malc-c

If you get stuck, and after replacing capacitors it still won't come to life and if your board used the 16F886's then drop me a PM and I might be able to take a look and see if I can fix the board in the same way as I've fixed the MC003 and MC004 boards for other SGL members. The alternative will be a new replacement board at around £130 - £160 from FLO.

Julian is correct, the component is an inductor not a capacitor. Two things can happen with these boards. The first is that the power regulation fails, so the PIC microcontrollers stop running as they are no longer receiving 5v, which will give the "no response both axis " message in the handset, or a "time out" in EQMOD. The second is that if the wrong cable gets connected to where the handset connects it can sometimes damage the serial port built into the PICs which gives the same response. Power supply issues are harder to resolve, but there have been accounts (including my own HEQ5 board) where replacing the electrolytic capacitors with ones of identical value but higher voltage rating resolves the issue. These boards run the steppers at 33v, which is IMO too close to the 35v rating of the capacitors used. If you are interested in possible caused and fixes have a read of this thread There has been a lot of work on reverse engineering the SW boards.... It's in french, but this is the schematic for the EQ6 power regulation that someone reverse engineered - I can't vouch for its correctness, but it should help you trace out the components, and even gives manufactures part numbers for the inductors etc.

But if people have paid what might be a four figure deposit almost a year ago and HOUK have failed to deliver on time, and won't engage in communications, what else is there t do.... I'm sorry to say that given the points discussed in this thread HOUK have brought it upon themselves. All it needed was for them to provide regular updates to their customers, and then if it looked like delivery would be so far off the estimated delivery date, to give the customers the option of cancelling the order and get a refund or waiting for the extended delivery date. The fact we have SGL members stating that they haven't had any communication, despite the management of the company been made aware of this thread, would leave those people no alternative but to give notice of intent to recover the deposits via the small claims court.

Pricing materials alone is not a direct comparison, you have to factor in the labour for making the panels, and the time on site, but I agree the final amount for a 5' x 5' wooden box does seem excessive.

Michael, I think you hit the nail on the head. It may well be that Gareth is an excellent craftsman and engineer, but lacks the skills to manage the business, at least in its current situation. As I've already mentioned, a lot of people would be sympathetic to the issues HOUK are facing if they were kept in the loop, and if Graham doesn't have the time to update his customers then it can't be that hard in this present climate to find someone how is seeking work who could simply handle the customer services aspect and answer the phone, or reply to e-mails on Grahams behalf. There is also another issue that could have an impact on either the customer or the business. With orders placed a year ago still yet to be completed (or started) the cost of materials has escalated in that time, so either HOUK have to then revise those orders or absorb the costs, especially as by taking the deposit they have entered into a contract and as such can't increase the agreed price. Now it could be that absorbing that increase makes for a loss, which is not good for the business. The only way forward would be for HOUK to take stock, recruit staff (even if it were for a 6 month contract just so the backlog of orders could be caught up on) and get the cash coming in. It does sadden me when you hear of people having to give notice of court action to recover money. Not only for the stress that process can have, but also for the company, who, by reading Keith's posts, is doing what they can to keep things afloat and in the end produce a quality product and to the customers satisfaction. I can see things form both sides of the fence. Heck, if I was nearer I would volunteer a few hours a day to help out by phoning a few customers for him.....

