EQ6R POWER DRAIN

[ricbrek]

HI ! My EQ6r has developed a power drain in the last couple weeks. Sometime gets a low power indicator. Power suppy is good and all electric contacts just coated with electric spray which sligtly improved things but both axis still pull over 4 amps on slew rate 8.  Hypertuned 18 months ago and has been doing fine since but 2 weeks ago it first stopped running, Then after heating the room and lowering humidity it started to work again, but with high power usage. 10 kilo load. Any ideas ? Motors ? Motherboard ?

[malc-c]

My gut feeling is that if the load is increasing to twice what it should be then the first thing I would look at is if there is any binding in the mount to increase the load on the motors.  The next area would be to check for condensation inside the mount where the motor boards is.  If dampness is providing a path between contacts then a partial short circuit could be increasing the current draw.   It does amuse me that when companies perform all these tuning services, they don't conformal coat the motorboard (s) to prevent moisture / dampness causing issues, especially if the mount is to be used in an observatory.