So I finally got my rotator and shutter kit upgraded and installed with Beaver and working correctly. I opened the shutter to acclimate the interior temperature then as it got dark I realized that there is so much smoke in the air that seeing sucks, so I went to close the shutter and saw that an ERROR occurred, and the shutter wouldn't close. I rebooted the ASCOM and even the PC and still nothing happened. I remembered seeing this error before, when I was testing the installation, and it required a power cycle of the shutter power switch. Only this time nothing happened, and I noticed the power light on the switch wasn't glowing. I hooked up a battery charger, the old style Black and Decker originally supplied, and the indicator lights are not showing charging. I tried a second charger with the same result.
Anyone have any tips on how to close the shutter with the motor in the open position? Pushing on it doesn't work.
When I opened the shutter a couple of hours ago, the Beaver HUB showed 13.5 volts in the battery and the charger said it was full.
Steven
jumper cables were too cumbersome so I made a a set with 14ga stranded wire with 2” alligator clips to reset the BMS. I have a spare 12v 10amp li-ion battery in the dome. Works like a charm. Steven
you can also use the aligator clips with the dakota battery charger and attach it to the hangling terminals - you have immediate power in that case (give it a minute or two to charge though, more == better and less hard on the battery in the state it's in). Keep that charger on an extension coord and you can go from the top to closed without issue... just not cope with dome rotations safely.
I figured out how to get the shutter closed, I had to uninstall it and remove the motor, teeth still in tract and couldn't wiggle it loose, then opened the case and restored the battery BMS (battery management system) in accordance with Dakota Lithium YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cd-86MrP3c. BTW, the Beaver hub error message showed COMMS DOWN! and zero (0) volts.
Since I had a new battery fully charged and ready to go, I removed the NexDome installed battery and installed the new one with Velcro in case it too needs replacement. Total time 3 hours.
In this time, I installed a digital voltmeter (see photos), so I could read the voltage directly from the battery. When I relaunched Beaver ASCOM 6.5 the new meter and the Beaver hub indicated the same voltage.
Truly PIA process.
Steven