TheSkySearchers

Went out first thing this morning to cover up the scope.

Noticed right away that it was pointing in an odd position and not parked

Looked at the hand controller and it read "Dec switch fail... press back to continue". Uh oh. So I pressed the back button and the scope began to slew very slowly.

At that point I switched the mount off. Turned it back on and initial setup went like it always does. Slewed to the 'switch' position just fine.

The only thing I can think of is that it got pretty darn cold last night, below freezing. Maybe the hand controller had a glitch?

Thinking about updating the firmware but I seem to remember it being a bit of a hassle.

Any thoughts on this?

Interesting, I'm glad it worked out after the power cycle.

Coincidentally(?), when I returned the ASGT to the Home position at the end of the session last night (or early this morning), the DEC slew was very slow. It was also cold here, well below freezing. Maybe it is just a Celestron "feature"? No error here, just slow slew - I'd estimate rate 4 instead of the usual 9.

Bob

I don't know what caused the slow slewing, on the power cycle it slewed just fine.

I just checked last nights results and it evidently quit working on a target change. But they were both on the same side of the meridian and did not have far to slew.

Who knows. I do know that the firmware update it states....

Reduce false alarms on RA and Dec sensors

.

So that looks promising. Never had this happen before so I don't know if the low temps had anything to do with it.

Some TLC and upgraded grease for the mount since you leave it out all of the time?

Nah it's fine I grease it every couple of years

It was a software glitch pretty sure. Just got done updating the firmware using Celestron's CFM applet.

Had a little scare when it kept refusing to update the RA and DEC switches claiming the device memory was corrupt. But after a power cycle it worked fine. I guess the other updates ( 9 out of 11 ) had to be set up first. At least it seemed to work fine. It will be clear tonight so get to take it out for a test run.

Well start up tonight turned out to be a little bit of a hair puller. At one point the mount slewed to where it was pointing at the ground

Plate solve was having a very hard time.

The hand controller reset with "No calibration". I pushed the back button and had to re-enter all the site and time data.

Then PHD2 decided it would go crazy too.

But I think I have it all sorted now. Will know in about 10 minutes when there is a target change.

Phew … Astrophotography can be so frustrating at times

And rewarding.

The target switch went flawlessly! The previous target was to the southwest (M42) the next target is to the north west. That's a pretty big slew but I was very happy when the first plate solve for centering resolved on its first pass. No 'searching' at all! The error was only 1,000 pixels. One more slew and it was centered. 2 minutes tops.

PHD2 picked right back up too.

Now the real test will be to see if it runs until the time limit without an error (6:20 am).






Oh yea I forgot to mention. Belive it or not, the motors sound different! They kind of buzz when spooling up for a fast slew!

I do plan to take the covers off the gear set tomorrow and have a look at the grease after all... Thanks Gab

The sequence went pretty well for the most part except failed at the next to last target at around 4:00 am.

It was not a software failure, I think I got my timing wrong and the object was actually already into the trees and SGP could not center the target.

Found the scope in it's factory 'home' position this morning and the hand controller was saying 'begin aliignment'?

Something screwy is going on because the HC asks for all the site and time info every time you turn it on. It used to only ask to verify the time???

Good to hear the original problem didn't recur. Having to reset the coordinates every time is curious. Could the on-board battery be fading?

Bob

I don't think so. It only started doing that after the firmware update.

I will probably end up doing a factory defaults reset on it.

Might order a new hand controller too if it continues to act flakey.

BTW I had a look at the gears and the grease was fine. Still quite 'fluid' so no issues there.

I think there is a setting in the menu for keeping the data..
I have also had Dec switch fail messages, and the mount tracked right along with no issues...
I guess I'll bite the bullet and update everything as well.... Not a fun prospect. did you update in a particular order to get everything correct?

Hrm I will have to look at the manual to see if there is a setting to 'save' the info. I don't remember that.

No particular order except as I said before it kept failing to update the RA and DEC switch packages until I power cycled it after the other packages did install.

If that is 'normal' I have no idea. Like I said it is not acting normally.

BTW I looked into it and there is no battery in the hand controller.

The HC has flash memory to remember site info so not sure why yours is forgetting it.
I have had Celestron mounts in past that I have not used in over a year and they still hold the last site information.
Can you roll back the updates to see if that is the issue?

I suppose I could. Just haven't had the time to check it yet.

Last time I worked with it I got the real time clock (in the mount) configured, but every time I powered up it comes up with the location info to be confirmed. It 'used' to ask to confirm the time.

UlteriorModem wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 2:14 pm I suppose I could. Just haven't had the time to check it yet.

Last time I worked with it I got the real time clock (in the mount) configured, but every time I powered up it comes up with the location info to be confirmed. It 'used' to ask to confirm the time.

Is the RTC enabled in the menu on the HC?

I was resetting my clock and location every time I powered up until I found out you have to enable the RTC, it's off by default.

Regards

Graeme

It was not on before but I only had to confirm the time, it did not ask for location.

I turned on the RTC and now it asks to confirm location but not time?

UlteriorModem wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 3:30 pm It was not on before but I only had to confirm the time, it did not ask for location.

I turned on the RTC and now it asks to confirm location but not time?

Just the once?

If you mean that it shows you the location and you just press enter to continue that is normal on my Celestron mounts.

Huh okay so it is acting 'normal' now after the update because before It would ask the time. But that is probably due to the fact I never had the RTC turned on before

Got a chance to try things out last night.

I was very pleased to find it solved and synched quite quickly, slewed from pointing north to M42 in the south and centered it on the second pass. Plate solves were resolving in seconds.

Even watched it go through a meridian flip which also solved in two passes. First one missed by a mere 500 pixels!

But... for some reason, around 12:40 pm it was imaging the spindle galaxy. It had captured about 4 x 600 sec frames but then the auto center failed. I suppose it was a meridian flip or something I did not have time to really dig into the log file.

Kind of frustrating, everything was working so well I thought I had it running smoothly then that fail