Sky-watcher - heritage 114p virtuoso won't turn on

[dlads]

Hi all,

Very new to astronomy/astrophotography.

Got an 80/500 for my birthday and the mount broke so got another which is the virtuoso 114p.

Was working fine but then the damn electrical mount now will not turn on with batteries or on DC 12V.

There was no bang, or smoke or any event to suggest it was fried.. I've only had it since early Feb and have only had less than 5 days of clear skies since.

I'm in London and the seller (company called Robtrics) is in Holland so returning could be a ballache. 

I don't have the synscan device just the navigation and tracking which is on a dobsonian type of mount.

The adapter is fine and the batteries and ok.

Any help or ideas please? There's so little information on this telescope, I've contacted the seller but yet to hear back, I've also contacted sky-watcher but not going for much from them.

I've had rotten luck since I started out with this hobby, I'm losing hope and faith in my choice of scope.

 

 

 

[Stargazer33]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck!

I think your best option is to wait to hear back from the seller. It could just be a dry solder joint on the power supply, but you don't want to start taking it apart to investigate as it is still under warranty. The seller should offer a repair or even a replacement. 

[dlads]

@Stargazer33

 

Cheers mate. Aye, I'm of the same thinking, I'm just worried about extra charges he may add or even being ignored. I know times are hard at the moment. 

I'm not going to pop it open but have you heard of this type of thing before? Where would you even source something like a logic board from? 

Info on this scope is sparse to say the least.

 

PS: I heard back from sky-watcher, they simply said contact the seller as my contract is with them. 

Hoping he has something to offer and contacts soon..I think the least intrusive fix would be if he had a board laying around, new would be nice.

Sending it back could be a chore and charges from the UK (Brexit) have been on the rise.

Yep like I said, luck's not been with me for a long time now.

Edited February 27, 2021 by dlads

[dlads]

Ok so the chap from Robtrics came back to me and immediately I knew something was off.

I emailed on the Friday, he came back late on Monday.

Stating he'll contact me back to see if anything could be done.

Tuesday night, I email again, "what's going on" 

He ignores me, I email again, he ignores me.

Wednesday night, he comes back, he's going to tell someone in the UK to contact me, no one has.

I let him know I'm unhappy with a refurb unit and that it's less than 30 days old, also that I'd contacted sky-watcher who say that it's not down to them it's with him (the seller) do not quite sure what he said to them.

His fix is for me to return the unit to sky-watcher, for them to replace it (several months for this) or for sky watcher to refund it to the seller when they receive it? Seems silly for a brand new unit, if this was a phone I could take it back and get a new one or a full refund, the seller seems reluctant to do this.

Anyway I clearly showed him I was upset. I paid via PayPal so I may as well use them for the refund as I'd probably be waiting an age to get my money back.

They've shown a general lack of want to help from the off and I'm really disappointed with them, also the quality of the scope with all lenses has been worse than my Slokey 80/500 much less clarity with any lens in comparison.

I'll see what PayPal says but there the situation at the moment, I really wish I could see this guy face to face, I have no doubt he'd be a lot nicer and forthcoming stood in front of me.

Problem stands with if I get rid of the scope and am refunded, what do I buy next? And where from as the scopes have all been sold 

 

[KP82]

Really sorry to hear about your poor experience with this particular seller.

With all the extra hassles, delays and additional import charges at the custom after brexit, I'd strongly advise you buy from local retailers. Currently most scopes are out of stock everywhere, but if you don't want to wait here is one:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes-in-stock/sky-watcher-mercury-707-az-telescope.html

This should give you comparable views to the Slokey 80/500 you had before.

There is another scope currently in stock at FLO, the Explorer 130M. But don't get that one as it has an inferior spherical primary mirror. If you'd like a newtonian reflector (a 6" f/5 model would be my recommendation for beginners as a do-it-all type of scope with portability) similar to the 114 virtuoso, make sure you get one with a parabolic mirror.

[dlads]

On 04/03/2021 at 10:47, KP82 said:

Really sorry to hear about your poor experience with this particular seller.

With all the extra hassles, delays and additional import charges at the custom after brexit, I'd strongly advise you buy from local retailers. Currently most scopes are out of stock everywhere, but if you don't want to wait here is one:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes-in-stock/sky-watcher-mercury-707-az-telescope.html

This should give you comparable views to the Slokey 80/500 you had before.

There is another scope currently in stock at FLO, the Explorer 130M. But don't get that one as it has an inferior spherical primary mirror. If you'd like a newtonian reflector (a 6" f/5 model would be my recommendation for beginners as a do-it-all type of scope with portability) similar to the 114 virtuoso, make sure you get one with a parabolic mirror.

Cheers mate,

I've actually spoken with sky-watcher who will have apparently ordered the logic board (I can fix this myself if I have a replacement board) 

4 months they said couldn't make it up.

The seller is a bad bad douche, I wouldn't touch that shop ever again and sure I'd have been more than happy to buy local, just no one had anything.

Cheers for the recommendation but not quite what I'm looking for tbh, I think you'd have a hard time mounting a DSLR to that also tracking is something I'd like to keep if I could, just the cost of getting all the kit for a half decent scope really starts to get pricey.

Ironically I've had some of the clearest nights ever since it broke which is in contrast to when I got it it was cloudy for like 4 weeks solid.

I'll probably check back on here in what? July?

Thanks again.

 

PS: if you know of a place I can buy a logic board for the mount... That would be great, personally can't find one. Nothing appears to be broken on face value but power isn't getting through, it's a weird one.

Edited March 26, 2021 by dlads