boyandorion

Hehe, last night I was outside for many hours, I didn't count - playing with my humble telescope, to be honest, I was more busy being annoyed by the fact that my scope came with a 45 deg. diagonal, and not a 90 degr. one, than actually thinking about taking it out and see what that did to the view. I'm gonna try it. My scope had me crawling on my knees at times last night .

All good. When I'm wrong about something that can send other people on the wrong track (trace ), I feel it's important to say so. I have a few suggestions to how to proceed, but let's do one thing at the time. . I am groot.

You are of course right. I'm sorry for the misleading information on my part. I totally misread the situatuion here tho... . When I read the first post over agian. I thought from reading the description in the post (very poorly read I might add), that the board was powered by 12V itself. I totally missed out the fact that there is also another power supply here. This combined with the fact that I did not have the datasheet for the IC lead me to believe that the device is something that it's not. Sorry for that. I don't want my name associated with things like "that cocky new guy who just writes something something so it looks good" , as I am not that guy. I didn't read/check properly, and was wrong . . I will be more careful next time hehe.

No need to say sorry for late reply hehe. After all - we have other things to do than staring into a computer screen all the time. Thanks for the input. I'll be putting Møns klint on my goto list.

The cap sounds like it's fine. They take some effort to ruin also, depending on the input voltage from the dc plug. As for the zener, I know just a tiny bit too little about SMPSUs to take a glance at this board and say how it is supposed to work (give me a normal linear supply and I'll tell you all about it any day haha) but the zener diode should definitely not be broken . Zener diodes is most likely part of the circuit that sets the voltage the regulator is outputting. I would say, a broken one will definitely make your supply not output what it's supposed to output, but what made it blow up... that's the question. Is it possible to get hold of a schematic for this unit? It would be extremely helpful for "remote assistance" .

Hi. As for the caps in question, one of the failure modes of this kind is that they expand - as in u can see a bulge on top of them. They are made to do this. They don't have to be bulgy to be bad tho. As for testing them, there are a few methods of doing this depending on how you are set up with the tools. Easiest way if you aren't quite sure about how to do it, is to remove it from the circuit. There is good articles on the net on testing different ways. Like this: https://www.electricaltechnology.org/2013/06/how-to-check-capacitor-with-digital.html I'm not sure it was clear from the first post if you are testing the power supply plugged onto the main board or not. Just saying, the excessive current draw that causes this thing to more or less shut down, may be a failure in the load (the mainboard). As for throwing it out (if the mainboard are ok), don't do that unless it's actually broken. It might very well be possible to drive the board with a completely other power supply. Not sure what's going on with this one tho, since it's so well eqipped at the pin header. Does it require other than a single +5v rail? A closeup photo of the silkscreen around the pinhead connector on the mainboard would maybe say something more about this. Edit: For cap replacement - same capacitance value, and same voltage rating or higher - as long as u can fit it in there, it doesn't matter much. Doesn't have to have the same lead spacing etc. as long as u can fit it in there and bend the legs to fit in it's holes. Only imagination is the limit hehe. You could even solder new capcitors on the other side of the board if needed.

Thanks. I had a look at the Facebook group yesterday actually. Just a quick glance. Looks like you guys have something good going on there. When it comes to Møn - my inlaws was visiting that place just a month ago or so. I was envious - I don't get envious usually haha. They went by day, and I was like - why waste it on a day when u can get the perfect night. Dad in law, he's not interested in astronomy or photography for that matter, but he loves to visit places that are a bit special. And this looks like a really special place. He said - REALLY nice place. But man.... so many stairs. . It would be awesome as I said to meet like minded people when going. When it comes to schedule, I doubt I will have any plans set in stone before it's getting close. Right now, the plans are at the following stage: 1. Roadtrip to Denmark sometime next spring. Thanks for the tips! I'll read the information, and hmm.... do u think it would be awkward if I asked to be member of the facebook group even tho I'm not danish?

