User's Manual

8. Local Date and Time: displays the local time in a format of YY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.

9. Mount Status: Displays the current operational status of the mount.

 Stop: mount is not moving;

 Slew: mount is moving with an arrow key is pressed or a GOTO command, such as “Select

and Slew” or “Goto Zero Position”;

 Tracking: mount is at a tracking status.

10. GPS status: When the power is turned on, the initial GPS status will be “GPS ON”, which means

that the mount is connected to its GPS receiver and is seeking a satellite signal. When the GPS

receiver finds the satellites and receives the GPS signal the status will change to “GPS OK”.

11. PEC status: Display of “PEC” here Indicates the Periodic Error Correction playback is turned on.

Default is off.

12. Tracking speed: Displays the current tracking rate of the mount.

 SDRL: mount is tracking at sidereal speed;

 Solar: mount is tracking at solar speed;

 Lunar: mount is tracking at lunar speed;

 King: mount is tracking at king speed;

 CSTM: mount is tracking at a custom, user-defined speed.

13. Slew speed: The mount has 9 slew speeds: 1X, 2X, 8X, 16X, 64X, 128X, 256X, 512X, MAX

(~4º/sec).

14. Operation Mode: EQ indicates that the mount is operating in an equatorial mode.

2.6. Bench Testing the Mount

The counterweight shaft is designed to counter balance the mount’s own weight. It is recommended

that the CW shaft is installed when testing the mount’s function, as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11. Setup for initial mount testing

Slewing the mount without the CW shaft installed is not recommended.

NEVER operate the mount with only the counterweight or OTA on it. It may damage the

precision engineering of the mount drive system.