malc-c

Grab yourself a beer or coffee and spend an evening reading through all the similar posts like yours where people want a scope on a limited budget. You'll soon see that it's not a cheap hobby due to the initial outlay costs, and if you want something that will give the results you are expecting then budgets need to be increased. In your case forget a telescope and invest in a decent set of binoculars. A decent brand of 8 x 40 or 10 x 50 binoculars will give you nice views and still have change in your pocket. If you are insistent on an EQ refactor then expect to double, possibly treble your budget in order to get something of any practical use that is sturdy and have some level of precision.

SpaceX have never said that any of the flights that have resulted in RUDs are bad flights as they gather so much data it helps them fix the bits that go wrong and move on. Granted they probably have less budgetary constraints than NASA, and less 3rd party involvement than the Artemis launcher, but the suck it and see method of development will probably see Space X get man back on the moon in this decade before NASA has got a reliable launcher for the tax payers money. Does anyone remember the early days when SpaceX were developing the Falcon launcher, with all the nay Sayers claiming it will never work, and the whole idea of relaunching a used rocket would never work because it was too technical to have successful recovery as a cheap price... We're now seeing almost weekly launches and boosters flown for 14, 15 or more times. In fact they have nailed the process of launch, land, rinse and repeat that there is little excitement watching a launch stream. I'm not a fan of Elon, but I do feel that now is an exciting time to be alive to watch SpaceX's push to see man land on Mars, which I'm sure will happen within the next 10-15 years given his drive and passion to achieve this.

Worth checking at the time of purchase if the supplied synscan handset is supplied with cable to connect to the HEQ5 (I don't think it does and you have to buy one to suit - around £30)

Thanks for the referral I've just replied to Josh, and hopefully we can sort out the issue and get his mount back up and running. Glad to hear the dongle is working well

Yes Ian and I have been conversing via PMs. There are two components that have obvious damage, one being a MOSFET and readily available, but we have been unable to identify the part Q3. I know there have been other posts relating to an identical device but have not been able to locate them. As the mount is less than 2 year old I've advised Ian to contact the retailer and see if he can get a replacement under his consumer rights as on this occasion he didn't do anything obvious just as using the wrong cables. If anyone can advise what Q3 is and recommend a readily available part (I have account with RS Components) then I will gladly take the board off Ian and try and effect a repair. His mount being the EQ6-R the board shape is totally different and I only have a couple of EQ6 boards available. I also lack the equipment to replace the ARM processors on these newer boards... at least for the time being, so if that has been damaged we are out of luck.

So a year ago we saw the first test flight... and since all we've seen is a CGI video... meanwhile SpaceX have had two launches of Starship, and things at the launch site are moving at an incredible pace whilst they improve the launch pad and surrounding infrastructure... The only thing that really held SpaceX back was the red tape whilst they answered all the silly points raised by government agencies (such as a risk assessment for starship splashing down on top of a rare whale in the middle of the sea !). If it wasn't for the FAA dragging out the inspection post first launch I believe that SpaceX would have a starship in orbit by now.

In normal use the handset is powered from the power supply connected to the synscan box via the four outer pins of the handset port. Its internal logic runs at a lower voltage so this 12v is dropped via voltage regulation circuitry to provide 5v and 3.3v where needed. When you connect the USB cable to the handset the 5v DC from the USB is used to provide the 5v and 3.3v lines, thus bypassing the 12v regulation side. From what you have described I would agree that something, possibly the voltage regulator has failed which is why the handset is dead when the USB cable isn't present. Looking at images on the web, later handsets with USB ports have a daughter board containing all the ports. I would guess that U3 that sits above the RJ45 connector is the culprit It's daylight robbery that places are charging up to £127 for that small PCB !! If you have a test meter you could always probe around to confirm the 12v is coming in to the board, and there are 5v and possibly 3.3v running to the main board in the handset (the 3.3v conversion may be on the main board rather than the daughter board)

Or read this thread from 2021 where someone asked the same question - I have attached the driver and the software in the 4th post

Can you post up a picture of your synscan box. If it's one of the newer type with a USB-B socket then it will have an internal TTL serial to USB convertor enabling you to control the mount from a PC using EQMOD or GSS. If this is the case then the synscan box is fully functional and the handset or the port where the handset plugs into is most likely the issue.

Ok.. this may sound silly as I have never used a pi... but don't they run Linux and as such use the INDI platform rather than using ASCOM platform on windows ? A quick google of your goto system found an ASCOM driver here

I'll drop you a direct message later when I have more time.. but it should be repairable.

Since I put out my plea for old boards from those who had already replaced their boards I now have five repaired EQ6 boards. I have no idea why these are failing. It might be that there are more EQ6's out there than any other mount. Or it could be people using some form of adaptor for an EQDIR cable thinking the D 9 socket is a standard comm port ?? As I have far too many than really needed for the exchange program I might list the excess in the classified section to recover the cost of the components and time spent repairing them.

