My Daystar Quark has suddenly stopped working

[Dave Smith]

I have used my Quark successfully for a few years but it has suddenly stopped tuning to see in H-alpha. Nothing has changed in my setup and I am using the same battery as ever. The light comes on but the view as seen by my camera only gives the white light view. After 10 minutes plus there is no change.

Has any one experienced this before? It looks terminal to me.

I suspect it has gone into a big sulk because behind it's back I have ordered a Lunt 60mm !

I would be grateful for any ideas.

Dave

[Stu]

2 hours ago, Dave Smith said:

I have used my Quark successfully for a few years but it has suddenly stopped tuning to see in H-alpha. Nothing has changed in my setup and I am using the same battery as ever. The light comes on but the view as seen by my camera only gives the white light view. After 10 minutes plus there is no change.

Has any one experienced this before? It looks terminal to me.

I suspect it has gone into a big sulk because behind it's back I have ordered a Lunt 60mm !

I would be grateful for any ideas.

Dave

Not good news Dave, sorry to hear that.

@Davey-T went through multiple challenges with various quarks so maybe he can give some advice.

[Davey-T]

Does the LED change from red to green ?

Dave

[Dave Smith]

7 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Does the LED change from red to green ?

Dave

Hi Dave, I'm not too sure about that. Thefirst time it stopped working it didn't change to green. When I  next tried it was a lovely green and I hoped it would then work but alas not. I did try again but not really green.

Dave

 

[Roy Challen]

I've not experienced this, but you could try a different battery and cable just to eliminate the possibility of a fault with those.

[Rob63]

Not easy to diagnose without an image of what you are seeing Dave but there are two potential issues that spring to mind.

1. The heater on the etalon has failed or gone out of range - This would give you a featureless disk

Does the red part get warm when its at green status? have you tried various dial settings?

2. The blocking filter has gone out of band (due to age, heat etc.)

Is the view washed out, lacking contrast but you still get some faint Ha features?

Check out the following thread https://solarchatforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=25951

 

case 1. is not really user fixable, are you within warranty (5 years for a quark I think)?

case 2. is fixable - I just replaced the blocking filter in mine which was 7 years old and it has made a big difference (12.5mm Andover 656fs02 1nm).

 

[Davey-T]

Sounds like it needs sending off to Daystar Dave although this isn't without it's problems in my experience.

First insured courier isn't cheap and necessary export / import paperwork is confusing.

Then you have to hope that they actually fix it when they get it as I have had them returned as bad or worse than when sent so obviously they hadn't bothered to test them before returning.

Communication with Daystar is a bit hit and miss, generally I've phoned and emailed the lovely Tiffany who is sometimes very helpful and others incommunicado.

As said it should have a five year warranty but this isn't made clear if it covers the whole thing or just the etalon.

Customs can be a pain when it's retuned as they appear to have no concept of something coming back into the country after repair,  they hung onto one of mine for weeks trying to prise some import duty money out of me.

Dave

[Dave Smith]

Thanks for all the helpful comments and also the link to SolarChat. I tried plugging it in again and the light was still amber after half an hour and no sign of any warming up.

 So I brought in indoors while having a late breakfast. I left it plugged in and to my surprise found the light was green and the red section felt a nice cosy warm. I then turned the dial and it has since returned to green.

So I am now desperate to try it on the scope with the Sun but, of course, it is cloudy.

To answer earlier questions, the disc of the Sun did look featureless apart from sunspots and before this there had been no degradation of the image.

I will report back once I am able to get a glimpse of the Sun. 

[Chaz2b]

When I had mine, it never seem to go green for ages, then I went and plugged in from the mains and it went green very quickly, check your battery voltage and see if it drops dramatically after a few minutes of switching it on.

chaz

[Davey-T]

2 hours ago, Dave Smith said:

Thanks for all the helpful comments and also the link to SolarChat. I tried plugging it in again and the light was still amber after half an hour and no sign of any warming up.

 So I brought in indoors while having a late breakfast. I left it plugged in and to my surprise found the light was green and the red section felt a nice cosy warm. I then turned the dial and it has since returned to green.

So I am now desperate to try it on the scope with the Sun but, of course, it is cloudy.

To answer earlier questions, the disc of the Sun did look featureless apart from sunspots and before this there had been no degradation of the image.

I will report back once I am able to get a glimpse of the Sun. 

I had one that the light turned green when indoors in the warm but as soon as I took it outside it turned red again.

