Sky Watcher AZ GTI full strip down & Rebuild. Cleaned and fresh grease. Guiding now at 0.8"
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 พ.ค. 2021
- Sky watcher full strip down and rebuild. Fresh grease in all the bearings etc. Superlube synthetic grease used.
My AZ GTI had become a bit stiff in the RA and DEC axis making balancing difficult. Also the guiding had deteriorated to between 1.6 and 2.0 arc secs.
After the service and a new calibration the mount is guiding sub 1 arc sec at 0.8" which is brilliant for such a small mount. Bring on the clear skies.
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Mounts
Sky Watcher EQ8R PRO bit.ly/39HVTpR
Sky Watcher EQ6R Pro bit.ly/3i1afU0
Sky Watcher HEQ5 bit.ly/2Ty7BeZ
Sky Watcher AZ GTI bit.ly/3iGmIvC
Cameras
ZWO ASI 294MM Pro bit.ly/2VbxNN6
ZWO ASI 183MM Pro bit.ly/3kSLPOs
ZWO ASI 290mm mini bit.ly/2UO71u6
ZWO ASI 120mm mini bit.ly/2Twjceu
Filters
Antlia 3nm bit.ly/3GhuaZl
Antlia LRGB bit.ly/3MDdca8
Chroma Oiii 3nm 1.25" bit.ly/3rviomS
Chroma Ha 3nm 1.25" bit.ly/2Wcsnlj
Optolong LRGB 1.25" set bit.ly/36ZtXJq
ZWO EFW Electronic filter wheel bit.ly/3fbmKe3
Telescopes
RC8 bit.ly/3x5AexT
Sky Watcher 130PDS
Zenithstar 61 bit.ly/2UEgFjc
William Optics 50mm guidescope bit.ly/36ZLYHK
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Sky Watcher 0.9Coma Corrector
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Astro Essential 0.75Reducer
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Pegasus Astro pocket powerbox advance bit.ly/3iMFeSO
ZWO OAG Off Axis Guider bit.ly/3i1RIqD
ProLogik balance meter and tuning tool
www.prologik-astro.com/
The meter is of a high quality and works really well. Not only is it great for helping to find perfect balance in stiff mounts but it is a fantastic aid to fine tuning your mount for the best guiding. It will assist you in adjusting your worm drive/gear mesh to the optimum setting and giving you great smooth tracking and excellent guiding numbers. - บันเทิง
I apologize about the comment on the camera angle I actually finally watched the whole thing and it is very informative thank you so much
Thank you. If you have any questions or problems let me know, happy to help
Good video , you’re a braver man than me Glenn to strip down your mount like that! It’s good to see it’s working better, nice job!
Thats better. Motorbikes are my other passion
@@Astrobloke I must confess, I’ve been to Brands Hatch a few times, British Super bikes! Taken 1000’s of photos!
Don’t know what to do with them!
Fantastic. Ha, I learned of "grub" screws when building my Meccano kits. In North America, I think everyone likes to use "set" screw. Excellent work. A great DIY video.
Thank you. I loved Meccano lol
In taking my unit apart I worked out what, some parts actually do. The ‘shoulder’ bolt that holds the motor bracket in place has a flat washer and a wavy washer to lock it in place, this has enough clearance to allow the bracket to pivot. The smaller pin on the right which has a slot in the end is actually an eccentric pin, the idea is this allows the right amount of clearance to be created between the worm and worm wheel. With the spring in place to keep tension on the motor/worm, the pin is rotated gently until the backlash is removed between worm and wheel. Holding that eccentric pin in place with a screwdriver, gently tighten the nylock nut until there is no slop in the motor/worm up/down and the spring holds the worm firmly against the worm wheel. But can slide back and forth. Same applies to RA and Dec. The small slotted brass pin which you removed along with the circular piece you will note is slotted to adjust the clearance of the position reader, it does not actually hold it in place, the plate that goes on top does that. Being very small parts, these subtle differences are sometimes overlooked as to their function, often they are the key to correct operation of the unit. The central boss that was missing its top threads is to allow correct tension on the RA clutch assembly. Their are two sets of threads on the central boss, upper and lower, with a blank section between them. This is where the two small grub screws locate to lock in position without damaging the upper or lower threads. I hope folks find my comments helpful, I do a lot of marching of my own parts and rebuilding items such as scope mounts etc. so I am familiar with these small refinements, which are obvious on larger mounts but less so on the tiny units. Regards from the Southern Cross Observatory-Tasmania 42 South. Stay safe & clear skies. PS My unit was virtually grease free, that's called quality control !!
