EQ6 stalling

[spyderfly]

Hi all,

I know plenty of people have an EQ6 mount, i was wondering if anyone suffers from it stalling or stopping moving when skewing?

Mine is now over a year old but VERY rarely used, but the motor drive keeps turning off after a slight skew, its doin my head in, i can't figure it out...

Any ideas?

Thanks

[brianb]

Balance - if the scope is way off balance you might stall the motors. But I think this is unlikely, in my experience these mounts function quite well even when badly balanced.

Power supply - the EQ6 mount is power hungry (2A) - if your power supply can't deliver the current, or the voltage drops too much when current is being drawn, you will get bad operation.

Possible bad connector at the scope end - try bending the centre pin on the connector on the mount (very gently) so it makes better contact, and taping the top of the cable to the rotating part of the RA housing so that there is no strain on the connector when the mount is rotating.

[spyderfly]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the info, I dont think its the balance, as i have it set-up ok...usually.

The trouble comes when i put it on fast skew, it almost instantly stops... dead.

Switching it back on resets it but back to square one.

I was informed a while ago that the power adapter which came with the mount is not up to it, and might be the problem.

This i can handle, as it costs nowt for a new adapter plug, but if its the mount im screwed as its now over a year old.

Thanks

Nick

[Beyond_Vision]

As Brian says it's most likely to be a power problem it's best to use a 12V-13.8V, 5A supply as the peak current on max slew could be 2 to 3 A. If it is powered by a battery make sure it is charged ok and not dropping in terminal voltage under load.

Regards

Kevin

[Uplooker]

Are you using the mount with EQMOD? On Friday night I was having problems slewing the mount, it kept stopping. When I looked at EQMOD it kept say "Limits", i.e. the mount had reached preset limits that prevent the OTA from hitting the tripod or pier. I found this strange as I had not set any limits. I was also having problems with the goto accuracy - it was way off. I did think at the time this may have been contributed to by poor balance.

[Ant]

I don't have an EQ6 - but the HEQ5 is pretty much the same things (except size). Power - or rather the power lead - has been at the center of almost every issue that I've read about.

Hope that you get it sorted.

Ant

[MarkF]

Are you using the mount with EQMOD? On Friday night I was having problems slewing the mount, it kept stopping. When I looked at EQMOD it kept say "Limits", i.e. the mount had reached preset limits that prevent the OTA from hitting the tripod or pier. I found this strange as I had not set any limits. I was also having problems with the goto accuracy - it was way off. I did think at the time this may have been contributed to by poor balance.

Puzzled me for a while too, comes in when slewing below the horizon or when tracking across the meridian, you can switch limits off in EQmod if you want. GOTO accuracy was way off for me until I worked out the balance and Meridian issues, synch on either east or West side of the meridian to improve the goto or three points in a triangle of your target area either side.

[Astro_Baby]

Does it just power off ? What does the power light do during slewing ? Is it on constantly or does it blink ?

Do the matters growl or click ?

Its most likley power. As has been said get a decent supply to the mount and use a decent cable. The EQ6 is power hungry and when its cold the poor cable supplied with the mount can act as a choke to the power. Get a decent cable off someone like FLO.

Power will foetn show itself as the red led power lamp flickering during a high speed slew indicating the mount isn't getting the juice it needs.

Second problem could be the motors are jamming at one point in their cycle - when it stops/stalls do the motors just shut up and stop working or do they 'chatter' a bit as if straining ? If its this then its mechanical. Fixable but hard to know whats at fault.

[spyderfly]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the info, im not sure exactly what is causing the problem but i will check out the power lead ( supplied with the mount) which i expected to be ok, given it came from the supplier.

Not set any limits as yet, so cannot be sure if this matters but i will look into it.

THANKS ALL

Nick