Performing Surgery on a Telescope Mount

My main scope's mount has been dead for a few months. Long story short, the Celestron CGEM mount's motherboard fried somehow. It caused a ton of issues prior to Christmas, which included severe DEC and RA runaway and, ultimately, the inability to connect to the mount at all. 

I ordered a new motherboard from Agena Astro which they shipped quickly and packed very well. I'd been delaying the task of installing it for a while because, frankly, there are no instructions and working on the innards of things scares the heck out of me. But, I carved out some dedicated time got it done yesterday. It was extremely easy, to say the least. It took me about 30 minutes overall and essentially was a basic switch-out. I also regreased the motor mechanisms for the drive while I was in there. 

Powering it up, the mount responded perfectly. Once it got dark, I ran through the basic alignment process, then reconnected the Celestron Star Sense Auto Guider system. Again, the new motherboard registered it and conducted a four-point alignment quickly and with precision. This all led to several hours of flawless imaging, the results of which I'll share another time. The mount really behaved like it was brand new again.

Makes me a happy chappy!