Hi Shevill and hope you are well. Excellent explanation of the mount workings. I am sure as have I people will find this really interesting. Thank you for taking the time to write this
@@Astrobloke Sometimes all is not what it seems. I have found that locking ring you have threads damaged or missing is really crucial to the fit and smoothness of the RA, tiny tweaks one way or the other -I guess it has to be within the narrow blank space where the two grub screws lock it in place. I have machined many worm and wheel gear sets over the years, building my own mounts of various sizes, the fit and finish of worm and wheel gears results in good or bad periodic error. We are into spring down under, 22 degrees the other day, this weekend snow down to sea level!! Clear skies.
@@MisterM950 -Thank you for your comments and I fully understand your request, however, the problem is that I have done these tuning mods and not taken any pictures etc. To make a video or take pics and add text is not really something I want to do again. It took me three attempts to get the RA tension just right, disassemble, assemble test, three times. The critical issue seems to be getting the tension right on the RA locking ring to allow free movement for balancing with no tightness, very fiddly I found. I have yet to put the system into actual use, recovering from spinal surgery has but a stop to lifting and carrying tripods and mounts with scopes attached etc. for some time. Kind regards from the "Southern Cross Observatory"-Tasmania 42 South.
Awesome! Thank you! Since you know the subject, might I ask you: do the main gears and worm gears need to be greased as well? How do you adjust the clearance between both to avoid any slack? Do you ajust it by thé feeling, by hand? Or is there some kind of gauges to be used? Lastly, as for the main gears, is there any indication regarding the torque to use when tightening them? Thank you so much for any input !👍 Hope you recovered well from the surgery and that you can enjoy your passion again 🙏
@@RenoLaringo Sorry to be late in replying. It is a year or so since I did this I really can't add any more to the above. It was all done by fit and feel, no special tools or gauges used. I know I had to do it several times to get it right and adjust things so they were free but not too tight. The worm & wheel gears need to be free from backlash but not overtight. All gears have a small amount of clearance to prevent binding. These are cheap gearsets so one might experience some tight or slack spots as the gear rotates, not much can be done about that. I make a lot of my own equipment, gears etc. so am uded to getting the fit right and to a level of precision. Don't be surprised ifyouhave to take several attempts to get it right, every mount will be a little different.
Decided to pick one these up and already anticipating a problem with it before it even arrives, glad you posted this. 👍
As long as you are not overloading it will be good. Not the most refined mount out there but but full goto and EQ tracking at an affordable and portable price. Good luck and clear skies
Nice work Glenn interesting video good to see the real improvement at the end.👍👍
Thanks Ollie. Always nice when it goes back together with no bits left over lol. The improvements were nice to see
in the process of doing this now, the ra axis started slipping and your service guide is coming in most handy . thankyou so much 🔭👍
I hope it sorts it all. Any questions let me know
@@Astrobloke pulled it all down and grease had found its way onto the clutch surfaces, works a treat now 🔭👍
Great video Astrobloke. Mine has been getting quite stiff of late. I will follow this and sort mine out now
Any problems let me know, good luck
Awesome video! I was struggling to get an acceptable guiding with this mount, in part because of the stickiness in RA and DEC, which made very difficult to do a proper balance and polar alignment. For me there was no way to get under 3,5 total rms.
