Tuesday, June 23, 2009

debugged dew system

Well, not the dew heater; the power supply.

When I fired up the GBO telescope and checked over everything, I noticed the Kendrick dew heater controller was not illuminated. It normally shows a message on the red display (I forgot at the time, but one of the words is simply STATUS). Nothing. Blank. I.e. off.

I asked Dietmar if there was a switch or special procedure. He said, "Don't touch it. It's normally on."

I said, "It's not on."

We traced the problem upstream to the power supply. Various voltage tests with DMMs and plugging into a 12 V DC device (their portable fridge) later, we deduced the power supply was dead. I asked Dietmar if it had a fuse. He didn't know. I took the cover off. We found 2 fuses inside. One was not conducting...

We sent a note with a photo to the CAO supervisors.



And made a point of avoid dew on the C14.

I remembered to install the dew shield!

§

Stumbled across 2 Ziploc bags with little fuses and little zip-ties. Incredibly, the fuses were the correct size, and amps, for the dew heater power supply! We were back in business.

I have no idea what these little baggies are for.

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