I find that screw constantly loosens particularly on long drives across country.? Even blue Loctite did not keep it.? But that is the best I can do.? So I try to remember to test it by hand trying to rock it back an forth on the shaft.

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Richard, It was 28 degrees last night and I had the same problem, thought it was the cold and will check it out in the daylight today. Thank you

Found the issue.? The set screw on the sprocket (under the belt) was loose by more than one turn.

Tightened up that set screw and restored operation.

Will put some locktite blue on it tomorrow in the daylight.

Richard

All,

My Alt movement just developed about 15 degrees of backlash.

I removed the brass "spool" to inspect the belt driven shaft and confirmed the shaft also has the backlash--meaning the brass spool set screw was properly set on the shaft.??

The belt that drives the shaft does not have any backlash.? So...I think that means the shaft that goes into the belt driven sprocket must have some issue.?

Any advice?

Richard?

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All,

ServoCAT enabled me to take this photo from my recliner using 10 second exposures for 10 stacked frames on my UC18 and DS287C.

Pixinsight was used to remove the stars and process the image with a bit of Gimp adjustments.

Can't wait for the next Gen of the ServoCAT.

I wanted to leave a message on this thread saying that I resolved this issue by using an older laptop that still had Windows 10 on it. After the upgrade all the features of ServoCAT-Sky and SCU work great still on the Windows 11 computer so I only needed the older laptop to run the RFU to upgrade the firmware. It was also nice to have the box open to blow out all the dust and spiderwebs off the PCB in the servocat box. Happy to report I'm now off and running!

Cheers,
Jordan

Re using the SCU on an older firmware ServoCAT. I stand corrected... indeed it WILL connect and does show the current ALT/AZ location (assuming there is a DSC connected). It will not, of course, download any parameters beyond that, that takes version 7.0C of the firmware. My apologies for misremembering this. Apparently, Pete (the creator of the SCU program) and I decided to add support for older firmware by using the existing planetarium program commands to get something back - confirming that there is a connection. Apologies to Jordan for misspeaking... meanwhile we're still working on the fix for his upgrade issue.?

Gary?

It does "Connect" in SCU, and reads out the current Alt/AZ, but no other info. When I get the port nunber wrong, it says can't connect, when I get it right, it gives the legacy error. Wouldn't this mean I've got the "correct" port?

-Jordan

Just as a note: The SCU does NOT connect if you are using older version firmware! There's nothing in the ServoCAT to "look" for it!! It is only with the latest version firmware that you get a connection. And since you've not, yet, upgraded, you don't have the latest version firmware. Thus the "proof" that you have the right com port at least vis a vis the SCU, isn't there.?

Gary?

Thank you for the reply Gary. I tried all of the above early in my troubleshooting; Verifying com port number (Servocat-sky and SCU wouldnt work if I had the port nunber wrong), checking the driver version, etc. I also just followed the instructions the first time through, only expanding the troubleshooting steps as I went and it didn't work. I'm hoping it's something simple, I'm usually pretty savvy on things like this, but so far no luck.

Thanks,
Jordan

Greetings! My first post here. I have an older v5.9(ish) Gen3 Servocat from 2013 that I'm trying to upgrade the firmware to the newest (7.0). Its on an Obsession UC22. I'm following the instructions word for word in the manual; power off, flip switch to Upgrade, move jumper to both pins, open RFU, choose correct com port, serial to USB connector, set affinity to 1 processor, turn on power to servocat, load firmware, and I get this error. I've tried with and without Argo Navis turned on. With and without all the other cables connected. 2 different USB cables. 2 different laptops. Multiple different com ports (all under 8), different baud rates on the port and in RFU, compatibility mode for RFU (both laptops are Windows 11). I get a green "connected" in the ServoCAT-Sky software. In regular mode on PCB and Argo Navis turned on SCU in the command prompt is able to connect (but because it's an older version, there's no data). I've run out of ideas on things to try, I don't have an old windows 7 laptop sitting around to try that, but I haven't heard of this issue before. Anyone out there have any experience with this? Help!

-Jordan

Dear Gary,
first of all, I would like to answer to the group to tell that your assistance has been great over the years. The majority of the things you told me, have been tried already. I think it depends on my scope.
Anyway, the first clear night, I will try to make some recent measurements in order to let you know if we can make some more attempts and I will write to you directly. Thank you very much again.
Filippo

Filippo, Good day sir! I hope you are doing well.?

