Tracking not working about astroeq HOT 13 CLOSED

It sounds like you have the current limit of the motor drivers set too high and are thus running the motors at far more than their rated current. At low speed, such as when tracking, the result is that the motor will get very hot.

Which driver are you using?

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I'm using the A4988 driver. With the original handset I can ear the motor do a tic-tic-tic... sound but with your handset I can't hear anything. Maybe is working but it doesn't do the sound because the micro stepping. I will try it on the outside, when it will stop to rain... it's raining here in Italy from three months...
How can I set the correct current?

Thank you!

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The current is controlled by the variable resistor on the driver board. It looks like a screw.
The simplest way to tune it is to first turn the screw fully ANTI-clockwise, that sets it to the minimum current, then you then need to set the mount running and then slowly turn the screw clockwise until a point where the motor appears to run fine, but doesn't get very hot.

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I tried this now, but I can hear a difference only in goto mode, but in tracking mode it seems Always to be blocked :(

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What are the specs of this motor? In the EQMOD page there are specs for EQ5 but for the Synscan version, it will be useful knowing the various parameters (gear ratio, microsteps) of the motors.

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What are the correct values for initializing Synta code for a standard EQ5 with dual kit upgrade?

Thank you!

Marco

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I don't really know the specs of the motors. All I know is that the ones I had were terrible. I have since replaced them with better stepper motors and some DIY motor mounts.

I am actually about to release a new version of AstroEQ which has many performance enchancements. I am pretty sure though that the resultant required step rate of the dual axis kit is just too high because the motors have a 120:1 gearbox built in to them.

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I agree. In fact I was considering to buy two NEMA-17 steppers. Can I use a 0.9° 400 steps 4,8 Kg*cm stepper? It's oversized for an EQ5 Mount?

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These are the ones I use:
http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1206
But they are a little bit small. They seem to do the job though.

You can use the 0.9 degree motors you mentioned. For an EQ5 and a 400 step motor, if you can achieve either a 9:2 or 9:4 gear ratio between the motor and the worm screw of the mount, it should give a very decent accuracy. (Theoretically as little as 0.0003 seconds drift per sidereal day when tracking, though that it will likely be higher than that as the resonator an on arduino Mega is not very accurate)

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Thank you! I've a suggestion for you, I don't know if it can be already done, but it would useful to add an ST4 port to the circuit, so you can use it for tracking and also for guiding. I'm not very expert and I use PHD for guiding, and if I'm already using the COM port with CdC I can't connect also to PHD so antoher circuit is required.
This is the USB->Serial converter that I used:
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/USBSerial
It costs about 12 €.

from astroeq.

I think there is a way to use EQMOD for guiding. You'd have to ask on the EQMOD yahoo group.
I haven't got any plans to add an ST4 port at the moment, but may consider doing so in a future version. I have just released a major version of AstroEQ, so it will be a while before there is another major change.

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You should be able to guide without st4 connection using the EQMOD Ascom rutine through USB, I use a QHY5 connected VIA a st4 cable to a SS2K handset controling a home built HD mount, but I can use the Ascom setting on PHD without the st4 as long as the PC is comunicating with all and it wotks fine so it should be OK with EQMOD although I have still to prove this when I finally get AstroEQ up and running on a portable mount for field use.

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Further research regarding Auto guiding , I now belive that ST4 connection would be more reliable to use even with the Ascom option, so a ST4 adaption to AstroEQ would ultimately be nessesary.

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