Anthonyexmouth

6 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

There’s a large piece of thrown solder which has come off of the resistor R680 (R80) next to the processor. There’s evidence of overheating here and as well as checking the component also check that this hasn’t caused a short between the tracks.

Can you point to it?  I can't see it. 

6 minutes ago, malc-c said:

LOL - temptation !

Well if you need the old board looking at drop me a PM and I'll pass on my details.  Glad to hear FLO sorted you out and you're back up and running once more

Oh they sorted me out alright. Lol. But yeah, good to be back running again. Just gotta get it all set up again as clear skies forecast tomorrow. 

2 minutes ago, malc-c said:

Did they honour the advertised price of £30 , or did you have to purchase elsewhere ?

Hard to say what the original cause was.  PICs are quite sensitive to over voltage so if the regulation failed or spiked that could have blown the PICs, the diodes on the coms links in some boards blow if there is an issue with the EQDIR cable, or an over voltage on the coms lines can blow the serial UART in the PIC.  The two large electrolytic caps can pop/leak and cause a board not to run... Its take your pick really 

 

I did change the caps on the board, the soldering was appalling though, wouldn't take, I'm blaming my old solder or the flux, whatever it was even when I got an ok joint it produced the same error so thinking it wasn't them any, the old ones looked perfect. 

Picked up a new style one from FLO, fingers crossed the other one comes in too as a spare, if it doesn't I'll take you up on the repair gamble. 

Only downside to going to FLO is getting hands on with a nice new scope that I really want now. 

Can any owners tell me their lines and dislikes of this scope, also any mods they feel might be a priority or ones that would be nice to have. 

I'm very very tempted to get one

Cheers

Well, a little bike ride and some minor abuse of the credit card and my mount is working again. Does anyone fancy popping over to put my setup back together again? I've got nice biscuits. 

Been wondering if my cable bundling might have caused the death of the board. Any electronic egg heads have an opinion on the probability? 

1 hour ago, Mandy D said:

Have you thought about having the threads helicoiled? This will give you a steel thread for your bolt to screw into, instead of keep stressing the aluminium every time you screw the bolts in.

Thought about that. It's not a huge problem at the moment because I can go over 6 months between PA adjustments, but been planning for a mount upgrade in a year and putting the heq5 out for days away. Was thinking a smoother thread might make life easier. Just wish there was a nice kit like there is for the neq6 to upgrade the mount. 

3 hours ago, apaulo said:

what is wrong with the thread. if its very loose, no point just retapping it. probably make it worse. if its too tight a tap will clean it up. 

The bolt is just sloppy in the thread. Was thinking about retapping to an M12. Wanted to find out if anyone had done a similar mod. 

I'd say keep the cameras separate. I find the hub in the camera is ok for a focuser or filter wheel. 

1 hour ago, scotty38 said:

Yes it is, I wasn't thinking straight....

Having said that I don't use astrometry.net I use astap and it's plenty fast enough to not need local solving.

 

Has it just dawned on me that folk saying local solving is faster are not using ASTAP?????

Astap is local, isn't it? 

29 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

No I don't but not for any premeditated reason just I never thought about it. I don't have any machines without a connection and don't image away from home so it's never cropped up. I have considered what I would do if I lost Internet connectivity during acquisition but I've not done anything about it although NINA has the offline cache for this very reason although I've not tested it really.

NINA offline cache is just framing, isn't it. It doesn't do it's own plate solving. Local plate solving is so much faster than astrometry net

If I wanted to use either of these at native f/l is there a good flattener for either of these or of using a micro 4/3rds sensor, how much of the field would be usable if not using a flattener? 

10 minutes ago, Len1257 said:

Just a thought on the possible causes for this failure. I might have misunderstood but are you saying that your power supply is in the workshop and the measured 13.8V is at the power supply or at the mount? I don't think you have said how far your cable run is?

In any case, one failure we had when I was still working was due to a local lightning ground strike. The induced voltages in any buried cables in this scenario can reach stupid values and can easily fry connected equipments. The stable door shutting involved fitting protective equipment that would probably have cost more than your total observatory. I guess you would have mentioned any such occurence.

If your PSU is in the workshop then just for voltage drop reasons it would be better situated at the observatory end and in the case of induced voltage the PSU 'might' act as an extra layer of protection. 

It's an outdoor pier, cable run is 5m (ish) and its 13.8v at the pier. all other connected devices are fine. 

1 minute ago, SthBohemia said:

^^ In that case may as well re-tap it. 🙂 

Going someone else has done it to get an idea on the casting quality and what it taps like. 

