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iOptron AZ mount Pro Battery


Werisit

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Hi folks. Been some time since i was last on here. Getting my Astro Mojo back and tried out My AZ pro mount. It was a bit cranky when I used it about 18 months back but has got worse now and is useless for planetary imaging and observation at high mags.

I wanted to get it serviced but in searching for somewhere to do it have come across lots of info on fixes.

I've ordered a new handset battery and want to replace the main battery as last time out it only lasted about 3 hours. 

Does anybody know where I can buy a new battery for it. The only place I can find that lists it is FLO and they're out of stock.

Also, I'm tempted to update the firmware though I have heard of terminal failing when attempting this so would like peeps opinions.

Something that may be of interest to any one with a mount that runs on the 11.1 volt batteries is , I found in my research, radio controlled models use these. A 4.5Ah battery and charger can be had off the bay for under £50. These could be hung on the c/w bar. I think it's a fall back for my problem or a solution for anyone looking for some back up power. Again, what do peeps think?

Cheers, Alan.

 

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Hi

I got my replacement AZpro battery from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072VLXMKM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and had to cut the cables of the old one because I couldn't undo a fitting.

 

Altair Astro have an iOptron repair service, which is now back in operation after Covid restrictions.

 

I found the latest firmware update has a bug in the hand controller software (confirmed by iOptron).  I installed the firmware one step earlier and that works OK.

I'm currently running:

HC V2: version 200113

Main:   version 170410

Azi:     version 170410

Alt:     version 170410

Catalog: version 150429

Edited by bryand
typo
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Thanks Brian. Didn't think of Amazon! Pricy but at least available.  I've messaged FLO now to see if they are really expecting them within 2 weeks. They're listing them at £52 so a significant saving. If they can't confirm I'll press the button on the amazon one. It's a bit higher ah rating but assume it still fits in okay.

And thanks for the firmware info. Strange that they know about the bug but haven't fixed it. 

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1 hour ago, Werisit said:

Thanks Brian. Didn't think of Amazon! Pricy but at least available.  I've messaged FLO now to see if they are really expecting them within 2 weeks. They're listing them at £52 so a significant saving. If they can't confirm I'll press the button on the amazon one. It's a bit higher ah rating but assume it still fits in okay.

And thanks for the firmware info. Strange that they know about the bug but haven't fixed it. 

They have fixed it (so I believe) but I haven’t installed it yet.

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I got an honest reply from FLO to say they aren't on their current order so would most likely not be in till late November. So I have bought the Ansmann item off Amazon as I want to get it all back together and set up again. I did find one on the RS web site at less than half the price but annoyingly the built in charge splitter was mounted on the side rather than the top so it was too fat to fit. So thanks again Bryan. I'll let you know how it goes.

Alan. 

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Ansmann battery arrived and fitted. No problems with the size, exactly the same as the original. 5200 mAh instead of 4400 mAh is a bonus. I had the chance to try it out last night and it works as well as ever. There is a but though. ( nothing to do with the battery).

It's never been great tracking and when doing planetary I always had to keep adjusting it by tiny amounts. While I had it apart I cleaned and re-greased the worms and wheels and slackened off the pre load on the worms following advice on here or another forum. I didn't remove the Az wheel, just did it in situ. The alt wheel is easily removed so I took that out to do it. The only really sticky grease I have is motorbike aerosol chain lube. On test there was no altitude wander and the creaking noises have gone so it seems to have worked. What grease do others use I wonder?

The wandering azimuth is still there but after seeing the workings of the mount I think I know what the problem is. Instead of correcting the wander last night I left it to see if it came back on its own and it did. So it's severe periodic error. I have a wobble on the toothed belt pulley on the worm drive. It's not loose. I noticed it when slewing the mount with the cover off the bottom. So I'm gonna take it apart again and true it up somehow. 

I'd always assumed that this mount used encoders to feed back where it was pointing and should therefore correct PE but all I could see inside was a disc with a gap and a sensor so it seems it counts the steps from the known Az and Alt points it references during its set up dance.

I'll report my findings!

Alan.

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It's probably still classed an encoder but an incremental one rather than an absolute one (so not unlike counting the microsteps applied to a stepper motor to determine the position).

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  • 4 months later...

Well it's been a while and I've had a chance to do some work on the mount and test it.Yes Clive I think that is how it works. The altitude is set initially by the single point encoder and trimmed when the aim is confirmed. The azimuth position is "guessed" from where it thinks the alignment object is and then trimmed in the same way. So it's always working from that initial aim and waders further from alignment the further it gets from the original alignment object. The partial fix is to re-align when you move to a different part of the sky. Honestly I'm quite disappointed with its performance for something at its price point.

Now to the wandering. I thought this was due to the wobble on the belt pulley on the azi worm. It was quite visible when fast slewing. My engineer neighbour bored out the center of the pulley and sleeved it back down to a tight fit on the worm shaft. There is no visible wobble now. I had high hopes when I went out to test it but alas the speeding up and slowing down is still there. I think the error occurs with the meshing of a new tooth as it tracks. I would need to time the error interval and count the worm teeth to see if there is any correlation. 

I do note that I have much earlier firmware numbers but am a bit nervous about messing with that side of things.

The battery is still performing well. 

Alan.

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