Dec Motion Failure

Tuesday, July 10, 2018 9:49 AM

Problem(s) Encountered:

Telescope did not slew along Dec Axis, as described in TCS System Control Failure 2  in may 10, 2017.


Problem first occured while trying to home the telescope to zero the telescope, which failed with the error: ERROR point not converging dist=1.376 dra=1.338 ddec=0.046.  These error occured whenever I issued the telescope to move while *tracking was off*.


While tracking was on, different error message was shown: ERROR offset m_dec fatal following error


The slew could be completed if the slew command did not involve offset along dec direction.


Solutions:

I assumed this was likely caused by a hangup of the dec motor controller but it turned out to be a loose pin in the connection to the Omron motor within the TCS electronics chassis (C22, pin 1 (white wire)).  The pin will need to be replaced, which I plan to do at some point this summer.