Trusting others work? Read on.

[Rols]

I fell foul of not checking anothers handy skills with a soldering iron yesterday, luckily without consequence.

i purchased a scope with a dew band already surrounding the tube, remarked as being made via the instructions of Dew-busters website, (haven't looked yet myself) seemingly nicely made and positioned and fixed as if I'd done it myself.

when purchasing the scope i was told it had been appreciated and used a fair bit, they were reluctant to clean the primary even though it was slightly murky to look at, I was advised that even with the dew-band fitted dew had always been a problem, well i did the SGL advised checks and checked for mold and corrosion, looked at the primary to see if it was scratched or marked and it all seemed good apart from needing (not in my opinion) the clean.

Ha, well it could have been worse, i plugged the lot in to test and pop went the switch on my RCD, i unplugged the mains power supply to the scope and tried again pop went the RCD again, i removed the CCD, you guessed it POP, i removed the Guider dew-band POP, i removed the home made dew-band from the dew buster and hey presto nothing tripped.. didn't get as far as a test meter as when i pulled back the phono plug to reveal the connection the whole lot was soldered together, complete incompetent bodge, i learnt a lesson today if i didn't do it myself or buy it from a retailer then check the lot before i plug my expensive stuff into it. could have lost my dew-buster, made a mess of my OTA, could have gone up in smoke while my back was turned and lost the lot. Anything could have happened all down to someone else thinking they had the skill set to make a dew band.

Lesson learnt, don't trust anything test it all. no wonder dew had been such an issue, the band never worked, how the battery they run it all from ever worked and didn't over heat i don't know. glad mine all runs on an RCD.

Rant over.

[Merlin66]

Buyer Beware!

Glad there were no serious consequences!

[Digz]

Very lucky, good job you had and RCD in the line. Good lesson to learn though!

[pete_l]

... seemingly nicely made and positioned and fixed as if I'd done it myself.... when i pulled back the phono plug to reveal the connection the whole lot was soldered together

One more for the old adage: If you don't know what you're doing, at least do it neatly

[jonathan]

That is why I bought pre-made dew heater gear, I don't trust myself to get it right! Even thought I am good with a soldering iron.

[Rols]

@ Pete_l,

@Jonathan, i'm with you, I'm just waiting for the 12" Dew-not to re appear on Ebay at the right money again.

[Qualia]

Lesson learnt, don't trust anything, test it all.

Great advice!

Glad things worked out on the great and lonely path of critical thinking.