So What About IEQ45 Mounts?

So what's the story on the IOptron EQ45 mounts?
Any good? Any reviews? I mean real reviews? About all I've seen thus far was the usual and customary cockamamie thread on CN which was so screwed-up you couldn't even tell what mount they were talking about!(It was something about some kind of synta glue variant and driving some guy nuts at IOptron about it.) Figures.
Anybody got one and put it up against Floyd Blue's vaunted tiger mount at LAAS? I mean let's get serious here...

Rod,
The one thread was actually pretty full of information, pro and con.
The mount is stiff on one of the axis, so that you can not balance it with less then 3-4 lbs of offset weight, not really good when you are imaging
The mount does not seem to handle max rated load, if you want to image. Legs are a bit small for that kind of load.
Fit and finish seems OK for the price, but it is not CNC machining or anything.
Some software issues with guiding and Maxim DL ver5 have been reported.
PE seems to be about +25" -15" or 30" Peak to Peak, not great but seems to guide OK.
I guess you could say that it seems OK for the price. Just depends on what you expect or require.

Rod Kaufman said:

So what's the story on the IOptron EQ45 mounts?
Any good? Any reviews? I mean real reviews? About all I've seen thus far was the usual and customary cockamamie thread on CN which was so screwed-up you couldn't even tell what mount they were talking about!(It was something about some kind of synta glue variant and driving some guy nuts at IOptron about it.) Figures.
Anybody got one and put it up against Floyd Blue's vaunted tiger mount at LAAS? I mean let's get serious here...

Here's the bottom line based on what I know and have been told by people I trust.

1. The mount's periodic error is in line with that of other mounts in its class--the EQ-6/Atlas and CGEM, for example.

2. Go-to accuracy appears to be so-so at this point. Not as good as typical NexStar or Autostar performance.

3. It is light and pretty.

4. There are a few mechanical issues, but not deal breakers. Altitude and azimuth ajustments that are no great shakes, a poor tripod spreader, and a somewhat sticky declination axis.

5. There appear to be a few bugs in the software, but nothing very serious yet.

6. I've been told that Pempro will not upload to the mount.