nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I am at the brink of driving to Myrtle Beach and throwing the mount in the ocean.

The first mount was defective and had to be returned.....that went fine, the replacement mount does ok. It is a beast to balance - tight tight tight. Both of the mounts behaved this way. Celestron said, that was par.

For two nights in a row, I started the evening with a polar alignment using the polar scope. Then a two star alignment - then poiar alignment with alignmaster - then I add another two star plus two star alignment. All went well.... the KIT has not moved - sitting on a concrete sidewalk. On the third night - when beginning my first two star alignment the mount missed the calibration star (I use the RIGEL QUICKFINDER) when looking through that easy to use finder, my star (Capella) was 12 inches from center. I aligned it anyway and chose Rigel for my second star - missed it by another foot. I aligned Rigel and chose Mirfak for my 3 calibration star - missed again......but instead of aligning Mirfak....I used the "back" key to select "Capella"again. The scope went dead center on Capella. Hummmm.....then I tried RIGEL - off a foot, tried Capella, spot on....no star but Capella would align. So I did a factory reset ...re-entered and confirmed date, time, position - I activated the GPS, reconfirmed the date, time, position, time zone to confirm accuracy. When I tried to align Capella - I was off a foot and from then on it was a repeat of the above. I did another factory reset and nothing changed.

Yesterday, I downloaded the latest firmware and could not get the mount to talk with my computer - BTW, I tried a laptop running Windows 10 and three different MACS, running Windows 7. I am able to get the mount and pic to connect when using Alignmaster or Stellarium using the USB to Serial cable but not running Celestron's CFM software.

I talked with Celestron and they said my mount needed to be sent in.

Yep, I tried using Star Sense with that controller - could not align. I tried with and without the GPS.

I just cannot figure out what happened from night two to night three. The scope was covered and not moved the entire time.

Any ideas before I send it back (it is still under warrantee.)

I hope this makes sense...I am too tried to re-read it.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Is there a place like dpreview for astronomers to read product test reviews and user experiences? It seems what have gone through needs to be known by others in the astronomy photography family. Good luck.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

There are several great Astronomy forums

Cloudy Nights
Stargazers Lounge
Astronomy Forums http://www.astronomyforum.net/forum.php

to mention a few that have reviews and user personal experiences. A great place to learn what to and not to buy..

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

It sounds like you may have touched onto something in your conversation with Celestron that triggered the "Return the Mount" response.
So I'd say they need to repair it. Maybe the brain, the hand controller has an issue.
Have they sent you the return label? The two times I have had to return my AVX, they emailed me a UPS pre-paid shipping label.
Orion did on my first CCD camera issue, but not my most recent warranty items. And it was kinda expensive this last one. (Because I bought insurance on the telescope.)
One thing about Celestron is they want the whole thing back. To me, that is excessive. And risky.
But maybe, just maybe, they will replace it with the latest version?

My first AVX was a Gen I, and I believe that was why it was on sale. It had issues within the first 2 weeks.
A firmware update got it working again, but then it got a code on the display saying Error 17, and Error 16, both were motor drive failure codes. They replaced my original with a Generation II mount.
Hunky-Dory!
But my Gen II suddenly decided to belly up one afternoon. Yep, same codes. :(
So I boxed it ALL up and sent it in. :x
They replaced the motor drive board in the head. But also did a function test, and the tech adjusted the backlash. Which I wonder if it really needed it.

Since it's return, my AVX has never had anything but pure 12 volt battery power fed to it. And so far it has been the best performing yet.
So I advise anybody and everybody to get a big battery and only power the mount with that. And never charge the battery when the mount is connected.

Some pecker-head accountant decided that these components were cheaper. And they side-stepped the engineered circuitry design.
So Celestron's reputation is in the toilet, and we get to box and unbox our mounts to send them back and forth.

And this is not an uncommon occurrence. When my first mount was to be replaced, I was issued RMA 20.
When it was going on two weeks of waiting for them to get their shipping departments computers working again, I was #20 in line for them to unbox a mount, function test it, and get the damned thing on a UPS truck.
The day after I drove to Torrance, CA and dropped off my defunct Gen I, Celestron got all new computers.
Nobody, but Nobody, rips out all the working computers for new ones. So they could not send, nor receive, any merchandise during those two weeks. And I was told by the head of Technical support that the management wouldn't allow them to ship any replacements out until the computers were working.

And finally, read the fine print in Celstron's warranty policy. Once you bought it, you are at their mercy. Because they don't give refunds.
And that is why it will be a cold day in hell before I buy another Celestron product.
Too bad that their management is killing the company.


Did you know that Santa Claus is Chinese?
Well he is.

All the toys say, "Made in China" on them.

