CG5 Nexstar hand control gobledygook fix

[spearo (Frank)]

Hello,
in case this is of any use to anyone,
My trusty old CG5 began acting weird a while back with the nexstar hand control paddle displaying gobbledygook that almost looked like Spanish (but wasn't). Totally unintelligible.

Anyways, I finally got around to tryign to fix.

I thought i'd try a firmware upgrade and that effect connected the hand control to the computer through the RS232 cable, setup the nexstar for data transfer and magically, it fixed itself !

Didn't need to do anything to the firmware.

Not sure how but connecting the hand controller to the computer instantly seemed to fix it.


Thought I'd post in case it is of use to anyone

Thought I'd post in case it helps anyo

[spearo (Frank)]

then again...it started acting funny once again
so i'm probably just going to replace it
frank

[renormalised (Carl)]

Gobbledygook fix =

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Have you reset the hand set? Clean booted it so to speak.

[renormalised (Carl)]

I think after the latest gremlin, Frank is going to clean boot it....right over his back fence

[spearo (Frank)]

Carl is right!
I cant figure it out
took everything apart hoping to find a dead battery somewhere but there is none
hooked it up and flashed the firmware
tried different voltages
sometimes it seems to work for a few seconds then reverts back to weird semi-spanish garble

I didnt mind the old mount in fact i think as a fluke it performed really well ( i remember posting some unguided shots noone believed)
so I'll try the replacement handset and hope this fixes it
If the problem is elsewhere...
who knows maybe i can just control it through the laptop

frank

[asimov (John)]

In my experience these things are really hard to diagnose. It could be a chip on a board, could be the hand controller etc. etc.

I've had my CGE mount go belly up over 18 months ago & I've only diagnosed the actual problem 2 weeks ago. Mind you I never threw myself & my time 100% into it.

Anyway, my point is that my problem was looking like the hand controller, whereas it turned out to be a chip/IC on the MC board.

G'luck.