The Good, Bad, and the Truth - Real World 365 Day Journey with the ZWO Ecosystem! 

Absolutely, let me know if you’d like additional help. I offer 30 minute gear consults now on my webpage. Some of the links and codes I have that nobody else does usually makes it so you actually profit from booking it lol. on top of saving time and frustration trying to figure out the best stuff on your own

100% agree.

And let me guess. Since you've had it, it works flawlessly.

Thank you :)

Yeah, it seems like if there is a big known issue, that’s basically like the equivalent of a recall they will take care of it because they know what little reputation they do have would get completely destroyed. If thousands of cameras that went bad weren’t handled appropriately it’s more of the one off issues that seem to get brushed under the rug. It’s really sad because you have somebody that spent about $10,000 on just their products alone in a two week timeframe. You think that would be somebody you would be working really hard to keep but I guess not.

Yeah, of course the whole point is to help people get the best possible service and avoid any trouble they can so hopefully people will continue to use Agena it will not make sure you get good customer service. But also support the channel so I can continue to make more videos and have more products to review!

I do think we need to be honest when things are good and not so good. Almost every Astro review is positive as are mine, and just because one little thing goes wrong doesn’t mean you can make a whole video but when it’s a systemic issue and all of the people are agreeing with the same problem that are commenting and clearly there’s a bigger issue here that needs to be called out.

Except ZWO is NOT a crappy company. One click baiters experience does not tell the tale. You think if everything worked he could have a video?

don't worry, that is a conventional english (false) name.

Glad to hear you got better luck than me - 2 months is still longer than acceptable in most industries but better than paying $200+ for the part and having to install it.

It’s tough to make an episode like this and it really took a lot to get to the “final straw” moment, but I felt like I had to share my experience. I’m not telling anybody not to buy from them. I’m just sharing my experience and allowing people to make the decision decision that’s right for them. as you can see from the comments it’s happened to many people, but some people have also been pretty lucky. Having said that I would love to check in with some of those comments that haven’t had any issues in two years and see where they’re at 😬. Hope it was helpful and appreciate you being a part of the channel

Sorry to hear unfortunately it seems to be fairly common. I have a full Primaluce/QHY Nina swap coming soon!

I’m going to see if ZWO can fix it before opening it up and then having them blame me like they tend to. They did reach out finally as a result of this video though not by responding to my emails which is disappointing so we’ll see what happens

@@darkrangersinc When I first contacted ZWO Tech Support via email regarding my malfunctioning AM5, they asked if "I was handy and could do something like adjust belts". I said "SURE, if it won't void my warranty." That was the end of that discussion. Send my mount to them Dec. 6. Still have no solution.

Well unfortunately the warranty is still determined by ZWO. HPS and AA can choose to help but ultimately it’s up to ZWO, glad you are getting help though! It’s a shame that is the distributor end of covering they have to take a loss on ZWOs behalf to keep the customer happy.

Thank you appreciate the kind words. Happy holidays to you and your family!

Literally, the most dependable vehicles on the planet! That’s a great point can’t blame it all on country of origin when you have companies like that, putting out vehicles that do half a million miles regularly

I appreciate that, so far this is a couple endorsements for player one I might have to see if they would be willing to work together and combine it with an open source platform that would allow me to run the camera and come up with a different ecosystem. What are you using to run your rig?

I'm using an intel NUC and NINA so basically just regular Windows + software via RDP. interface-wise, it is not as easy as the AsiAir (especially for beginners) but functionality-wise it's about the same. I can remote in both via a tablet or even my phone (Android).

@@Wheeljack678 yeah, I want to go with an even simpler option than that. I think that that is a very commonly used way to do it but for a beginner as you mentioned, it’s going to be challenging. Stellarmate has a software that they have installed on their device which is open source and it looks like the middle ground between Nina and the ASIAIR. Very graphic interface style, but with more capability. The eagle will work very similar to yours, other than the fact that they do have their own “Play” software now that looks VERY similar to the ASIAIR but again a bit more robust. If either of those companies can get an easy to run software set up, it would be lights out. I just need to try both of them or at least one of them. The stellarmate software looks pretty complete.