Best of luck to you Ed.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Not yet. The girl I talked with yesterday said I would be receiving an RMA to use UPS. I thought I would get it right away but nada so far. I will call in a few minutes. They did say they would pay for the shipping....and that they are running one month behind. I am ok, I have two other mounts to keep me busy.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

A month behind?
jeese.

Somebody needs a kick in the butt with a frozen boot.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

They said the delay was due to Christmas returns! I have an Atlas Pro EQ mount, a great kit but heavy heavy. I also have the iOptron ZEQ25 that I have been using as my goto mount and it is, LIGHT LIGHT. I had just started using the AVX again. I may end up selling the AVX as it has never been as accurate/dependaqble as the Atlas and/or iOptron. I also like using EQMOD instead of the HC. The AVX's HC is a pain in the rear for me. The buttons are unresponsive at times....you can only bring up the MENU at certain times, all in all it is much more complicated than my other two mounts.

I also have the STARSENSE, auto aligner and rarely use it when i am home (not enough sky).....and that HC controller's fount is so small I cannot read it.

At any rate, I need to get it fixed before I do anything.

But, my problems are nothing. Craig put things in perspective when he shared his friends pancreatic cancer battle he and his family/friends are fighting.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Yes Ed a lot of things seem a little less important these days.
But I am glad to say my AVX has been as spot on as it gets depending on my own guff ups.
Getting the Mount level, polar align and the time correct seem to be the main factors of getting my alignments correct.
Craig

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Yesserie, A lot of my mis alignments was due to my error. But I am now dealing with some issues that are not related to mount use. The mount does not communicate with the PC for a firmware update. I am using a USB to Serial cable. I have two of those and I also have two of the Celestron cables that plug into the HC. The cables work between mount and PC and communicate successfully when using Stellarium or Alignmaster. When trying to do a firmware update - the CFM software does not recognize the mount. When I told the lady at Celestron that - she said to send it in.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Sorry about the mount. My problem for quite a while is not my mount, but rain and clouds. Never ending clouds.

But it was perfectly clear at 5PM tonight and I tried to set up. But as soon as I got everything out, the clouds immediately rolled in. And then proceeded getting thicker and thicker. And rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future.

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

I want to see the comet but haven't had any luck for the same reason.
I went outside 20 minutes ago and it was clear to the east. Grabbed the camera and Tamron Bigma and the Big Dipper is cloud covered. I need to be sneakier.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

The two "W's" Weather and Work, both are getting in my way of astronomy!!!

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

That is ludicrous... Any company which has enough returns after Christmas has a really severe quality control problem! A company like Celestron is always going to have a percentage of bad products slip through the net, but it really should not be causing a spike like that.

It's starting to sound like they have a major problem with the whole philosophy of the company...

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I agree. Had been planning the formal retirement for Mar 31. But just got the obligatory speech yesterday on why I was needed for just 2 more months. So it looks like retirement has been pushed back.

What I would like best is what happened to one guy was asked to stay just 3 more months. Near the end of the 3 months, the economy had slowed enough that we had a layoff. And suddenly he found himself laid off. And with an 8 month pay severance package to go with that layoff! 11 month's salary for 3 months of actual work. I can only dream.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Phil,
I've suspected that they had a Quality Assurance problem since I was told to do a firmware update on a brand new mount.
Firmware does not go stale.
When it up and died suddenly, and exhibited what a head at Celestron told me was Motor Drive failures, and that they would replace it with the Gen II unit... Well, I can say my confidence waned.

I'm convinced their "problem" is China. After 42 years in the highly technical end of electricity, I know you cannot say this component (resistor, diode, capacitor, etc.) is as good as this one. There are levels of quality.
Simply assembling devices with similar parts is not the same as following the Electronic Engineering's Specifications.
But sadly, and it is the death knell for many a company, scrambling to replace items that should not have failed in the first place cannot correct the damage it causes to a companies reputation.
They will fall, like others have (Tasco) from disgruntled customers, word of mouth, and the all powerful Internet of today.
Buzz can kill. And the Buzz is on about Celestron's lack of action to hold up it's reputation, and the alarming QA and QC problems coming out of their move to China.
The buzz is they began losing it when the company moved from Japan, to China.
These aren't paper umbrellas for your drink.
But the heads (Dumbheads) in Torrance seem to think it can go away by replacing a failed product with another failing product.
Weeding out the woes that way only gives cause to John Q. Public to look elsewhere for a product that actually works out of the box, and keeps working.

When my AVX works, it works great! I can give you that.
But experience has given rise to a huge black cloud of impending doom with the mount.
It should work great right out of the box. When you have an overload of product being returned, you damn well have a HUGE problem.
And sadly, I will certainly look elsewhere in the future for anything pertaining to Astronomy.
Celestron has definitely lost me.