EQ5 Synscan bare wire on DEC cable.

[zedds]

Hello all.

With the weather being great for cloudwatching lately, i haven`t been down the obs for the last couple of weeks. I was showing a friend around the obs the other day when i noticed this bare wire coming out of the dec cable on the mount. I`ve no idea how it has come loose as i don`t ever remember the cable going tight. The cable is black and yellow.

Question is, is it:

A. Dangerous?. I suspect any bare wire coming out of a mains powered mount is dangerous.

B. Fixable?. If not, does anyone know where to source a replacement dec cable.

Has this happened to anyone here before?

[idbvideo]

It looks like the cable has been pulled from the strain relief.

There are no mains voltages used in the electronics, its 12V. Presumably you are using a power supply to give the mount power. In which case it will have short circuit protection and reverse polarity protection built in. So you can rest easy on that side.

From the photo it looks like one of the wires is detached.

If the mount is working with the cable as it is, then it is probably a ground wire but you never know. Tape it up with insulating tape and look to get a replaacement for peice of mind.

The problem with this type of connector is that the insulation part (back plastic) is moulded and cannot be split easily. It looks like a DIN standard connector so count the number of pins on it and look to see if you can find a similar connector on the internet. You should be able to find one. If you replace the connector the cable will be a couple of inches shorter.

Hope that helps

[zedds]

Thanks Ian.