I would watch till the end the middle is a little bit rough going through my experience with their customer service, but I do think as long as you get a good version of the product you will be OK. I’ve had good results with my 2600 MM and 290mm but issues with other products

Watched till the end. Great review man. Can’t blame ya, what happened, happened. Hopefully I’ll get a bit more luckier than you lol. Got my rig 3 months ago. My only complaint so far (aside some random disconnects) is the EAF. Had to sent it back and got a full refund. Really bad product in my opinion. I’ve also purchased D1+D2 Askar color magic BECAUSE YOU SAID SO. Keep it up the great work.

@@leonardoleo5250 awesome glad to hear! I actually gave them a little bit of a break on the EAF. It will miss on auto focus when switching filters sometimes, but I actually didn’t even mention that lol. It really does. Kind of suck to make a video that isn’t mostly. Since you watch my other episodes, you know, that’s the general vibe on this channel but at some point enough is enough.

hire a lawyer, sue the US distributor. Costly? Yes. Sue for damages. Sue for emotional damages. Sue for legal costs. Make them pay. If it hurts them bad enough (and enough people start doing this), they'll drop the US distributorship, which will financially hurt ZWO very badly. Other distributors will be very wary to take their products on too. If ZWO doesn't learn and adapt and improve its customer service/communications/warranty, they will start to lose sales. Losing sales is a great motivator for any business.

Their act is together.

Well, we need to get you some clear skies so you can actually use it in the first place lol 😝

I’m sorry you went through all that as well. I know the struggle as you can see… I felt like so many people feel like they’re the only one going through it and when somebody else sheds light on it, it almost somehow makes it feel better that you’re not the only one. I’m not a big fan of the portable units yet I don’t see them being nearly the same quality as a full rig but for somebody who’s not truly into the full hobby of Astro photography and just kind of wants to see what’s up there. I think they’re OK, but not for me at this point. I think in order to get one that I would actually want to use they would need to price it several thousand dollars more than they currently are but I don’t like the fact that you can’t upgrade anything and you’re basically basically stuck with whatever it comes with. For me building and upgrading, the rig is part of the fund switching stuff out and setting it up for a specific target is really enjoyable and I love to tinker with stuff so all in one unit wouldn’t appeal to me but I do see it’s purpose and the market for which it was created for sure

Me too maybe since I flashed it a couple times they’ll send one 😂❤. The 2600 since I swapped, the motherboard has been fine like I said, I just think it’s mostly quality control issue, and then a lack of help on the flipside.

I hope people have better luck than I do. I know plenty of others have had issues, but there is a chance you might be totally fine, they have reached out to me since posting this video and I’ve made it very clear that they’re customer service is not acceptable and they need to step it up so we’ll see what happens

Curious is it just the shipping that makes agenda not practical? I’ve ordered from Canadian companies and it only added a couple days. The shipping costs I did negotiate to get waived since I was buying a scope and several accessories but the experience was good cross borders otherwise.

Mainly shipping costs and the potential of paying duties.

Try the link on the website I just tested it and it works it’s on the astrophotography guides page

Interesting that would make sense why it happens over time then and not right away. If you do figure anything out let us know and good luck with it

@@darkrangersinc I've bought a lot of Chinese tooling for my home machine shop, and it's invariably filled with metal chips and grinding dust. More of a kit than a usable piece of equipment. While I would expect more care for a precision mechanism like a strain wave drive, I'm not going to be surprised by anything I find if I open it up.

@@jonrbryan anytime I can buy something Made in Japan, Germany, Italy, or the United States. I’m usually very happy with the end result.

