Hopefully I have this problem sorted now, so I'm just posting this in case it helps someone else down the track
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For the last week or so I've been struggling with an intermittent problem where the drive motors on the mount abruptly stop. It has happened in the past, ages ago, and usually switching the mount off and firing it up again does the trick. However, this last week it has been very recalcitrant... and of course that's while I have visitors who want to have a look!
Apparently, this behaviour can be caused by insufficient voltage to the motors. Everything is powered up but the motors simply won't drive. So I went through the process of elimination: battery charged, power lead good (I actually modified the lead to shorten it as much as possible and tested to ensure it was as low resistance as I could get), I cleaned all contacts with contact cleaner, and spread the centre pin of the power socket (very carefully)... all to no avail.
Finally I got down to pulling the mount apart.
With the mount covers opened, I powered up and checked voltage on the pins of the power plug and the switch. All good.
Then I noticed the that 2 of the 4 multipin plugs for the motors were slightly crooked in the sockets on the main PCB. I straightened them up and viola! The drives worked!
I didn't think the misalignment was significant, but perhaps it is
, or the contacts were slightly tarnished and moving the plugs helped to re-establish contact. My scope is probably 4 - 5 years old now. So I unplugged and reseated the plugs to see if the problem came back, or if the additional movement might clean up a bit more tarnish. ....So far it seems to be working OK!
Al.
