Long wait for no return

[Martin 2]

Hi All,

As you know I had a problem with the scope when I first tried it with the hand controller locking

up after a couple of minutes of use when using a power tank, when I ran it from a car it worked

fine so I presumed it was the power tank.

Havnt been able to use the scope for a few weeks because of the weather but I purchased a new

power tank from halfords, in view of the problem I had I got a top of the range one(fool).

Last night the clouds cleared at last so I set the scope up at the back of the house as I thought

I wont need to be near the car now (bigger fool ). After a couple of Min's it started locking up again,

it would go through the gps alignment and slew to my first target but then would freeze, one time

I got as far as slewing the target into the centre of fov but when I took my finger off the button it

just kept on slewing, had to turn the power off to get it to stop.

So I packed up and moved it all round to the front of the house to plug in to the car as I thought it

would once again work ok from there (bigger, bigger fool). It is now doing the same from that source as well,

even tried a different car but no joy. Have emailed D Hinds in the hope they may know whats causing this

problem.

In the meantime about 3.30 this morning I looked at various sites on the web to see if there were any

suggestions and found some that suggest that a rechargable battery in the GPS unit can become discharged

if the scope hasnt been used for a long time so Ive also emailed the chap I got the scope from to see if it was

unused for a while, in the meantime Ive plugged the scope in and powered it up and will leave it on all day to

see if that sorts it, and await a reply from D Hinds

M2

[OXO]

I feel for you M2 sounds like a nightmare lets hope David Hinds can shed some light on the matter or maybe someone on here..

Best of luck mate.

James

[Martin 2]

Thanks James, I'll post more when I get some answers in case anyone else has a similar problem in the future

M2

[GordonCopestake]

I feel your pain M2. My nexstar 80gt plays up sometimes, but (touch wood) a quick reset usually sorts it out. I've had problems with it slewing out of control when the batteries have been near flat, but the little 80gt only takes 8 AA's and they are quickly replaced. Is your handcontroller one of the upgradable types? Maybe you can flash upgrade it to the most recent software? Hope you sort it out soon mate.

Gordon Copestake

[Greg]

Martin,

I used to get the same symptoms with my Meade..

Nine times out of ten it was the batteries... I never used the recharchables as they never seemed to last long..

Hopefully it's the batteries and you'll have an end to your frustration.

[CELESCOPE]

Hi Martin ,

Really sorry you are having this problem mate , i cant say i have had this before in either of my scopes, as for not using it for along period, not sure on that one , i had a gps 11 for a while , and got a bit fed up with astronomy at the time so left it for 6 months, when i tried to use it it went crazy , all over the place , i live only an hour from d hinds, and took it to him , well to cut along story short , i was back and forth 4 times and in the end i said KEEPit i have lost faith in it. so i went for the gps 8 , so what i,m saying is he should have learnt from that and now should know what the problem is, i know its under warranty . and personally i would either take it back or send it back to him . else you will go crazy with it , it could also have a bug in it , so the latest software could sort it out .

Rog

[MartinB]

This is a serious pain Martin. Let us know how you get on with David Hinds. These sort of faults aren't acceptable. From all I have read the chances are it is something annoyingly trivial. Let's hope so

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Martin,

I used to get the same symptoms with my Meade..

Nine times out of ten it was the batteries... I never used the recharchables as they never seemed to last long..

Hopefully it's the batteries and you'll have an end to your frustration.

Don't know if this helps as I'm not at all familiar with this setup.

Rechargeable batteries are 1.2V instead of 1.5V for non-rechargeable batteries. If you ARE using NiCads (thought I read that you were using a power tank thing / car) then this could be the cause. 8 "normal batteries would give you 12V, whereas the NiCads would only give you 9.6V.

HTH

Captain Chaos

[MartinB]

The GPS8 should work fine off a power tank.