After opening, adjusting and cleaning the mount following your video I was able to reduce the stickness on both axes for a much much better balance and achieved a very good polar alignment using Ekos and PH2 drift alignment (Polaris out of view from my place) in minutes.
In several tests I did last night I was easily getting between 0,9-1,4 rms in PH2 with default settings, a great improvement and more than enough for 5-7 min exposures with a 80/560mm scope (total payload of 3,8kg).
Thanks to your video I finally have a working mount to enjoy my astrophotography sessions, thanks!!
Thank you for your feedback and I am really pleased it worked for you. They are a very good portable mount but seem to come out of the factory with varying degrees of quality.
Clear skies
I thought I could push this mount a little further so I reopen the thing and made fine tune adjustments on the DEC gears and to remove stickiness. With this I was able to better balance and set finally at 0.30 RMS during a couple of hours session with a 560mm FL tube.
Awesome what this mount is capable of, it’s a pity the low quality controls they do at Skywatcher.
Thanks for this video again, keep the great content in your channel!
@@deepskywindow that is excellent results. The quality control is poor unfortunately. But its not too hard to tune up so you can get acceptable performance for what it can handle in weight. I just use a Z61 or camera lens set ups on mine
Very good video showing great detail, well done
Thank you very much!
Awesome, really helpful for those wanting to follow along and tune their own mount - I agree by the way that Cuiv's method of locking the spring loaded adjustment is probably not the best way, I don't think the design is a bad one to be fair! :)
Great job mate!
Thanks Luke. No locking the motor in did not work for me and you may have heard the mount sounded very strange. So mine is using the springs to hold the worm drives in and tracking at a great level so will leave alone. I think these are a great little mount
Nice DIY!! Interesting Modification there!!
thanks
Thank you. This is a very helpful video!
You can remagnetize your screwdriver with a length of insulated wire, a tube, a very small (say 1A) fuse, and a plug. Wrap the wire around the tube, put the fuse in series, and attach both ends to the plug. Insert the screwdriver shaft into the tube and plug the plug into a wall socket. The fuse will blow almost instantly. When it does, the magnetic field generated by the current in the wire will collapse, turning your screwdriver back into a magnet. My old boss taught me that trick, and I have magnetized many screwdrivers with it over the years.
Thanks Barry. I will try that later today and see if i can fix my screwdriver. Great trick and thank you for sharing
@@Astrobloke My pleasure! Safety tip for anyone who doesn't already know this: the fuse has to be smaller than the maximum amperage rating of the wire, or you risk a fire.
0.5A fuses should be safe with any common wire size (24ga or larger).
The tube you wrap the wire around should be non-ferrous, or it will get magnetized instead of the screwdriver; the tube is just a convenient way to insert the screwdriver into the middle of the coil, and a way to keep the coil in shape for multiple uses.
I just rub mine on a big magnet harvested from a old speaker, much easier if you have a magnet around ;)
Pity I couldn’t strip it all down due to a sheared screw from manufacturers original assembly (gears on the weight/scope end unable to remove). Easy process to follow in order to service the AZGTI thanks to your video, had to pause to check which way round the bearings go back in. First time I have ever done anything like this, went back together easily and have ran it through its movement range. Just need clear skies to see how it guides. Many thanks for this instructional video that you can actually work alongside. Saved forever as no doubt the AZGTI will need regular servicing in the future.
I had a threaded collar nut in mine which was clearly damage done at the factory. Its a shame their quality control is not high as its a good product. Thank you for taking the time to comment and I am glad the video was helpful for you. Please let me know how your results are, clear skies
@@Astrobloke my guiding is down from mid 2’s, i got 1.64 total best it has ever done.No knocking/clicking noises anymore when guiding and it stacked 180second frames with nice round stars last night for the first time, normally it fails to live stack (ASIAIR) at that length of exposure and can’t match the stars. My balance is a bit off due to a homemade electric focus unit i had to attach to the scopes dovetail so i need to source a smaller fixing so i can move the scope up a bit to get better balance. Happy with the result though. Next up 5 minute exposures to test. Thank you.