I sent Primaluce an Email before making this so I could have the answer but no response. I’ve been told they are tough to get a hold of so it’s probably about time to reach out again especially since we’ve added another 500 subscribers or so but that’s 100% the plan and was my goal before I even released this one They do have a $700 option. I think it’s called the LE and it does everything that you need. It’s still more powerful than the ASI air. You could get a mini computer for three or $400 but then by the time you got the Pegasus power box you’re going to be pretty much right in the same spot as the LAE which is why I’ve just saw it out the eagle besides the fact that they do have their own Raphick interface that they’re developing it’s still functional right now, but it’s getting better and better all of their devices like the auto focus and flat panels have their own Wi-Fi that you can run independently of other apps, so I like the idea of their brand over others because you have a back up way to work some of their accessories Plus the quality is really good. StellarMate is another option. I don’t know as much about them, but they have a System different than Nina. It looks a little easier more like the ASI air and it’s open source and it comes installed on the device and it’s about $500 for their top end one so that could be the back up if the Italians want to ignore us 😢

@@darkrangersinc Thanks so much for that detailed response, Ryan! I appreciate it. I have LOTS of looking before making the leap, since it may also involve another laptop and other ancillaries as well. (I use my iPad/iPhone with my ASIAir and only have an older, slower Surface Pro). Thank you again!

@@gregerianne3880 I did reach out one more time today and hopefully with a little extra nudge we will get somewhere. we just need to get one comprehensive video on how to make the switch. There’s nothing out there with the eagle that really shows you in depth how to set it up. There are some that go very high-level, but not to the extent most people are looking.

@@darkrangersinc Well, the Italians do like their riposo, so who knows?! Haha!! (I can say that since I'm Italian...😁) Seriously, I've found PrimaLuceLab products to be the best, so I wouldn't mind spending a bit more on an Eagle and be confident it will work as it should. Looking forward to hearing more!

@@darkrangersinc Well, we Italians do like our riposo, so who knows?! Hahaha! Seriously, though, I've found Primaluce products to be among the best and would be very willing to pay a little more for the quality.

When you get a chance, if you wouldn’t mind, could you send the link either here or to my Instagram with the same name? Yeah, also in sales and I agree. Some of my other hobbies are completely different. I’m also into competitive shooting and the firearms community is totally different. All American made based in America and their warranties are above and beyond even if it’s completely your fault, most firearms and optic manufacturers will stand behind you. Also, been really into cycling for most of my life and same thing. It’s been an interesting adjustment over the last several years with Astro

@@darkrangersinc Impressive that you've been able to balance so many hobbies. I can only really maintain one hobby.. and then have a couple of minor ones. I was into shooting for awhile. Set myself up for FClass.. almost went down that rabbit hole. Then I started astro. That and the fact that the nearest match was 3 hours away and starting early mornings.. I backed off. I occasionally make it out to the range but no where near as often as I use to. I was looking at component costs the other day.. wow.. I can't believe how expensive everything is. A brick of primers use to be $40. Now, $100-$150.. that is insane!

How did they handle the ASI air pro not working correctly? I mean even though you’ve had several good experiences it’s still not great that the main controller is essentially inoperable but glad most of it is working 💪🏼

Hopefully it stays that way like I said the AM5 worked great for me for about six months. I do also image quite a bit. I’m lucky that I have clear skies a lot, so I probably do get more use out of it having said that six months isn’t acceptable even if you’re imaging every day though.

@@rvoykin Originally I didn't realize the USB's were faulty. I was trying to connect to my other mount (EQ6R-Pro) and no matter what it wouldn't connect. The ASIAIR Pro would power up and work fine other than the USB. The tech support at ZWO were actually pretty helpful, they kept trying to troubleshoot, even sending me a new firmware for the AAP, but after awhile I figured out it was the USB ports, by then the warranty was expired so I let the issue drop. I still have the pro, and might replace the board at some point, but I'm in no rush.

@@darkrangersinc 6 months is not acceptable at all. Hopefully this vid gets their attention. I image as much as I can, but I live in a perpetually cloudy area. From Oct 22 - April 23, I think we had only 1 or 2 clear nights.

That’s good to hear! Usually on simple stuff it’s pretty quick and I know since the video the people I’ve been in contact with said they’re going to really focus on customer service moving forward so hopefully they have double down on their efforts and it’s starting to pay off!

