Motor Speed set up

[Rick01]

Hi Tom,
I've gotten back from the States and had a little more time to play with the AstroEQ I'm still running into a few snags. I reduced the Voltage on the motors as you suggested and that seems to help a bit with the heat issue. I'm still unsure about the motor settings. The Mfg. website says the motors are 7.5° step, my Trannies are the old Vixen 300:1 (mounted on the new motors) and my Mount is 144:1 worm gear. When I set these paramaters up in the Config. Utility I get some funky noises and the motors lock up and buzz at x12 Slew (RA) and about x25 Slew(DEC). and the tracking rate is about 2x as fast as it should be. If I change the Trannie ratio to 150 I get a Slew of x20(RA) and x48(DEC) and the correct (10 min.) Sidereal Tracking rate. I can also set my motor step to 15° the correct 300:1 Tranny ratio I get a Slew of x23(RA) and x48(DEC) and the correct sidereal rate. The Motors are noticeably louder with the 15° step but seem to run a bit cooler.
Which set up is better? The 15° seems the best option when it comes to motor heat, but I'm unsure if it will damage my motors because they should be 7.5° step. The 7.5° step is better because of the smaller steps and less noise but the heat is the issue...A real quandry...You said the motors can run as high as 80°C with out harm so the 7:5° step is probably the best because of the smoother tracking. Any advice would be appriecated.
The next problem I'm having is connecting through EQMOD, I can run the motors all day through the AstroEQ Config Utility and EQMOD but when I try to connect through EQMOD/ PHD or Stellarium it won't find a port (even the one I used with the Config Utility). I've tried forcing a Port through and over riding a Port with the ASCOM Profile Explorer but it just won't come up in the EQMOD Set Up box. This has me really stumped...

[TCWORLD]

Hi Rick,

For motors with that high of a gear ratio, you have to disable 16x microstepping, otherwise there are issues communicating with EQMOD due to the size of the numbers (the synta protocol wasn't designed for ratios that high).
There is a button in the configuration utility next to 16x microstepping which either says enabled or disabled, you need to click on it until it says disabled.

Setting the motor angle to 15degree doesn't actually change anything in hardware (your motors will still be 7.5 degrees, can't change that). What it does is affect the speed calculations reported to EQMOD which will affect the numbers sent back which may help.
Interestingly you are not the first person to have set 7.5 degree motors as 15 degree ones and have it correct the speed. I am thinking there may be a glitch in the configuration utility causing incorrect numbers to be calculated. I am going to have a look into it over this weekend. Hopefully will have that corrected by Sunday morning.

EDIT:
Could I ask you to start a new issue thread for the second problem you are having (the one about EQMOD/PHD/Stellarium). It helps keep things organised to separate questions out.

[Rick01]

Hi Tom,
How do I get the updated Hex file into the Utility Loader? I checked the Microstepping button and it was already disabled.

[TCWORLD]

Just download the latest version of the config utility, it will upload the new hex file for you.