Since the wires are in two pieces, we need to do each connector individually. The image below shows the connector that goes to the internal board on the computer. The black pieces you see on the end of each wire is called shring tubing and is used to insulate the wires from each other after soldering them in place. In top left image below, the two vertical black wires are the ends of the wires that the mouse chewed through. I cut the shrink tubing off the wires and de-soldered them from the connector. In the bottom two pictures, you can see the two new coax wires (the pinkish ones) being soldered on and covered with shrink tubing.
The other end of the coax wires go to two BNC feed-throughs on the back panel of the drive box. The top two images below show the old, chewed coax before removal, and the new coax after soldering. The bottom two pictures show the I/O board re-installed in the computer, with the new wiring connected. In the picture on the right, you can see some of the copper wool that was added to cover and protect the feedthrough in the back of the computer case. This should prevent another mouse from getting inside the computer itself.
Here is the back of the control box. The computer is in the bottom slot, and the drive electronics in the top. After all the cables were re-attached and the back screwed on, the cable exit hole was covered with more copper wool to hinder access. The final picture shows the telescope cables in the conduit. The mouse originally came out this hole and followed the cables down into the control box and computer. The exit is now stuffed tightly with even more copper wool. The orange strands from the upper conduit are the fiber optics that link the observatory to the campus network.
The chewed cables were checked and found to be intact. Hence, I only taped over the exposed wires with electrical tape to prevent shorting. Where the cable bundle had been chewed is now covered with copper mesh where it enters the wall feed-through. The feed-through is also stuffed with copper mesh to prevent access to the warm room.
The telescope cable bundle is now being enclosed in the lower metal conduit. The bottom feedthrough carries cables that go to equipment in the dome such as CCD still and video cameras, and serial communications to allow computers in the dome to talk to the control computer. The final picture shows the fully reassembled control computer. Note the UPS power supply behind the blue box. The box on the wall below the computer is the internet connection between observatory compters and the fiber optic cables.
When everything was put back together, I fired up the telescope and tried it out. It all worked fine!!!! It appears that there was no electrical damage, so we were lucky.
So my repairs worked. All that's left now is to clean up and mouse-proof under the observing platform.
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