Well I don't know how to call this one - its another repair, but of a previously repaired board - so we can't increase the board count ! Maihil had a MC003 board that was repaired as detailed in this thread, but due to reasons that would only be apparent a lot later would not perform gotos correctly, but still responded to the NSWE buttons being pressed. In his efforts to resolve this it appears damage to the board occurred and the handset once again displayed the "No response both axis" message. Miahil chose to take up fishing rather than astronomy (sorry private joke) and sold the scope, being fully transparent about its history, and pointed the new owner to this thread and suggested he contact me with a view of a further repair. Miahil was also courteous to notify me of what he had done when I dropped him a PM regarding the availability of the correct firmware. So after a few PMs I received the board back, along with the handset and leads. I had managed to source a pair of PICs which were programmed with the MC003 firmware, and after a physical inspection opted to replace the previously replaced PICs. I had to be careful as each time the board is heated there is a risk of damage to the pads and thin tracks on the PCB. I used the wife's hot air gun that she uses in her cardmaking hobby and to my surprise it got the board hot enough to melt the solder so the chips just fell off, with only one casualty, which thankfully was an unused pad. The two new PICs were soldered back in place, jumpers made where appropriate and the diodes reconnected. I held my breath as I powered up, and the "initialising" message on the display seemed to last an eternity, but I was relieved to see the handset firmware reported. I took a few photos, and then tidied up the switch wiring before notifying the new owner that the board has life again The kit was repacked and taken to the sorting office and is now winging its way back to him via special delivery. Fingers crossed that this time the MC003 firmware that has been posted here works, but we won't know that until the new owner can test under a clear night... that'll be Christmas then !!

You are more patient than I am....

Went rummaging through some old photos. The camera I had back in the day wasn't that great, so I tried a long exposure, which kind of worked if we had all remained still for five minutes My Vixen 4" is arrowed with me to the right. Taken at a public star party in Shephallbury Park, Stevenage....Circa 1987. As you can see these Vixen 4" were quite popular at the time, with another to the right !

I had one of these back in the late 80's - Purchased from "Superscopes" in Bedford for well over a grand....Fantastic scope, but sadly I had to sell it a couple of years later to pay for my cars tax and insurance... Your scope here is in showroom condition - not bad for a 30+ year old scope

Can you provide more information on how you are connecting the handset to the PC. Does your PC have a standard D-9 serial port and you used the Skywatcher PC-DIRECT cable, or were you using a USB to serial adapter to connect the PC-DIRECT cable to the PC? Did you place the PC connection cable into the correct socket, the RJ11 rather than the RJ45 (ie not the one that normally connects between the handset and mount ?) When you say the handset doesn't work, can you elaborate. When connected to the mount can you operate the mount (does it see the mount - or report a lack of response of one or both axis?).

LOL - you've been watching too much Emmerdale 😄

It would be interesting to see if updating the firmware resolves the issue with the inbuilt wifi module, just for curiosity sake.... seeing you have a fall back option now of using the wifi dongle if updating the firmware has no effect. But if you are not inclined to do so then I can respect that...

Ahh that sneaky rubber bung ! - Glad you have it working

I'm fairly confident an EQDIR cable would allow a PC to update the mount with the firmware, however without knowing if the wifi controller is integral to the main processor or a separate module. If the latter, then reflashing the firmware for the motorcontroller may not have any effect, unless it reboots and kickstarts the wifi adaptor in the process. You know there is something to be said for the old fashioned bog standard serial cable connection like that found on the EQ6 - All this movement to control everything via a phone app... especially where you may be standing next to the thing is beyond me....

Just an observation... the power unit is rated at 7.5v DC @ 2A max - A quick google and I came across this for £17 Power adaptor for Canon 750D Output is 8v @ 3amp Now assuming it's not something as simple as the lid not being closed, then maybe its worth getting one of these generic units and if that works then return the (IMO) overpriced adapter to FLO

Fingers crossed... This video format works.... the forum doesn't care much for uploaded videos !