Despite all the issues still managed to get a good amount of images. Never thought I would learn how to replace a camera or filter wheel mother board but now I can say I know how 🤷🏻‍♂️😂

Hopefully I won't have that experience but the Astro community is awesome. I have the AM5 as well and so far no issues but now I know what to watch out for. @@darkrangersinc

Interesting I’ll try that out, I do have an ASI mini where you have to use USB2 & I found that the transfer times were the same as when I first got the ASIAIR plus, it is 480 MB a second I believe for USB two so on a 50 MB file it still should only take very little time. But lately the plus has slowed down dramatically and I feel like the range and overall connection strain has diminished. I might look at upgrading the antenna but I don’t understand how an antenna or signal strength loses power overtime but maybe there is a shelflife to them?

Yeah I mean the mother boards for both issues totaled a little over $300 so it wasn’t horrible but not something I would have ever imagined paying for on brand new stuff with a 2 year warranty. I’m sure you’ll be ok for most of your stuff.

@@darkrangersinc My AM5 had a few of those massive spikes the other night so aim gonna need to keep an eye out I’ve just sent your link to my Astro gear provider in Sydney to ask a few questions just in case o have that problem ongoing. Thanks for posting this Ryan

Well, I’m glad you got some good help from the distributor. When their stuff works it does fine. I have tons of time on my 2600 MM without any issues it’s just a little bit of luck at the draw. I think a lot of people are not fortunate enough to be able to image as much as I am able to as well so they might not not run into problems as quickly as I do or maybe ever. That could be another contributing factor, but no matter how much you’re using it, there’s no excuse for the lack of Customer Service.

Yeah a NUC or Something like that is the move for sure

Yeah, that’s a valid point, but they have so many people purchasing in English-speaking countries. It’s kind of irresponsibility to make sure they have the customer service to handle it. they’re responding in English (when they respond) and the First Gentleman that actually did tell me to send logs in is native English speaker but the folks I was submitting logs to I could tell perhaps were like not born speaking English to your point but their responses were still very understandable. I felt like this was more true earlier on when I was dealing with my electronic filter wheel that was several months before the amount, and I was dealing with “Wu” and his responses all came around midnight so communication took forever because it would be one sentence every other day basically and usually took a couple days between replies only to have my warranted denied. There’s absolutely no trying to reasoning with them so you could be right. But they understand it enough to communicate back-and-forth in a way that makes sense.

It’s somewhat makes sense if you think about it if somebody does try to “fix it” it makes it worse than it potentially could be somewhat the customers fault. but I’ve seen claims denied when things are opened up, and even if the customer didn’t make it worse, had them blamed for the problem because they opened it up and inspected it

I’ve actually just reached out to Pegasus they have one that’s actually a little more robust and can handle 66lbs

I found a whole group of people so it’s not just us. It seems like some of the updates have helped a bit there was a time the mount was UNUSABLE but I think enough folks complained that they found a way to mitigate it a bit. It’s worst near the meridian for me which is the most valued data unfortunately but I can keep more subs now than I could months back.

​@@darkrangersincHow did they mitigate the spiking? Is your AM5 from the first production run with a 430 sec cycle or the 2nd production run with the 288s cycle ?

@@hael8680 I’d have to look at the spec sheet that came with it. I didn’t get it right away when it came out, I wasn’t on the waiting list or anything like that. It had been out for close to six or seven months I think it went to pre-order sales in April if I’m not mistaken, just going from memory. So they had been shipping them for a while before I ordered. I’m assuming the guides spikes have gotten better because of software updates I know they were working on that pretty heavily but I don’t know that for a fact. The spikes aren’t gone. But they are less periodic. And nowhere near the capacity so it shouldn’t be a problem and I do polar align every couple nights even when I’ve had perfect polar alignment, and I do level my tripod with an actual Bubble Level. It still has the issue.

I’ve been seeing this issue arise in the Facebook groups, and ZWO is actively blocking the posts

I'm a beginner. Glad I opted for the Skywatcher mount. That would be a Nomo slider in the mix

Sorry to hear that unfortunately seems to be the theme did you try a new cable? Sometimes cables do go bad

I’m hoping to build a relationship with one of these other camera companies, and one of the computer companies that are open source so I can put together a video or two on how to make the transition if people want to. I know there are a couple channels that do it but not many most are either using the ASIair or a computer laptop base system versus a Wi-Fi set up.