[Martin 2]

Just heard back from the guy I got the scope from, he says he hadnt used it for about 7 months so the small battery in the gps module may well be flat so Ill find out soon , the scopes been powered up (with hand controller removed) since this morning, so by tonight there should be a charge in it, surfing the varios forums suggest that this es a problem with these gps scopes because Celestron have in the infinate wisdom left any mention of it out of the manual (how daft is that!!), and it also appears that if you have to change this battery, (probably like the ones you find in car remote keyfobs) you are at pot luck as to whether its a push fit type or on later models a soldered in type

Anyway I feel a bit more confident that this is a qiuck fix now and clouds permitting I might be back up and running again, mind you I felt like that at the startof last night after shelling out on the new power tank.

Life is never easy is it

M2

[MartinB]

good luck Martin. Fingers crossed for you.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Due to my advancing years, I can't remember what else it is that you get few chances to use and then you can't be confident that it will work.

Captain Chaos

[Martin 2]

With you there C.C

M2

[OXO]

Fingers crossed here too M2

[Saso]

I'm sorry to hear that you have problems. I'm hoping that is everything alright by now, so fingers crossed by me too.

Saso

[Martin 2]

This is getting like a shaggy dog story.

Set scope up about 8 this evening having had it powered up all day, full of expectation I turned it on and the hand set lit up like a jewel, set it to gps align and off it went like a greyhound. Leveled itself then pointed north ( I'm getting quite excited at this point ) then I waited for it to slew to the 1st alignment star and waited and waited and waited, nothing, the hand set had froze again, couldn't believe it ( I don't believe it as Mr Meldew would say ). I was really P****d off at this point and I nearly blew a fuse, had another fag and made a cup of tea before trying again but had the same result.

Looked through the manual again ( know it backwards by now), search on the forums again and found a little snippet

that said "if you get probs with the hand controller, go into the menu and select reset to factory settings " so I did and although the 1st gps alignment was all over the place the 2nd attempt worked and its been working all night .

I'm not getting to excited, just a little excited incase I put the mockers on it but I think I might have cracked it.

M2

[MartinB]

:)

Great news Martyn. My GPS align doesn't work - I have to use 2 star align which is no big deal, better if you can only see a few stars. Might try that reset sometime.

so what did you spend you time looking at?

[Martin 2]

Well, seeing wasn't great alot of high cloud, spent a lot of time on saturn, almost thought I could see the division but the image was wobbling all over the place, then the moon, think I got some great single shots with the camera, I'll have a look in a bit. various other objects but the seeing was so poor really, but I just kept it moving to see how long the scope would hold up.

Had a good night though, hoping its clear tonight, I will try out the back of the house and try for some pics of Jupiter, could have waited for it to come round last night but it would have been about 2.30 am before it came into view and I was frozen by 1am.

Martin have you checked that gps is "on" in the hand set settings, if it is then try the factory reset and think about this battery thats on the gps module board.

M2

[MartinB]

The GPS is working fine, I think the problem with the GPS align is with the downstop switch. Don't have any other problems though so I'm pretty happy.

You should be able to see Cassini very clearly with 25mmEP onwards although it may come and go with the seeing. With spot on collimation and good seeing and x250-300 you can just make out ence

[CELESCOPE]

i find that strange Martin, why it should play u up . maybe the move , but cant think why , but as you say you dont need it really , now u have the wedge , you have to go manual anyway ,

Do hope Martin 2 has solved his problem,not that he is missing much at the moment with this ***** weather .

Rog

[Martin 2]

Hi All,

Out again last night and the scope is performing well at the moment, kept running till 3am this morning and only had one glitch, saw some incredible stuff under one of the clearest nights Ive seen. If I get time I'll post a full report and some pics if they come out, M13 looks a pos. if the main pic looks as good as it does on the camera display

M2

[Saso]

I'm happy for you that you can resolve problem. Looking forward to your report and pictures.

Saso

[OXO]

Thats great news M2 lets hope it carrys on working for you..

James

[MartinB]

Great news Martin, looking forward to your report and ?image.

I've just buggered the secondary mirror housing taking off the retaining ring ready for fitting the fastar system. Seems some washers have perished so it now wobbles in its housing. Think it will be usable for a while but not with fastar. Trip to telescope hospital needed with inpatient stay of around a week :)

[CELESCOPE]

you are having a laugh Martin it takes 5 mins max to do whats he on about , u wait for it mate , hells bells .

Rog