TheSkySearchers

Hi All,

I am not one for any form of social media, I joined to share my recent experience with a Celestron product which I felt was important to get out there.

It is by no means a complaint, but I recently have had issues guiding with my Advanced VX mount, I started looking for a new mount and came across a website that talked about micro tuning, I felt as an engineer I could do this myself and took the mount apart, my mount is still in warranty (or was) but I was really surprised, both the worm gears were done up so tight I could not move them.

My mount is just over a year old and I have never had it apart until now, I could not believe how tight both worm gears were, I have since adjusted them to a comfortable feel with no play and they now move freely.

I think my point here is straight from the manufacturer there may be a fault, the stresses placed on the motors must have been really excessive, my advice when purchasing a mount would be to discuss carefully your needs with the supplier.

I cannot believe a supplier such as Celestron would allow this through quality control, I cannot stress enough how tight the worm gears were.

My advice is be careful who you buy your next mount from, I was going to buy the CGX-L but I have decided to go with skywatcher as a result.

I hope anyone out there running an Advance VX is encouraged to get this looked at, it may be OK but there again it may not?

Regards
Dave

I guess, these things happen. My iOptron CEM120 is being fixed for binding.

I would say this is not a very common occurrence, normally the AVX is a good basic mount with the odd quirk.
Normally they give good service for many years.
Any issues should be addressed to the manufacturer if it is under warranty as they may decide to just replace the mount.

Celestron and Skywatcher are made by the same company though, Skywatcher is just the Synta house brand with Celestron right behind.

Personally I am preferring Vixen mounts now though I still own a Celestron ASGT (forerunner of the AVX) and a Celestron CG-5 (manual version of the ASGT)

Welcome on board Dave! I had similar experience with my Skytee 2 mount from SkyWatcher. It arrived with sticky grease and so tight that I could not move it on any axes at all. After degreasing and adjusting it works fine. As a customer you are right to be upset, but I don't believe overall quality control of SkyWatcher is any better than Celestron.

Hi all
Thanks for the responses, it was interesting to see these responses, it was surprising to see this is common, when I do upgrade I may consider voiding the warranty from the start.
This is an issue that in my view should be corrected by the manufacturer.
I'll be honest I am not upset, I fully appreciate that the employees of the manufacturer are just doing a job.
Binding of the worm gear is not something that would be immediately obvious.
In view of everyone's comments I will keep my options open, I would like to hear everyone's opinion on choosing between the CGX and the EQ8, these are my short list.
Would appreciate points of view.

Dave

I have personal experience with the AVX mount. Mine is an older model from 2012 and back then the mounts tended to be very loosy goosy in both axes. They were as sloppy as a hungry hobo eating soup!

We have quite a few CGX and CGX-L owners on this site and very few have reported any of the problems that have plagued the AVX mount. Something tells me that if you bought 5 AVX mounts all 5 would exhibit slightly different odd characteristics and none of those characteristics would be the same. Just MHO.

Cheers,

I’m right there with JT @JayTee .

There are a few “gems” out there, but mostly the mounts are challenging to work with for AP.

I own an AVX and it is a nice mount for visual work. Beginning AP is doable as long as the copy that you have doesn’t misbehave too badly. There are several weak points that can be slightly remedied, but not easily corrected. After you get to know its quirks, they can be worked with as best as one can.
Mine ran well enough for me to get into AP and I feel that it fulfilled its purpose.
Just recently, my AVX developed “quirks” that I couldn’t deal with (I didn’t want to deal with) and I had to move on.

That sounds a bit too negative to me. With moderate expectations the AVX is fine. Some users do excellent work with an AVX, for instance Mac (memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=495), check out his threads. The AVX is also easy to tune (worm tension, backlash compensation). While I moved on to a G11S/OnStep, I still use my AVX for wide field and have few complaints. Up to 1000 mm within the load capacity it should be decent.

Thanks everybody
Some very useful information and mixed opinions and feelings about the AVX, I have stripped cleaned and modified mine, I have not had a chance to use it though, weather is terrible and unpredictable here in the UK.
I am lucky as I have built my own roll off roof observatory, so it's on a fixed post which is very stable, so hopefully my results will improve.
I do intend to upgrade the mount, when I do I will use the AVX as a portable.
But for now just waiting for the weather to improve.
Once again thanks everyone