Very strange indeed... I was going to suggest uploading the firmware to the mount which should reset it back to factory and save you waiting for 4 hours (why 4 hours I don't know... can you imagine having to wait that long every time you reset your printer or router !!) But then you need a direct connection to the mount, which requires the synscan handset and a PC-Direct cable, and those are optional and not included in the mount. Now it may well be possible to use an EQDIR cable just to connect to the mount and upload the firmware, but I would strongly recommend speaking with FLO or RVO (or local astronomy retailer) to confirm if using this method of connection is safe ( looking at the diagram in the manual it should be OK, but again, I accept no responsibility if you follow my lead ). Again I'm no expert in networkey things... but the fact it gave you a second IP address in the same range to me suggests that it may not have reset. I presume you are not using AA batteries and that the mount was powered using a decent external power supply ? As I don't own the mount I have read through the manual, and if I understand it correctly the mount can be configured in two modes, Access Point (AP) and Station (ST) mode. By default it is set to Access Point Mode, and its address will be 192.168.4.1 with any other devices that connect to it being given addresses between 192.168.4.2 - 255. If the phones you have tried both have IP addresses in this range then you should in theory be connected to the mount as the mount has issues the next available IP address that is free. Station mode is where you connect the mount to an existing network. For example if you were in range of your router and wanted to run an imaging session by using a PC that is also on that same home network. The option to use DHCP or set a static IP etc is only applicable in this mode. Other members have asked if you can connect to the mount using a laptop ? - can you confirm you've tried this ? - It will rule out (or confirm) if the issue is with the mount, or the wifi devices / apps on the phones that are the issue.

LOL - it almost went to penalties Looking forward to seeing how it all works.... Hopefully you have the repaired SW boards to fall back on if tomoatobro's box of trick need tweaking....

I've lost count now... is this 6 -0 or 7-0 ???? I was contacted by another SGL member a few months back who had a non working SW goto dobsonian and had came across this thread and asked if I could program and send a couple of PICs to him as he has a family member who was able to swap out the PICs. I sent him my last two 16F886's programmed with the MC004 code that was used in the OP's boards. Anyway, the other week he contacted me again and asked if I would be willing to have a look at them as the handset was displaying "alt/dec no response" message after the PICs had been swapped out. So details were exchanged and I received the boards on Tuesday. Cutting a long story short, I had tried most of the things covered in this thread, and everything seemed to check out, but I still kept getting a failed ALT board message. As luck would have it, the three 16F's I had ordered direct form Microchip (it's handy having an account with them ) arrived via TNT this morning... so I promptly re-programmed another PIC and heated the board up once again.... The new PIC was soldered into place, and a jumper wire added as one of the pads had suffered damage in the original repair. Hooked everything up and crossed everything hoping it would work, but alas no. At this point I was about to throw in the towel and packed up the boards and handset in readiness to return it to the owner. But something was niggling me... something just didn't settle. So made a cuppa and went to sit in the sunshine.... I was missing something, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. I came back in and read through this post... and then the penny dropped..... Pins 2 and 4 of the handset connector are shorted together. Then D3 is connected between that junction, and tied high by a 10k resistor...so I should be getting continuity between the cathode of D3 and pins 2 and 4 of the connector, but I wasn't. The DVM in diode / continuity mode read a voltage, so it was just testing the diode. I bridged that connection with a bodge of a job just to prove the theory. I connected the two boards together, plugged in the handset and applied power... The screen on the handset displayed the "initializing" message... I waited and rather then showing "Caution...." followed by the "Alt/Dec no response" message, it showed the handset firm ware version...... It's alive !!!!

We'll the pandemic has hit the astronomy hobby in more ways than just the lack of telescopes and mounts. Trying to get 16F886's is becoming near nigh impossible... I've been told by my normal supplier that an order I placed at the beginning of June should / might be here by the middle of July.... Other suppliers I used for my components have lead times of up to 54 weeks !!!!! Fingers crossed that things improve, otherwise it will effect our efforts to keep these old scopes running.... I currently have a pair of MC004 boards that used the last two PICs I had in my electronics hobby box. So hopefully I'll receive my order before I receive any more requests to try and effect a repair of a faulty motor board, otherwise it's going to be a long wait.

Any update ?

Whats confusing me in the above examples is that in the image from AstroNebulee, it shows the host address (the mount) as 192.168.4.1 which being the first device is what you expect. And then in Nojus posts it shows his network settings with an IP of 192.168.4.2 which would suggests the two devices are connected ? - where else would his phone get an IP address form if he has no other networks around him. If you google this topic it's very well documented and seems to be quite common. Not sure if the common denominator was Samsung devices, but the issues were very similar.. Regretfully I can't replicate this as I use an old defunct windows phone !