The EQ6r is pretty tried and true if you’re looking for the same payload. I mention the eagle a couple times as an alternative as well as some different camera options. One of the camera options I mentioned player 1 sells most of the other accessories like filter wheels, guide cameras, etc.

On the camera they just flat out denied coverage and said I could send it in and pay them to fix it and I said it’s well within the two-year warranty and I reported the initial USB hub problem right away so from the second time I’ve used it you know there has been an issue. For the filter wheel, they said the USB 2.0 plug was pushed in too far which made no sense. You can only push them in a certain amount and then they stop. It’s not like I took a hammer to it and smashed the male end it. I gently put it in as I do all cables that have worked fine on the hundreds of electrical devices I own. There really was no explanation. Other than that they just come to the conclusion I asked to speak to somebody above them and they won’t let you. They didn’t have a phone number I could call and I was dealing with somebody responding at midnight and taking a couple days between each response, so the back-and-forth on those two lasted about a month and a half and I finally gave up because it was ruining my entire imaging season. Once you get to about the 25 email mark you realize they’re not going to do anything and they don’t even justify why in a way that’s logical. In all fairness, this review actually took it pretty easy on them. I didn’t go into every customer service issue because they were all pretty much the same they went nowhere.

That’s bs they should have covered it and for the usb on wheel wtf it sounds faulty. I have a lot of zwo stuff including the am5 hopefully they hold up. I have had pretty good customer service from them but it was only communication don’t know about actual service. Well thanks for all your work appreciate it got the quad antlia filter you reviewed can’t wait to use it take care 👍

⁠@@danksolo6183get Orion with it while you still can! It’s the only color filter I’ve used that keeps the majority of the good color and Orion

Like I said you could get one that works fine but as you can see from the comments I’m not the only one with issues with the AM5 but if you’re heart is set on it then you can go for it. Just giving you my experience and best I can hope is it doesn’t happen to you. One thing I can say pretty confidently is if something does go wrong it’s not going to be a great experience to fix it. I don’t think that is a matter of luck, or anything else other than the fact that they just don’t prioritize customer service the way they need to

@@darkrangersinc Actually I was thanking you for making me think twice. As my old EQ6-R still works fine I'm in no real hurry to replace it. Thank you again for sharing your experience I will definitely take this on board.

@@user-lt9py2pu6u oh, OK I thought you were saying that you were considering it and you’ve had a good experience as far so you were going to go with it and I’m not saying that it’s a bad idea it just didn’t work out for me. I would look at the Pegasus version it’s an extra thousand dollars but it’s also 50% more payload capacity. The EQ6 is a very dependable amount. I would run that until you could go with something with a heavier payload. I also think the SW 350 the next step up from the 6 looks really nice.

At first it seemed like it was going to workout, he was fairly responsive and said to send logs via the bug system. The problem was after that it took a long time to get a response and when I did from the people in Support, they sent me an update that didn’t do anything, but marked the case “resolved”. When I saw that after I had sent the multiple follow up screenshots showing it wasn’t resolved. I was pretty upset obviously. So when I reached back out via email, and he passed me off to someone else, I was surprised. That’s the last reply I’ve gotten from ZWO several months ago. When I email, I make sure to not just reply directly to one person as well. I try to include the general ZWO email so it catches more than one eye.

To me, having a closed source set up that forces you to buy their product is a pretty cheap way to force further sales. It’s almost like they know they can get away with it because people get stuck on the operating system and then can’t or won’t leave

I don’t actually know the backstory, but that would be pretty cool. I know this has happened several times in the past where people leave a company because they don’t agree with how they do things and form a better version of the same brand. I would love to work with a company like Player one in the future so who knows maybe as the channel continues to grow they’ll reach out 🤷🏻‍♂️

@@darkrangersinc may even be worth your while asking them. If you were to refer them to your video and demonstrate how you want an apples to apples comparison they might be happy to send some equipment for testing etc. If I were part of their team I would say this could be a nice arrow in their quiver for tapping into the market more and driving more competition in the market. Seems like everywhere I look these days its ZWO ecosystems and I'm not a fan of having all my eggs in one basket for the exact reasons you brought up here.

