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Investigation update. I think I’ve found a significant issue with the mount power supply. I’d previously measured the output of the supply as 12.2 (static) – 11.7 (during slew). The red light stayed on continuously, so I thought everything was OK. However, measuring the PSU directly showed it was oscillating between 11.3 – 12V over a period of about 1-2s. This didn’t seem to register on the handset, but was clearly visible on a multimeter. I obtained a stabilised OEM power supply (TDK NV-175, 12V 15A) as a replacement and set it to 13V.
The typical fault in EQDIR mode was the occasional comms loss just after connection, and an almost guaranteed comms loss during a slew. This reduced to an occasional single event comms loss when using the handset in PC direct mode, which didn’t provoke a stop command. With the 13V OEM supply powering the mount in EQDIR mode I didn’t have a single comms loss during the entire session, with plenty of slews and 3 hours of tracking.
It’s not quite clear cut because I re-connected the original PSU and got hardly any comms losses. However, I did get one or two single events, and the mount did pause during a slew a couple of times. Maybe I’d connected the plugs more reliably. So I think the root cause may be cyclic low voltage from the original PSU triggering comms drop-outs, aggravated by plug connection issues. I’ll monitor the system over the next few nights to confirm if this solution works.
Graham
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