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MIKEG
member
Reged: 06/24/06
Posts: 71
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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I just received an EQ6 with synscan and was trying it out last night,
It works quite good but has a slightly loose connection somewhere and occasionally the HC will flicker then I will have to start from the beginning and reset the whole thing. Anyone had this happen ? None of the electrical connectors are very solid but I was thinking it might be where the dc cable plugs into the mount ???
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Mike
8"f/7 homemade pyrex mirror, sonotube Dob
16" f/4.6, 1" plate, homemade,waiting for a truss
10" f/8 Royce mirror
6" f/5.6 ; polishing ( for photography )
Vixen ED80 (for photography )
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Skylook123
Post Laureate
Reged: 04/30/05
Posts: 3976
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Mike,
Here are three possibilities, all of which have hit me at one time or another.
1. You'll need to try to verify that the center of the power connector is 2.1 mm. Over the years, it seems that some 2.5 mm connectors have been tried, and this can cause intermittent power. This is usually detected if, when you see the HC flicker, the mount red light also flickers. It will fool you into thinking it's a snug fit, when really all that is snug is the outer barrel. In my case, it was my fault for using a Meade power cord that had a 2.5mm center, but other folks have had similar oopses with cords that they bought to go along with the mount.
2. There are two annoyances with the mount end of the HC to mount cable. First, the jack screws need to be very firm. Just the slightest wiggle at that end can cause the HC to reset. Second, the bonding of the wires to the pin assembly inside the shell is pretty primitive; looks at times like a slipshod solder effort followed by a slug of RTV to hold it all. This can somtimes result in shorts/opens inside the mount connector shell, or even inside the RTV. Mine got so bad it actually corrupted the firmware. I finally needed to buy a replacement from Brady at KW Telescopes.
3. The RJ connection at the HC end is problematic for some people. The socket doesn't seem to want to hold securely, and/or the connector can suffer from similar quality of construction as the mount end. For some, it gets so bad that the socket becomes cracked, or is floating on the board.
In addition to the above, off the top of my head and which I've experienced, the socket/plug connection at the HC may have a low mean time between failure. These kind of connections aren't really intended to be made/broken for an infinite amount of cycles; the plastic tang sometimes doesn't really seat, and sometimes actually breaks off.
It's a great mount, except for that pesky cable!
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Jim
A Bad Night With A Telescope
Beats A Good Night Doing Anything Else
Tectron 18" Truss Dob/Sky Commander DSCs, "Derrick"
Meade 10" LX-5 SCT/Atlas-G "Ol' Blue Eye"
Orion 90mm refractor,
Meade 10" Starfinder Newt/JMI NGCMax DSCs,
Celestron 10x50 Ultima Pro
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RandallK
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/10/06
Posts: 727
Loc: Nanaimo, B. C. Canada
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As far as the RJ plugs are concerned, I'm glad I bought an RJ-45/11/12 crimping tool. The hand controller on both I believe has both RJ-45 and RJ-11 Sockets. The HEQ-5Pro uses and RJ-45 socket at the mount, where the EQ-6 uses a 9-Pin D socket (weird but that's the way it is). I got my GPS unit as a freebie special and it has the RJ-11 Plug (as it says in the manual), but it is actually a 6-pin RJ-12 (physically the same size as the RJ-11 that has only 4 pins). Strangely enough, the GPS module only uses 4 of those 6 pins on the RJ-12. Why didn't they use a regular 4 Pin RJ-11! What I really was getting at, is that the RJ-Plugs make a nice connection when crimped tightly, but when your doing a take down in the middle of a cold night, it's very easy to snag the tabs. If they don't break off in the cold, they WILL eventually become weak and you'll have to replace them. Get yourself a crimping tool but make sure you closely examine the existing pin-out on these plugs BEFORE cutting off the old one! A little of topic but hope it's useful info.
