EQ6R-PRO Power Issues

[Shelster1973]

Oh you have to love this hobby for throwing challenges at you. 

Got a new powered usb hub the other day as one I was using died on me. That was the only thing I changed on my setup and came to get going tonight and the mount would not play ball. 

‘When I tried to manually slew, could barely hear the motors whiting and nothing moved. 

Tried another psu and same condition. Did notice that the power led was slow flashing and looking at the manual ?this indicates that the input voltage is too low.

decided to tear down and bring inside to try and get to the bottom of it. Got yet another 12v psu that is rated at 5A and wired in with the mount being the only thing connected and it was the same again.

am tearing my heart out now. 

Have ordered a supply from @FLO to try and get to the bottom of this but have a feeling I may be making a trip down the a38 soon. Really hope the mount is not stuffed. 

Have checked on clutches and other obvious suspects and there is nothing hindering rotation........grrrrrrrr

[Anthonyexmouth]

just as a quick check you could pop the head and handset out to a car and use the cigarette lighter lead. defo have 12v and plenty of amps there. 

[Shelster1973]

Just tried that Anthony and is worse. Now get rapid flashing led. 

‘The mount powers on and you can use the direction buttons to move it, it is just woefully slow. Even at rate 9 where it should be whirling like a dervish it only just moves (have taken the access plates off side so can see motors and belts)

Is a different power cable that I used then too.....

[symmetal]

It looks like a high resistance connection inside the mount. With the power disconnected remove the side panel with the connectors on (the 4 outermost screws I expect) and look at the wire connections from the power connector and power switch to the PCB. Maybe one of the wires is only held by a few strands. or there's a bad solder joint.  You could also remove the power connector on the PCB itself and check for any heat damage (dis-colouration) on the connector pins which indicates a poor connection.

If there's nothing obvious and you have a multimeter power it up with the side panel hanging off (ensure nothing is shorted to the mount) and measure the 12V on the PCB each side of the power switch while your slewing to see where the 12V drops. If it's still looking OK then there may be a component failure which is a bit more complicated to find if your're not electronically minded.

Alan

[Shelster1973]

I have thought about checking inside, but mount is only 9 months old, so still in warranty period. 

[Shelster1973]

New PSU on its way.

I did have a sneaky peak inside and all looked good as far as I could see.  Is very sparse inside there.  Did notice that the control board had empty headers for encoders and few other things, so looks like SkyWatcher are using same control boards for their mounts and just omitting to fit certain components.  Will take a few pictures of the insides as everyone likes to see what is going on in there.

Found out that there is an option in the synscan handset to monitor voltage, so will have a look at that and see what it reports.  Am also going to do a factory reset just in case something has been changed and will have a known datum to work from then.

[Shelster1973]

Tried my plan...and still the same.

Also metered the cabling to the switch and that is a dead short when switch in on position, so no loading from that.

As promised here are a few pics

Front plate with the required screws to be removed circled

Inside main body showing steppers and the dec axis with counter weight bar retracted into it.

Close up of the steppers and also something that had me puzzled for a wee bit.  Is the LED for the polar scope

Main circuit board.  Power comes in on the right side on the top connector then jumpers out on the bottom one to the switch (hidden under board).  Just by those connectors are the through board connections for the hand control and guide ports.

Showing the jumper connections I mentioned.  Empty slots for HOME, RA ENCODER and DEC ENCODER.  Filled ones are for RA Worm Index position opto sensor and the front panel snap port.

Access panels taken off the stepper motor / belt housing

Close up 1

Close up 2

Is all buttoned back up now ready for new PSU test tomorrow.  What I did try while the stepper access plates where off was to see if I could rotate the mount by hand turning , just in case anything had bound up.  Turned out I could do that, so am happy that there is nothing wrong with any of the gearing, so is either a power issue or the main board has gone bad on me.

[symmetal]

Looks like the same board as on the AZ-EQ6. As you say nothing looks out of the ordinary. Did you re-seat the connectors to the power input and switch? The only real way is to measure the voltages around the board but that means having it powered with the board hanging out which risks causing shorts. As it's under guarantee probably best avoided if you're not too confident doing this. 

As you've tried several different power supplies and 2 different power leads I'd be surprised that a new power supply will fix it, but you never know. Good luck anyway.

Alan

[Shelster1973]

Alan

would be happy poking around as am an electrical/electronics engineer by trade, but as ups say, it is still under warranty so can go back. As much as I would love to work out what the problem is, is not worth the money. If it was outside of warranty it would be on a bench now being probed to within an inch of its life

if the new psu does not solve it, at least I have a decent one for when I get it back up and running. 

‘Now need to imagineer a power distribution solution

[symmetal]

Ah, didn't know you're an electronics engineer too Shelster.  Well, I'm a retired one now.  Was going to say the two 3 terminal packages (SOT-223) with the heat sink tabs above the power connectors are the 5V and 3.3V regulators. You can measure the voltages on the tabs. (For future reference) 

Alan

[Shelster1973]

Would love to retire, but too young and with too many bills ?

