How to TUNE your SkyWatcher EQ6R mount - Easily! Works on HEQ5 Pro, EQ6 Pro, Atlas EQ-G, Sirius EQ-G
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- čas přidán 6. 08. 2020
- Original instructions (probably much better than mine, as I am fairly mechanically inept!): www.astro-baby.com/EQ6%20rebui...
Today I wanted to get my main workhorse, the SkyWatcher EQ6R, tuned as well as possible, to get rid of backlash as much as I could! And it turns out, it's fairly easy to do - let's have a look at this video! Please make sure to check the comments for any corrections offered by viewers as well, and read AstroBaby's guide linked above!
This also works for the HEQ5 Pro, the EQ6 Pro, the Orion Atlas EQ-G, Orion Atlas II EQ-G, and Orion Sirius EQ-G.
Go slowly and gently! Your mount is your friend :D
OPT Affiliate link to the mount in this video:
SkyWatcher EQ6-R Mount: bit.ly/2OEXkYl
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Vixen R200SS + Coma corrector: bit.ly/2OFW8E0
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#astrophotography #skywatcher - Věda a technologie
It fills my heart with joy that people are still finding my HEQ5/6 guides so useful. Thank you Cuiv for the recommendation in your links above. I really must get around to creating Astronomy CZcams vids
Astro Baby! Wow, welcome to the channel! Your guides are still so useful, they're linked to all the time on various forums, thank you so much for making them! Awesome rocket launches on your channel too (and parachutes for the rockets too!)
The legend!
It is so appreciated!
i know this comment is 2 years old, but just want to say thanks for the CG5 instructions. Got me guiding under 2 arc seconds on a £65 mount that sat in the elements for 18 months. Thanks!
*WARNING!!!* When doing Backlash adjustments, *NEVER* do them on a hot day, or in the Sun. You will spend all that time getting it perfect, and once the Sun sets and the temperature drops (and we know how cold it gets at night in many places) the metal in the mount will shrink, slightly tightening things, possibly causing binding. We give our mirrors time to cool down because we know they slightly shrink and change focus as the temperature drops. Give your mount adjustments the same courtesy. Do your Backlash adjustments on a cool day preferably in the shade, or indoors, or outside on a cool night. 👍
After nearly 4 years of living outside under a 365 cover.. one of my eq6's had finally developed a nasty amount of backlash in the Ra. I had remembered you posted this video... gave a quick look and adjusted my mount.. in the dark this evening. Seems to be guiding like it use to. Thanks! :)
Just tried this bit of fettling today and it has brought things back to make 15 minute exposures possible again. Thanks for the video.
Super helpful! My EQ6-R Pro is about a year old now and after watching this I figured I’d check and sure enough both axis had some play, followed the procedure which was really clear and they are both tight and solid, no binding issues doing full 360 for me. My small screws were pretty loose and I also decided to check belts and my RA belt tensioner wasn’t even being used, completely pulled back and making no contact with the mount, so I lightly snugged both up. Looking forward to a clear night to see guiding improvements
Thank you! I finally went and "tuned" my EQ6 and it is perfect! Well, no binding and no wiggle. Can't wait for the next clear night to see how it behaves.
Cuiv to the rescue again! I was having backlash issues with my EQ6R Mount and when I saw you had a video on this in my eyes there was no other video to watch! Thank you so much for all the content you put out and especially for breaking it down for us to understand!! Keep up the great work!!!
Glad this helped!
Fun to watch this. I have no backlash in my 1 year old EQ6-R Pro but now I know what to do when I do.
I'm about to order an EQ6-r, and am working my way through your videos so I know what needs doing once I've recieved it. Very clear instructions, thanks!
Great to hear! Have fun with the mount!
Only had this mount a couple of months and had to adjust the same proplem, the small allen screws were not a all tight to start with. Used about 1/8 turned and it worked. Thanks Cuiv you saved me
Thank you! Backlash removed from the Dec axis on my AZ-EQ6 PRO 😎 Love your videos, thanks for all the effort you put in to help your fellow Astro imagers 👍👍
Excellent to hear and well done! Glad it is being useful :)
Your timing is perfect ! I received my EQ6-R pro just 3 days ago. It's my first real mount (just a star adventurer before it), so I have a lot to learn.
Thanks ! :)
Thanks for the feedback Aragorn :p enjoy the mount, it is a great mount!
