Synscan AZ hand control Help please

[Robert Watson]

HI All, Hope someone can help, I was out useing my scope last night and was working it through the Synscan hand control, put the control in its holder while looking at stars when i looked at the control the text had gone, At first i thought the batt power had droped but it was still good,the control is well lit up.

I tried the up down left right buttons and the scope moved no prob's It seem's ive just lost the text, Doe's anyone know where i could send it to get it repaired

[brantuk]

Were you using "D" Cell batteries or a power pack? And do you get the setup text (date/time, long/lat etc) when you switch it on? Also - check in the "Handset Settings" part of the menus - you might have accidentally dimmed the display too much. If you did that and can't see the menus - you might have to carefully tread through the button depressions from memory and/or manual to brighten the display

[Breakintheclouds]

When I had a SynScan AZ system I found it would go slightly nuts from time to time if the power was in some way disturbed. Most commonly, it would be when I knocked the power connector. However, in every case resetting the system (i.e., pulling the plug, putting it back, and recalibrating the scope) sorted things out. Are you saying your text display remains faulty even after resetting?

[brantuk]

Yup - mine too - some folk have reported dodgey cable connections - getting a new one sometimes does the trick - there's a nice looking cable on FLO - not tried it but I'm sure its ok

[Breakintheclouds]

The cable on FLO that's offered for SynScan setups only fits the more expensive HEQ5/6 mounts - I found out the hard way, and eventually had to buy an HEQ5 pro to match my £12 power cable (at least, that's how I justified it to myself...).

If the power lead is a bit loose, you might have some luck pushing a thin screwdriver into the split pin in the mount, to move the two parts of the pin apart slightly and make it a tighter fit with the power lead.

[brantuk]

Ahhh... good point BITC - thanks for metnioning that. I've been considering getting one for my alt/az setup. You've probably saved me some potential grief lol

[Robert Watson]

Many thanks all, Iv'e changed the batt in the power pack thinking the amp hours might be low,The display is well lit , it even bleeps to say that its on but still no text tested the cable its ok even tried it with the lead i use from the power pack to the fan still no text. HELP......

[gray]

Hi Robert - did you ever find an answer to your problem with the SynScan - it sound similar to my problem (in fact I would say the same) - basically a dead LCD. I've stripped mine down and the PIC inside is running its program, backlight is on, so right now I am checking out the LCD drive signals as all else appears sweet in the garden (maybe I am missing something pretty basic !)

I'm new to the forum to see if I can fix my SynScan (AZ Goto mount)

posted a detailed post on the Mount forum

http://stargazerslounge.com/showthread.php?t=191435

Any quick ideas would help as I am tooling up for the transit and right now its gonna be a load of manual slewing

Gray