Something up with the BRT?

[avinsen]

I'm wondering what's up with the BRT? The weather seems to have been good, but the Dome status in the Real time data module appears to be stuck at "Homing".

I didn't see anything in the News or Current Status either.

What's up?

[scott]

Hi, well spotted. We are getting a signal from the dome control box that we have never encountered before, and it seems we are unable to fix it from Bradford. This points to a hardware problem of some type. We are currently trying to find someone in Tenerife to help us diagnose the problem. There are several possibilities:

1. There is something jamming the dome to prevent it moving

2. The tyre that moves the dome has lost pressure and cannot move the dome

3. The tyre has burst

4. The dome motor has burnt out

5. The relay driving the motor has failed

6. The fuse in the motor drive circuit has failed

7. Almost anything else that could go wrong

I will ask Dan to put a news/status post up today if he gets a chance. The next scheduled visit to Tenerife is 24th June, but we really don't want to wait until then to get this sorted.

[avinsen]

Thank you for looking into it.

I really appreciate having the BRT available and it has been both educational and entertaining using the telescope. I love having the FITs viewer on the site as well. Keep up the good work.

[jbytof]

Could the Constellation Cam be used to inspect the inside dome track? I've noticed in some archived images
it had the ability to focus on the dome and not the sky.

[scott]

Err, possibly! Was that a cheeky dig at how much dome we get in our constellation pictures? I'm not sure it would accomplish a huge amount - the current plan is to get somebody in Tenerife to inspect the systems on Monday, whilst we guide them through it over the phone. We may not be able to fix it immediately, but it would help a great deal if we can find out what's wrong.

[cjf2124]

Any news?

[scott]

We have discovered that the gearbox between the motor that drives the dome and the wheel is broken. We are awaiting confirmation of the exact model number that we require so that we can find a supplier (preferably from the uk) to replace it. This will take place as soon as is practical, but obviously requires a trip out to Tenerife. We are not sure as to when this can happen. When something that needs fixing is over 2000 miles away, it does tend to complicate matters..

[John]

We have now found out that the drive gear box from Leesons of the USA has broken. It is a reducer worm and gear and the gear wheel appears to be missing some teeth.

The gear box is not currently in their product line, so we cannot replace the gear. We have to use a drop in replacement gear box that they will manufacture for us. We are trying to speed up the process as well as looking for alternatives.

Their agents in the UK are closed for the weekend and they will not deal with us directly. We will be back Monday to get the parts.

[avinsen]

Any news on the gear?

[scott]

The gearbox is on order, and we are getting it posted directly to Tenerife. Unfortunately the lead time means that it won't arrive until our scheduled trip on the 24th June. It should be a very simple matter to install it once we are there, and we hope the telescope will be back up and running in a couple of days from then. I understand that it is frustrating, it is even more so for us as we have hundreds of schools that use our system. If our funding situation was better it would make repairs like this a great deal quicker