Thanks for this video Cuiv. I'm just now returning to astrophotography after a 15 year hiatus. Tomorrow I receive my new heq5 and I appreciate these tips to remove backlash. Well done.
The HEQ5 has a sterling reputation, I'm sure you'll enjoy it! I hope it comes with clear skies :-) welcome back to the hobby and good luck!
Super helpful, Cuiv! I've been meaning to do some tuning on my HEQ5 for months, but just haven't had the time. Will be investing some this month to try and get my mount working better. Error is regularly between 1-1.5 which is ok for my wide field shots, but if I go any deeper will really be an issue. On a clear night I can get it down to 0.8 so it's not awful, but still, the average is usually north of a second, so hopefully feeling out any backlash and addressing that will help. We'll see!
Did the same routine for my EQ6-R PRO a couple months ago and yes it works. To be honest I was relieved that it was so straight forward
Exactly, it's a really good design that backlash adjustment is accessible directly, without having to open the mount!
Hey Cuiv
Thanks for this. I have a very small amount of DEC backlash that needs adjustment. This is really going to be a big help.
Gregory
I've had the same backlash issue on my HEQ5Pro and now it is solved, thank you so much !
My mount is my precious ;)
Excellent to hear :-) and yes on the precious :-)
Thanks for the tuning video, my EQ6-R seemed okay with the refractor but seemed way off when I put the 8" RC on the mount. Turns out there was obvious backlash on the DEC which with the assist of your video I was able to correct the alignment of the DEC which also removed a little bit of the whine when slewing. One note - set screw on my EQ6-R was a 2.5mm, possibly a build change in production. Thanks again.
Interesting about the set screw, thanks for the info!
Thank you!! Works wonderfully for the Orion Atlas EQ-G also!!
Thanks for explaining, just did the belt mod on my Neq6 and this is helping a lot🙏
Thanks so much for this. Been battling with guiding and did this to the mount this afternoon and have significantly improved the guiding. Still not 100% yet but well on the way to being good.
That is excellent to hear! I'm so glad this is helping you! Good luck with getting the guiding dialed in & clear skies
Thank you for the video, finally understand that my cem25p dec axis was over-binding thus causing the noise and having backlash when not tightened enough!
The CEM25P is great for on the go adjustment of backlash, but it's also terrible because of the on the go adjustment of backlash :) But once you get it dialed it, it works quite well!
Great video perfect timing I'm about to do this this weekend! Have a good one all! Clear Skies
Excellent, I hope the tuning will work well for you!
Fantastically helpful. Thanks for posting.
Fantastic video ! My az-eq6 pro now it’s perfect tuning , many thanks , keep the good job
Excellent to hear and well done! :D
This worked on my new az eq 6 mount! Wow. Thank you.
great video- I haev same mount and always wondered how to take care of backlash-thank you. take care of PRECIOUS- great name for mount
Thanks Salomon! Glad this is helpful, we have to take good care of our preciousssss :D
Good instructions!! Thank you!
Awesome! Exactly what I needed. My Eq6r has some slop.
Nice work!
Cuiv are you stalking me? Last night I was getting so much backlash for the first time on my EQ6R and I made a plan to try and fix the backlash today. You made this video just for me, didn't you ;)
I am stalking all my subscribers :D Glad the timing was so good for you, good luck with the tuning!
Great and very helpful video. Hope adjustments are similar for my Neq6 pro.
I'm always confused about mount names, but I do believe it is the same for the NEQ6 Pro - make sure to check for the presence of the same screws!
You say thank you for watching. We say thank you for even making such an informative video! I know you got an affiliate page.
I want to say thank you, but that would put us in an endless loop :) I will also likely soon add a CZcams membership or a Patreon as I've been asked quite a bit...
Thank you! Looking forward to see your Video about the AZ-EQ5 😉 This kind of content will increase the number of subscribers by 1k per month 😁
Hahaha, I wish! Maybe it will be like that, but I don't think so ;)
I know I enjoy your videos when I watch a video about tuning a mount I don't even own haha
Hahaha, wow, thanks! :D
Same here :)
Another great video. I’m off to check mine now. I have the HEQ5 and he AZEq6-GT but I suspect they have similar adjustment bolts. Thank you.
Thank you John! I'm sure the HEQ5 has the same bolts, but not sure about the AZEQ6 (the AZEQ5 requires opening the mount covers)
Gr8 video. now I know how to fix or ruin my eq6r pro : )
seriously, this was ver helpful and full of info. Harigato
Douitasimasite! Unless you tighten both grub screws like crazy, this should not ruin your mount!
