Day started with a call from George letting me know Mach2 was out for delivery a day early. Of course I had made lots of plans for the day to free up the next day. So I thought I’d wait and unpack the next day, just couldn’t stand not unboxing. So last night I I got everything set up and running in the garage last. Very cool! I’ve had both a Mach 1 and an 1100 before. The Mach2 was heavier than a Mach1 but much lighter than an assembler 1100 and easy enough to mount on the Eagle pier. 

Took me just a bit to connect but got the driver configured and APCC settings tweaked. The new clutches and altitude adjustment are a treat to use. Balancing was easy. The only thing I ran into was that I couldn’t find the safety stop for the counterweight bar. 

After just driving the mount around with APCC I put on my 130 GTX and as I said, balance was easy in both axes. The clutches are looser than the Mach1 or 1100 and you could really fine-tune the balance.  I had no trouble setting up the through-the-mount power and usb. I had the Primaluce Eagle on the scope and connected down through the mount to the GTOCP5 through USB.  

The  new motors are very quiet.  I was using the 24volt power supply and could access 1800x slews, very smooth and fast. The absolute encoders worked as advertised. When I’d finished balancing the scope with loosened clutches, and moving everything around by hand, I almost got tears in my eyes 😂 when a Park 3 command was executed perfectly. Also installed my new QHY Polemaster after reviewing a couple YouTube videos. Reluctantly went to bed at 11:00 as I had an early day this morning.

The only minor issue I ran into was Ethernet connectivity through APCC. I could connect to the CP5 web page via Ethernet no problem, and APCC shows connected, but the telescope data window (Ra/Dec, Alt, Az etc) stays blank and the ASCOM driver won’t connect. I had the same problem with my CP4 but could fix it by power cycling the CP4 after the computer booted up. This workaround doesn’t work with the CP5. I suspect it’s some network setting.

So an excellent first experience given no way to actually see the heavens. Thanks Roland, George and the A-P family. I have a few photos not sure how best to post though?

Wayne