So ... first off there's no reason why the delay when changing directions (I assume this is on the ALT axis) should be more than a second if the backlash compensation has been set properly. I know we've talked a good bit over the years - I don't remember if this was discussed and if so what the results were. Write to me direct and we'll try (again?) to get it resolved. Things that would prevent it would include extreme (intentional?) imbalance of the system though. Also a loose set screw on the drive roller, dirty Teflon support pads, or pressure on the mirror box from mechanical support systems. Additionally there is the possibility of a loose set screw internal to the gearbox - unlikely but possible (I use red locktite to lock them in place).?

Now... that all said - the type of scope you are referencing is not intended to be a long exposure machine for imaging! It is intended to be a visual instrument where the eye/brain combination 'filter out' slight imperfections of motion - imaging remembers - records - EVERYTHING as you well know. Even wind as you point out will impact imaging which is why if one is serious they'd not use any form of shroud or even light baffle. Even with that you still have a torque arm with the secondary cage that even a small window can move.?

For visual work one can use the latest version firmware 7.0C for the ServoCAT coupled with version 3+ for the Argo Navis and have full closed loop tracking. This will allow points in space to be tracked with zero accumulated error all night long. I've not heard any feedback yet on how well or even if this will work with imaging. It is only full closed loop however if used with the Argo Navis. The Nexus is not.?

Talk to me - lets see what we can figure out.?

Gary Myers
StellarCAT

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Hello everybody in the group,

thank you for mentioning my works. Even if over the last years, I received amazing and exceptional assistance, I still have some limitations. First of all, I just describe what I do, maybe it is useful for someone.

I just point the telescope to a certain object, I move around to find it, nothing necessary at the moment to plate sole, I switch the derotator on, and I start to save single fits of maximum 2 sec exposure.

I really need to have a perfectly rounded and nice stars. For these purposes, I cannot expose more than 2 sec, there is no way. I have two problems in increasing the the exposures, the first is that I have some rapid movements mainly related to the wind, even if there is very slow wind, and a continuous slow movement of the object towards a certain direction, so every five minutes I have to re-center manually. When I observe at the ocular, this translation is much slower, but during imaging is quite fast. My telescope is 600 mm a primary mirror with 2265 focal length that become longer with the 1,15x Paracorr Coma Corrector. I think that there are some mechanical problems in my system because I tried all the ways available to try to improve the tracking and gear ratios, but without being able to reach 5, or much better 10 seconds exposures. Probably auto guiding would be great but my system has a big amount of backlash. For example, at low speed, when I change the direction, I need at least 10 seconds to see any changing of the direction. One of the reasons, other than backlash in the gears itself, is that probably I added a very big load in the system, because at the moment the optical train is made by Big Paracorr 3”, the derotator, filter holder, and ASI 6200 MM, which is quite heavy and also a very big focuser end in the other side about the 16 kg of counterweights. My system was built to be very light and easily transportable by one person to observe, and then nothing more.

The last problem is that with the Nexus DSC and StellarCat it was never possible for me, using any driver available, even recent versions, to remotely control the telescope. To be honest at the moment at my knowledge it is necessary to have the Argo Navis to do that, I don’t know anybody using the Ascom platform to control the Nexus DSC.

What I would consider a perfect results, was to longer the exposures to 10 seconds, and having perfectly round stars, and also to keep the object at the center of the field all night long without re-centering, every 5 or 10 minutes.

About the derotator, considering that my exposures are short, I don’t know if it is possible to longer the exposures as regular deepsky astrophotography, but I need it in order to avoid to loose the field of my camera for the field rotation. Without the derotator the crop would mean losing more than 30% of the field so for me it is strictly necessary.

This is the description of what I do. Said that, I am happy about the results because I think that the last cameras have so low noise and high sensitivity that the most important thing is the total integration time. For example, if for a certain object, I need six hours of total exposures, it is less important than before, for previous camera models, if those 6 hours are done of 60 sec exposures or 2 sec exposures. probably the scenario is different for narrow bend imaging, when for my system 10 seconds would be perfect.

Thank you everybody and happy that other people image with our Alt Az systems. Here the link of my Astrobin page.

Clear skies, and all the best.?

Filippo