@@nicholahamblett4726 thats excellent news, well done. The balance is definitely worth sorting as with a low payload mount the balance will make a lot of difference. Get that sorted and a few tweaks and you should be able to guide at 1” sec or lower.
Thanks for this.. I just got the Az GTI a few days ago for an ultra-portable setup, and am contemplating cleaning and re-greasing it right away. I have done so in the past when I still owned an AZ-Eq6 and noticed that the quality control with Skywatcher was quite bad (mine had metal shavings in one of the press-fitted bearings.. which was seemingly inserted with a hammer). I also switched to some SKF bearings back then. (In the long run I purchased an Avalon mount which performed on day 1 better than the AZ-Eq6 ever could.)
Then again, I may want to wait and use it at least once to see how it performs before having to re-set everything again. At least there's a good guide available now. :)
Thank you for your message. I have read there is quite a variation in these mounts. Some are lucky but quality control is a bit hit and miss. Its still a great little portable mount though and works great in the EQ mode
Another great video. Always a pleasure to watch you at work. Optics have used a special grease called 'kilopoise' not found in cars etc. Chinese may have their own version. RS Components sell it in UK. For slow rotation only. Could also use it on shed roof rails.
Thank you for your comment its really appreciated. Great info on the grease. I am going to look at this. Thanks again
It looks like I will have to do the same with my unit, the Quality Control is very basic in its assembly I note from others who have done the same as you. I also follow the fellow in Japan. I also have a Sky Watcher Similar unit but it lacks Dec. guiding and Wi-Fi. I have a project in mind for my AZ-GTI and seeing your rebuild has perhaps popped up on my YT suggestions at a good time. You and Cuiv have a lot in common, excellent series across scopes, mounts, software control and processing-just what every newcomer needs as they start their journey into astrophotography/astronomy in general. Regards from Tasmania 42 South.🇬🇧🇦🇺🦘🔭
I really like the AZ GTI. It does need a bit of work to get the best out of it however. But for a portable goto its hard to beat
Great video Glenn, I actually ordered the AZ GTI with a SW Skymax 127 in December but sadly due to pandemic and brexit, order still delayed. The time waiting has given me chance to plan things like buying a wedge and counter weights to use it for EQ. I have a SW 150P Newtonian on a EQ3-2 mount but now looking forward to a goto mount (when it arrives)
Its a shame that stuff is so far back ordered. Its a great little mount for portability. Thank you for the comments and support.
Can't believe this only had 171 likes ! so thorough and helpful 👍
Thank you I am really glad it helped you
@@Astrobloke Did mine last year, wish I'd seen this before I did it :-) have you tried the 3.37 firmware ? I've held off since 3.2 but might give it a bash.
@@gazza9839 no not yet, if you do let me know how it is. I am currently testing a gadget that helps remove the DEC backlash on the GTI and will hopefully have a video out soon with results (weather has not been kind lol)
@@Astrobloke had a quick 40 mins on Thursday and seems to be ok ? Needs longer testing really but so far so good 🤞🏻
@@Astrobloke #intrigued 😃
Regarding the Spring, what i did, was cut a couple of turns off the spring with side cutters, which tightened the spring, rather than Cuiv's method.
Thats a good idea. Mine is still guiding nicely at around 0.8 - 0.9 rms so for now I will leave alone but when I next need yo service or work on it I will take a look at that
nice video... thanks
Thank you too!
That was really cool Glenn! Your video pretty much made up my mind to grab one of these mounts for a portable setup I was thinking about for camping later in the summer. Wonder how it would do with Z81, as it's a little heavier than your Z61.
Thanks Joe. Not sure with the z81. I do believe I have seen someone with a Z71 on one of these.
