HEQ5 Broken PCB?

[blinky]

Last night I set my HEQ5 Pro up in the back garden, all was OK, I started slewing to the first alignment star then it all went wrong!  The power LED stayed on but the mount appeared to reset, switching the switch off, the power led still stayed on.... I brought it in the house and took it apart but can find no fault - the unit now switches on and off as normal but the handset keeps saying it is not connected to the mount   Anybody seem this before? I assume since the handset powers on that it is the HEQ5 PCB thats faulty - can I order a new one from anywhere?  I have heard of the inductors blowing in them but as far as I can tell from buzzing it out with a multimeter they seem to be fine - is there anything else I can check?

[Cornelius Varley]

If the board is dead you can get a replacement from ModernAstronomy (possibly other places) for about £100.

[Starflyer]

Hi Craig,

I'm pretty sure there's an image of the board and said inductor in the EQ6 Yahoo group files section.  It's a tiny tiny SMD and most repairs just bridge it with some very fine wire, worth a try before you shell out on a new board.

Can you try the mount without the handset with an EQDIRECT adapter?

Cheers,

Ian

[blinky]

Well, I took the handset and cable to a friends house last night and can confirm that both are fine so it's either the motor board or the small board that has the 12v socket and handset socket etc. I contacted OVL directly who said I can send just the 2 PCB's down and they will give me a quote for repair (In reality I don't suppose it will be a repair but a new board!). I also asked on the EQ6 Yahoo site about the blown inductor and did see the image you were referring to Ian but it is for an EQ6 and the boards are different.

[blinky]

Well that's great service from OVL - Sent it back, it arrived Friday and they have given me a price to replace the faulty board today. Just need to send them a cheque...

Glad I dealt with them direct as I did leave a voicemail with another supplier about a week ago but have never heard back!