I did reseat the power connectors earlier, forgot to mention. 

May take a few more pics tomorrow of the board and see if I can trace out the circuit. Am going bigclivedotcom on it ?

[Shelster1973]

Well, new PSU arrived, was plugged in and is the same.  No change to the fault.  Tried it with 2 different cables, one from the plugs and the other from the cigarette lighter socket, all the same.  The built in ammeter barely registered anything when powered up, so something has gone inside there.

Have just sent email to @FLO to start the process of getting it returned.  Handily, I only live down the road from FLO, so can take it back myself and not have to worry about the courier side of getting it returned.

New PSU looks great.  And the warning label from FLO was true.......

....it did 

[symmetal]

I thought that would be the result unfortunately, but at least you can swap it with a short road trip.  Meanwhile enjoy playing with the fluffy model clouds. 

Alan

[Shelster1973]

Is now back in the hands of flo. Will be looked at on Tuesday by then. 

Unfortunately those clouds have escaped and are now filling the skies. Sorry to all

[Shelster1973]

Latest update from Rob @FLO is that it looks as we have all suspected and there has been a death on the electronics board and so this will need replacing.  Hopefully this will not take too long, but with current weather am in no rush to get the mount back.

Gives me a chance to imagineer my power distribution solution. Can feel a heavy use of theb3d printer coming up

[Shelster1973]

Update on this. 

‘Mount is now back and sorted. Rob swapped the board over and all is as it should be. 

‘Now taking the opportunity that this pants weather has provided to sort out all my cabling and power. Am almost done. Just need the move my finder so that it is mounted atop main scope and then dress in the usb cables. Would really like to crop them to correct length, but will leave them as they are and just tidy away

[symmetal]

Glad it's back working.  With the weather you couldn't have used it anyway so not much lost. 

Alan

[x00m]

On 10/03/2019 at 22:15, Shelster1973 said:

Update on this. 

‘Mount is now back and sorted. Rob swapped the board over and all is as it should be. 

‘Now taking the opportunity that this pants weather has provided to sort out all my cabling and power. Am almost done. Just need the move my finder so that it is mounted atop main scope and then dress in the usb cables. Would really like to crop them to correct length, but will leave them as they are and just tidy away

I know this is an old post... however im getting power issues with my EQ6-R Pro as well.. i also bought mine from FLO. Did you have to send the entire mount head? or just the power board? sending the entire head will cost a load of money as its so heavy!

 

Cheers.

[Shelster1973]

I had to take the entire head back to them. I am lucky in that I am only 30 mins away from FLO, so did not have to courier it there.

What issues are you having with your mount?

Edited December 22, 2019 by Shelster1973

[x00m]

2 minutes ago, Shelster1973 said:

I had to take the entire head back to them. I am lucky in that I am only 30 mins away from FLO, so did not have to courier it there.

What issues are you having with your mount?

 

Last night i was gonna set up my imaging rig to take photos. However, once i set everything up and went onto power the mount... nothing. the power LED will not come on. i tried different power leads, different power adaptors, and still nothing...

upon closer inspection, when i press the power button on the mount, i can hear a very faint high pitched hissing noise, i believe those are the stepper motos... but after a few seconds the hissing noise stops.

The mount is definitley not powering on as the pc cant detect the mount anymore. nor my ZWO ASIAIR.

[Shelster1973]

That does sound like a rather terminal power issue. If it is still in warranty get in touch with @FLO and have it sent back for repair. 

[FLO]

1 hour ago, x00m said:

I know this is an old post... however im getting power issues with my EQ6-R Pro as well.. i also bought mine from FLO. Did you have to send the entire mount head? or just the power board? sending the entire head will cost a load of money as its so heavy!

If it is a warranty issue we will happily cover the cost of collection 🙂

48 minutes ago, Shelster1973 said:

That does sound like a rather terminal power issue. If it is still in warranty get in touch with @FLO and have it sent back for repair. 

Yes. If you haven’t already then please do email us details. We will then find and respond to your email when we reopen tomorrow. 

HTH, 

Steve 

[x00m]

1 hour ago, FLO said:

If it is a warranty issue we will happily cover the cost of collection 🙂

Yes. If you haven’t already then please do email us details. We will then find and respond to your email when we reopen tomorrow. 

HTH, 

Steve 

Hi Steve, that is great news. and yes i have already emailed you guys!

 

awaiting response tomorrow!

 

Cheers!

[FLO]

57 minutes ago, x00m said:

Hi Steve, that is great news. and yes i have already emailed you guys!

awaiting response tomorrow!

Cheers!

I don’t recall us receiving an email 🤔

Perhaps you sent it today or yesterday? (We close weekends). 

Steve 

[FLO]

13 minutes ago, FLO said:

I don’t recall us receiving an email 🤔

Perhaps you sent it today or yesterday? (We close weekends)

Just logged in to our helpdesk from home and found it. You emailed us Sat evening so myself or a colleague will respond when we reopen tomorrow/Monday 🙂

HTH, 

Steve