DaveL59

not knowing the circuit it's hard to say but yes it might have the effect of making the board intermittent or not work. What mark had you noticed, like a leak around the electrolytic? Some go domed at the top which I've seen on some netgear switches and washing machine control boards when they start to function intermittently, think another of my ProSafe switches may be getting to that stage so it'll be a candidate for repair in the near future I think. If you want to replace the electrolytics, pick the same uF but a higher operating voltage, might goe you a better service life.

you'd ideally want an ESR meter to test the cap unless your multimeter already has a capacitance function? Quite possible it blew if it was underrated for the applied volts but that'd make me wonder if the 12v applied managed to find it way across to the 5v side of the board. Which cap failed btw? Wondering too about this resistor that shows discolouration

I'm hopefully fortunate in that all but the SW130 are ally tubes and are more the scopes that get used often, tho the Note-3 is one that needs to be callibrated every time by the look of things. Just need to clear nights so I can have a proper play with this and some eyepieces etc.

SkEye can be used in a similar orientation if you switch it to indirect mode and align to a known point, just needs a suitable phone holder and tripod adaptor to mount it. There is a thread on here that shows some setups for this. It can't however do the platesolve that this celestron app brings to the party for more accuracy.

nice, and real COM ports too, rare sight these days. oh and SNAP! on the keyboard & mouse lol

if you don't mind the word on the label, how about a metal one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Miranda-57mm-Metal-Push-on-Lens-Cap-B1/133488872344?hash=item1f148e8b98:g:LrMAAOSwtY1fL8uB tho these camera ones do seem to infer 55mm so best check with the seller for the real ID

am guessing that's Gary at East Coast as per my link, Bill? Heard good things about them and of course you've pointed me there in the past too 🙂

you could give these folks a try http://binocular-repair.co.uk/ I'm sure others will provide more recommendations in a while 🙂

in that case there's maybe little point in adding heatshrink as it'll stiffen the cable where it enters the rj11 plug, might make it more likely to sustain damage than if it can flex freely.

and here it is, assembled and fitted on the TAL-1, not too shabby I think 🙂 Of course, having done all that boring out of the acrylic tube it dawned on me... the 100RS finder at 31.6mm is just under the old russian 32mm eyepiece diameter. I already have some acrylic tube of that bore from when I made the 32mm extension piece for the TAL-M. Got lulled into them looking alike so thinking they're all the same build, DOH!!! Oh well, tis done now but if the acrylic doesn't hold up having thinned the walls by a shade over 1mm I can always re-do with a piece of the other tube 🙂

ok so I decided I'd open the bore of the acrylic tube up so it'll fit the other TAL finders, bound to happen huh. After a while of running a sanding wheel on the dremel-a-like on the inside I got it to fit the one on the TAL-1 🙂 Needed even more tho for the one that came with the 100RS, so in fact mine are 3 different dimensions on the finder ring. Still, onward and.. all that. While playing with leccy machines I also drilled for 2mm screws into the bracket for the angle finder and I just happen to have some brass 2mm pan head screws that are the exact length I need, from the bits I bought for the vintage scope. and the tube after grinding (well, sanding) the inner bore test fitted on the TAL-1 finder Black matt paint pen on the bracket and sharpie on the inside if the acrylic tube Once all dried off I'll reassemble and hopefully the acrylic tube will hold up after removing around 1mm from the wall thickness. Oh I decided to also tap out the other M4 holes in case they're needed later.

that's great news Chris. Maybe worth posting how it was solved for future reference in case someone else hits the same issue

I've a couple of specialist MMJ/RJ8 cables for storage controllers and they've used heatshrink rather than boots, so I guess if an OEM does that then there's probably very few if any add-on boots made for them. Something like this may do what you need, there's others out there too. http://www.lamina.uk.com/product/heat_shrinkable_epoxy_tubing

never seen one for RJ11 but they may well exist. Perhaps use some heat-shrink tube instead? You can get some that has a glue applied to the inner so that it seals the join to prevent fluid ingress.

Couldn't resist a quick play with that huge SV171 zoom. Popped it into the old vintage 3-inch frac via diagonal and 1.25 inch adaptor so it'd sit into the 0.965 fittings. The focus lock mod I did for that scope seemed happy to hold the weight with the eyepiece at a 60 degree angle off vertical which is good to know. So aiming at tree tops a couple hundred meters away, nice and sharp view showing good detail in the leaves and what I think was seed carriers (frond like structure) not sure of the type of tree it was. Zoom ran smooth with no oddities in the view so whatever I can hear move when inverting doesn't seem critical. I've seen comments that this is parfocal tho not advertised as such and can report that there is only a slight shift in focus across the zoom range. So far am well pleased, what a bargain!