7 minutes ago, SthBohemia said:

Bottom line being, 'ye canna make a silk purse from a sow's ear'....

Although I do have a SW mount I am the first to be critical regarding its rather shoddy construction. The SW mounts are adequate and more or less perform as advertised. However, for the prices asked they leave a great deal to be desired... I personally would not bother to re-tap the mount.

I'm only thinking of it as I've had to strip down my pier to replace the main board in the mount. Going to take the opportunity to replace the bearings and powder coat the adapter plate I made 3 years ago. 

Anyone else here thing the tapping on the mount is appalling? Really sloppy. Has anyone retapped to M12 for a better adjustment? 

Got it sorted in the end, the supplied screws were the wrong size for the focuser. 

On 28/10/2021 at 19:19, platesolver_com said:

So you know J5 is a fully working USB Port, it just works with ASCOM @115200 baud


i've done it so 100% working

So it's possible to mod an heq5 to work with usb instead of eqmod? What would be needed to get this working? 

27 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

I'd get the WO reducer as well if possible as if you try a generic one and your not happy with results, you'll just start convincing yourself the WO one is needed anyway. I've yet to find the reducer/flattener anyway that gives perfect stars into the corners.. 

The gt81 is stretching my budget as it is, my original wish list was the gt71 , askar 400 or sharpstar 76. 

8 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

Latest quick image out of my GT81 albeit the latest MKIV version and the WO 0.8 FF/FR but I am more than happy with it

 

 

Nice, if I do get one it'll be the MK4. Still finding it hard to make my mind up though. 

I've been holding out for the askar 400 to come back in stock but started wondering if I should push the boat out and get the gt81, only problem is I couldn't afford the flattener at the same time. I do have a .8 hotech or maybe Altair reducer that's on my ed80 at the moment, how would that do as a temp stand in until I could afford the flat 6a? 

Also, is the wo worth spending the extra on anyway? 

2 minutes ago, malc-c said:

The repair is an option, but if they are honouring the advertised price of £30 I would just buy a second board from them.  Given the extortionate prices I had to pay for the PICs due to covid,  and my preferred method of return postage it would be cheaper than a repair.

I was thinking that too. Fingers crossed I get a dispatch notice today. 

Just now, malc-c said:

It's very rare to actually see anything physically blown on these boards when they fail.

Result on getting a replacement for £30.  I would use the new EQDIR cable just to be safe.  You don't know if it was the original EQDIR that failed in some way and shorted the board ?

I've dropped you a PM regarding the faulty board.

Just read that. If this new board arrives and works I think I'd like to get this one repaired as a spare. Couldn't get any probes in to test the lead so in going to chop the rj45 off to have access to the wires, I've been meaning to shorten it ever since I got it anyway. 

6 minutes ago, malc-c said:

So what's the plan now..... If it were me I would telephone the company in Cambridge and ask if they have a replacement in stock, and if so place an order for one.  If they state the price is more than advertised and is comparable with the other boards advertised, and won't accept the advertised price then the choice is to pay the normal RRP for it, or see if we can repair the one that's faulty.  

Well I ordered it on Saturday and the PayPal payment went through and had a confirmation email from the company about an hour later. I'll see what happens over the next day. 

Got the board out today and can't see anything catastrophic on it. Here are the pictures

7 hours ago, malc-c said:

There is not a lot to test on the small PCB that has all the sockets and power switch, other than for any obvious shorts and blown caps (if fitted).

Let us know if the new cable did anything ?

No luck with the new cable. 

3 minutes ago, malc-c said:

It is very odd indeed.  Given your description of how the power is distributed, with everything coming form the one regulated supply one would suspect other items also showing signs of damage if the supply was at fault.  As they are all effectively running at 12 / 13 volts even if the wrong plug was put into the mount it wouldn't cause damage unless the polarity was reversed.  Having said that, these motor boards do seem to lack protection against spikes or reverse polarity.

let us know if changing those two caps work....

If the board still fails to function and you get a replacement for £30 (I'm sure they have missed the 1 before the 30 as that would seem a more realistic price - but as they have it listed for £30 I wonder how they stand legally if it has been mispriced?) I would be more than willing to take the dead board off your hands to see if we can get to the bottom of this issue.  

I'll keep you informed. Got a new eq cable arriving this afternoon so I'll see if that works. If the new board arrives I'm tempted to buy another at that price for a spare. Apart from visually looking, is there anything I can test on the little port board?