HELP! Dead Scope

Please help me.

I was observing tonight, I had the scope trained on a beautiful open cluster in Monoceros when I noticed that the cluster began to drift across the field of view, when I looked down at the Autostar I could see that it was dark and the voltage indicator, normally red, was also dark. There was no power getting to the scope. I had it connected to the mains via an extension cord, thinking this might be the trouble I changed the cord, the voltage indicator flashed for a fraction of a second and nothing. Now I was thinking it might be the converter between the extenstion lead and the scopes control panel. I got out my Powertank, connected it up and again the there was a brief flash and nothing.

By this stage I'm panicking, I removed the scope from the tripod, brought it indoors and connected it to a socket, once again a brief flash and nothing.

It seems to be that there is no power getting to the scope.

The scope of a Meade LX200 classic, perhaps 12 years old or so, the chap I bought it off said that there had been an electronic problem before, but he had it fixed.

I'm desperately in need of help as I know exactly nothing about electronics. Can anyone help bring my scope back to life?

Have been through two problems with an LX200 GPS. First time the handbox was showing garbage and had to get the motherboard changed, second time the scope started to do things on its own which was a result of over used handbox.

Do you have a red light on the scope power LED? Have you tried posting on MAPUG?

Under normal conditions Pau, I'd say you had a trip switch problem. Something's happening that appears to reset itself to normal when you change state/remove power. While having power supplied, have you moved/wiggled any cables, connectors, etc. to see if there's a potential connection fault?

Seanie.

Hi,

I had the same problem with my LX200 Classic. Plugging in/out of power supply would flash the LED on the power panel. I removed the front of the powewr panel and then disconnected the ribbon cable attached,ie isolated the power panel from the rest of the electronics, this allowed the power panel to power up when connected to the power supply. Reconnecting the ribbon cable caused a power down again obviously indicating a dead short on the main board. When I contacted BCF UK, Meade repair agent, and explained my findings they advised that the mother board was blown and would need a replacement at £300. The cost together with return shipping was in excess of €550+.
To sell a LX200 in perfect working order I would not expect to get much more than 600/700 so the repair costs are out of the question at present. I am currently using the LX in manual and brushing up on my star hopping skills.

I know it's probably not what you wanted to hear but I suspect your mother board is blown too.

Hope this helps,

Ivanmc

Hi all

Got the RA motor back, many thanks to Mike, conencted it up today and with crossed fingers I connected the power. Nothing blew. :woohoo: Connected up the Autostar, input the information, still working fine, went to the align mode, Arcturus was selected and the motors starting moving, oh joy .:rock: The dec motor stopped, as it should, but then, oh boy the RA motor kept rotating far longer than it should have. I let it do two rotations before I unplugged it. Turned the power on again, tried it one more time and the same thing happened. Bugger, sorry.

Any ideas what the trouble might be now?

Desperate man needs love and affection, :whistle: and help.

Paul

Hi,
Have you tried to reinstall the software on your autostar controller.I had the same problem when I use to own meade lightSwitch.at least for me the problem went away when I did a fresh upgrade...