A silly mistake to have made

[Cjg]

I've made a silly mistake with my kit, hopefully others can learn and not make the same!

A few observing sessions ago, my dew heater died, it curtailed my observing session and I found that the fuse in my Hitec Controller had died; took a trip to my local "garage parts store" to replace but an easy fix, and back in business.

Last week I again ran out of power and dewed up, this time my 8 Amp Tracery battery was dead, I berated myself for not fully charging it; they usually do last so long! Charged it up and the next session it had again died after two hours...It's just over a year old, but had nowhere near the 300 cycles...I've sent it to the importers to investigate. 

Locally Wex Photo had an Open Box / refurb Tracer at a very reasonable price, so I purchased that, charged it and was fully prepped for last nigh...After 4 hours, the new battery died!

I pride myself on looking after my kit, but a close inspection of my dew heater tape today revealed wires showing...I've broken it! Not sure how, or when, I'm normally very careful at putting stuff away, but perhaps with cold hands after a long session, or maybe the wires got stretched whilst maneuvering the scope on the mount? 

Either way, if your battery dies powering your dew heater tape, have a good, close examination of your dew tape! 

Not life and death, but when you want to maximise your time out under clear skies, a pain in the Bottom to have to quit early.

New dew heater ordered from FLO and an email sent to Tracer to say "sorry" probably not the battery!

Cheers,

 

Chris

[Davey-T]

Smelt burning rubber a couple of nights ago and found the nichrome wire in my dew band had worn through the casing and was melting the elastic strap 

Dave 

[msh1]

had the same problem with my dew heaters ,took it apart and resoldered it back together , its a terrible design the weak point is where it comes out of the webbing it needs a better connection or a strain relief , next time it goes im gonna sort it out properly as this is the second time it has gone 

[Cjg]

@Davey-T Ouch, didn't smell burning, but that sounds nasty...at least your scope is okay.

@msh1 That's exactly the location that mine has failed at, my handiwork skills are nowhere near the level yours are at, so a replacement ordered. If you want another 3" strap for spares though, I'm happy to pop it into a jiffy bag for you?

Best,

Chris

[JG777]

Thanks for the reminder about this, often found mine getting tangled and strained, will check it over later.

[Davesellars]

Those aren't the Astrozap dew bands by any chance are they?  I've had two go like this.  On inspection they are a terrible design at the joint and imho designed to fail like this.  One had short circuited and noticed when the cable was getting extremely hot instead of strip and the other just separated which tripped the fuse in the Astrozap controller.  This weekend I picked open the band and prized apart the rubber gunk at the joint and re-soldered the connection.  It's not difficult to do at least.

If it killed your battery though how are you connecting the battery to the dew strips?  Do you have a dew controller?  If so the controller should have protected the battery.

[Davesellars]

Those aren't the Astrozap dew bands by any chance are they?  I've had two go like this.  On inspection they are a terrible design at the joint and imho designed to fail like this.  One had short circuited and noticed when the cable was getting extremely hot instead of strip and the other just separated which tripped the fuse in the Astrozap controller.  This weekend I picked open the band and prized apart the rubber gunk at the joint and re-soldered the connection.  It's not difficult to do at least.

What fuse did you replace the controller with? 

[Debo]

Mine also failed in exactly the same way, obviously a weak design point.

[Davesellars]

Take note carefully of the Tracer continuous max discharge current.  For the LIPO 12V 8AH battery this is 8 amps and for the larger ones 10A. Therefore your fuse needs to be this or less to protect the battery.

[Cjg]

23 minutes ago, Davesellars said:

Those aren't the Astrozap dew bands by any chance are they?  I've had two go like this.  On inspection they are a terrible design at the joint and imho designed to fail like this.  One had short circuited and noticed when the cable was getting extremely hot instead of strip and the other just separated which tripped the fuse in the Astrozap controller.  This weekend I picked open the band and prized apart the rubber gunk at the joint and re-soldered the connection.  It's not difficult to do at least.

What fuse did you replace the controller with? 

Yes it is an Astrozap one, a 1 amp fuse (glass) the replacement looked identical to the failed one, bar the broken metal inside.

I'll keep an eye on the replacement Astrozap that I've ordered, the thing is they are used in very cold, damp nights, and although careful, at the end of a long session, with cold hands, perhaps not as careful as I could be?

Chris

[msh1]

6 hours ago, Cjg said:

@Davey-T Ouch, didn't smell burning, but that sounds nasty...at least your scope is okay.

@msh1 That's exactly the location that mine has failed at, my handiwork skills are nowhere near the level yours are at, so a replacement ordered. If you want another 3" strap for spares though, I'm happy to pop it into a jiffy bag for you?

Best,

Chris

hi chris if you dont want it im happy to take it off of  you cheers 

mark

[Cjg]

32 minutes ago, msh1 said:

hi chris if you dont want it im happy to take it off of  you cheers 

mark

Hi Mark, if you message me your address, I'll drop it in the post tomorrow.

chris