ETX 125 Question

[Peter Piper]

Hello

I bought a Meade ETX 125 last week and so far the weather has prevented me using it outside. However while playing with the 'Goto' function I got a message saying that the motor was overheating (or something like that - I turned it off quickly). It seemed to me that it was still trying to slew round but had hit a stop.

Is this right? I would have thought that an instrument like this would have a limit switch at least - or am I expecting too much?

Anyway I turned back on after a few minutes and it seems that no harm has been done. I have made sure I know where it's slewing limits are and am going to re-read the instructions to see if I have missed anything relevant.

Regards PP

[Psychobilly]

No limit switches onthe ETX's just hard stops... It's important to set the home position of the scope properly as described in the manual if you do this and use "Goto" the scope will keep track of where it is and make sure it doesn't "wind" itself up ...

Billy...

[Dave Smith]

As Billy says, it is important to set it up correctly initially. This involves unwinding it until reaching a stop and then returning to North for the start. It is so easy to forget this even when you have had the scope for some time.

Dave

[Tiny]

When I had one I worked out the inner workings allowed two full rotations stop to stop (or maybe one stop was the wires wrapping). With this in mind I set the thing up to be one turn round when on the bit of sky I was most interested in (normally that ment south) then had the cord wrap option on - which cut movement to one turn. After that - no problems.

[scotastro]

If you find the manual confusing the Meade website have some videos explainting the steps.

http://www.meade.com/educational/etx%20videos/index.html

Mike

[Peter Piper]

Thanks a lot for your answers, I think that I have taken the attitude of ' If all else fails - read the instructions!'. Lesson learned - I will get better.

Regards PP