astroazap dew controller and bands

[redfox1971]

Hi i purchased a astrozap dew controller and 8inch heater band from flo while back,this piece of equipment dose not seem to do as its ment,and its starting to p... me off just ever so slightly,i bought this exspensive bit of kit hopeing i wouldnt have to use hairdryer all time,but haveing to still use it with the controller flat out,it does not seem to warm the heater bands to the point i put band to my face i cant seem notice any heat,so cant see it warming mirror through metal on telescope,can anybody tell me what sort of heat temp it should give or how i can test power from out of control box,all lights work on control box even when you turn power dials up bulbs glow more,but just cant be leaveing box terminals to bands,something just dont add up.HELP?????????

[m.tweedy]

Have you tried it on the scope to see if the scope now dews up. I also cannot feel any heat but it does the job. Do not forget you will also need a dew shield as the front corrector on the cpc800 is a dew magnet. A homemade one out of a camp mat is just as good as a commercial one to get you started.

[redfox1971]

Hello michael,yep had it on my scope,and got different make of heater band around my 9x50 finder,guider.Lastnight was bad for dew as scope was soaked at 4 this morning whitch was strange as it was freezing i was haveing to use hairdryer every 10mins and yep got dew sheild on aswell,is just seems pointless buying these dew provention products when clearly they dont do the job you buy them for,would be better job converting a electric blanket into a dew band lol.

[Psychobilly]

Take the band of the scope form a loop around your hand with it and run the controller flat out.. you should feel it starting to warn up after a few mins...

Peter...

[m.tweedy]

Hum the difficulty is that it could be either (or both). Do you have access to someone else's band or controller to try?

[m.tweedy]

My observing sessions would be very short if mine did not work.

[redfox1971]

Thanks for the help chaps,that was a kind offer michael,job sorted,would you belive it was my powertank i poked a screwdriver in female cigerate socket and touched it to side wall and no spark although tank said fully charged and green light was on controller saying power strange was like no earthing,so that showed controller was ok,cut male connecter off lead pluged into my old cb mains power pack and instant heat all need to do now is put a fuse inline incase of any little accidents.now just phd guideing to stop climbing up graph in dec whilst guiding been month trying get that work.clear skys.

[Adrian]

i poked a screwdriver in female cigerate socket and touched it to side wall and no spark although tank said fully charged

Is it just me that thinks you were lucky it wasn't fully charged

[Reggie]

Is it just me that thinks you were lucky it wasn't fully charged

You are not alone!! RedFox, you were extremely lucky that you didn't blow something. If the fault had been on the heater band it's quite possible that you might have ended up wearing your power tank as novel body piercings! Or a vigourous face peel.

[Psychobilly]

Dead Shorting the outputs of a battery is never really a good idea...especially if you dont know what if any protection devices or circuity is between the short at the battery:eek:

[redfox1971]

Its the usualy trick for testing tractor battrys in my job a little tickle does no harm to test the spark,but dont try after just takeing off charge,thats a big no,if you think a battry pack like that would be loud when explodes you should hear a tractor battry go off,louder than a shoot gun.

[Reggie]

What job do you do Redfox? Just so I can be aware if I see someone with a screwdriver near a tractor battery.

[Skills]

I bet he is in the bomb squad...

[Rols]

WOW........AND WOW AGAIN........

[Uplooker]

I used to work at a lead acid battery factory in the product development department. I had to inspect batteries to discover why they had failed. Would take a battery just off charge and use a large hacksaw to cut the top off it. Sometimes the blade would short across the terminals - made a good bang. just as an aside, sulphuric acid tastes really quite sweet. Always wore eye protection and overalls :-)

Ian