From the top image it seems that you are showing an icon for wi-fi, but also a signal strength for mobile signal. Can you confirm you have mobile data turned off as others have already stated. If its running then the phone may be obtaining an IP address from the mobile network, and thus the two will conflict. In order for the phone and mount to talk they must be on the same IP address range. With my experience of ESP devices, it would seem that the head is working as it's broadcasting its SSID and your phone now has the mounts internal network IP of the device of 192.168.4.2. Now if the phone is not on the same network, it won't connect. I had this yesterday with a WeMos Miniu D1 device, it was running on the same address as your mount, but in order to place it on my home network I had to reset it so it broadcast its wifi manager so I could enter the SSID and network password for it to connect to my router and thus I could access it from any PC on the network (it's running a web server). Now your mount is slightly different as you are not trying to hook it to your home network, but make a direct link between the phone and mount. Is there any way to go into the settings of the synscan app and enter that 192.168.4.2 address into it so it knows the mounts address. I don't think there is anything physically wrong with the mounts head. It's something else that's causing a compatibility issue IMO

At one end of the scale is the use of a 9 x 50 finder converted to a guidescope using an entry level guide camera - cost circa £200 - £250. Alignment is done using the two off set thumb screws in the standard SW bracket. At the other end is something like an ST80 stacked on top of the main tube rings and supported in dual three point adjustment screws. Both have advantages and disadvantages It's not critical for the two scopes to be optically aligned..., but it helps IMO

The problem is that the question is open ended, and needs quantifying. At one end of the scale you can have a basic tripod with a mount and a stock chap bridge camera with fixed lens. At the other end you can have a super precise mount, huge but fast scope and a dedicated CCD camera with filters that cost about the same as a luxury car, or more. They are both capable of producing astro images. If you want to obtain images of faint galaxies, nebula etc, or large format high contrast and detailed images of the planets, then you have to throw money at the subject. From personal experience the minimum mount would be an HEQ5. It offers a decent level of precision, load carrying capacity and of paired with a DSLR camera body provides the entry level bench mark. It still needs a lot of time in order to get decent results, and you will be limited by the camera. Throw another couple of grand for a better camera and the time factor can be reduced. But often, upgrading one aspect of the setup, an upset the balance between the rest, and you might then see limitations of the mount etc. A friend of mine who started off with a DSLR and an HEQ5 and got into this seriously, with images now regularly featured on covers of Astronomy Now, has a camera that cost more second hand than I paid for my Volvo V70 when it was purchased when the care was just a few years old. It sits attached to a £2000 Ritchey Chretien scope, that sits on an EQ8 mount.... probably not much change out of £10K when you factor in the guide scope and camera. I'm sure if you could go larger with paramount mounts and more sensitive cameras... The point of my post is that it depends on what your expectations are. If you want to see hubble like images of faint nebular than it won't be possible with a 150p on an EQ3 mount. But if you want a nice image of the Orion Nebula, then a basic Dslr camera attached to a 150P will give very impressive results. A lot of people used a £200 tracking mount and a 50 - 200mm telephoto lens on a basic DSLR camera and under nice dark skies get decent wide field constellation images, nice luna images and even decent images of the larger and brighter DSO targets line Andromeda and Orion Nebula... All for a budget of around £500 - £600 or less if purchased second hand... There is also an aspect that hasn't been mentioned... post processing. Most scopes and camera combinations can gather a lot of data, but you need software to stack that data and process it. A lot of the software isn't cheap (you may have some if you are into photography), and those that get the good results are somewhat classed as wizards as it takes some skills. One thing I would say is that you need to start are the end result and work back. A lot of us have purchased what we though was OK, but then found out that it wasn't suitable and then had to sell and upgrade, losing a lot of money in the process against getting the equipment we should had opted in the first place.