Heq5 no link to M.C..;(

[Starcrazzy]

Hi All.

My heq5 mount has performed flawlessly for the last 7 months (bought new from Andrews).
Tonight it was tracking normally then suddenly started beeping and a message "no link to M.C stand alone mode only".

Now its basically dead in the water. Cant slew, wont engage tracking..nothing..

Has anyone seen this before?

(trying not to cry)

Cheers

[koputai]

I saw it for the first time two nights ago after having my EQ6Pro for two or three years. I just turned the power off, unplugged the handset from the body of the mount (the DB9 connector), plugged it back in, turned the power back on, and away she went.

Give that a try, and also pop out and reseat the RJ45 connector on the bottom of the handset just for good luck.

Cheers,
Jason.

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Starcrazzy,

Some interesting google results on this, from faulty curly cable to disconnected internal plugs to faulty main board controllers.

Even here on IIS Dugnsuz posted about this and he mentions 9/10 problems like this are the curly cord between the handset and the mount. I would check there is no junk in the RJ45 plugs (VISUALLY - DONT go jamming anything in there) and if nothing looks gunky or corroded, try plugging in a standard CAT5 patch/network cable between the handset and the mount and see if this works.

Worth a shot, otherwise, do like I did and google the sucker, make a cup of tea and have a read through the results.....

Good luck.

Cheers

Chris

[Starcrazzy]

Thanx guys..I should have told you, I have ruled out the cable..Also Did the unplug reset thing...still no good.. Ill call Andrews tomorrow and see what he thinks..Should still be under some sort of warranty.

[bmitchell82]

how did you rule out the cable? did you try somebody elses?

My eq6pro (now 4 and a half years old) has a little hissy fit every now and then, and its to do with the DB9 or RS232 connector not being in the right place. pull it out and push it back it. make sure its pushed in nice and snug.

once you have done that, turn it on if it still has a sad, do the same thing with the RJ45 connector to the bottom of the HC. it takes very little to give you a dud connection or too much attenuation to disrupt the hand controller.

Even if it looks good to your eye try and clean it out with some iso propel alcohol on the hand controller just on the pins, and get into the RJ connector with a cotton tip.

Give it a jiggle and and out and see if that fixes it. but like has been said 9 times out of 10.... its that cable or the cable connections to the mount side or the hand controller side

[Starcrazzy]

Ok, ill try that..Thanx..
I tried a normal RJ45 cable (i think) from my computer, it lit up the hand controller but gave the same error message.

[Shiraz]

dont just try one replacement cable - I went through three from my box of junk before I found one that connected properly. A new one from DSE did not work reliably either. regards ray

[Robert9]

I've just had my HEQ5 Pro controller replaced under warranty. It just died last Thursday night while finishing off a star alignment. Purchased from Bintel last December. Took it back on Friday and they confirmed the "dead" status and it was replaced; arrived by post Tuesday. Great service! Thanks Bintel.
I should add that this was apparently the third controller to die recently. So perhaps your controller has met a similar fate.

[Starcrazzy]

I tried a friends hand controller today, still the same result. Im thinking she's fried. :(

[Steffen]

Have you inspected the RJ45 socket at the mount? Maybe there is some dirt of stuff in there, preventing good contact? Don't shove anything in there, though, just look.

Also, are you certain your power supply is ok?

Cheers
Steffen.

[RobC]

I had the same error reported from HEQ5 Pro tonight. Reversed the cable and it started working OK. The cable has a little black box on it. Not sure what this does but it is now at the mount end of the cable. Previously it was at the controller end.

I had been experiencing intermittent problems for the last two weeks with it hanging while slewing and pointing below the ground. I think its all to do with bad connections associated with the RJ connectors. When I reversed the cable it seemed to make a firmer connection with the hand controller.

Been testing it for over an hour now without a hickup. Repeatitively turning the power on , doing an alignment and parking it and turning the power off.

Regards

Rob

[Steffen]

When I got my HEQ5Pro I had intermittent problems with the hand controller, too. The controller would sometimes disconnect from the mount mid-session. Wiggling the cable and re-plugging the plugs sometimes worked, sometimes didn't.

I found that the RJ45 plugs at the ends of the cable were not fully crimped. Hence I put them into my crimp tool, gave them a proper squeeze all the way and the issue has never returned since.

I first verified that the cable was the culprit by using a regular straight-through CAT5 cable, which worked fine. From what's been said above the cable doesn't seem to be the issue in this case, although the sockets still could be.

Cheers
Steffen.