LX90 Power Cable Problems

[Gary M33]

I have an LX90 mounted on a pier, in an observatory, which I recently acquired.  I have enabled the cord wrap option in Autostar, but no matter how I arrange the power cable, it often snags on something in the dark.  The main problem being that the cable stretches and becomes unreliable in the few seconds it takes me to power off the scope.

Has anybody got any reliable method of cable management that totally avoids this?

Many thanks in advance,

 

Gary

[SteveWolves]

Is that a coiled cable? I just use a longer flat cable

[Gary M33]

It's a flat cable. it just always seems to find something to snag on.

[Hicks]

I was plagued by a snagging power cable and also that the power socket on the fork arm wasn't a good connection so even slewing could cause a power reset. Snagging was worse when I added a wedge too.

What I did for a time was remove the battery holders and run my 12v DC power into one of the battery holder connectors. If you get a flat enough cable the battery lid still closes. There's a guide somewhere on the internet for this, but it's basically +/- from your 12v supply to the battery holder on the fork handles side and for the other battery compartment you just short the +/- to complete the circuit.

That allows the power cable to hang from the centre of the mount and when slewing you can cover quite a range of sky before it needs to move.

Since then I've switched to a raspberry PI box I've mounted to the left fork arm and a more sturdy power cable runs into that box and is screw locked then distributed from that to the scope (still using the battery socket) and other accessories. This allows the scope to slew almost 360 degrees in either direction without snagging.

It's one of the few things that I never liked with the LX90 as compared to say the LX200 that had a control panel that didn't rotate with the scope. A much saner design.

Edit: Forgot to mention, I also loop the cable a little and fasten it with some velcro tie wrap to the spreader plate of the tripod. The loop formed by the hanging cable is enough to allow the scope to rotate around without needing to drag cable around on the floor.

Edited July 20, 2021 by Hicks