This is an awesome video, thanks for the detailed description all along the tear down, re-lube and reassembly. You didn’t happen to take dimensional measurements of the bearings when it was apart did you? I was thinking of ordering new bearings so they could be here for the assembly and I wouldn’t be without a working mount. Lastly, when you balance in RA and dec is it much smoother? It would be good to show a before and after for “stickiness” improvement with the cleaning and superlube. Great channel and thanks!
Thank you Robert. I am sorry I did not take any measurements. I should have showed the difference but after the rebuild it was a lot smoother and easier to balance.
hello, this assembly is very interesting because it does not use a stepper motor but an encoder wheel, which interests me and the particularity of the grease which is very important for me as a mechanic, this grease must not be too greasy, which tires the motor and increases rotational sensitivity and precision, this will be done by the encoder wheel, the grease must be neither too fluid nor too greasy, limit wear at low revs and no need for high grease temperature, engine level I noticed the unbearable noise of displacements and there it is a fatty grease which must absorb the vibrations therefore thicker, I will inquire.
I try to just lubricate the parts that need it lightly. The coffee grinder noise of the mount is unfortunate but a characteristic of these. My CEM26 by ioptron is almost silent in comparison.
Thank you for the informative video. Did you clean or grease the worm gear and worm? I wonder if it needs light oil or nothing at all? Also, did you check the motor to worm gears for backlash? You made a great improvement. I finally received a AZ-GTI and it seems very rough in operation and the AZ lock may have some grease on it. I need to tighten excessively to make it lock. After watching your video, I may try to tune it up. Thanks again.
Hi Keith and thank you. Yes I did regrease the teeth on the gear and the worm drive after cleaning. A light oil may work but could run to areas you do not want so I think a good lithium or synthetic grease is best. Be careful with the tightening as they are easily stripped.
Nice! Thanks so much. Now I know what’s causing the funny slewing noise when you fixed it towards the end of testing the RA axis. Now back to another round of strip down and rebuild. If you were to do this again, what would you emphasize or add or not do?
When i next work on this mount I will buy all new bearings for it and replace them all. I think you can even buy better worm drives.
Hi Glenn another great video.
May I ask where you got your counterweight bar from please.
Hi Keith. I ordered it from Aliexpress. I searched for AZGTI counterweight bar
Thanks for this tuto! I did not see you greasing the worm gear nor the main one. Did I miss that or is there a reason not tox grease them? Thank you!👍
Hi and thank you for commenting. This was not my best video to show clearly all the work. I have plans to do it a gain a lot better. I did grease them using Superlube synthetic grease. Only advice is everything is very small so not too much just a thin coating.
@@Astrobloke Well I did find it quite interesting anyway! Thank you for the input mate! Really appreciate.
Hello, I liked your video and I use the same method as you when I remove a lot of screws I put them back in their places so there is no way to make a mistake, but I had a question which grease did you use??? I saw you with a tube but I couldn't see which type or specifically which one was used for reassembly, thank you
Thank you for watching and commenting, glad you liked the video. The grease I use is superlube fully synthetic grease
amzn.to/3C1zLk0
It works really well and does not become tacky. Good luck and clear skies
Hey Glenn, watching this in 2022. This looks like a very good portable, not too expensive mount, and servicing it is doable as you have shown in your video. I'm considering this mount for a small wide field setup, I know now there are other options like the Star Adventurer GTi, but in some videos I've noticed that the SA GTi it is a bit noisy (you know, the typical "coffee grinder" sound), which makes me worry about slewing the mount in the dead of night, neighbours, you know... So my question is, do you know which one of these two mounts is less noisier? Thanks, clear skies.
Hi Sergio and thankyou for watching commenting. I have not heard the SA GTI so cannot directly compare but would think there is not much in it. I agree they make some noise but if you are even just a small distance away I doubt they are loud enough to attract complaints. The main slew very late at night would be a meridian flip and you could do this manually if you were worried bout the mount noise. Good luck in your choice and clear skies
What a great DYI tutorial :) Thank you so much. I know I need to do that on my AZ-GTI, but looks like over my DYT skills, I'm sure I'd crash the whole mount into oblivion after minutes. May I ask you if eqmod guide rate speed @ .9 is good for this mount, should I lower it? Or do you have any guidance for specific PHD2 settings for AZ-GTI? Love your videos!
