iOptron HAE69C EC Mount Review - Part 1

My experience with iOptron has also been positive, with similar experiences with their techs. Agreed about making the schematics and code open source-it would really help, especially with older mounts out of warranty.

I've been checking your channel every day to see if you've uploaded part 2 yet. Still waiting! 😂🙏🏼

Looking forward to your full review. I purchased the smaller HAE29 (non-EC) a few months ago (for very similar reasons to what you outlined in your video), and I have been very pleased with the quality and performance so far.

I agree with your wish list and am looking forward to Part II to see how this stacks up. Thanks for the great content!

Fanstastic news, now I can look forward to seeing some great deals on secondhand CEM70 mounts.

Hello from east Texas! I have enjoyed watching Cuiv the Lazy Geek for quite awhile, now; and Cuiv recently suggested his viewers check out your channel after meeting you in his location, Japan. So, here I am! I have subscribed, and will come back to visit here in the future. You came highly recommended, and Cuiv is very credible. See you, soon, and I am certain to enjoy your videos and learning from your expertise! All the best!

I have the next smaller unit but still EC. I found on power up, you must first “find zero”. Next, using he app on my iPhone, I send location data from the iPhone to the handset. Really handy since I always am portable. One annoying thing was I found the ST4 guiding port was disabled (I think only on RA). I guess they assume with encoder mounts that you don’t need it. Well I’ve been using it for solar during the day. I use the Hinode guider for solar that uses the ST4 port which didn’t work. Eventually I found a software option to enable this port so that I could guide. (The Hinode is a stand alone box designed for the sun with no pulse guiding). Something I haven’t tried is does enabling the ST4 disable the encoders. If so, that’s bad. My Astro-Physics Mach2 has encoders and ST4 port although I’ve not tested the AP mount with Solar. My HAE43EC uses a handset and that’s where the USB plugs for ASCOM interface so you have to use a handset. I don’t see that as a problem as it’s still only one cable to the mount but some skywatcher people I talk to really find that unacceptable and dismissive of my point that it’s not bad and still only one cable but you have to sit the handset somewhere. I think it’s fiddly to swap between Alt/Az and EQ. I had to buy a screwdriver as my existing screwdrivers didn’t fit. I leave this driver in the box but as they supplied the Allan key and have a place to mount it, so they should with the screwdriver.

Excellent, Julien! Great presentation--and it helps that you're so charming!

Great review man, on YouTube there arent many other guys who post their opinions w ioptron and personally im an owner of one too, tbh i always had a great time with the assistance, instead i had to tweak a bit with the mount, since i didnt have an exceptional tracking, and now its around 0.5" even tho my rig is 8kg and the payload capacity of the gem28 is 12.7, even here i like the quirks that ioptron does to it's mounts, nice alle screw specific areas where to keep it and very good gears and bearings if you tweak a bit, however some other things should be taken away, i dont like the fact that if you loosen the altitude screw you have an altitude while if you tighten it again you have a different one.

I've had this mount for about six weeks and have been out with it about 3-4 nights (weather, go figure). Much lighter than my CEM70G and I'm getting nice, round stars with my 8" EdgeHD. You'll definitely want to use the variable exposure delay in PHD2 for good guiding, otherwise it's just fighting the encoder.

I'll be very interested in seeing how it guides for you. Most of the people I know with ioptron ec variant mounts ran into problems with phd2.

I have been waiting for a video like this, congrats on being the first!

Great to see reviewer looking at this mount; looking forward to part 2 of the review. I've been an early adopter and been overall happy with it (though I have the "vintage" A-version that doesn't come with the USB-C connection). I've put my SCA260 on it WITHOUT counterweight and still get pinpoint stars. Just for that it is awesome and and worth the admission price. A few comments: -I've had the same challenge with the Askar dovetail. I've fixed the issue with very inexpensive nilon washers. I've had a chat with iOptron on this, so it's a shame this wasn't fixed on later models. -I've had not so great backlash on the DEC. I can't say if it is the tension in the DEC belt or more complex mode conversion from the RA PE (aka before the encoder correction). I've tried to play with the belt tightness but didn't have the proper hex key for the job. I still get round stars so I'm adopting a 'not broken, don't fix it' attitude for now. I'll need to look at this in more details when I finish updating my Nina PC -iOptron has been pretty good in my opinion, but I feel I've needed to contact them a bit too much. The previous CEM70 I've tried had issues and went back to AgenaAstro at my cost. Conversely my AM5 has been flawless... Ioptron does get a win cause no other mount offer the same payload in the Strain-Wave category

Finally, a comprehensive review of this mount! Excellent job! I just ordered the same mount yesterday. It will be an upgrade from my EQ6-R Pro to use with my EdgeHD 9.25" scope and ASI2600MM camera. Do you think I'll need to use the counterweight since my altitude is only about 23 degrees and I'll use it on the LiteRoc tripod (Hopefully I'll get the Tri-Pier in the future)? Looking forward to your next video—hope you share it soon!

Thanks for this review! Hopefully, you can test it with the ASIAir since many astronomers are curious about this combination. Also, please hold up a ruler or Coke can or some other familiar object next to the mount so we can see how big it is since it's hard to tell when it's by itself. Also, what tripod or pier (and pier extension?) are you using? I'm looking forward to the next video!

Awesome overview! I do love checking mounts from minor manufacturers like WarpAstron (the WD20 ended up replacing my AM5) and I'm now checking the UMi 17 Lite. And might check out a mount from an even more unknown manufacturer. Competition is good! I'll be very interesting to see if the mount with encoders suffers from the infamous SDE (which gets worse at the celestial equator btw for a nice stress test). Looking forward to part 2!

I would be interested to know how it would work with heavy equipment such as my Edge 14 and CDK 14

Yeah, as soon as I rob the next bank, I'm going to consider this one! 😂

I have an HAE43EC and its not been a perfect experience, but its been pretty freaking good. The HAE69EC is the one to get for sure since it has a power saddle.

Regarding open source, Have you looked at the JTW mounts? They run on OnStepX, have dual axis encoders, and are friction drives. I own one and they are absolutely incredible. Not portable at all though but they have new ones that are 13kg with 50kg payload