Dear SBIG Community, I have been a proud owner and user of a SBIG ST10-XME camera for more than a decade now. Recently I have noticed the following problem. As soon as I hook up the ST4 cable to my mount's motor drive, it will always guide north, regardless of whether the camera is on or not (or even connected to the mains) and my PC is connected or not. It's as if a "north-guiding switch" were permanently on for this camera. This happens with all ST4 cables I tested, so the culprit is not the cable. What might be the source of this problem? Is there a solution perhaps? Thanks and clear skies, E.S.
You are using an RJ-12 cable that has the connectors mounted in the wrong orientation. They can be installed in two different orientations relative to one another, if it's the wrong way it will short one of the declination wires to ground. You can purchase the correct cable at: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/assmann-wsw-components/AT-S-26-6-6-S-14-R/1972688
This was resolved by email - again, the wrong cable. The official SBIG SG-4 (aka ST-4 cable) is a flipped telephone style USOC RJ-12 cable. Most mounts (with the exception of Losmandy and a couple others) use this cable with an SBIG camera. ZWO and QHYCCD cameras implemented this backwards and require a straight-thru non compliant cable, although they claim ST-4 support.