Hi Franco and thank you so much for your kind comments. When I use mine I normally use a guide rate of 0.5 and that seems to work well. I have never tried higher so cannot confirm what difference that would make but it is said the longer the pulse the more accurate it will be at corrections. So EQMOD always recommends starting at 0.5 and if you can go lower but every mount is different. Certainly does not hurt to experiment though and would be interested to hear your results. Clear skies
@@Astrobloke Mount open, on the kitchen table, following your video. Your 1hr vs I guess my 3 days :) Thank you for taking the time! I'll let you know. Anxiety. Where are my pills? :)
How long did you use your mount untill you decide to rebuild it ?
I wonder when I should apply maintenance on mine...
Thank you for sharing, and for your video !!! Nice work !!
hi Mark, thank you for your comment. I suppose its been about 14 months. I just noticed it getting stiffer and the guiding was not as good. performing really well now.
Did you leave the spring in the RA motor working normally or did you lock it with the nut?
I've seen some videos of people locking the nut to eliminate the backlash, but my concern is if there might be any damage from doing this...
I had the spring working. I found it was getting the tension right with the nut so the spring worked but it wasn’t too loose.
Wonderful video! I also got the AZ GTI mount but I found an issue when I was shooting last night... The red line (I think it is DEC axis) cant hold and drop when guiding... Could you explain what was wrong with my mount? or maybe my setup? Thanks! I think I will follow your instruction and modify my mount soon!
Hi Martin and thank you. Its hard to say what could be wrong. The mount can suffer from bad backlash. Have you run a guide assistant? This would be my first step as it will tell you the DEC backlash and try and add compensation to allow for it
Very through Glen. Been considering selling my Star Adventurer for a n az-gti.
I sold my star adventurer and bought one of these. At first it was just because it was goto and would make finding targets easier. I have found it to be excellent and would highly recommend
Hi Capt404 .... keep the Star Adventurer if your planning on setting the AzGTI to EQ mode ... your gona need the Wedge ,Dovetail, Shaft, weight and maybe even the Dec plate .... sell the Mount Head and PolarThingy
Thank you Glenn, question what is the total weight mounted on SW AGTI mount? Great vid!
Hi Christopher (just finishing the video of workflow and software I use with it)
The rig I use on it weighs 4.3KG in total. possibly a fraction more with all cables attached
th-cam.com/video/0Q6-HrKtAPE/w-d-xo.html
I hope this helps Christopher, any questions please let me know. I plan to either add asiair or a nuc to make this even more portable in the future
I have had the azgti for almost 2 years, and it has always gone well for me, but since 2 weeks ago it has been impossible for me to guide, since the DEC calibration does not do it, it begins to separate the star to the north, and when it has to return to the south it doesn't and it moves further away, I think it's the slack, could I fix it by making these adjustments? thanks for the video!!
Hi Alberto. I would say that it could definitely benefit from a regrease and adjustment. It could actually be some binding and not necessarily backlash thats causing the issues. Let me know how you get on and let me know if yoi run into any problems. Good luck
My RA is a bit stiff. I can rotate it normally, but with balancing, i cant push it with 1 finger for example, so i cant really make good balacing adjustments. Anything i can do to make turn the RA lighter?
The main nut that actions on the RA bearings can be too tight so try slacking that off a little. You don’t want and play though so its a fine balance
Any suggestions on hypertuning this with better bearings and planetary gear?
Buying better bearings would almost certainly help with hyper tuning but I did not do this. If I do in the future I will share it.
I have some problems with the mount: sometimes it disconnects, it turns off completely. I noticed, when dismantling it, that if I tighten the screws completely it turns off, while if I unscrew them slightly it turns on. there must be a contact problem but I have no idea where to look. the app and the firmware are updated. Many thanks
Thats annoying for you. When You tighten the screws are they flexing the circuit board? There could be a hairline break in one of the connections. Thats a tough fault to find and fix. Is it under warranty?