That’s about what I spent - 2600mc & 2600mm, EFW, AM5, AA+ and Mini, EAF, 290mm all at once and still not a customer worth helping a guess. If they won’t help a $10,000 customer, imagine how they’ll treat a random person who just bought one thing 🤦🏻‍♂️. Hopefully you luck out it’s definitely possible. But with that many components from ZWO I would say the likely hood of making it out 12 months with no issues is likely low but hopefully the additional warranties kick in if it does happen

Yeah I mention in further down in the comments here I’ve been looking at it for a while. Primaluce is going to send me an Eagle 5 and a focuser. I’ll do the same level of in-depth review on the eagle, and then everybody can choose whatever is best for them! I definitely think the stellar is a viable option! I think both are great products one is a little more expensive, and probably a little bit more difficult to set up, but more robust from a software and hardware standpoint, and the other is essentially an ASIair on steroids, which might an easier transition both have pros and cons. I’m a fan of both! The eagle is tried and true for many years. I don’t know what the long-term reviews are like on the stellar mate because it’s still fairly new, but other than that it looks really good.

Good choice on the mount. TBH I’m not super techie and up to date in terms of the rules or laws with open source stuff and I wasn’t aware of it when I made the purchase. I just took them at the Word when they said they had a two-year warranty, that they would honor it. For some reason people aren’t super vocal in the Astro community about experiences that aren’t positive. I have since found a guiding spike thread on cloudy nights for the AM5 so it’s out there. But you see all these comments about people having bad experiences. It just seems to get suppressed very well.

If you watch the whole video, all of your questions get answered

One thing I forgot to say in the video just because there was so much to cover was that I don’t expect companies to be perfect. This is all mass produced in China for the most part so I understand it. But I do expect companies to at least be responsive. I think responsive means less than six months lol

Thanks I always want to keep it positive but if simply describing my experience paints a bad picture it kind of is what it is. Even though I did feel a little bad, I would feel worse not being honest. I’ve actually bit my tongue for a long time because I wanted to give them the opportunity to make it right. I did try to put all the good qualities at the end but felt like it was a situation that needed telling.

For the same price I would check out QHY or Morovian for a more premium option.

The problem is the majority of people are not listening to it on anything but their cell phone or computer, so when you turn it down much more, it becomes tough to hear. I listen to my own videos with a pretty nice set of Bose headphones, and don’t experience any issues. I know earlier on several months ago had them all at 0DB. But since turned them down below, my voice and I monitor the volume in Final Cut Pro to ensure that. They are all set to -9 DB so they shouldn’t be louder than my voice which averages between -3 and -6. I can try to turn them down more, but then on mobile devices, that most people listen to this on, you can’t hear the music or effect or it’s very difficult Can you clarify what you are listening to the videos on? I’ve heard them through my Sonos speakers, Harmon Cardin car speakers, just my cell phone, just my iPad, and with a couple different sets of headphones to test the audio and it all sounds normal.

When it seemed like you were trying to give some actual feedback, as you can see, I did respond weeks ago with some follow-up questions to clarify to which you didn’t respond. I do listen to my own videos with all of the gear above that you mentioned you also do when not in your “6-figure audio room” and with the exception of one other person months ago you are the only person who has commented on the volume of my FX of the literal thousands who watch. So I really couldn’t tell if you were just trolling or being genuine, and then your message today, with the heart attack comment on my most recent video seemed either disingenuous or passive aggressive. Telling somebody that a video that they put a decent amount of effort in on their spare time for free that gives you a heart attack because their sound effects are ever so slightly too loud is a bit off putting. Hence my response but it is true that I haven’t changed anything and I don’t hear what you’re saying I asked several of my Patreon members they say it’s fine and when I asked you what you were listening on to try to get an understanding of the issue you didn’t say anything. So it didn’t really seem like the comments were a genuine attempt to help more-so someone being overly nit-picky and after the “6-figure” comment a bit pretentious. To someone who’s at the end of the day making free content for you to consume and improve your astrophotography. Having said that, I’ll look into some of the other sound effects. I’m also available on IG if you’d like to message me as a one off 👍🏼

