malc-c

Yes, the code protect registers are set in the binary files. The process of using the PYTHON scripts as mentioned a few pages back to convert the BIN file to HEX and then using MPLAB to change the code protect bits and then re-export the HEX as an unprotected version is required. But as the code includes the bootloader so the SW update software can recognise the board and upload the BIN file on the fly there should be no need to reprogram them, or try and read back the HEX form the existing PICs. I was going to suggest using something like GSServer and a true EQDIR cable, but the mount isn't an EQ mount so that wouldn't work as it would still move the scope in strange directions. Just in case there was some corruption in the file, I've run through the routine again and produced the attached.... Don't be put off by the MC004 reference - that was due to the previous repairs - there is only one version of firmware for goto dobsonian scopes and that's the 2.09 file, which this was based on. MC004Final.hex

There is only one version of firmware for the motorboards used in skyliner dobsonians - so I'm not sure what the issue could be. You could try and download the 2.09 firmware file from the website here and use the SW uploader (requires the serial cable to the handset and a PC with a traditional 9 pin D serial port (or a true USB - Serial adapter) to reflash the PICs. But the fact that the mount responds to directional commands when the NSWE buttons are pressed suggests communications are correct, so no idea why it should not point where it's supposed to

Matt, is the mount permanently mounted, or do you set up and have to run through PA and alignment each session ? My mount is in an observatory and I currently don't image as regularly as I used to, but for me its power up, roll back the roof, and select the first target, which even after being left for months will still be in the FOV of the DSLR camera I use. It is never exactly in the same spot ( For example I centre on a bright star, the sync in EQMOD, and the next session the same star could be inside the edge of the FOV, so I recentre and resync )

That's deeper than the hole I dug for my pillar to mount the HEQ5 on ! - I bet you were secretly trying to make your own version of the old classic Journey to the centre of the Earth

Great news.... It may not be pretty, but its functional Well done

I must admit that whilst I'm sympathetic to the company, deep down I totally agree with you Paul. Whilst we don't know what contracts they have with suppliers, or if they import timber from outside the UK, or any of their other business operations, taking 9-10 months to fore fill orders is really not ideal, and does give the impression that they are not a full time business, despite the glossy website (which we all know can be easily produced with most hosting packages). One other member posted the fact that there is no listing for them at the industrial park, and google maps does indeed back that up, but there is a sectional building company on the estate and it could well be that this business is the main business and OHUK is a side line that is operated from the same owners or premises and doesn't have the priority. I have said to Keith that I admire his patience - I would be becoming a very irate customer by now....

But I bet you would call the customers at some point, either at the weekends or at a time when the machines are yet to be stared?

You have two choices - pay the 150 euro for the custom CNC machined parts, or obtain parts discussed in this thread and undertake the machining and fettling required to fit them. You won't be able to pick up a set of pulleys that just drop in. The Rowan belt drive kits include special CNC machined pulleys, and its that process that you are paying the money for.

whilst not exact, a quick google came up with a supplier I've used in the past called Beltingonline - they have a T2.5 pitch pully that may fit with a little aftermarket machining link here

I have been in private communications with Keith who finally received communication from Grahame and a delivery / erecting date was set for Sunday just gone. I was hoping that Keith would have updated the thread just to put others waiting at ease as suggested, but so far he hasn't. Gareth arrived on time with the building, however, and in Keith's words "there was a problem" in that a 2' square 30" deep plinth had to be formed for the floor to sit over. Now it's not clear where the breakdown in communications was but it meant that Keith has had to store the observatory whilst he constructs the plinth. The plan is for Gareth to return in 3 weeks and complete the build. Now I don't know if this is required with all of their builds, but if it does and other customers haven't been informed then they too could be in the same boat. Its a shame I don't live anywhere near Graham as I would reach out and offer my time to ring round his customers for him and take the pressure off. Lets hope things improve. @KY Cygni If they have just delivered an order placed in August 2020, then I'm guessing they are way behind on construction, and it could be four or five months before your order comes to the top of the pile, unless Grahame has sourced a replacement for Nathan and can catch up on the backlog.

