Meade LX200 GPS/AFC

[definisdl]

LX200 GPS/AFC help. If any of you do not own one please ignore, respectfully.

Ive renewed my interest in this hobby after retiring; and against my better judgement, purchased this telescope used. Lesson learned.

i find Meade support rather disappointing. They have very nice people, somewhat helpful but prohibitively expensive for a retired engineering stiff. Moreover, they lack clearly written instructions that will brick your equipment. Otherwise, I suspect many are happy with Meade. (I wouldn't purchase another Meade because of their mediocre long term support and looking at other for a new purchase... after I fix and sell this one. Possibly, I'll just continue forward with my 4" Edmond. I simply do not understand why Meade would rather have some give up the hobby than to give up the Ghost. E.g., tech data that would at least have us purchasing their components, assessories etc.)

With that said, I still wouldn't mind keeping this equipment, if I could get some help.

Ive replaced the GPS, two hand boxes and a front panel with short lived success for the latter two.

I believe this is because of vaguely written instructions in updating SW/FW downloads.

After replacing the front panel with an AFC panel per their support and having used the scope a dozen sessions, the scope slewed on it's own. I DL'd the latest Autostar and ASCOM per vague instructions and bricked the HBX. Bought a new HBX and it locked at the splash screen. I researched the WEB, careful to weed out needless language and still... no joy. Autostar will not connect to the scope. Again, I found the front pane MB battery dead. I've read this hasn't anything to do with firmware or anything else but the e table. Maybe so. I've yet tried.

To make a long rant short, I was a capable electronics engineer and would rather fix the scope myself because of limited income. Retired on disability.

with that said, are any of you out there aware of a well written and detailed technical instruction sheet or text that could help me achieve a fix... before I start removing and replacing more components or parts.

Otherwise, I've a dead LX200 GPS or AFC (I've yet figured which. The old panel has ... GPS...Smart drive, etc, the new has AFC?) for sale... cheap.

Thank you, Dan

[Knighty2112]

Sadly, always a potential problem when buying used stuff, especially with electronics concerned. Just bought a secondhand goto mount, which so far seems OK. However, if it was to be a more substantial amount of money that I'm sure you paid for your scope and mount second hand then I would always buy new regardless, unless you could fully test it out before you buy. Sorry to hear of your problems with the mount. Hopefully someone here can help out in some way, and I hope you can get it fully working again.  

[ronin]

Try http://meade4m.com/

Seems to be a community of Meade owners and/or similar.

The other possibility is the Cloudy Nights forum, they have a section for Meade scopes and again a chance that someone there might be able to help.

Suppose that your problem is that Meade is now Sunny Optics. Bit of a long shop but look at the ES site. For all Meade was bought by Sunny ES was sort of the preferred buyer and they are producing a lot of items that are very much Meade derived. They might just be able to help although they are the least likely.

[michael8554]

Hi Dan

Join the Yahoo LX200GPS forum, and post a brief concise list of your problems.

Such as what led up to you replacing the front panel, and replacing the hand boxes.

There are world class 200GPS experts on that forum.

They'll suggest downloading the Updater included with the free StarPatch software, rather than use the flakey Meade Updater.

StarPatch includes a new version of Meade's 4.2g software which has all the Meade bugs sorted, and includes some useful additions.

Otherwise reload the 4.2g software, be careful not to download other versions which may be for the ETX and won't work with the 200GPS

The Autostar II handbox is dumb, mostly push-buttons, downloads go to the electronics in the scope base, so a successful update should bring the scope and handboxes back to life.

They are different to the ETX handbox, which has all the software inside it and can be bricked with the Meade updater in inexperienced hands.

The scope will slew on its own (Runaway) if the volts to the scope are low, such as can happen when a fast slew load is put onto the batteries or an over-stressed mains power supply, or if you have intermittant connections on the power lead.

Good luck

Michael