Day 189 Saturday 4th October 2014 Effects of the lightning strike

I spent the day assessing the damage from the lightning strike. 

The laptop that I used to control all of the equipment had stopped communicating. The ports were dead. I was able to charge it by using the charger from the charger for my other laptop although the plug only fitted loosely - but it did the job. It had a higher current rating than the "dead" charger 

I set the laptop to rebot in safe mode to see if I could see what the problem was. When it rebooted it went through a text sequence on the screen asking me if I wanted to open windows normally, with networking or in safe mode. Whichever option I choose it goes into safe mode and the screen goes black. Going into "safe" mode killed the laptop completely - I cannot use it. Checking the internet for black screen solutions convinced me that you are getting advice in most cases from people who have no idea about computers at all. Going to Microsoft puts you into looped problem solving that has never worked once for me.  Another laptop death I think! I always store data on an external drive and have most of the laptop content stored on my cloud service.

I spent quite a while setting up the other laptop with drivers for the various bits of kit and also changed to my other 30m powered cable that I normally use with my CGEM and Canon 40D. 

At the end of the day:

The telescope is fine - I can connect and control it 

The camera and filter wheel are fine - I can connect and take images.

The focuser will not connect. I have set up ASCOM and the TCF-Si drivers but I can only see as far as the USB to Serial Cable - the software cannot detect the focuser as though it is not there.

There has not been a single clear night recently although the days have improved.

I suspect that the input circuits to the focuser have been damaged by the lightning. This is an excellent piece of kit that is also very expensive and needs to be ordered from the US. Just in case it is a driver problem I have contacted the US manufacturer and am waiting for a reply. If it does not work I do have a manual Crayford focuser that I will need to use instead.