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I am the owner of an AM3. For the last four months I have attained a consistent error rate of less than 0.5 imaging both 300 and 600 subs with perfect pointed stars. Then I had an event. During a meridian flip while i was not present a cable snag ripped a camera USB cable from my ASIAR Plus. The mount did not complete its meridian flip, leaving it frozen in place. I did successfully reset the scope to the home position. Since that event, while I am able to track the same error rate consistently (.05-,04), having both successfully polar aligned and calibrated, My stars are no longer pointed. There is an evident trail. I assume this is a kind of backlash. Is there a way to correct this anomaly? Is it a software calibration issue? Or is it a physical adjustment of the belts that is required. In either case what may be the solution moving forward? |
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| I had similar problem with my AM5, the cable got stock and ripped from the camera's USB side during the meridian flip. So far I have not seen any issue after that. Check if the 0.4-0.5" RMS is consistent and does not have any bump during 430s cycle, if not, most likely your guider is moving in relation to the mount. Sometimes the ZWO cameras unscrew a bit from the nozzle during guiding, mostly when the temperature drops. |
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| I can only comment that I never let a meridian flip go unattended. I've spent too much money on this stuff to risk it for another hour or two of sleep. Even after testing several meridian flips before it gets dark to make sure cables don't get caught, I've come out to monitor a live flip and had to guide a cable to avoid a hangup. |
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Rodrigo Roesch: You have a great point @Rodrigo Roesch. I've had my guide cam bolts come loose during a session causing crazy issues as you can imagine. Also check the bolts mounting the guide scope to whatever it is attached to, I had those come loose as well and now I "pre-flight" my rig by checking connections and attachments when I set up for the night. |
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Terry Doran: I never sleep. Imaged the whole night. I am still awake, doing some video editing right now. And in 2 hours I have a Meeting (work). Then I am going to the mosque. After that more work. I hope I find some time to eat something. Because come evening I plan to continue the imaging session from the last 2 nights. |
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On my AM 5 I have had the pitch angle Hex screws loosen and had similar issues. I tightened them and all was back to normal. I have never had an issue with unattended meridional flips. I make sure the cables are long enough and won't snag. I usually start an imaging session and go to sleep and let it image all night long. |
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| My problem is consistent with other drives I have used. Occasionally they need to be physically adjusted. This is especially true in the Caribbean environment where I image. Machines struggle here. I have found a guide to adjusting the belts in an AM5. Is there such a guide for an AM3? |
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jose ortega: Could you give us the link to that guide? |
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| Is the trailing consistent throughout the image? If not, maybe the cable snag introduced tilt into your image train? That would explain the good guide results but drop in image quality. |
