This summer I have had problems with my astronomy equipment, specifically the iOptron CEM70 mount. The CEM70 is the item that holds the telescope in place, tracks the stars to address the rotation of the Earth and moves on command between targets in the sky. It sits on a heavy tripod at the Lac Teeples Deep Sky Observatory (i.e. my cottage). It is capable of handling a total of 70 lbs of equipment.
Image 1: iOptron main control circuit board with failed USB "daughter board" on top.
Back in February 2022 the mount failed and in March I brought it inside from the cold with the intention of shipping it for repairs. The symptoms were a failure to communicate via USB control. Once it was inside in the warmth and had a chance to defrost and dry off it began working again. Overall I lost a few months trying to deal with this back then.
This year, 2024, the same failure seems to have occurred, and a main controller circuit board was shipped to Massachusetts for repair. They took quite a long time to repair it because they were moving to new offices at the same time. It failed on July 1, was shipped in mid July (delayed to allow them to move to new offices) and the repaired part was finally returned and installed on August 6. iOptron replaced a small “daughter board” that handles the USB communications.
The first nights of use were problematic because the mount failed to track objects through the night. I realized, eventually, that I had turned off the “flip” that needs to occur after targets cross the meridian. I had temporarily turned it off and forgot to turn it back on…
Anyway… as of mid August the mount is working properly and tracking objects through the night. Of course now it’s completely clouded over and the moon is full.
Deconvolution Illustrated (cklatt1.wixsite.com) - 2022 blog entry about failed equipment
Astrophotography Equipment (cklatt1.wixsite.com) - 2021 blog entry about equipment
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