Luis Calle Rosasco

Hello, I am really sorry to be able to read this experience just to know. As you will see from myattached files, I had a very similar awful experience. The motherboard of my EQ6R-Pro (with USB port) was burned too. However, luckily everything else works except for the RJ45 port and the Handcontroller, unfortunately. I contacted Skywatcher USA and although they didn't openly admit it, the answer lies in the poor EQ6R-Pro mainboard build quality . Nominally, SW technicians say, that board works at 10.6 volts, however it has a sort of "tolerance" to work at 12v 5amps. To achieve the reduced operational voltage, it becomes obvious that mainboard includes a few resistors and a transistor that reduces the voltage to those 10.6v, which were precisely burned by a voltage spike. By not having a voltage regulator and ground connections in those 2000USD mounts, these mainboards are really bad and susceptible to damage. That's how it happened to me. The only alternative was buying a spare motherboard from Skywatcher USA (also in First Light Optics, Ebay and Teleskope.de) and taking it, along with the damaged motherboard, to an electronics service for repairs. It shouldn't be too hard, considering the specifical damaged components (3 resistors and 1 transistor). After repairs, you'll have a new board and a spare part, just in case. Regards, Luis (Lima, Peru)