Aot

I appreciate you efforts. Maybe if you could please share my details with him and let him know i am available for any help. I have lost lots of Chinese packages over the years and may offer some guidance for him. Also i don’t mind fixing his mount for him if he is welling to stop by or mail his board to me. I am welling to offer my service to any local astro peeps for free to get them started or to pushing them to the hoppy

Could you give me his handler so i can try to help the guy out. I live in Saudi as well.

16 hours ago, malc-c said:

Just an update on this thread.   If anyone is in need of a repair or just wants the programmed PICs, I will only deal with SGL members living in the UK. 

At the beginning of April I was contacted by a person who seemed to have joined SGL simply to message me in a bid to repair his blown motor board.  He is based in Saudi Arabia, and to cut a long story short, he purchased two programmed PICs that was sent by international tracked and signed for delivery on on 5th April.  The package was finally delivered yesterday having arrived in Saudi a month ago... or should I say attempted delivery as the recipient wasn't at the address given (his office by the sounds of it).  According to the Royal Mail website a card has been left and I've PM'd the guy to let him know just in case he isn't following the tracking data...   I'm just thankful it's just the PICs and not his mount that was being returned !!

So for anyone outside the UK reading this post, please don't contact me if your board is blown.  The process of converting the downloadable binary files is covered in the thread, and the equipment to program the PICs can be purchased for the cost of a couple of beers...  The time and costs involved, plus the hassle when things happen just doesn't make it worth while to both parties.   I've been PMing the guy with updates but he hasn't replied since the package was posted - Hopefully the guy will make contact with the delivery office and collect the package.  No doubt I'll find out in two months when the package arrives back through my letterbox - return to sender !!!!!!!!!

 

I told them i repaired it and it is now working fine

i purchased my mount from BH and its board  had both ic glued. I bought it almost 12 month ago. I don't know if the glued ics is a new thing from SW or it is an old thing and they stopped doing it.

On 1/20/2021 at 19:42, Aot said:

thank you all for this great thread.

I had two broken heq5 boards. for some unknown reason both got bricked suddenly after few months of use between a windows laptop and a raspberry pi.

I am using eqdir cable from FLO.

I Was able to purchase PIC16F886 chips from Aliexpress 10pcs for 10$ + the programmer for another $10. I repaired one of the boards and it is now working perfectly and will try to fix the other one and keep it as a spare.

One of the boards I purchased new from microglobe.co.uk and died four months after. Upon repairing it i found one of the chips to be not glued. there were scraping marks underneath the chip indicating previous glue remove and repair attempt. I don't know if it was done by SW or if item is refurbished and sold as new! I email microglobe twice asking for clarification but still no answer from them.

UPDATE

microgloble.co.uk responded with the following:

"Please accept my sincere apologies for the delayed response. These motherboards are supplied to us by OVL. They're the official SkyWacher distributor in the UK. All items we sell are brand new and never opened. Please note that these motherboards are very delicate. They cannot be repaired once damaged, and they've no warranty"

It is now hard to clarify if the previous repair was done by SW or OLV!

thank you for your reply. I checked RS where i live. unfortunately they required a minimum order of 35pc of that specific chip which totals around 100$ to be customs cleared and delivered. Instead I went for this

 https//a.aliexpress.com/_mKgC5ZF

listing indicates it is an original. they seems ok so far but will see how long it will last!

It is true a very rewarding and satisfying experience for me. I had little knowledge with simple soldering and breadboards i learned few years ago from working with arduino projects. This repair was a whole new thing for me and i enjoyed it.

thank you all for this great thread.

I had two broken heq5 boards. for some unknown reason both got bricked suddenly after few months of use between a windows laptop and a raspberry pi.

I am using eqdir cable from FLO.

I Was able to purchase PIC16F886 chips from Aliexpress 10pcs for 10$ + the programmer for another $10. I repaired one of the boards and it is now working perfectly and will try to fix the other one and keep it as a spare.

One of the boards I purchased new from microglobe.co.uk and died four months after. Upon repairing it i found one of the chips to be not glued. there were scraping marks underneath the chip indicating previous glue remove and repair attempt. I don't know if it was done by SW or if item is refurbished and sold as new! I email microglobe twice asking for clarification but still no answer from them.