Thanks for another informative video! I think you should change your name from "The Lazy Geek" to "The Dedicated Astro Bad Ass". You are not lazy my friend, more like the opposite. Your videos are very detailed and helpful to all of us watching that are into astrophotography. Keep up the good work!
Thank you Bill! Means a lot to me.
Great video. Do you have to adjust it for a range of temperatures to prevent binding?
Hi Cuiv. I notice you say you got the AZEQ5 GT mount and that you will be doing the same "tweaking" to that one. I have the AZEQ6 Pro and wondered if this has the same internal workings and, if so, whether I can follow any new video on your AZEQ5 upgrade? I can't find the video so am guessing you haven't done it yet? Great video as always, mate. Well done and Happy New Year!
When adjusting the backlash it is best to have the gull weight of the scope on the mount as you did. After you adjust the backlash like you did it is best to measure the backlash and do finer adjustments using pempro or phd2
Very correct - it can be a very involved process when trying to achieve best possible backlash... thanks for weighing in!
Perfect. Thank you
Great, thanks for sharing!
My pleasure, hope it is useful!
I'm leaning real heavy into getting one of these. The ancient GPDX/SS2K combo I own is driving me nuts.
It could indeed be the answer to all your troubles. Also, recently I've been using GSS to control my EQ6R, and it really works well.
Great video, thank you😂
PLEASE Cuiv, do the backlash for the SW AGTi, when you get it back. Hope they fix that issue soon.
Definitely will do - note that typically, for backlash that increases over time with the AZ-GTI, it is not worm/wheel meshing, but meshingof motor wheel with transmission wheel (which is kept meshed through three weak Philips screws that are bound to get loose).
I did the same to my NEQ6 using Astro baby's method & it was brilliant with no backlash or binding in either axis, I sold it on to a friend who still uses it to this day & loves it, I only sold it because I had bought an AZ EQ6 GT mount & again I adjusted out the backlash but this mount has given me some issues, as I notice when it's guiding every so often the graph will go off the chart then come back & settle down again, I don't know if there's a tight spot somewhere so I backed off the adjustment so now I have a little bit of backlash again. When I get a chance to test it out I'll keep an eye on the graph to see what it does but if it does it again I'll be sending it off to Dark Frame optics to have the StellarDrive system done to the mount which hopefully will resolve everything.
Mmmh a spike like that sounds like a mechanical issue like a broken gear tooth or foreign particle in there. And spikes like that are typically too fast for AG to recover. Although you could try with some PEC...
Thanks I'll give it a go at least it only does it once in a while which is a good thing so only the odd dropped sub :-)
FYI, I have the Orion Atlas Pro which I believe is equivalent to the SW EQ6.
Yes, they're the same, different color... works on your mount too. It's so nice when mounts let you tune backlash externally!
Should you apply any grease to the worm gear, because you would think that the friction has increase between the gears. Thank you for posting the video, very easy to understand.
The worm and gear are pretty much one object (worm ridge) pushing against another (gear tooth side), so it doesn't rely on friction - it does rely on the worm gear's ridge slithering smoothly through with no resistance, and that's where grease comes in. At least that's my understanding! Worm and gear is always greased from what I've seen.
So cloudy there,😀 nice video!👍
Cloudy indeed...! Thank you! I hope it's clear skies on your side!
Cuiv, great video! Question: last night my EQR misbehaved whereby it started making a grinding noise when slewing. The mount would stop temporarily then start again, again producing the horrible sound. (Note: I had no problem when I did polar alignment when it did the 60deg turn.) But when I plugged in an object to go to it then either didn’t slew or would make the noise. My question is how do I diagnose what is going on? I don’t want to open the whole thing up if it’s not necessary. Should I just play around with the screws as you’ve described first and then open up the gear compartment or what would you suggest. I’m hoping that this is just an issue with declination instead of RA since there was no noise during the RA turn during PA. Really enjoy your vids!
Nice video. But it would help to explain exactly how you detect the potential backlash. In particular, are we talking about slight play in the decc or ra axes ? Or are we talking about a slight delay after pressing the direction button before movement starts? Or both?. When I move the scope as Cuiv does I do detect a tiny bit of play.
