Article: Troubleshooting the AS GT Mount

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi All

Narayan Mukkavilli (seeker370211) has kindly written an article on Troubleshooting the AS GT Mount.

You can find the article on the IceInSpace Projects & Articles page or directly by clicking on the link below:

Troubleshooting the AS GT Mount

Thanks to Narayan for writing the article.

If you'd like to submit an article, review or other content to IceInSpace, please Contact Me.

[iceman (Mike)]

Article uploaded

[Karls48 (Karl)]

After reading this I remember that I has same problem with Celestron NexStar GoTo mount some time ago. After checking mount with multimeter I found that DC power socket was faulty. As I could not find exact replacement socket, I replaced it with RCA panel socket. It never come to my mind that centre pin could be split.

[beren]

Great to see articles like this thanks for the warning might keep the power switch on all the time on my CG5ASGT......find the dec cable plug hard to remove from the control panel as well , I just leave it in

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

I have big Myer plastic bag and it sits quite nicely on top of the mount and keeps dust off it for the rest of the time..but once or twice a month I am forced to break everything down to take to my dark site

[Raycon]

Thanks to Narayan for this article. I was just dusting off my scope and it wouldn't power up. Going through the steps in this article helped. I think it was spreading the centre pin on the mount that did it but the switch is obviously on the way out. Leaving it on is a great suggestion that I will stick with.

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

well happy that it helped at least one other person

[Domol (Domenic)]

Excellent pickup!
My 3yo CG5 wouldn't power up about six months ago unless i turned it off/on repeatively!! My mount stays erected (in shed) 24/7. I just blew the dust off the switch and it seemed to work better (covered with large cloth and plastic normally, so shouldn't get much dust). It's been 100% fine lately, but will now use your advice , as i'm worried it will permanetly fail. My 12V battery pack has a switch. Thanks. Domenic

[asterisk (Geoff)]

Thanks Narayan for a very good summary of potential problems.

I had heard of the switch problem soon after I bought my AS GT setup. I solved this problem by building the box below (holds 2 x 30 amp deep cycle batteries in parallel) wired through fuses and switches to the cig lighter sockets.

The mount switch stays permanently on and I switch the power from the box.

Cheers

[lmudge]

I have just fixed my mount based on the advice. It was a fault with the switch! I have removed the it and replaced it with a jumper so that the mount is permanently on when power is connected.

Thanks for tha advice.