AVX issues

[Mac]

My AVX has been doing a good job until this past week.

I can no longer calibrate the mount for guiding. It appears to Ekos that it hasn't moved enough or at all. I have a known good working image file that I can burn to a SD card and it hasn't changed, the problem appears there and on fresh software installs. While that good SD card has a saved mount calibration, it will guide, plate-solve, goto without issue. So the mount is communicating with the software.

Something had to have changed in the mount. There was an odd occurrence last week where I had the mount plugged in, 12v was feeding it as measured with my voltmeter, but the mount light was off and no HC lights. I turned all the power off, waited a minute or so and turned the power supply back on and the mount came back to life.

Should I just factory reset the hand controller?

Any advices such as buy a new mount would be appreciated.

[Mac]

When I recall the Scope Setup > Autoguiding rate in the hand control menu, RA and DEC both show 00.

Is this the way it should work, to place 00s in there or the stored value ( this is what I expect )

What values should be entered here?


https://www.celestron.com/blogs/knowled ... iding-port

[SkyHiker]

Hi Mac

A factory reset is not the end of the world, I would say just do it. About the RA and DEC guiding rates, I believe mine was set to 0.5 though my AVX memory is rusty but frankly I think it only matters if you use ST4, which I presume you don't. I would presume that is the the default so it's a bit odd when you see zero. Check what it is after a factory reset.

If you had set the backlash compensation you will have to redo it after a factory reset. You don't have to worry about setting the time and location because Ekos sets that for you (assuming it has access to the internet).

You have unbelievably good results from your AVX so I won't recommend for you to buy something else. The 102 mm seems to be the sweet spot, I was never very lucky with my 6" Mak-Newt or 127 mm that weigh both about 14.5 lbs.

[Juno16]

Hi Steve,

I have only reset once and it cured my problem which had to do with the scope slewing to the wrong side of the meridian (counterweights up). I just snapped pictures of the HC settings with my phone before (location, guide settings).
The Scope Setup guide rates for RA and DEC displaying 00 is strange, but the reset might fix that up.

My AVX Scope Setup guide rates for RA and DEC are 99. I set them there from the default of 50. Henk was pretty close! @SkyHiker

Good luck Steve! I really enjoy my AVX. With some small tweaks, it had done very well for me. Please let us know how it goes!

[SkyHiker]

Hi Steve,

I have only reset once and it cured my problem which had to do with the scope slewing to the wrong side of the meridian (counterweights up). I just snapped pictures of the HC settings with my phone before (location, guide settings).
The Scope Setup guide rates for RA and DEC displaying 00 is strange, but the reset might fix that up.

My AVX Scope Setup guide rates for RA and DEC are 99. I set them there from the default of 50. Henk was pretty close! @SkyHiker

Good luck Steve! I really enjoy my AVX. With some small tweaks, it had done very well for me. Please let us know how it goes!

Thanks Jim when I mentioned 0.5 I meant 50% so that corresponds with what you saw, sorry.

In fact if they are different for unknown reasons, maybe Ekos wrote the wrong number into it? You would reset it in that case too.

[Mac]

In fact if they are different for unknown reasons, maybe Ekos wrote the wrong number into it? You would reset it in that case too.

Thanks Guys...

Henk, that's what I am thinking about Ekos or some random neutrinos. I thought my mount was fried when I had power going to it and nothing was on.

I can only image with that one SD card or apply my backup to a fresh image to use the stored mount calibration in Ekos. Any attempt to calibrate will fail while doing RA, it never makes it to DEC. I don't see the guide image moving either.

Seeing that you believe it has no bearing when used with a USB connection, that's probably not my issue.

I see the pulses in the guiding section but it's as though they have no effect on RA. I have a straight line across the Drift graph. The DEC error is always very low and RA is often twice or more giving me oblong stars.

Unfortunately it's going to be 4 - 5 days before the clear skies return and I need some sleep.

[Lady Fraktor]

The AVX mounts power switch is not the most robust, they can fail easily or just miss making contact inside the switch body.
With all of my Celestron mounts I use a power cord that has a on/ off switch and leave the mount switch in the on position.

[Ed217]

Any chance there is a power supply or power cord issue here?