Celestron AVX fault

[bf79]

Hi folks, looking for some advice on my AVX mount. I went to set it up the other day and I was just getting a fault saying “No Response 17” on the handset. I tried using both my starsense handsets as well with both of them showing different faults (one being stuck on initialising and the other saying unable to detect telescope model, but Im sure they do the same on my 6SE mount so Im assuming they are both faulty as well 🤦‍♂️)

Also my Skyportal wifi doesnt connect to it, and I know that does work. 
 

Anyway, I opened the mount to see if there was anything obvious, and I notice one of the chips looks like it might have burnt / melted slightly. Anybody had similar issues or able to give an opinion on the chip? 
 

It had been working fine when I last had it out a couple of months ago (other than my inability to properly polar align it due to my lack of patience 🤣)
 

Im hoping if thats the cause of the fault then I might be able to replace the board as opposed to buying a new mount 🤔

[Starflyer]

There's a very active community of AVX user's on Facebook, I'm sure I've seen this question, or similar, asked before;

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1512968022196298/?ref=share

[Cosmic Geoff]

IIRC 'No Response 17" means that the mount is not responding to the handset.  Could be for any reason, but if one of the mount chips is fried, well that could explain it. That chip does look fried.

[bf79]

So, a quick update…

I managed to source a replacement motor control board as part of an upgrade / retrofit kit from RVO (who were very helpful 👍)

 

Ive managed to get it all fitted, but theres still an issue. The hand controller still shows the fault, but the mount does now work with the wifi module on the app. Looks like i’ll need to replace the hand controller now as well 🤦‍♂️

 

What Ive realised though is that a few months ago I had went out to a dark sky area with my AVX mount and 2 starsense units to try them on the mount. Everything I took with me is now faulty. Nothing got wet, theres no obvious damage to anything, but none of it works now and Ive no idea why.
Turned out to be an expensive trip 🙁 

[malc-c]

The MK20DX256 is the main ARM cortex processor, so you would need to find the firmware file, convert it to HEX and then use a programmer to upload the HEX to the replacement processor.  The fact you are still having the same issue with the replacement board suggest that something in the handset or any daughter board has also suffered damage as the handset can't get a response when it interrogates the mount to obtain the mount details such as gearing etc.