WD-20 suddenly unresponsive and erratic

Questions
1

Hello,

I received my new WD-20 a few months ago and have been very happy with it. I use NINA and it works very well. However, last night while imaging, my Windows 11 PC did an upgrade/restart on its own and when I woke up, NINA was shut down. I restarted NINA and connected to the mount and told it to HOME, and when I did it very quickly slewed all the way past its limit and I think caused the filter wheel to hit the pier - I have calibrated the emergency braking feature so hopefully that worked - I was not able to stop it manually.

After this, I was able to slew it back to close to home and it seemed to home OK. But tonight, after starting an imaging run, it started to behave erratically. First it would not connect, then it connected but would not receive information from NINA. After restarting everything, it seemed OK as it slewed to the target and synched, but then it seemed to not take guide commands. When I tried to HOME it, it would not move at first, then it HOMED to a weird position. It would not take any manual move commands, until I gave it a little nudge, then it slewed very rapidly to the western limit. Now, it will take no motion commands, will not home, and will only will slew if I help it move with my hand, and then it makes noises and vibrates.

I am at a loss. I can’t tell if something happened mechanical, or there is a software issue. It is completely erratic and making bad noises and vibrating if I can get it to move at all.

Jeff

2

Update: I decided to try the hand controller. It connected fine, but the mount did not respond to any commands to move at all. The blue light came on and went off as expected, but the mount did not move until I physically pushed it a bit and then it would move fast before stopping and vibrating. The home button on the front also did not make the mount move.

3

Windows updates can be a real pain. Microsoft standardly releases monthly updates on the second Tuesday of the month. You may not get them immediately, but it should happen within a few days. When you get a Windows computer, always try to get the Pro version of Windows. It gives you the option to set updates to tell you that they are available but not to download and install them until you give it the OK. The other option available to all versions of Windows is the “Pause Updates” selection. You can pause updates for up to 5 weeks. Just pick a date after that second Tuesday when your computer is doing nothing to unpause the updates and let them download and install.
If you don’t get any response from WarpAstron here, sign into their Discord channel where you can contact them more directly. There may be a way of resetting the mount.

JohnD