How important is it to slightly loosen the 4 large bolts first, before adjusting the 2 small bolts? On my Atlas EQ-G mount (which is quite old) the 4 bolts are almost immovable, and I don't want to strip the heads by force majeure. I was able to loosen one of them slightly (DEC axis) , and then loosen the bottom small bolt slightly and tighten the top one, as Cuiv describes. However this doesn't seem to change the slight play. Should I loosen/tighten even more?
Also, there is a brief grinding noise that occurs when first pressing a DEC button, which seems to coincide with the slight delay before the motion starts. If before pressing the button I turn the axis manually by the small amount corresponding to the slight play, the motion starts immediately and the brief grinding goes away. This seems to be what one might expect with backlash, since the slight initial manual turn would presumably engage the worm with the gear. When I use the other direction button, I have to manually turn the axis in the other direction instead to eliminate the delay/grind.
Amazing!
Thank you Jeff!
Nice tutorial thank you.
I need to check my mount for backlash now
Thank you! I hope your mount doesn't have backlash, but if it does, you know what to do!
I found that eq3d can add two motors and use OnStep to control it, but the backlash is hard to adjust because there are two parts that can move, the small adjustment and the rotation of the dec and ra . Can you help me with that😉
I can't help but wonder what considerable temperature fluctuations do to these few-thousandths of a mm mesh tolerances. Minus 30 deg C in January on the Canadian prairie will turn to 27-30 deg C in July of the same year.
Is it recommended to check the backlash with counter loads and trelescoe on it?
Hello Cuiv. Great video as always. Very illustrative. I have a question. I have an old Atlas EQG that I like it very much. Recently I decided to use it to give my EQ6R a well deserved rest. The Atlas has a backlash in RA. When I launched PHD2 Guiding, it gave an error that the mount cannot be moved to the east while calibrating. Do you think this error reported by PHD2 Guiding is caused by the mount’s RA backlash? Your response is greatly appreciated. Clear skies.
RA backlash is usually not an issue since guiding doesn't reverse the gears, it just stops them and lets the Earth's rotation do the job. To get that error message in PHD2 means you pobably want to move the mount East and thus remove East backlash before calibrating. It should then work, but it's still not ideal...
Does it not going to introduce some unwanted internal friction? As we all know, more than anything backlash comes from worm gear imperfections.
I plan on buying this mount as soon as it's back in stock. But I'm afraid of doing ANY adjustments on it. I have a bad habit of breaking things. I even broke my ankle in 3 places just by trying to adjust a grandfather clock.
informative video and a funny guy :-D
I have an eq3pro
If you don't mind me asking, could you do a video polar aligning without polaris if you have time? I am in an apartment like you and north side is blocked unfortunately and I cannot see polaris from my apartment. I can go to the park, but, it is good to be able to take photos at your own leisure at your home every night if possible.
If you have a view of the South and either West or East, you can use the NINA polar alignment: czcams.com/video/Le5BJcBADA8/video.html . The PHD2 drift alignment feature also would work (but I haven't tested it yet).
Do you think we would need to retrain the PEC curve even after slightly remeshing the RA worm assembly?
In theory it should be the same...... but I would still retrain the PEC
I have an EQ5 with so much backlash that I'd like to throw it down the balcony and say "it's gone, Jim"
hi Cuiv, firstly thank you for this video. I've watched couple times preparing to make some backlash adjustments on my eq6 pro. about your 365 covers and scopes, have you been leaving them out 24/7? wondering if there is much to be concerned about for long term use. in Auckland, New Zealand we have 70-95% humidity year round, 0-28c temps, cant put an observatory on so trying to find if the 365 covers are suitable for permanent install and if shoudl be prepared for any humidity damage . thanks!
Yep, pretty much 24/7 outside. Summer is very humid, but winter is pretty dry...
@@CuivTheLazyGeek thank you and thansk again for this guide. i ended up tuning my mount last night eliminating the backlash in both RA and DEC, incredible as i previously thought that movement was natural . waiting for clear night now to test out that i haven't broken it haha! i can't hear any meshing noise but did hear once while adjusting, scary! do you know what i should look out for on the guiding graphs for if i did it too tight or anything?
Thanks so much for the video. My guiding has been getting worse over the past few months. I just check my mount and I have quite a bit of backlash in my RA axis and a smidge in my DEC. Tomorrow I will adjust the backlash and see if my guiding improves.