Again no expert, but if other chips had been damaged (you mentioned holes in them) then the problem may have also affected the voltage regulator - I would check to see if there is 5v on across the PIC's supply pins. If you've got 5 volts powering the components then braking the tracks and trying the diode mod as per the above would be my first option too

Still sounds as clear as mud to me I might be a bit slow on the uptake, but I'm struggling to follow this thread. Initially you reported that the mount wasn't tracking, but appeared to be responding to NSEW movements when driven by the controller. You then mentioned you suspected a blown board (what gave you that impression as you never mentioned and handset messages about a failed response from any axis) and you purchased a new replacement which turned out to be of the newer ARM based boards. When fitted it didn't respond to one axis, and there were no messages indicating a communications issue, but on investigation one of the connectors had come away form the board. This was then replaced with a third board under warranty. Now that board has failed (first time use ?). Now either SW have a big issue in that these new replacement boards are dramatically failing, or they are being damaged by the cables you are using, or the handset has been damaged as a result. Now I'm sure if you returned the mount to the retailer and asked them to resolve the issue it would be doable, but at what cost given the history. I'm not saying its "user error" but if I was the retailer I would be quite sceptical that two brand new replacement boards would fail in such quick succession. It "could" have been a touch of heavy handedness when the board was fitted, or possibly that board did have a poorly soldered connector which broke off when the mount moved? And now its replacement is faulty too... So they may feel like charging you for the repair rather than it being a warranty repair... it depends on the generosity, and the fact that they would need to prove this wasn't the case. Personally if you're not sure how these boards work, probing around with a multimeter may not prove anything and you may make maters worse. I would suggest contacting the retailer and asking them to accept the mount back with a view of returning it to you in a tested and working order. Any way that's my 2c worth.....

It might have been worth leaving the post up and then adding an edit or follow up post detailing what the problem was and how you resolved it so anyone in the future who might have the same issue can try your resolution.

Having repaired around half a dozen of the old type boards (mainly in dobsonian scopes) this normally suggests that the two 16F886 PICs are blown, but these new boards use an ARM Cortex processor and I have no idea of its functionality, other than it will still use the same protocol. It shouldn't be possible to connect the two cables from the power / handset / ST4 port daughter board to the wrong terminals on the new board, as the two ports are 5 pin and 6 pin respectively, so it would be obvious if you plugged the 5 pin into the 6 pin as the 6 pin would then not fit the 5 pin socket. When you say different cables, what cables? - If you are using an direct connection between a PC and mount, this MUST be a dedicated EQDIR cable designed for use with SW telescopes.

Just read this on their website... this would sound alarm bells to me. A business that sells products that cost over £3K for the most basic product yet doesn't accept payment via credit cards !

Sorry to hear of your issues, which seem to be following the same pattern as Grahame. It's really sad that they appear to have let you down. As mentioned in my post above, most people will be quite understanding about delays if they are kept in the loop. I'm sure that the order volume on their books isn't that great that they couldn't spend a couple of hours on a monthly basis just calling customers to advise them of any revised installation date or if everything is running to schedule. Most family run businesses tend to draft in husbands / wives, sons or daughters to help out in times of need if they are not able to do that themselves... Personally, I would never part with anything over £100 via bank transfer. That is as good as giving them cash. If they do end up folding then you have no redress to get any money back. Under the credit consumer act, even a part payment of £100 or more on a credit card still gives you the ability to recover the full cost of your deposit or purchase. But lets hope that it doesn't come to that, and that HOUK can soon manage to find a replacement for Nathan, and get back on track.

