Is my iEQ45 defective?

To those having GOTO problems there may be another source of errors. My GOTO's where not what I thought they should be so after doing all the other things like polar scope collimation, etc. I decided to chance down the play in the axis. With the worm gears the hinges need to be snug against the housing. If they are not there is a lot of play in the axis. Once I corrected this my GOTO's seem to be much, much better.

I created a video to show the play in the axis and the housing moving between the hinges.
http://youtu.be/swyO7Emd63w

Cheers!
Phillip

Is there a sd card in the 8407 hand controller ?

I have a brand new Ieq45 and tried to load the dec and ra software....V120717 and it wont load and now my mount is not working..
HAS ANYONE used these file versions???????????

When I got my mount 2 days ago it had


V11121....does anyone have a copy of this version I can download...?

It's on the Ioptron web site under software firmware.

I can only find the new version of the dec and ra software on the ioptron site ..?not version 111121 (my original)
I would like to try that version..

FIXED IT!!
Had to put the software on a 3rd computer..
It worked


I had to use a 3rd computer...

I tried with my win 7-I7 with 8 cpus...no luck
win xp dual core with a real serial port...no luck

Finally my netbook with the same usb adapter as b4.....but its a single cpu and the slowest
computer i got.....lol....
All is up to date and well


wow-lucky me.....

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I'm having some of the tracking noise issues described by the original poster.

When I sent iOptron's tech support a recording, the response back was "This is a typical servo motor sound, unlike stepper motors, servo motor makes continuous sound when in operation."

From some of the responses above, this doesn't seem correct; there should be no tracking noise at all. Curiously, if I recall correctly, one night I had the mount out, there was no tracking noise. Past couple of times there has been.

It's a new mount, purchased in early May from High Point Scientific too.

Hi,
I have the same sound. It doesn't affect goto accuracy, and tracking seems good, but PE is quite high. Out of 10 subs, each at 30 seconds, I only have 1-2 that are usable. I am going to be getting a Meade DSI that I can hopefully use to measure PE, and then I will take apart the gears and see if I can figure this out. I think it will be curable with some sort of adjustment, but I don't know what it will take just yet.

Everything else works awesome though. I love the mount, and I have upgraded all the firmware. The new Polar Align feature seems to be very accurate, but I want to try to compare it to how Alignmaster does, if I can, once they send me a registration code for a 30 day trial.

If anyone else has any thoughts, please reply.

Thanks,

Timm

If it is the same croaking sound as posted before, (File is no longer there) it is not right if you ask me. I have had my iEQ45 for some time now and works and sounds normal. I find it odd that iOptron would say it is normal servo motor sound. Did you talk to them, or was the support through email?

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I'm having some of the tracking noise issues described by the original poster.

When I sent iOptron's tech support a recording, the response back was "This is a typical servo motor sound, unlike stepper motors, servo motor makes continuous sound when in operation."

From some of the responses above, this doesn't seem correct; there should be no tracking noise at all. Curiously, if I recall correctly, one night I had the mount out, there was no tracking noise. Past couple of times there has been.

It's a new mount, purchased in early May from High Point Scientific too.

I'm the original poster, and iOptron gave me the same response about the tracking noise. However, after collecting feedback from this forum and elsewhere, I concluded that the mount was simply WAY too loud. Something was wrong, and I insisted on a replacement mount. iOptron agreed to a swap, and after waiting weeks for cross-country shipping, the replacement arrived.

Much to my dismay, the new mount turned out to be just as loud as the original! After some experimentation on my own, I was also able to determine that the tracking noise was due to some problem with how the worm gear meshed with the ring gear. The noise could be temporarily eliminated by simply pressing down on the RA motor while it was tracking. I sent a video to iOptron and asked for advice on possible repairs. Unfortunately, they never got back to me.

An even more troubling issue for me, however, turned out to be the extremely poor tracking accuracy of the replacement mount. I performed a rough photographic measurement of the periodic error and calculated it to be over 90 arc-seconds. I took a series of 50 10-second unguided photos using a C8 at 1260mm and only 10 had close to round stars. I even had some 1-second exposures with elongated stars. I decided that enough was enough, the mount was unsatisfactory for both visual and photographic use, and I asked for a refund. It took me almost a month of exchanging emails with High Point, but I finally got a return authorization and a refund.

Since then, I purchased a Celestron Advanced VX. And what a wonderful difference. The mount is quiet! I can just make out some tracking noise if I'm in a quiet room and only a few feet away. Outside, I never notice it. And the PE is only about 30 arc-seconds, very smooth, and easily correctable.

So, as others have reported, I don't think a properly built mount should make significant noise while tracking. If it's a source of annoyance while observing, exchange or return it.

Sorry for your bad luck, but when you say High Point, were you dealing with them? Or Ioptron?

Sorry for your bad luck, but when you say High Point, were you dealing with them? Or Ioptron?

I was mostly dealing directly with iOptron Support for all the product performance issues. When it came time to request a refund, I was dealing with High Point, who in turn negotiated the return authorization with iOptron.

Good info, thanks guys.

Yes, I've been dealing with iOptron via email.

I'll run some tests to check periodic error on the mount, because bad PE would definitely be a deal breaker. Right now, I'm going back-and-forth with iOptron regarding my PowerWeight.