Dave

[Highburymark]

I bet the etalon is fine - so frustrating when the mechanics let you down. Wonder if Daystar offer a buy-back service like Lunt? 

[Dave Smith]

39 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

I had one that the light turned green when indoors in the warm but as soon as I took it outside it turned red again.

Dave

When I took mine outside today it stayed green but the clouds became rather threatening so all is packed up again.

Dave

[JeremyS]

1 hour ago, Highburymark said:

I bet the etalon is fine - so frustrating when the mechanics let you down. Wonder if Daystar offer a buy-back service like Lunt? 

That’s interesting Mark. I wasn’t aware of that. Says 50% but could be 75%

[Paz]

I used a usb tester meter to check out my quark when I got it. If it's colder outside it takes more power to warm up the quark plus at the same time the battery might work less efficiently so it is  a problem worth testing/eliminating.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B098T7P29L/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWwp13NParams

[Dave Smith]

The good news is that it was working fine this morning. I only had a brief glimpse of the Sun as it is mostly cloudy but I could see surface detail and a prom before re-clouding.

So it looks as if I have a connection problem. I tried out in my observatory early on but it showed no sign of warming up even when I changed to a mains powered power supply, but the same lead to he quark. I have now ordered a new USB to microB lead which can get power from my USB hub.

Thanks again for all the suggestions. I'll keep you posted.

Dave

[Jonk]

If you regularly unplug it, then my money's on the potential that the usb socket might be faulty.

I have a quark but not checked to see if it can easily be opened to replace the socket.

This issue appears on phones, usb speakers, rechargeable torches etc all the time, unfortunately.

[Dave Smith]

1 minute ago, Jonk said:

If you regularly unplug it, then my money's on the potential that the usb socket might be faulty.

I have a quark but not checked to see if it can easily be opened to replace the socket.

This issue appears on phones, usb speakers, rechargeable torches etc all the time, unfortunately.

If a new lead does not solve it then that will be my next thing to try.

[Roy Challen]

1 hour ago, Jonk said:

If you regularly unplug it, then my money's on the potential that the usb socket might be faulty.

I have a quark but not checked to see if it can easily be opened to replace the socket.

This issue appears on phones, usb speakers, rechargeable torches etc all the time, unfortunately.

The socket could also be full be full of dirt. Phone sockets get full of pocket fluff...worth giving the Quark and your phone a quick clean. If you have access to compressed air, that'd work best.

Edited May 31, 2022 by Roy Challen

[Paz]

I was worried about the usb connection flapping around so I got myself a right angled usb which is easier to keep still (you have to check though that it's the right orientation of right angle so that it sends the line the right direction).

[Highburymark]

1 hour ago, Dave Smith said:

The good news is that it was working fine this morning. I only had a brief glimpse of the Sun as it is mostly cloudy but I could see surface detail and a prom before re-clouding.

So it looks as if I have a connection problem. I tried out in my observatory early on but it showed no sign of warming up even when I changed to a mains powered power supply, but the same lead to he quark. I have now ordered a new USB to microB lead which can get power from my USB hub.

Thanks again for all the suggestions. I'll keep you posted.

Dave

Excellent news Dave. Hope you get the connection sorted.    
 

[Jonk]

34 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

If you have access to compressed air, that'd work best.

If you can, only use cda (compressed dried air) or at least compressed air that has been passed through a water and oil trap in the least, preferably a 3 stage filter.

There's nothing worse than blasting something out with compressed air only to find it replaces the crud with oil and water!

Those 'duster cans' too - please don't use them.

At least clean out with IPA or PCB cleaner afterwards.

[Dave Smith]

25 minutes ago, Paz said:

I was worried about the usb connection flapping around so I got myself a right angled usb which is easier to keep still (you have to check though that it's the right orientation of right angle so that it sends the line the right direction).

I do like that. Great idea and looks far more secure.

Dave

[Dave Smith]

Well thank you very much every body for you advice. I seem to be back in business, the new lead seems to have much better contact with the Quark.

The lead a microB to standard USB came as a pack of 3. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07HPZVT2K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1  I only need the one so if any one who gave advice would find one useful then send me a PM and I will happily post one FOC.

Here is my first image of this morning. I was very lucky with that arc prom as when I came back to have another look it was gone.

Dave

[Stu]

Great news Dave 👍

[Roy Challen]

Glad all is well, and I'll be keeping an eye on my usb socket/leads too.