Skywatcher SupaTrak repairs?

[hobbesy]

hello all. Newbie here, so sorry to hit you with a request first time out.

I was bought a Skywatcher 130p on a Supatrak mount for a birthday about 4 years ago. I used it once, then it went away into storage. (I live in central London and don't own a car.)

however I've got more and more interested in astronomy over the last little while, culminating in a cracking week at Les Granges last Summer, so I thought I'd give it another go.

However, when I stuck the battery pack in, nothing happened. Well, nothing, apart from the pack getting hot and a small burning smell.

Not to be beaten, I nipped to Maplin for parts, built a new battery pack and tried that. I got about 3 seconds out of it before it went "poof."

of course, a Supatrak is not like an EQ mount. If you have no power, you have no mount. This is doubly annoying because on a silly whim and on the understanding that I'll be getting into this star gazing lark, I impulsively bought a Vixen ED81s for half price off the Telescope Outlet site.

So now I have 2 scopes and no mounts. D'oh!

After blowing all my cash on the Vixen, I can't now go buy the EQ5 Pro I've got my eye on - that'll have to wait for a bit. So my options are, bite the bullet and grab one of the £200 synscan gotos or get the old SupaTrak repaired.

So to cut a long story marginally short where the flip can I get a SupaTrak mount repaired? Widescreen Centre put me onto Opticalvision, but they only import, not repair. Help obi wan etc..

cheers

hobbesy

[malc-c]

IMO - simply save up and put the £200 towards the EQ5 pro that you want...

[Carbon Brush]

Sorry to hear of the problem.

Despite the smoke, it could be something simple and cheap, or a write off. without sight of the kit, it is impossible to say.

The quickest solution might be to look about for another mount (new or used) then see if you can get the Supatrak repaired at leisure.

If the repair fails, you can probably recover a few quid selling the Supatrak for spares.

sorry i don't have anything more constructive.

[Cornelius Varley]

It maybe something simple like a short circuit in the wiring. If your need a new pch and handset both are available on Astroboot.

Peter

[hobbesy]

Thanks for the replies, guys. malc, much as I'd love to, I've got 3 weekends in a row out of town when I could conceivably get some viewing it - the iron is hot and I want to strike. Waiting until July for an EQ is probably not an option right now. (Although I'll still need 2 mounts - or possibly 3 if I get a solar scope too:))

Not being all that good at technical stuff - I could manage wiring a battery pack, but when it comes to anything more I have 2 left feet for hands - I'd be loathe to blow myself up or start a fire or something. (Although I suppose I couldn't make it worse that it already is.)

So is there really nowhere that does mount repairs? Are you stargazing types tech-ninjas too?

[malc-c]

OVL are the importers of SW gear for the UK, and from my experience if a part is faulty and in warranty they simply replace the parts (handset / synscan units etc) rather than repair them. So the question is how to obtain parts if the sole importer doesn't stock components like PCB's etc. So even if you found a shop/repair centre, chances are they would need to import the control board (assuming that is what went up in smoke), which could turn out to be as expensive as buying a new mount, the latter would of course come with a years warranty.

As Peter has pointed out - PCB is available for £20 http://www.scopesnskies.com/AstroBoot

[hobbesy]

Yes, fair point I suppose.

I'm a bit loathe to lash any money on it without a guarantee of it being fixed. If I get the PCB and controller, I could just end up another £35 out of pocket and still mountless. Whereas a repair would be guaranteed.

Ok, thanks all, I appreciate your contributions.

[hobbesy]

I am the magic fixing man!

Was bored last night and had decided to get a new mount anyway, so I figured there'd be no harm in having a look to see if there were any dodgy cables etc in the mount.

So I disassembled it, poked around, whacked it with hammers etc.

When I put it back together, it worked. It bloomin' worked! I am the magic fixing man! I can fix things merely by taking them apart and putting them back together! Wooo! I'm going to make a fortune. I should go into alternative medicine or Chiropractic or something!*

Now I have to decide whether I'm still going to buy a new goto mount...

*Disclaimer. Hobbesy in no way supports or endorses quackery, snake oil vending or other made up pseudo science. Especially blumming homeopathy.