Lidl LXD75 telescope help thread

Welcome StarryPlough!
Unfortunatly I was one of the ones that got a dud,
as Mike says, bad news does indeed travel fast but in this case
there was A LOT of duds!

Clear skies!

Uh oh... looks like my scope has developed an annoying flaw.

The RA drive, even when fully locked, has a slight wobble in it of about 1/2 - 1mm. This might not seem mush but it is enough to throw an object out of the FOV with the slightest tap!

I've tried tightening various bolts, nuts and screws but to no avail. Anyone help?

I purchased my LXD-75 from Lidl last December, but did not unpack it until now. Like many others I too found that it did not work, and in my case neither axis could be made to move with the slew controls. As I had already bought from Lidl the Meade ETX-70AT I set up the Autostar handbox from the LXD-75 to work with the EXT-70AT and found that it was fully functional. I updated its firmware to the latest version, and then re-connected it. Always the same result, even after a hard reset, when using the CALIBRATE MOTORS function, it would always immediately display a drive fault message. I disassembled the drive units, and found that in the case of the DEC axis the two pin plug on the PC board to which the motor connects was simply not soldered and lying loose. After re-soldering it this axis could now be made to slew. I disassembled the RA axis but found no obvious fault, more in hope than anything else I re-soldered its connector, but still cannot get this axis to slew, and still a drive fault. The motor itself is functional, but the servo electronics appears dead. My other problem is that the battery box connector does not fit into the socket, the centre hole in the plug is too small. Fortunately as an electronic engineer (retired) I have plenty of test equipment and I have powered the unit from an external digital laboratory bench stabilised power supply having set its output voltage to exactly 12.00V. So, I now await a reply from Meade, and I'll contact the UK helpline on Monday and see if I can get a replacement RA servo unit. It would seem that the early failure rate of this batch of units is extremely high, and the quality control extremely poor, judging by the number of loose screws, rusty nuts, badly placed internal wiring, very stiff DEC axis mechanical drive, and misaligned optics, at least on my example. The DEC axis excessive friction can be adjusted, but it is a fiddly job requiring much patience to achieve a smooth, low friction drive withoutv excessive backlash. Must also admit that the ETX-70AT also suffers from a large amount of backlash in the drives, and although the Weasner site offers some fixes, I cannot see how one is supposed to disassemble this unit, any ideas?

Hi Titch.
Sorry for your troubles.

I had a pair of faulty drives also.

I got in contact with Meade in Germany,
(That is the only place you can go to to get replacement parts.)

Basically if I were you,
I would actually RING meade Europe and ask for the service dept.

Tell them you got a faulty scope and the TWO drives are not working and
request replacements
They will give you an email address to send the details to.

They should send you the replacements within a week or so.
They will request to return the faulty drives but I didn't bother as they
expect you to do this at your own expense.

But don't expect the replacements to work either!!
My replacement RA drive was ALSO faulty and I ahd to go through the
same rig-ma-role to get the third one.

I got fed up of trying to fix the damn thing so I just brought it back to Lidl
and got a full refund.

You sound like you know what you are at.
If you are confident you can replace the drives then if you keep at it
(and Meade) you should get it working.

The mount is actually a great mount (when it works!)

Good luck.

Hi, Frank,
Thanks for the advice. I spent all of yesterday evening and finally managed to fix the DEC axis servo, which now slews, but sadly the RA axis is completely inoperative. The motor itself is functional, and its output torque and current consumption is similar to the motor in the DEC axis, but the transistor bridge in the electronics module is simply not receiving any drive signals, and so it is dead. I then spent a couple of hours disassembling the mechanical sections re-lubricating, as the grease in mine had congealed, and then carefully re-assembling and adjusting the mechanics. There are two adjustments in each axis, and with care and patience it is possible to achieve a nice smooth, almost frictionless drive with virtually no backlash or slop, which is essential for astrophotography, which is my main interest. In my case, straight out of the box, there was quite perceptible backlash in the DEC axis, and a slight amount in the RA axis, but now with everything mounted and balanced, turning the RA and DEC axis gears by hand (the servos are not mounted) the scope shows no signs of backlash or sloppiness, so that was a few hours well-spent. If you've tinkered with these things before, then the adjustments are fairly obvious, but if anyone is unsure how to do this, I'd be happy to send some ditial photos and explain. I received a complete set of hex keys with which to perform these adjustments with my 'scope, even though I have more than enough keys, special bits'n'pieces etc, so that was a help.

Meade Germany finally sent me a new RA Axis Servo assembly, but this time when I turn the system on and perform the usual DATE/TIME entry, the Align item is displayed, and before I do anything, the RA axis starts to slew ever so gently all the time. My ETX-70AT doesn't do this, I've done a hard reset, I'm using an external regulated 12V power supply, so is this yet another "variation on a theme", or am I missing something?