@@darkrangersinc Hi, I'm sorry I must have missed the first reply but I think everything was said already on the other video, including tips and tricks on how to best tackle this, if you would like to. Again: I was just trying to give back some tips from a field I know inside-out as a thanks for you sharing all this info with us so we can take better astro photos! Maybe I'm the only one that said anything but I doubt people enjoy to get blasted by cinematic riser sound effects (for example on a PI-tutorial of yours), loud sudden whooshes, music stingers etc. We shouldn't have to keep our hands on the volume knobs in case anything loud pops up. Your voice is the bread and butter, the info we subscribed for and want to learn from, everything else should be subtle salt and pepper to spice it up. Never meant for this to cost much of both our time. Thanks for the offer but I don't use social media besides YT.

Sorry to hear that dot I wonder if there is something else going on as well, does it connect to the guide camera?

Yeah, I had the same thing happened. You maybe are lucky to get communication every other day because they don’t reply until midnight and then by the time you reply they’re gone for the day. Not having a phone number to me. Seems pretty unacceptable in 2023 but unfortunately that’s the only option they have for now. Sorry to hear you’re dealing with the same thing I did hopefully it resolves itself pretty quickly :-/

@@darkrangersincThanks for the reply. Well, there's always milky way core season early next year, so I guess I have something positive to look forward too. Good luck with your quest to get your issue resolved.

I think plenty are having success but I’ve been alerted to a thread in cloudy nights since posting this video and there’s a laundry list of people with the same complaint. If it works it’s a feature packed mount but if it doesn’t 🤷🏻‍♂️. The EQ6r may not be as “sexy” but anyone I know that owns it especially the newest version says it’s a tank and dependable

@darkrangersinc yeah i have been hearing mixed feelings on the am5. Im primarily looking at the ioptron cem40,but the eq6r i havent heard anything negative really

@@turbo80lxcoupe I know several with the sky watcher EQ6r that love it. Maybe not as sexy but it’s very dependable. I went to Dark Sky sites all the time with my CGEM2 it was a heavy beast but it’s possible I’m pretty sure the sky watcher is lighter than that and if you’re using it mostly the backyard, it really doesn’t matter. The cool thing about the CEM is you can get it with an encoder which will make it potentially more accurate auto guiding without having to run an auto guiding set up! It’s an extra chunk of change for sure not cheap they advertise

@darkrangersinc thats good to know about the adapter. Yeah the cem40 is a beast. I should look at the eq6r again harder.i feel like price was a little easier to swallow. So far my cem 26 is running great but im waiting to see how it handles my skywatcher 150p quattro

They finally sent a replacement head, after I released a video and the issue went away with the exact same power supply, so it was not a power supply issue. It was clearly mechanical.

Yeah, I’m reaching out to see if there are any companies that want to send a unit to test and use with NINA

Yeah, unfortunately you have to get a premium brand with premium pricing to get good customer service. It’s a shame because if these Chinese companies could get customer service down, they would be pretty untouchable with a little additional quality control. Even if pricing went up 10% I think people would pay it to get a slightly better product and somebody to actually talk to. I can’t imagine having a team of English speakers full-time would be that detrimental to their bottom line with all of the products they sell. Especially when you factor in the loss of revenue from folks who are sick of dealing with repeated issues. I’ve used astronomics once and had a great experience. It was for my telegizmo 365. It was backordered, but they stayed in touch with me, and when it was ready to ship got it out.

I think what I need to do is just get a more solid mount for home use and then have them fix the AM5 if they ever do and just use that for travel only that way it won’t get a lot of use as I really only shoot a couple days a month on the road.

