HEQ5 losing power in the cold?

[adamh]

Hi,

I took my HEQ5 out in the cold last week, and I had great difficulty getting it to run as the power light would flick on and off.

I'm using the maplin XM21X power supply, and an Astronomiser cable.

I had no problem with it over the summer, but it was never as cold overnight as it is at the moment!

I got it partially working by using some playdoh to hold the cable in, but I still got drop outs. (Typically just after I'd finished aligning and was slewing to Jupiter! Meant manually guiding to see anything, and a very short session due to grumpiness)

So any ideas on the problem, and suggestions for solutions?

Thanks,

Adam

[brianb]

Most likely the battery doesn't like the cold.

[adamh]

I'm not using a battery, I'm running it from a mains power supply.

[GrantEb]

I would give the connector on the power supply a good clean, with switch cleaner, or alcohol or similar, and try it again.

Also, tie the cables up to a hard point to relieve the stress from the connectors.

HTH

[adamh]

It seems clean enough, but I will have a go if I find something suitable.

Strangely the cable seems to work perfectly in one orientation, but rotate it 180 and it stops working reliably. I still can't tell if it's the cable or the mount, and unfortunately the cable the mount came with doesn't work at all (seems to be a continuity problem).