@@Astrobloke Thanks for the reply. unfortunately it was purchased second hand and I realized this defect late. in the next few days I will do some tests to understand if there are any circuits out of place. If you have any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated. have a nice day!
Do you happen to have an experience of how hot mainboard can get when tracker is powered on? My tracker is faulty and components in there are crazy hot. I wonder if its normal.
Not really. Mine does get warm but not hot. I am not sure what could be causing that unless it is very stiff and having to work really hard.
@@Astrobloke Thanks.
Today I removed both motors and I noticed that I have backlash in both. Removed the geras the axis in both motors have some backlash. Idea how to fix it?
Hi there and thank you for watching and commenting. The motors unfortunately are not a very high quality. the internal gears are just nylon or plastic and I found it impossible to be able to remove all the backlash. I packed the gears with some grease which helped. I think you have to just try and get the backlash as low as possible but learn to live with a little with this mount. For the cost I think it is still very good but has some short comings
Is it normal for the declination to have some slop when not in use. I can move my declination with my hand I can hear t a clicking noise. I guess the worm gear is moving since it spring loaded. The RA does the same. When I power the unit up the slop goes away. Just wondering if it’s normal for it to operate that way.
Hi, The GTI will have movement as the worm drives are on springs. Once under load as I think you have discovered the slop goes away while it is guiding and operating. This is totally normal and nothing to worry about. What sort of guiding numbers do you get?
@@Astrobloke just testing it before if upgrading it to equatorial mount. I already have those on order.
I have a scientific explorer scientific pmc 8-100 got to equatorial mount that I purchased an almost two months ago that I’m not happy with. It’s pretty much collecting dust in my garage since it is only prioritized to their app unless I spend getting asiair in order it for it to work. Wish I would have never bought it and can’t even sell it on Facebook market. I’m starting to transition to astrophotography and taking baby steps because it seems very expensive to get into.
hello thanks for all, I have done everything but the dec does not go to the correct home position. how can i fix it, both dec and ar run smoothly.
Not sure why it would do that. Most probably in the settings. What happens if you park the mount switch everything off. Then before you switch back on manually put the mount in the correct position and unpark? Does it not return to that position when you park again?
Yes, if I turn everything off and put the mount in the parking position correctly, then when I go to point an object, the pointing with respect to the real position of the object in the sky seems to me contrary. Then it tends to make a complete turn to get to the object, noted that in synscan pro in the information tab with azgti in the home position the item only axes in dec. has a very high value (example, + 1234'13 ...) compared to +90 and -90. the ar is correct.
hi. thank you for the video. two questions - 1) did you have any problem with azimuth clutch? mine had a steel spring on a rod that I could not put together the right way and had to have it replaced 2) what is the grease that you used, was it the same for the bearings and other elements?
I didn't have any issues with the Azimuth clutch like that. I used SuperLube Silicone grease. I know that others also use and recommend white Lithium grease
@@Astrobloke thanks. Are you guiding DEC in both north and south or just one axis?
@@lukasz3502 hi. I have had the guide assistant recommend guiding in one direction only. I leave it as auto though and just wait for the mount to settle, normally 5-10mins max
@@Astrobloke cool and can you share phd2 parameters (e.g. calibration step, algorithms, etc.)?
Would love to do this but I have big dumb sausage fingers.
It is a little fiddly in places but not too hard
Can you do this to mine? I'll pay, obviously. :)
As much as I would like to help I just do not have the time I am afraid. It really is not too difficult and worth the effort doing.
I believe this is greased for decades already when delivered. Why bother?
Grease is not always applied well and also there are greases of different qualities so by changing it you can improve your mount. That’s why I bothered.
Wish you had a better camera angle after 10 minute couldn’t pay attention
Only 10minutes! Sorry about that. Oh well at least you know how to take the cover off 👍