I find that a GOOD polar alignment is important and a fresh battery. When the battery starts getting weak, the unit starts missing pulses from the encoders and errors gallop in (as opposed to 'creep in'). The battery lasts many hours though.
I couldn't have done the work I have without the ability to find obscure asteroid fields and the mini-Max helps me do that. I prepare finder charts from Guide 4.0 with a 1 deg FOV. My CCD frame is superimposed in the center (17x11 arcmin) and stars are shown to Guide 4.0s minimum (about 15th mag). By aligning the mini-Max on a nearby reference star, I find I can go up to 30 or more degrees away and put the CCD image somewhere in that one degree circle. A 3 second exposure or so is sufficient to show all the stars on the finder chart. Once I've identified where I am pointing, I can make adjustments in RA and DEC to center on my desired field. The mini-Max has a resolution of some 6 arcmins so that helps when moving the scope small amounts.