paulgrover68 Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 My sky was bleak all evening, but when I checked at 10:30 all cleared. It was glorious!So I setup... then I noticed I can't tighten the screws to my EQDIR cable. Closer inspection shows they have sheared off.Not sure how this happened. I could have been when I had cable snag on thursday - something popped, but I thought it was just the mount shifting. Or it could have been me carrying it in last night having forgotten to unplug it (which was the opposite of clever).So priority was to fix the mount. I found some of the sockety screw in things (think that's what they're called) on the back of an old PC. The mount was now good to go. Phew!The EQDIR cable will need to be replaced (which is a shame because it works - it just won't be secure).For tonight I've taped into on with an unglamorous amount of electical tape. The sky however is still excellent. I know I said I like challenging nights... but this was extreme.Figured I would do the Rosette Nebula... then maybe add some data to last nights orion. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstronomyUkraine Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 Posted by: @paulgrover68 Or it could have been me carrying it in last night having forgotten to unplug it (which was the opposite of clever).I've done the same myself, but have always been lucky that I did no damage. I guess you was lucky that you stripped the bolts, and not the threads in the mount, or you could have been forking out for a new main board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulgrover68 Posted December 13, 2020 Author Share Posted December 13, 2020 I have to admit I was very worried about the mount. Cost and availabiility are shocking. The luck was the cheapest component failed. I'm going to see if I can find a replacement housing which will be super cheap. In order to get the old sockets out I had to open the mount and hold them with pliers while using a small socket to remove them. They were super tight. I was soooooooo releived when everything fitted and the mount worked. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carastro Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 Wow, sounds a bit of a nightmare.Carole Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstronomyUkraine Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 Posted by: @paulgrover68 In order to get the old sockets out I had to open the mount and hold them with pliers while using a small socket to remove them. They were super tight. Sometimes QC at Skywatcher is at best shoddy. I did a belt mod on my EQ6 earlier in the year. The problems I had trying to remove the 2 bolts holding the motors on was unbelievable. All the EQ6s I had seen, used allen head bolts to fasten down the motors, mine was fastened down with cross head bolts.The bolts also had a good helping of loctite on them, so they were impossible to remove with a screwdriver. I ended up drilling them out, and replacing with allen head bolts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulgrover68 Posted December 13, 2020 Author Share Posted December 13, 2020 Much as I like skywatcher stuff it has a slightly industrial feel to it- there's not a lot of refinement! I had a TAL once and that had a similar feel - it was all about the optics, everything else was constructed from whatever the could find! I miss that 'scope it had a lot of character.I have found replacement plugs - so I should be able to transplant my cable into a new sheild. I'll disconnect every time I carry the mount now too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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