First severe problem
Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2023 10:25 am
Hi all,
last night was supposed to be clear all along so I set up the mount and complete gear and left ouside to wait until I returned later that night. Unfortunately there was some little rain shower and the temps dropped to freezing but not much under 0°C. I had already everything powered up for the whole time and did not notice any problem, all devices seemed to be up and running. There was no noticable snow, ice, whatever on the setup except for the telescope cover.
I have a small Mele PC sitting on the telescope to which I logged in from my iPad using Remote Desktop. The mount was pointing to the NCP (more or less of course.) I did not check the coordinate reading though. After the last use I had it packed in its case to show to friends. The last use had been on the same spot here at home.
Then I started ThreePointPolarAlignment in Nina, which I had used before successfully. The mount began slewing to the East and a bit away from +90° but did not seem to want to stop before the scope would hit the tripod. Unfortunately in that moment the Mele was not responding to my Stop commands so I hit the mounts Power switch to stop the mount. From that moment on the mount does only slew to the West direction. North and South are working properly, no chance to move it eastwards.
The mount does not park or Home, Unity only displays Park and not Unpark, even if the mount is freshly started.
Connecting via Unity App on Smartphone or on PC, using USB, gives all the same result.
This night I put the mount into the garage, now in the living room, doesn't help.
According to the RA/Dec reading in Unity the mount does track as well as stop and resume tracking.
Hitting Set park position and confirming gives the Error Failed to move mount to park position. Same when I clicked Park before this.
Hitting Home there is a high sound for 1 or 2 seconds, probably the motor but that's it.
Choosing a Slew position gives the same result, no error, keeps tracking.
Tonight I had the mount powered by the PPBA with Pegasus original cable for the mount and Pegasus 10 A power supply. Swapping to mounts own power supply does not help.
Any idea?
Thanks a lot.
Greetings Torsten
last night was supposed to be clear all along so I set up the mount and complete gear and left ouside to wait until I returned later that night. Unfortunately there was some little rain shower and the temps dropped to freezing but not much under 0°C. I had already everything powered up for the whole time and did not notice any problem, all devices seemed to be up and running. There was no noticable snow, ice, whatever on the setup except for the telescope cover.
I have a small Mele PC sitting on the telescope to which I logged in from my iPad using Remote Desktop. The mount was pointing to the NCP (more or less of course.) I did not check the coordinate reading though. After the last use I had it packed in its case to show to friends. The last use had been on the same spot here at home.
Then I started ThreePointPolarAlignment in Nina, which I had used before successfully. The mount began slewing to the East and a bit away from +90° but did not seem to want to stop before the scope would hit the tripod. Unfortunately in that moment the Mele was not responding to my Stop commands so I hit the mounts Power switch to stop the mount. From that moment on the mount does only slew to the West direction. North and South are working properly, no chance to move it eastwards.
The mount does not park or Home, Unity only displays Park and not Unpark, even if the mount is freshly started.
Connecting via Unity App on Smartphone or on PC, using USB, gives all the same result.
This night I put the mount into the garage, now in the living room, doesn't help.
According to the RA/Dec reading in Unity the mount does track as well as stop and resume tracking.
Hitting Set park position and confirming gives the Error Failed to move mount to park position. Same when I clicked Park before this.
Hitting Home there is a high sound for 1 or 2 seconds, probably the motor but that's it.
Choosing a Slew position gives the same result, no error, keeps tracking.
Tonight I had the mount powered by the PPBA with Pegasus original cable for the mount and Pegasus 10 A power supply. Swapping to mounts own power supply does not help.
Any idea?
Thanks a lot.
Greetings Torsten
It's up and running again. With USB connection to PC right after connection I hit Sidereal and then Reset Home. After that it moved again into the East direction, whew 