Update: Strange thing - I tightened the RA axis a bit and manually ran the mount with no binding, but if I slew the Ra as far as I can go and then hit the 'Park' button it goes about half way to the home position(no noise), stops for a second or so then continues on to the home position. So I loosen the RA backlash and try again. Manually there is no binding but again when I hit the 'Park' button the mount slews about half way to home and stops for a second or so (with no noise) and continues to the home positiion.
Is this normal ?? It doesn't happen with the DEC axis.
Are you using EQAscom or the handset? a 2 stage park is quite normal for EQAscom it will first do what it calls a safe slew where it will slew the axis to ensure that a collision cant occur, it will then stop for a moment before slewing both axis directly to the park position.
Lefty loosen and righty tighty. Can you feel the tightness on the small allen screws?
Hahaha that's a nice way to put it! Yes, you can absolutely feel the tightness of the screws, so it is fairly to adjust with a light hand.
That's why I don't like Skywatcher mounts, 20th century technology with adjustable backlash. Is it really so hard to do, as they do with the Ioptrons? Especially such an adjustment system is not always possible if the shape of the main gear is like an ellipse, which is very common on cheap mounts.
Thanks. I said in another video comment that I better not try it because I can burn water, but I tried it and it's tight now. I don't think my RA axis is resisting drift from the clutch. Any of those screws make the clutch work getter? It's tight but I imaged M33 and it drifted probably 25% of the image during the run. I'm pretty sure it was balanced but it still drifted a ways.
The clutch should not be affected by the screws, as far as I understand it... in the end you'd want to check your drift with something like PEMPro or other analytics tools...
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I found a post on cloudy nights to take the clutch out of the mount. It seems some person that builds these mounts puts so much grease in there it can make the clutch tighten into grease instead of pushing into the metal inside in order to put a sort of brake onto he metal inside. So it's like greasing your car brake pads and trying to use them to stop. I'll have to clean some of that grease out of the clutch assembly.
After this tinkering, we probably need to repeat our PEC training ? Any thoughts ?
Yes, PEC training should be redone - of course the defects of the worm haven't changed, but because it is meshed deeper, the actual PE curve may be slightly different (at least I think so)
Those 4 bolts were on so tight that I ripped the skin off my palms, there was really no need for the factory to do that. It was almost inhumanly possible to loosen those screw, I made noises that I never thought I could lol.
Wow, I hope you didn't force it! That is weird though...
After adjusting the wormgear like in this video, you should check your belt tension to get rid of backlash. it will develop after some months because the belts stretch a bit: www.cloudynights.com/topic/680888-some-info-for-those-that-have-an-eq6-r-that-has-developed-backlash-after-a-year-of-use/
Thanks! I actually quickly checked the belt tension, and it seemed fine for me, but you made me want to check again! :-) Thank you!
👍👏😎
I have the exact same problem with my heq 5 pro! Is it the same procedure?
Apparently it is! www.astro-baby.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-we1.htm . Good news!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek thanks! Keep posting videos like this! 👍🏼
Yes, I used the same procedure with my heq5. I successfully reduced backlash and improved guiding as well.
Hey Quiv, aren't the EQ6-R- and EQ6-R Pro exactly the same mounts ?
I think that the main difference is about direct USB connection etc., not in the mechanical parts
@@alcosound In the meanwhile I heard there isn't any difference.
Skywatcher uses both, on the box it is different than on the mount
@@siegfriednoet if I remember correctly, the "Pro" label was added when the mount got the direct USB connection. Mechanically, they should be the same
The original EQ6-R was straight worm drive with gears and no belts. It's no longer in production. The EQ6-R Pro is the successor (should have been named the Mk 2 or something of that nature to avoid confusion). The "Pro" uses belts.
Now if only the ZWO EAF was backlash free, life would be perfect. 😁
True that :D
Don't mess with me! (Evil grimmace).... :)
Hehe :-D
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I assume that's a mini-pc on top of the OTA.
These Synta mounts all have some small or major problems, Quality control is hit & miss. I tricked out my HEQ 5 with hybrid ceramic bearings, full ceramic in the worm drives, polished, debured all contact points,Super lubed, etc. Mount can now do do 5 minute subs or better with an 11 KG load and not break a sweat.
The design itself is usually well thought out, but the execution... well it's mass market! That's why I love Vixen mounts, which have a great controller, never need any tuning, and just work (tm). The provided tripods are the weak point for them.
First!
GG WP!
Well done - but you don't win a telescope yet :)
don't burn your scope !!! please
I will try to control my anger - after all it leads to the dark side! :D