Just a heads up... when posting links there is no need to include the random characters after the question mark (highlighted in red).. https://www.ebay.com/itm/155403343100? Or you could use the link option (looks like two square circles next to the quotation mark icon) from the formatting options when posting... you can then add text into the post rather then having the hyper-ling displayed Hope that helps

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For true EQ goto mounts (ie a mount sold with a computerised system that will locate and track objects) they will take up all of your £500 budget when purchased new. For that you will be getting something like the Skywatcher EQ3 pro goto (£509 for firstlight optics). Now what scope you bolt to it will depend on what you want to do with the scope. Visual or imaging, planetary or deep sky targets, solar or night time astronomy. If you want to use the mount as a platform for imaging the rule of thumb is to load the mount to 2/3 the max payload the mount can take. Also if you intend to do imaging, then other options are available that provide the same functionality as a goto mount but are designed to take a digital SLR camera with telephoto lens, making them ideal for wide field or luna photography. The closest mount that comes under your £500 budget and has a goto function is the Star Adventure stated above, which has a 5K payload capability, and is designed for use with cameras and telescopes so quite a flexible platform. Control is via an app on a modern phone, or for an additional fee, a SynScan handset. link here

David, thanks for the suggestion. As for it being a replacement it's really a case of sticking the wet finger in the air and hoping. Without any clear identification of the original to compare to this is all guesswork.

Well seems the WeMos D1 mini isn't suited for this task as the serial port is linked to the CH340 chip and thus it's looking at the USB port rather than the two pins marked TX/RX.. Neil, it's not that complicated really...

I've been playing... I have a "modular" solderless breadboard that is set up so that my usual sensors and output devices are all set up ready for any tweaks to existing projects. One project was a wifi thermometer that I use to monitor the conditions inside my reptile egg incubator. It uses a WeMos D1 mini, so this was all ready for use. The other breadboard is my Skywatcher "mount" that I used for testing the conversions of the SW firmware to HEX so I know it worked and I could form my library of converted firmware files ready for any boards that came my way for repair. So I downloaded the files from the other forum thread and once I had updated my arduino IDE software uploaded the code. I connected the Wemos D1's TX and RX pins to the "mounts" TX and RX pins and powered up the boards via the adjacent Nano's USB port. I tested the "mount" using an FTDI 232 5V module and my mount testing software detected the "mount" and read back all the test codes just fine. I swapped the TX/RX wires from the FTDI to the WeMos D1 serial port and downloaded the sysnscan android app. In my network connections it finds the SW network, and reports back the fixed IP address of 192.168.4.1 etc and shows a status of "connected" (I also get a complaint form the phone that there is no internet access). But sadly, like one of the other posters who also used a WeMos D1 mini the "mount" isn't found when the phone app searches. So it's time for a cuppa and a bit more researching. The voltage levels of the wemos D1 on the TX/RX lines are 3.3v, where as the FTDI runs them at 5v, which is where I feel the issue is, especially as on HEQ5 and EQ6 mounts they don't like low TTL serial levels... But its all good fun experimenting...

£70 seems a fair price, about double a Lynx Astro EQDIR cable . Granted you could probably build a DIY wifi option for around £30, but using a 3rd party or DIY option could void any warranty on a mount should the main board be damaged as a result. Having the faulty board in front of me should help me work out the pin outs from the six pin voltage regulator that's blown and hopefuly come up with a suitable replacement. If the tracks have been damaged then it will be a superglue and jumper wire fix - messy but practical

Guys thanks for going to all this trouble... I must admit I half expected Synta not to make things easy and have the actual part number... I had come across that thread when googling images to see if I could identify the part. Being a 6 pin device it's not as straight forward as substituting a "normal" three pin linear regulator. A lot of the pin outs diagrams seems not to follow any standards. I'll keep searching

Hi, Hoping to help a friend out fixing what seems to be a common issue. Does anyone have a working Skywatcher wifi dongle who is willing to open the cover and either take closeup decent resolution image of the 6 pin 3.3 volt voltage regulator U1, or can post up the part number. TIA

I think it's going to be a proprietary item as the dongle has the cable to connect where the handset would normally be plugged in. It's basically a wifi - TTL serial dongle A google search threw up a DIY version on one of the other astronomy forums Link here

APT does allow the path for the save location see here If it isn't saving the changes then it could be a permission setting in the PC (try running the application as an administrator). What is the data transfer rate of the SD card. There are particular grade of SD cards designed for use with video and large format cameras that produce huge files. If you use a cheaper card that is not rated for high data transfer rates it could be causing the corruption as its dropping packets or bits in the process.

I think for piece of mind, and given you are covered then putting in a claim is the thing to do, especially as you have the protection in place. Under the circumstances, it might be worth asking if they would agree to a report from a reputable astronomical equipment supplier such as FLO / RVO or one local to you given that the "approved" electrical agent may not have any experience on these items of equipment.

I'm no expert so take this with a pinch of salt, but from my experience with a loss adjuster when my £1000 camcorder was knocked off the counter by my 5 year old son (now 29) is that they only pay out the full amount if the item is damaged 100% beyond a repair, and if damage appears cosmetic it may be a case that they will pro-rata any pay out. The other thing to be concerned over is the impact having a claim on your policy might have. There is every chance that your premiums will sky rocket next year. Having said that things may have changed in recent years so only your insurance company can really advise you what may happen. But be careful. Years ago I contacted my insurance seeking advice to see if a small issue with flashing on out roof was covered. The following year out policy jumped and when I looked at the details the call was logged as a no pay out claim. When I asked them to go back and listen to the call as I disputed this as I never asked or suggested I was making a claim did they correct this and removed the claim form my details. Personally, if the mount / camera and lens still works fine, and there are no cracks in the lens, so you can still get the same results as before the canoe attached it then just put this down to an experience that you can learn form and save the claim for a more pressing time should you ever need it. But its your call