AutoStar II Hand Controller repair, I hope

All setup for the night and no power going to the hand controller. What could it be? Power light on fork base mounted SCT is RED. So, it is getting power but why not the hand controller? Must be that internal 3V button cell battery on the telescope’s circuit board. Yep, it was that but still, my spare hand controller was not coming on. What was its issue? It worked last time it was used. Watch video on fix.

[@WilberWobbler]

Thanks for your videos! On my quite new LX200 I believe the hand controller button conductive-contacts go BAD with months of no activity. (Room temperature low humidity storage.) Spray contact cleaner alone not effective - must physically micro-abrade. Dunno if PCBoard or elastomer the problem,. Difficult to get all contacts working, requires several tries. Any thoughts?

[@gadgetmanbowen3081]

Well, if it is the button contacting the circuit board, there are two possible fixes that I have done. One was using an electrically conductive paint material, but I like the adhesive applied button card. I now have the button card on three of my AutoStar-II hand controllers and put one on a fourth one I sent out to a fellow astronomer. My video shows the adhesive card I installed almost a year ago for that hand controller.
This is the one I like, Buttonworx, and purchased several, one for each of my AutoStar-II controllers. I have a total of three, with two for backup now; buttonworx.com/telescopes/33-Autostar.html
Buttonworx Info on the product they make; ruclips.net/video/fVY6zTXVfV0/видео.html&ab_channel=p1repair
Buttonworx Videos of repairing many types of controllers; www.youtube.com/@p1repair/videos
RUclips video on the paint on product; ruclips.net/video/GDXwmaheZE8/видео.html&ab_channel=TurboTalksTech
Sometimes it could be the cable also. The plugs are RJ-22 or RJ-9 or RJ-44 they are 4 Position/4 Conductor type connectors. Having 4-contact pins and 4-slots for the wire. These are different from the RJ-11 which is 6 Position/4 Conductor, meaning 6 positions for wires but only uses 4 wires as contact. They are a little wider than the RJ-22.
If your LCD screen is fussy then maybe the contacts need cleaning. On one hand controller I had to remove the ribbon cable and use a hand sewing needle to lift up the contact pins very slightly inside the plug on the circuit board. That helped. Now the RJ-22 pins at the telescope’s control panel and in the hand controller may need some upward movement also. That is a bit tricky, and I used a dental tool that had a j-point. Be very gentle and careful on lifting all pins. They only need to be lifted a small amount.
Hope this helps.

[@WilberWobbler]

@@gadgetmanbowen3081 Thank You!! Warm summer nights inspired me to again tackle my Failed last year contact cleaning struggle. Last year 'Aggressive' cleaning went from couple to most buttons working, but NOT all. :-( After this inspirational video I happened upon Button Worx, - 4 Meade and 2 SynScan ordered. Now eager to view ALL your helpful vids !!! Good Job !!!

[@bart1825]

My Autostar does thte same thing. The display goes out about a second after powering on, but then comes back bright after about 10 seconds with Align: Automatic. Does yours still work ok like that?

[@gadgetmanbowen3081]

Yes, one hand controller still does it. I could be the ribbon to the LCD. Sometimes cleaning its ends, where it plugs into the screen or circuit board, might help. It also could be the screen going bad, but after it warms up it gets brighter. Do not know how long it will have life before searching for a new LCD screen. Some company is now making replacements. I saw something on a the LX forum about that. have not research it out. The RUclips guy “Turbo Talks Tech” has some videos on hand controller repair. You also might want to check the plugs in the scope's base circuit board and hand controller's plugs and those soldering connections.

[@bart1825]

@@gadgetmanbowen3081 I think its power or a capacitor. I just put a brand new LCD in the one that is exibiting the problem. I've had good luck jumpering power directly to the voltage regulators to bypass any internal trace issues. Thats my next step on this one.

[@gadgetmanbowen3081]

@@bart1825 I have no idea how to do that. Maybe you could do a RUclips video on that for others to see. Many people have issues with the LCD screen and buttons keys.