Yo. I was just wondering, you know if there are any places in Denmark where they arrange star parties? I'm planning a roadtrip with the family next spring or so for a week or two. Would be a shame to leave the scope behind if there are some nice places to set it up and maybe meet some new like minded people!

Hi. Thanks for the warm welcome! Hahaha! Yeah. Hoth is cold. It's become an ongoing joke here that we live on Hoth, even tho the area here is relativley warm for Norway. But I say at least 10 times a year that we live in the wrong part of the world. I just love tropical weather. Not so fond of desserts tho, so I gotta say it, even tho Vulcan might be a nice choice for you, personally I prefer Risa . Nice! I bet it's really rewarding. Australian Indigenous Astronomy, sounds very interesting. A local astronomy club doesn' exist here that I know of. Yet. Hehe. It's kinda sad. Well, there is one club that is kinda nearby, but it is no shorter than a 1 hour drive each way to get to it, so it's kinda hard to get involved there just because of the distance. Maybe there is hope for a local club in the future. Who knows. Definitely. Giving the kids to chance to develop interests, and especially the interests that we can share, is kinda important to me. Also, you say, resist the urge to spend and invest :). That's a very good tip. As a musician, and a poor one at times, I have definitely learnt that you can't always have what you think you want, and that what you already have (gear) can offer you so much more joy when you realize you need to appreciate it and do what you can with it. Same goes for all things, including this hobby. Of course I want bigger and better - but I'm not gonna be a fool and not enjoy the gear I have now to the fullest :). But I see that my scope comes up a bit short on the provided eyepieces. It's good for watching the moon, but observing planets, it seem a bit small for. It's a 500mm scope with 70mm lens, and the eypieces that came with it, is 10mm and 25mm, which give me too little magnification. So even tho I am resisting the urge to spend, I feel that there are certain upgrades that kinda "needs" to be done to get the most out of the telescope. I am considering different options, like a 2x barlow, or a 4.5-5mm eyepiece. Being totally new, finding out what is best for me to get kinda scares me a bit hehe. I'm gonna see if there is any good info here to help me decide. You guys might have some tips on what to look for, and if there are som stellar threads on this that you feel I should read, please feel free to give me some hint. :). Thanks again for the nice welcome! Only glad to be here.

Hello to u all from "Hoth". I see its customary here to introduce yourself as a new member so here I am. I am pretty much a rookie when it comes to this hobby. I have had a lot of things going on over the years. I am a security / network equipment tech by trade, and what claims most of my time off is the work I do as a musician. The night sky always fascinated me tho. When I was a kid I used to put up a ladder onto the garage roof where I lived and lay back and watch the sky for hours. As for instruments to actually use for this, I always saw as unobtanium. However... In my early 30s one time i had some cash to spare, almost on impulse, I bought a skywatcher refractor. Dont remember the model, but it's a 70mm lens and about half a meter long. I got it in the mail, and it lived in the trunk of my van for some days until I one day took it to my office. Hehe - I didnt want to tell the missus I had spent money on a telescope. Haha so it sat in my office for a month or so before I brought it home and thought- she will understand. I brought it into the living room and asked her if she liked my telescope. I explained - it was not spendy and I always wanted one and figured now was a good time to get one. She wasnt overly enthusiastic about it - because she didn't see the value in it. But as time went by I took my oldest kid outside an evening with a full moon. He was amazed and frankly so was I. I shot some pictures of the moon just pointing the phone cam to the eyepiece. Showed it to her and she was also amazed. I was hooked instantly. So I set the scope up in our living room. After standing there at a window for a couple of days, the missus asks me - Is that one gonna stay there now? A simply - yes of course- was the answer, and here I am. Been watching YouTube videos to learn this, but I miss a real community, and found this place on pure chance. First thread I read coming from google was about some guys here discussing some eyepiece question asked on CN and after reading that I decided - no way I'm going there, I'm staying here - looks like it's a bunch of good guys here and I like the fact that its kept family friendly! I'm sorry for the lengthy introduction, but I thought I'd do it the proper way hehe. Any questions, feel free to ask. See you around 🙂