Slack I didn't notice, what we all saw at SSP, was that the GOTO would go to an object, miss it, then kind of go back to it, like it was doing a massive backlash compensate...but, it hit everything bang on when it did so

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brantuk

brantuk

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You do have to set "level" and "latitude" (with the regular handset) every time you switch it on - my manual made that clear and it's a very easy routine when you've done it a couple of times.

Then after alignment you can move it either manually or with arrow keys and it tracks fine. It does have a bit of backlash though - it just needs a simple mod or two to balance it (counter weight and/or slacken the pivot point) and smooth out the az by introducing a little friction (add a bit of carpet to the base).

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