Synscan AZ handset Failure

[Al.Grant]

The past 2 nights we've had clear skies in the UK [An event so rare it's almost worth a post just to announce that!], hoping to make the most of this opportunity I grabbed my Skymax 127 AZ Goto and looked to the heavens ...... my joy was short lived!

Powering up my scope the screen of the AZ Synscan lit up but no text was displayed. A few seconds after powering up the handset 'beeped' but nothing else.

No text is being displayed on the handset and pressing buttons like 'Esc' 'Setup' & 'Enter' do nothing, nor do the number keys or 'Rate' 'Utility' etc.

The up/down/left/right keys seem to be working, so I can manually move the scope, but nothing else.

When it happened I did wonder if it was low batteries, but I changed them and also ran from mains ..... still the same. No initialisation, no text and only manual adjustment of the scope.

I have not tried any firmware updates recently (was running the latest firmware) so it wasn't a failed upgrade.

The only thing I can think of doing is to try loading the firmware again and hope this fixes things. If not then it could be dead

Any ideas please ?

[damnut]

Hi There,

Have you tried setting up in daylight?, might be an obvious thing but check the cables are seated properly and that the handset was no too cold, my old handcontroller on my lx suffered display issues in the cold. Loading latest firmware is always a good idea.

Have you joined east midlands stargazers??. We have a dark site at Wymeswold not far from Loughborough, lots of folk with good experience you can call on. Check out http://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.org.uk/

[Al.Grant]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply and link to the East Mids stargazers .... I'll be following that one up - Wymeswold isn't far from me.

I didn't try it in daylight, but did check cables with a torch - a bright, white one as I'd given up!

I removed and replaced cables a couple of times and got the same result each time, but I give it a try again before I try a firmware update. I probably won't get time to try the firmware tonight anyway.

[Al.Grant]

Just thought I'd finish this off by saying that I did a firmware update and the handset came back to life and seems to be working correctly.

Will certainly be following up the East Mids stargazers as soon as work calms down a little...

Thanks