Hi all!
the reason behind this post is to make avaliable some real world experience with the Juwei-14 mount, as there is so little info online, so i hope its usefull for few of you looking for an alternative to more expensive mounts.
So, i got my Juwei-14 by end of august, now after 1,5months and a few sessions i can write some words on it, my setup at the moment on this mount is :
SW-ED80
Gemini focuser
Touptek 294mc pro
SVbony filter drawer (single)
guide: Svbony miniscope 30 & ZWO ASI385MC
ST-402C carbon fiber tripod
Mele quieter 3 mini-pc
Shipping:
mount was shipped from seller next day i placed the order, (July 02, and expected to be delivered on july 23) it leaved China in 2 days, and arrived to european customs a week later, it was holded on customs many many days. i contacted seller by begining august and he was very kind, explaining that astronomical equipment is often holded on customs due to similarity with militar equipment, it makes sense in my head, we also checked HS code ( customs identifier code) and was all correct. just a matter of 3 weeks more and the mount was delivered to me, packed well, inside precut foam and well sealed cardbox. all good. in total was almost 2 months, and clouds rolled over :)
Tripod:
in the meantime i ordered the carbon fiber tripod, super light (2,8kg) , with 3/8” attachment. it screws directly to the mount, im not using any extension pier. after fulling screwing it ( small note on that tripod: i found that the had some sub mm play, between the tripod head and the tripod plate. so not on the mount side, i solved it apliying some teflon thread to fill that minimal gap and worked perfectly. let see over time.. )
the ED80 is juuust long enoght, i had not have any leg crash yet during imaging (i had one crash, explained later)
contruction and quality :
the mount head is rock solid, all CNC anodized aluminiun, feels compact. its base adjustments for Alt/az i find it very smooth and satysfiing. dindt found any plays on it. easy to aling in about 5-10 minutes using NINA 3PPA
regarding the green laser pointer, i have collimated it, and it may be little off, but as a tip, after first polar align, now i know more or less where should i point with the laser next time to be in the ballpark to start 3PPA so no real need to keep it ON for more than 5 secs. always wathchout for planes!
Guiding:
im imaging with NINA and guiding with PHD2, at the begining had to try different algorithms, first test were horrendous, with an error over 2rms. none of configurations i found online worked for my mount. so there you have to experiment a bit. once i got the right config for my setup, my guiding values became more what im used too with my primary bigger setup.. under 0,8 and ocassionaly under 0,6 (once i saw it sub 0,4) and im guindig with short expousures of 500ms. BUT 2 important notes on it:
-polar alighment MUST be as good as posible. (total aligment error under 1’ is a must , much better if under 0,3’ )
-seeing conditons WILL affect your guiding with this short expousure rate. you will see it immediately how it changes in matter of minutes. so if your graph is little jumpy, do no desesperate. there is nothing you can do. just wait for your immage download and you will mostly find a good image, even if your graph is little jumpy.
i had have already about 15 sessions, and results are constants every time. depending only on seeing conditions, so im very impressed and satysfied with it.
important considerations:
the mount start traking as soon as powered on ( there is no power button, as soon as you plug it turns on and start tracking. i had plugged once during the day to access the mini pc, and then leaved on by mistake, only to find in the evening that it had crashed with itself, luckily i found no damages, but be aware it have lot of torque, so i was just lucky.
it have no GPS, but i connect from my smartphone via BT and give to the mount location and time with the onstep app. probably you dont have to do it everytime. but i had to do it ocassionaly.
it have no home sensor. so everytime it powers on, it asumens its at home position. my simple workaround was to level it at real home positions, make some marks on boh axes and the next time i have just to take it to the right positions and power cycle. no issues so far
slew-goto rate its slow, but i imaging mostly just 1 object/night so to me is neglible
Final thoughs:
this mount just works as expected, one correctly configured on PHD2 it just works, you just may spend 2-3-4 sessions setting up the correct values for your specifict setup; price wise, i paid for it about 600eur + 200eur on taxes at arrival; the “cons” i pointed on important considerations section, are very much subjective. so may or not be a con for you. my final idea with this mount its to put togheter a very capable and portable setup that i can trasnport on a cabin trolley for air travel and power it with usb powerbanks, wich i already tested, mount comsumption is very low, about 4w/h, i powered for abot 6 hours with a 25000mah powerbank with PD protocol.
i hope this “review” can help others AP’s in th ecomunity
Clear Skies! :)