The dobsonian firmware I've used is attached. Yes you program both PICs with the same code. There is a slight difference in hardware connections between the two PICs that defines which one is the ALT and which is the AZ axis. I would try replacing just the two PICs before replacing the other two chips unless you are 100% positive they have also been damaged. [Google translation into Spanish - hope it works !] Se adjunta el firmware dobsoniano que he usado. Sí, programa ambos PIC con el mismo código. Existe una ligera diferencia en las conexiones de hardware entre los dos PIC que define cuál es el ALT y cuál es el eje AZ. Intentaría reemplazar solo los dos PIC antes de reemplazar los otros dos chips, a menos que esté 100% seguro de que también se han dañado. MC004d.hex

How did you blow the board? - Its not easy to see the reported damage to the LM324 and 74HC14 from the pictures, but if they have blown then it would suggest the issue is not the normal 12v shoved up the PICs serial ports. If they have popped then they too will needs replacing. The best way I found to remove them if you don't have a hot air solder station is to carefully cut the legs at the entry to the package and then once the package falls away you can use a normal soldering iron to remove the legs (I might have already stated that - hard to tell as the post is a year old now !!) Good luck with the repair

They shouldn't make you pay for a replacement as the one you purchased should be covered under warranty, even if the replacement was sent as a warranty replacement for the original board. It's clearly a defective board with a dry joint (possibly caused through lead free solder)

Agreed, looking at the image again, you would have expected some tracks to be ripped if the solder joints were properly made. I would be more inclined to contact the supplier of the replacement board and send them the picture and ask for a replacement to be shipped ASAP as clearly there is an issue. If you make your own repairs any warranty would become voided

Well that's good news, maybe Gareth has been following this thread 😟 It's sad that as a company he's experienced staffing issues, but I'm sure if he had made that call to you weeks ago this thread, which discusses his company and business practices wouldn't exist in the public domain. So we can look forward to a new observatory build thread in August then

OMG - that's not good. It would be an easy job to resolder the connector, but as you have already stated you are not confident of soldering then M40's suggestion of soldering four short wires to the connector and the board would be an ideal fix, just make sure you get some form of insulation around the connections and the connector so there is no risk of it shorting on the metal casing and shafts. The alternative is send it back for repair / replacement. This IMO is a design flaw as that connector has no physical means of being secured to the board other than relying on the solder joints. The old connectors were through hole and had better physical strength. At least you got to the bottom of the issue.

The mount requires DC not AC.....

Granted, but then you make time the following day to return those calls, or reply to e-mails before you make a start. I used to be self employed. I would be out working in the day and come home to half a dozen or more messages on the answer machine. I either called them in the evening, or first thing the next morning depending on the appointments I had. I learnt a valuable lesson when working as an office admin back in the 80's. I was called into a high level meeting between the MD of one of the group companies, the MD of the whole group and the senior buyer form the largest catalogue companies in the UK. The buyer wanted it made clear to me that if they have an order and they chase delivery, that they wanted regular updates as it made its way from China. If it was stuck in customs he wanted to know. Basically he didn't want any fobbing off or BS. Months later a mixed container that had a large order on was held in customs. I telephoned him at a regular time every day, even if I had received no update from my earlier enquiry with customs... This allowed him to advise the tens of thousands of customers of any delay, especially as this was coming up for Christmas. Months late, I was called in to another meeting, and he personally thanked me in front of both MD's. - The point is (and sorry for going OT) it taught me that communication was so important even if the news isn't what the customer wanted to hear. I'm sure its the same here, Graham probably wouldn't be bothered to hear that his order won't be ready until xyz, that would allow him to have comfort that things are progressing, al be it slowly. It's the not knowing and being ignored that he has a gripe about. Think about it... if the company had the decency to call him every 3-4 weeks just to say how his order is progressing then this post wouldn't exist. I'm sure it can have an effect on their trade as anyone reading this will think twice about placing an order with them based on the content of this thread.

It's very hard to notice if a mount is running at siderial rate just by looing at it. You could do as Martin has suggested, or attach a laser pointer to the tube, and mark the wall some feet away where the dot falls, and then see if the dot has moved an hour later. What power source are you using to drive the mount ? - it needs to be 12v and capable of delivering 2 amps or more under load. One other possible reason is that the mount is going into park after the initial slew ? - is the handset still displaying the instructions that form part of the alignment routine. If you place the mount in the default home position, have a decent power supply connected, and power on the mount, are you able to set the speed to 9 and then use the directional buttons to manually slew the mount in all directions, or does the mount stop and fails to respond after the first movement? - If the latter then I would suggest contacting either the retailer or SW USA for assistance as it could be some communication issue between your old handset and the new board.