I received an email from a lady in southern Utah with a Meade 14 LX-200 that is having troubles (never heard that before). Quoting from her email: "It will not slew properly, so matter how many adjustments we make to the alignment or declination. also the motor is running constantly, not just when its slewing. we had a guy up last night who used to sell these things and he could not get it to work. It appears to polar align on goto easy align, but when slewing to 2nd coordinate, it moves in random directions." She says she sent it to the factory for repairs and when she got it back it still didn't work (never heard that before). Poor lady sounds pretty stressed about it but I'm not able to help. However, talking to Charlie Green I learned there's some place that specializes in getting Meade scopes to work but he can't remember details. He's going to see if he can find details when he gets home in a few days but in the mean time, anyone here know about such a place? Thanks, patrick
Is she young and single? :) On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 12:09 AM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:
I received an email from a lady in southern Utah with a Meade 14 LX-200 that is having troubles (never heard that before).
Quoting from her email:
"It will not slew properly, so matter how many adjustments we make to the alignment or declination. also the motor is running constantly, not just when its slewing. we had a guy up last night who used to sell these things and he could not get it to work. It appears to polar align on goto easy align, but when slewing to 2nd coordinate, it moves in random directions."
She says she sent it to the factory for repairs and when she got it back it still didn't work (never heard that before).
Poor lady sounds pretty stressed about it but I'm not able to help.
However, talking to Charlie Green I learned there's some place that specializes in getting Meade scopes to work but he can't remember details. He's going to see if he can find details when he gets home in a few days but in the mean time, anyone here know about such a place?
Thanks,
patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php
-- Siegfried
The most well-known is probably Clay Sherrod at Arkansas Sky Observatory. He now does more than just Meade but the LX200 was his specialty. On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 12:09 AM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:
I received an email from a lady in southern Utah with a Meade 14 LX-200 that is having troubles (never heard that before).
Quoting from her email:
"It will not slew properly, so matter how many adjustments we make to the alignment or declination. also the motor is running constantly, not just when its slewing. we had a guy up last night who used to sell these things and he could not get it to work. It appears to polar align on goto easy align, but when slewing to 2nd coordinate, it moves in random directions."
She says she sent it to the factory for repairs and when she got it back it still didn't work (never heard that before).
Poor lady sounds pretty stressed about it but I'm not able to help.
However, talking to Charlie Green I learned there's some place that specializes in getting Meade scopes to work but he can't remember details. He's going to see if he can find details when he gets home in a few days but in the mean time, anyone here know about such a place?
Thanks,
patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php
Where in southern Utah does she live? If she’s here in St. George I could take a look at it and get a good idea of what’s going on. Craig is correct about Clay Sherrod. He does a lot of modifications on LX200s. However, I think his turnaround time can be a little while. But I’ve heard the scopes never run better when they get back. You know, Jerry seems to know a lot about scopes and he may be able to help. If the scope is one of the older LX200s she may have fried the board with that 18-volt transformer that Meade supplies with the older scopes. Personally, I don’t use the 18-volt unit. I purchased a 15-volt unit in the hopes of staving off disaster. I’m pretty sure Clay recommends stepping down the voltage. I think the newer models don’t have the 18-volt transformer (Joe’s scope, for example) but I could be wrong. Dave On Oct 29, 2011, at 12:09 AM, Patrick Wiggins wrote:
I received an email from a lady in southern Utah with a Meade 14 LX-200 that is having troubles (never heard that before).
Quoting from her email:
"It will not slew properly, so matter how many adjustments we make to the alignment or declination. also the motor is running constantly, not just when its slewing. we had a guy up last night who used to sell these things and he could not get it to work. It appears to polar align on goto easy align, but when slewing to 2nd coordinate, it moves in random directions."
She says she sent it to the factory for repairs and when she got it back it still didn't work (never heard that before).
Poor lady sounds pretty stressed about it but I'm not able to help.
However, talking to Charlie Green I learned there's some place that specializes in getting Meade scopes to work but he can't remember details. He's going to see if he can find details when he gets home in a few days but in the mean time, anyone here know about such a place?
Thanks,
patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php
Hi Dave, On 29 Oct 2011, at 06:42, Dave Gary wrote:
Where in southern Utah does she live? If she’s here in St. George I could take a look at it and get a good idea of what’s going on.
Thanks but she's in Monticello so she's on the other side of the state from you.
You know, Jerry seems to know a lot about scopes and he may be able to help.
Jerry was the first person I rang but he said he couldn't help. IIRC he and Cindy used to have a Meade 14 but it caused them so much grief they got rid of it. patrick
If she didn't send the hand control, she sent the wrong part... Norm Patrick Wiggins wrote:
It could be the power cord. I had a friend last year that was having trouble with the Celestron CG5 Advanced Goto mount. He swapped the cord's and it has worked fine. Before, he'd tell it to go to Vega and it would point into the dirt. That is one reason I don't like Goto mounts for visual. Too much electronics that can go bad. I may set up the WO 120 tonight without the computer to save the battery. Debbie On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 10:16 AM, Norm Hansen <norm.hansen@mtngreen.net>wrote:
If she didn't send the hand control, she sent the wrong part...
Norm
Patrick Wiggins wrote:
______________________________**_________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.**xmission.com<Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> http://mailman.xmission.com/**cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-**astronomy<http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy> Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/**main.php<http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php>
Patrick:Please forward this to her. If this is a newer model LX with Autostar (and I think it is) it is EXACTLY the problem I had with my first LX. That was at a time when Meade offered excellent customer service and I was lucky to get hold of a great tech who told me to "train the drives". He explained that there is one page in the whole manual that looks like nothing and usually gets overlooked. He insisted that training the drives would cure my problem. He "guaranteed" it. I had more than my fair share of doubts but it worked. In later years I had similar problems with LX-200's that came and went and "training the drives" always worked. Again, this is only the scopes with Autostar. Since it is a 14" I'm pretty sure it is an Autostar model. I am unaware of any LX200 14" "Classics". I could give you other stories of this curing Meade problems (even this year) but I won't do it here. Try it she will like it. Steve
From: paw@wirelessbeehive.com Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:09:58 -0600 To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Seeks help with Meade repair
I received an email from a lady in southern Utah with a Meade 14 LX-200 that is having troubles (never heard that before).
Quoting from her email:
"It will not slew properly, so matter how many adjustments we make to the alignment or declination. also the motor is running constantly, not just when its slewing. we had a guy up last night who used to sell these things and he could not get it to work. It appears to polar align on goto easy align, but when slewing to 2nd coordinate, it moves in random directions."
She says she sent it to the factory for repairs and when she got it back it still didn't work (never heard that before).
Poor lady sounds pretty stressed about it but I'm not able to help.
However, talking to Charlie Green I learned there's some place that specializes in getting Meade scopes to work but he can't remember details. He's going to see if he can find details when he gets home in a few days but in the mean time, anyone here know about such a place?
Thanks,
patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php
I once was given a GoTo Meade to troubleshoot for a former owner of our company. This poor woman had somehow gotten ahold of a southern-hemisphere version (purchased BN, from a reputable dealer). Everything worked perfectly, except the RA tracking ran backwards, lol! They'd had it too long to return, unfortunately.
participants (8)
-
Chuck Hards -
Craig Smith -
Dave Gary -
Debbie -
Norm Hansen -
Patrick Wiggins -
Siegfried Jachmann -
Steve Fisher