ETX Motor woes.. its not working!!

[Rob]

Its RJ45 I checked!... I also got the following from Weasners:

Subject: Long Autostar Cable

Date: 3/10/04, 02:37

From: Stephen Bird (stephen.bird@btconnect.com)

To: EWil1779@aol.com

Emmit,

I saw your meassage on the ETX site about the long Autostar HBX cable.

They really are easy to make, the connectors are just RJ45 connectors

like you get on a computer LAN cable. The trick is that the actual

connections are not the same as a LAN cable (or the "crossover" cables)

that you buy from your local PC shop. Some of the posts on the ETX site

seem to think you can just plug one in and go for it, this is not the

case. However, that does not stop you adapting / making one like I did.

If you look at the connectors on your existing Autostar HBX cable, you

will see that they are clear plastic and that there are 8 gold connector

pins each end. With a magnifying glass, you can see the coloured wires

inside the connectors. If you hold the plug with gold connector pins

facing you, and the coiled cable point downwards, you can see that on

ONE END, connected to the 1st connector pin is the red wire, and with

the magnifying glass, you can see the colour for each connector pin from

1 to 8. ON THE OTHER END, it is opposite, red is on pin 8 and so on.

So on one end, red is on pin 1, and connected to the other end on pin 8

and so on. In fact the sequence in MY CABLE is:

ONE END

1 = red

2 = black

3 = brown

4 = orange

5 = grey

6 = yellow

7 = green

8 = blue

OTHER END

8 = red

7 = black

6 = brown

5 = orange

4 = grey

3 = yellow

2 = green

1 = blue

So you end up with:

1-8

2-7

3-6

4-5

5-4

6-3

7-2

8-1

(Make sure you check this carefully as Meade do modify designs from time

to time!)

You can confirm the connection from pin 1 to 8, 2 to 7,...etc., from

plug to plug with a circuit tester or multimeter.

Now you know the sequence, armed with a length of Cat 5 LAN cable from

the PC shop a couple of RJ45 connectors plugs and an RJ45 crimping tool,

you can make up a custom cable of the length you desire. You will find

probably that the colour of the 8 wires in the Cat 5 cable are

different, (blue, blue/white, orange, orange/white, green, green/white,

brown, brown/white), but as long as you get the sequence correct, i.e.,

pin 1 to pin 8, pin 2 to pin 7, and so on, it does not matter. Just be

sure to double check that you have all the connections correct with your

circuit tester before you use the cable on the ETX. It is easy to get

the connections wrong, i.e., 1 to 1, 2 to 2, etc., TAKE CARE!

I have made up a 10 metre (30 foot) cable that works just great with the

ETX.

Cat 5 LAN cable is around $1 a metre (yard), and a pack of 10 RJ45

connector plugs is $3. The real problem is the cost of the tool that

crimps the plugs on to the wires, they cost $40. So you could ring round

a few friends to borrow the tool if they have one, or try the local PC

shop to either loan the tool or just crimp the connector plugs for you

while you wait. I was lucky, my brother is in the PC trade, so I

borrowed his crimping tool.

The cable works fine with my external power pack working the ETX, but I

have not tried it with batteries in the ETX. Apparently if the batteries

are low, the long cable can cause problems as the volt drop means the

Autostar does not get enough power to operate it. To be honest, I can't

see this being an issue as long as you use fresh 1.5v batteries and not

rechargeables as they are either 1.25v or 1.2v when fully charged and

this might not be sufficient for a long cable to operate the Autostar

effectively, as long as they do with a short cable.

There has I think been posted, an article in the past about local

powering of the Autostar, but if you use a good power supply, I can't

see that this is necessary.

Just remember of course to double check the connections on the long

cable to make sure nothing is "crossed" or "shorted" out. If you get it

wrong, you can fry the ETX or Autostar, and Meade will not honour your

warranty if you do.

And of course for the record, my instructions are based on my cable, so

I can't give any guarantee that yours will be the same, so it is all

entirely at your own risk. And, of course a long cable is a tripping

hazard, especially in the dark!

I use my long cable in conjunction with my Laptop PC and the Autostar

Suite / LPI, so that I can operate remotely from the ETX when imaging. I

do this because I like the feel and feedback that fine adjustment of 9

speeds using the Autostar handset gives over the 4 speeds and the delays

that using the network option on Autostar Suite offers.

Gee! I hope I got this all written down correctly!!

Enjoy.

Regards

Stephen Bird

________________________________________

[SteveL]

more commonly known as a rollover cable (not a crossover cable).

[Kenny_10_Bellys]

Correctomundo. I can make one up in 5 minutes if someone needs it.

[Rob]

New cables... sometimes it works, sometimes is does not!! (the dec only though). Auto star is not reporting a motor error though :? confused!!!

[Rob]

Scratch that... Autostar is reporting motor error on test. The end is neigh for the fork mount