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.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment