HAve I fried my HEQ5 Pro MB

[pmrid (Peter)]

The Gods can be pretty perverse can't they. I've been getting set to do some imaging of the major conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter on 21 December. Part of that involved buying a QHYCCD PoleMaster, then a ZWO ASI290MC cam then did a strip and regrease of the mount and then, to cap it all off, bought a Rowan Astronomy belt mod kit for it. You'd reckon that ought to make a flaming good portable rig to do some planetary imaging. Right? Yes. I thought so too.

I finished doing the strip and grease and installing the belt mod kit today and was horrified to receive a Synscan message that went through the usual opening screen then told me rather cryptically "Both axes, no response". Well blow me down. What an anticlimax.

I did the usual stuff; tried another handset, tried another power supply and then another power source. I even tried my Synscan WiFi dongle/device. Nope. The handset repeated the same message and the WiFi unit was not found by my IPad. So now I have this really slick, smooth and super sexy HEQ5Pro that I can't use.

Anyone had similar? Better still, anyone found a simple solution that doesn't involve spending good money experimenting and trying to find what will or won't work? A new MB I hear you say! Well, OK but strewth there must be a way to identify if that's actually the problem. And then, find out how I managed to break it in the first place.

Peter

[jahnpahwa (JP)]

Hi Peter,

Have you made sure that both wiring harness clips were reinserted correctly to the motherboard (and haven't popped out since you did)? Taking the front cover off should give a quick visual inspection of those clips... if it was me, I'd be hoping that one just hasn't clipped all the way back in and would be my first check.

[Nikolas (Nik)]

If your mb was fried the synscan would not work, sounds more like the motors' electrodes are not clipped in properly.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Thanks Nik and JP. Wish it was that easy. I did check that and thought it unlikely that both drives would go out if one of them was not correctly plugged in. But I'll check again just to be on the safe side.


Peter

[pmrid (Peter)]

Out of desparation, I just removed the little power panel (the one where you plug in the hand control, power, ST4 etc. When I was able to look, I found that one of the very fine wires running from the hand controller sucket back to the MB was broken away. I'm just about to do a little delicate soldering and am hoping like hell I have found the solution. You have to jigg;e this panel around a fair bit when you're adjusting the RA worm on these mounts and it's not hard to imagine how a wire might work itself free of it's little solder pad. I hope.
Peter

ED: 10 minutes later! Now all power has gone. Power is geting to the switch panel thingy but the LED is not showing and ther handcontrol is not alive. SO I seem to have solved a problem that made things worse. Blow!!

[brisen (Brian)]

Hi Peter

The error message on the handset is definitely an issue with the board. I have seen it twice on one of my mounts and both times it was confirmed as being the board that was the issue.

Brian

[Spartacus]

Hi Peter,

I have seen that message twice in the past with an NEQ6 Pro and a flextube dob and both times it was due to the MB. My fault getting slack and doing a hot swap of the serial connector during testing.
The skywatcher MBs don't have a lot of protection and they are easily fried. I have learned never to plug or unplug the serial connector in or remove without turning off the power.
I think that you can get replacement boards from Saxon Australia.

Good luck

Mike

[Nikolas (Nik)]

I fried mine once on the neq6 and solved it by soldering one of the diodes. The diode is a built in redundancy one to blow if you cause an overload. If it happens again it'll fry the circuit but I do have a spare mb in case.

I can't recall which diodeit is, Have a look at the MB and see if one of these is blackened it is tiny and you may need magnifying glasses.

similar to this
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=166352


otherwise you can buy a new main board from Sirius Optics

[pmrid (Peter)]

Well boys, you’re going to love this. By a lengthy process of analysis, I discovered that the little rocker switch on the mount’s control panel was the culprit. One of the wires was not well soldered. A quick bit of Dr. Soldering Iron and it was fixed. Cost zero. That being accomplished, it was time to see whether my reconnecting that loose wire behind the hand controller socket had achieved anything. Lo and behold! It had. No more cryptic messages and dead motors! And best of all, my new Rowan Astronomy belts buzz around like sewing machines. I now have a BMW with optics instead of a chaff cutter noise polluting beast. Total cost- a bit of hair pulled out but otherwise zero repair costs. Just time!

My analysis: The Motor messages caused by the disconnected wire behind the hand control socket; The zero power caused by a flaky connection on the power switch.

Peter

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

All’s well that ends well