this morning the postie dropped off this beastie (to give an idea of size, pictured with a TAL 25mm & 42mm and vixen 20mm) This thing is HUGE 😮 It's an SV171 for reference,. Sits nicely in the TAL100RS diagonal tho tightening the lock screw in the TAL-1 is more of a challenge as the hulk is resting on it - might have to sort a longer thumb screw for that then. Feels very solid, zoom is silky smooth (no click stops) and certainly looks well made. I have noticed tho that there's the sound of movement if I invert the eyepiece in my hand, slop in the zoom mechanism perhaps. No rattles or sounds of glass colliding, something I'll keep a check on. Now just need a chance to test it out if the clouds will play ball (doesn't sound likely for several days).

so I gave rig this a quick test as the moon has appeared from behind cloud now and a few patches where stars are visible, tho only the brighter ones with the devil's floodlight in the sky. Seems to work with a decent FoV, moon centered in the cross-hairs with around 3 moon diameters to the field edge. I did note some reflections aimed at the moon however, probably between the occular and the adapter lenses? Might open these angle finders up and see if there's any stray light control I can add internally. Aiming at UM I could make out a couple of the stars, hand holding the finder so not an ideal test and of course cloud then hid most, but they were there and nice pinpricks in the finder.

it's possible the relay had already burned, depends how close to load limit it was being run and any added load on the motor for sticking runner etc could push the relat too far.

quite possible that you've just fused the relay contacts (the G5LE-1's) and hopefully nothing more. Had similar with a couple Miele appliances where a jump in load fused the relay and it had to be replaced. Looking online they're a couple quid so worth a try, you may only need the one as you might be able to tell by the burned track. With luck the track didn't reach over and shunt 12v elsewhere in the circuit where it'd do harm. If you remove the suspect relay from the board you'd be able to test it easily enough.

haha I've 2 at 31 and a bit (31.6 on the 100RS) and the one I built against is a shade over 30mm. I guess they changed the machining for the focus ring as the older one looks slightly different to the other two. Still I've made a start at least after having these bits sat around for a couple months 😉 Might make a second one for the larger focuser and have them both able to be used at the same time, tho I had vaguely planned to use the second angle finder for the polar scope but might park that idea for now. Will need to sort something for the missing detent but I think a re-worked bit of brass screw from a plug may do the job there.

thanks Mark. yeah I was a bit confused by that too, esp since the 100RS finder looks identical, the older one on the 1 I can believe but such is life. I'll probably sand out the inner bore so it'll slip onto all 3 and see if I then need to add further clamp screws. At least once the bore is sanded a couple coats of black sharpie pen will dull off any stray light 🙂 Daylight testing the view is good, doesn't seem to lose much FoV which is a bonus. Of course is all clouds here at the mo so a night sky test isn't likely.

So working on this idea, I've cut a length of the acrylic tube so the occular is close to the end of the tube Marked up the set screws in the focuser and also for the focus lock screws and drilled for a 4mm tap. Only tapped the ones on one side for the moment, will see if I need to tap the matching holes at 120 degree offsets once I test fit, already drilled them ready. I'm using regular HSS taps so went slow and careful so as not to just shred the acrylic, seems to have worked. Seems to lock just fine with a single thumbscrew so no need to tap the other holes tho they'll be handy to tap out if these threads get shredded in use 🙂 Next up, trim the metal clips so the bracket clears the occular. Still a nice tight fit into the tube end. Will have to consider how best to secure it rather than rely on a tight push fit, wouldn't want the angle finder to drop out in use after all. Am thinking to drill and tap for small setscrews into the bracket edges which would give a 3-point securing system and threadlock them into place. Now refit the bracket onto the angle finder and black the surface facing the occular. Will sort a means to screen stray light entering via the clear tube later on. So here we have the components ready to assemble. The finder assembly fitted up and almost ready to go. Holds well with the focus lock screw when cranking the angle finder to another position which is good news. Hopefully it'll perform well under the stars too. Oh, thought I'd test-fit for a photo opp on the TAL-1 and guess what? The focuser ring on that older scope is wider than the tube bore, drat! Same for the finder on the TAL100RS 😞 So I can't just make this transferrable as I'd intended unless I open the bore of the tube up a little, oh well, a job for later on then...

Always thought they gave wider FoV at the higher mag than the lower? I have the 8-24mm SV171 due to arrive someday soon, first zoom I've bought but figured why not make life a little easier. Will see how it works out when it arrives if we get any clear nights.

One thing to consider is her IPD, can she comfortably use your current bino? You may find the range to pick from limited if her IPD is narrow tho a DCF or roof type may well work just fine. Likewise some of the reverse-porro designs like the Pentax UCF may suit better with regards ergonomics.

that does look like a small lens on your one Mark. These I have do lose some FoV but not much from a quick play when I got them. Image is nice and bright so am hoping under stars they'll perform well enough. Might as well have a play and see if I can rig something while the nights are so clouded out huh. It's times like this tho where you start to think "3D printer would be handy" but not sure I have the space for one of those and curious kitties may wreak havoc there too.