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Scopes: Meade SC-8AT w UHTC
SkyWatcher 5" F/5 Reflector
SkyWatcher 127mm MAK
Mount: HEQ5 Pro
Cameras: Orion Starshoot DS Colour Imager V.1
Imaging Source Webcam DMK21AU04.AS
Palm TX PDA w Astromist and Bluetooth wireles control.
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MIKEG
member
Reged: 06/24/06
Posts: 71
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Thanks for the input. So it seems all the connections may be suspect. Well maybe if the clouds clear I can try it again and watch it carefully to see which one it might be. The HC also froze on me a couple of times - maybe this is related, I don't know.
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Mike
8"f/7 homemade pyrex mirror, sonotube Dob
16" f/4.6, 1" plate, homemade,waiting for a truss
10" f/8 Royce mirror
6" f/5.6 ; polishing ( for photography )
Vixen ED80 (for photography )
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Skylook123
Post Laureate
Reged: 04/30/05
Posts: 3976
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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The HC has locked up on me a couple of times when I had the cable connector problem; to much for its little brain to handle.
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Jim
A Bad Night With A Telescope
Beats A Good Night Doing Anything Else
Tectron 18" Truss Dob/Sky Commander DSCs, "Derrick"
Meade 10" LX-5 SCT/Atlas-G "Ol' Blue Eye"
Orion 90mm refractor,
Meade 10" Starfinder Newt/JMI NGCMax DSCs,
Celestron 10x50 Ultima Pro
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RandallK
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/10/06
Posts: 727
Loc: Nanaimo, B. C. Canada
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A friend brought his new HEQ-6 Pro over a few weeks ago. All of a sudden he panicked saying that everything was frozen on the hand controller. I thought it had something to do with the firmware update we had just completed. We took it inside and just as I was ready to re-load the firmware, he noticed from an angle, that one of the buttons had been pressed on its side, preventing it from releasing. Remember to press the buttons in the center and not on the sides, there could be a potential for them to stick without noticing.
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Scopes: Meade SC-8AT w UHTC
SkyWatcher 5" F/5 Reflector
SkyWatcher 127mm MAK
Mount: HEQ5 Pro
Cameras: Orion Starshoot DS Colour Imager V.1
Imaging Source Webcam DMK21AU04.AS
Palm TX PDA w Astromist and Bluetooth wireles control.
Edited by RandallK (09/04/08 10:34 PM)
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kaaikop
sage
Reged: 07/13/08
Posts: 468
Loc: Ste-Therese, Canada
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Quote:
A friend broght his new HEQ-6 Pro over a few weeks ago. All of a sudden he paniced saying that everything was frozen on the hand controller. I thought it had something to do with the firmware update we had just completed. We took it inside and just as I was ready to re-load the firmware, he noticed from an angle, that one of the buttons had been pressed on its side, preventing it from releasing. Remember to press the buttons in the center and not on the sides, there could be a potential for them to stick without noticing.
That happened to me not long ago... took me awhile to figure it out!
I just knew it cannot the mount itself, it's been 100% reliable since I have it, with ZERO glitches (unlike the one it replaced...).
But in the dark, it was a little difficult to get that button back loose! 
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Benoit, RASC Montreal
-C 9.25XLT on EQ6 Pro / ED80SF on Portamount
-Plossls, Radians, Naglers, LVW's & Orthos.
-a pair of 7x50's
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Skylook123
Post Laureate
Reged: 04/30/05
Posts: 3976
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Same here; the up arrow stuck while my wife was using it at the Grand Canyon Star Party; scope seemed to be going nuts. Took a bit of next-day trouble shooting (and a suggestion from someone here on CN) to notice the cause of the manic mount.
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Jim
A Bad Night With A Telescope
Beats A Good Night Doing Anything Else
Tectron 18" Truss Dob/Sky Commander DSCs, "Derrick"
Meade 10" LX-5 SCT/Atlas-G "Ol' Blue Eye"
Orion 90mm refractor,
Meade 10" Starfinder Newt/JMI NGCMax DSCs,
Celestron 10x50 Ultima Pro
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