Hello everyone, long time since I posted. I apologise in advance that I don’t have logs or screenshots for this episode, but I think it’s important to report an incident that resulted in serious damage.
Here’s how it went:-
- EQMOD (v2.00q) and SGP (v3.1.0.479) all up to date. EQ6-R mount direct-connected using USB cable.
- Two targets selected for the night; foolishly I went to bed after the first sequence was started.
- SGP successfully slewed to the second target and plate solved.
- There was a very slight (approx 1.3 degree) rotation error on that target, which displayed the screen requesting me to rotate my camera to match up with the working image.
- I was asleep so the rotation correction never came.
- The mount tracked the target for the remainder of the night and into the morning, resulting in a pier crash (see photo) which burned out the motherboard of my EQ6-R and shredded the RA drive belt.
- On discovering the state of my rig I pulled the power to all of my gear. In my distress, I didn’t think to save a log of SGP or take any screenshots, but the “Rotation Required” screen was still present, and clearly the basis for the issue.
- The “Rotation Required” warning screen in SGP asking for the rotation to be corrected seemingly over-rode the instructions I had given to SGP to stop the sequence at a set time, and also clearly over-rode the EQMOD protection to not track below a certain elevation.
My rig has been out of service since, the parts required to repair are out of stock, and I haven’t had the time to strip out my mount to see if there’s further damage to the worms and ring-gears. I’ll be out of commission until well into 2021 for these reasons. Not happy.
Once again, I apologise for not supplying logs or screenshots, but I think there is enough evidence to make this a cautionary tale for others.
My suggestions:
- Have a timeout for any screens which require user input. If it doesn’t come within say 30 mins then it’s not likely to come because the user is asleep, and freeze all operations or command a Park.
- If the user sets a finish time in the sequence, then that must override everything else. I have a very good reason for setting that time, and it was ignored.
- SGP cannot override the safety features of EQMOD, which were set correctly.