Haha I see what you did there ;)

Since this video for the last couple months, I’ve been working really hard to find a reputable group of companies to work for, and have built some strong partnerships, and really made some good strides here. Ryan@darkrangersinc.com if you want any recommendations. I’ve found a really good telescope company, one for mounts, and one for the electronic accessories. I’ve met with them and are in contact with them and know that if you get something from anyone of these companies, they will take care of you and if you have any problems, you can let me know as well and I will reach out on your behalf

That’s such a bad analogy. Every other company that makes some sort of onboard computer design for Astrophotography allows for Open source and the ability to use any type of product you want. This is one of the biggest and most common complaints about the ASIair. Most people who buy the product still wish that you would have the option to buy whatever camera or accessories you want especially considering they don’t even make some of the accessories available like camera rotator, or flat panel. I don’t know if you’re new to the hobby but this is a pretty common issue people have with ZWO.

I’ve had a couple products make it all the way it’s possible!

The issues all happened months apart. The camera happened on the second use I don’t know how you would blame me. I’ve used the same model of camera years prior. The issue with the electronic filter wheel happen a couple months later. The issue with the mount was roughly month 6. Also, the poor treatment started right away with telling me just to get a USB hub rather than replacing it. I’m not the only one that was literally another comment today saying the same thing happened to them with the same response. Look at all of the other comments in this video they are just flat out not good at customer service. Even since the video when they reached out and tried to make it better, there’s been several issues and I’m going to be making a follow up. The head of North America and customer service reached out 48 hours after making the video promising to make it better and wanting to work with me to repair the relationship. She said she would send out amount the following week and 3 1/2 weeks later after checking in three more times they still have not sent it out and finally did after almost a month. I guess I can see where you’re coming from as somebody trying to problems solve, but trying to blame an Astro photographer who’s giving them all the chances in the world to fix it isn’t on me neither is GHOSTING me for months. Also, their software isnt proprietary. It’s fairly well known in the industry to be basically just pirated from other people. They are the only people to do that Primaluce which is a far superior product doesn’t lock down their system I just got my hands on one and I’m updating it now. Neither does Stellarmate. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should if your product is actually the best then people will simply choose to get it. They rely on heavy marketing, and that’s why people buy it not quality control, good, customer service, and a good consistently well-made final product. There’s a reason there are dozens of other comments in here with the same experiences mine and now that I switched to other brands the experiences night and day different. They have customer service phone numbers where the owner or somebody who actually knows what they’re talking about pick up right away. If there’s a problem, they will solve it in a timely manner, and actually stand behind the products. As I said, the only reason I got stuck with all of this is because I got it all at once, and I will never buy one of their products again. You’re free to do whatever you think is right, but I can promise you there are better options for the same price or very similar price that you will be much more happy with the longer run. You will see a bigger switch away from them in the future. People just are fearful that they don’t know how to set up a more complicated system, but I just got in an Eagle 5s, camera, EFW, eaf, all from a different brand it will run on Nina. And I will put out a two-part complete series on how to make the switch so everybody can see how easy it is to go an alternative route I’ve also built a relationship with Losmandy who has excellent customer service and is sending out a mount to test and Stellarvue for handmade scopes in the US. The first time I called both companies I got the owner or the head of operations. Anytime you call they pick up the phone and their products are handmade in the US I’ll take that all day. You have to consider I’ve now made over 60 videos, talking about dozens of brands, and I’ve only made one negative comment about one brand. That’s pretty telling when 2-3 dozen other companies all get recommended or at least no negative comments but these guys do. 99.9% of my videos are nothing but positivity. You have to really want to mess up to get something negative said about you by me on this channel. Which you will see as you watch more.

Well, like I said, I wasn’t blaming you. I made it clear I was spitballing.

@@yervantparnagian5999 it’s all good, I’m just explaining where I’m coming from. Of course, I immediately try to diagnose any potential errors that could’ve been my fault. Believe me I’d actually much prefer it to be my issue because then I can fix it or I can just take accountability and handle it where I have a problem is when it’s not my fault and I can’t get support from the company that sold me a product with a two-year warranty. They don’t want to back up.

Yeah that would be good for me but bad for the distributor who would just have to eat the costs since the manufacturer won’t honor their own warranty. The real issue is the company not backing their products and not responding to customer service inquiries. Also I bought the mount from ZWO everything that did get fixed was through Agena and they did give me some reconciliation.