does anybody have a meade etx ls-6 ??

[veejo]

Just wondering if anybody has any experience with the meade etx-ls 6. The one that does everything, even speaks to you.

I bought a used one to suit my budget ...... and an having trouble getting the error message off the handset.

It works, I can can move it, up down, left right, etc.

BUT the handset has a " firmware error", it's ver 1.4a

I've tried to use their software to make a mini sd, which seems to be the "if all else fails upgrade / refalsh" BUT if always seems to fail the verify when writing to the flash card, san disk 1G with fat 32, writes a a binary to the flash, then fails to verify.

would be great if there is somebody who has a working mini sd card, if I can just copy your binary files, or close by in Melbourne so I can use your flash card, or whatever.

This seems to be a common problem, but i like to work with facts not emotions.

Looking for a fix, not hindsight wisdom eg "buy LX200, will trade for 1960's golf clubs, etc,etc".
Making my Celetsron 6se look better all the time.

[AndrewJ]

Gday Veejo

There are SD cards and then there are SD cards ;)
The card has to be a mini ( or micro in mini adapter ) and less than 2GB
and not a HC type. Note, many lappies with inbuilt card readers wont recognise a micro card in a mini adapter ( mine wont )
I went through this exercise and failed on three cards before i got one that works. There are many counterfeit cards out there, and the LS firmware just wont play with many of them.
If your scope actually starts now, you may be able to use the USB cable method to reload the firmware ( much faster ), but you must use the very latest ASU updater (5.92), as the earlier ASU versions wont connect to the 1.4a Firmware ( as Meade did a one line change to their ID codes ).
If that wont work, you need to use the SD card method.
You first need to format the card to Fat32 then run the meade loader program to make the card. If that fails, then the card is probably faulty.
If it makes the card OK and you plug it in and start the scope, and the power switch LED blinks, then the scope is not recognising the card.
Otherwise, it will prompt you to hit enter and will load away.
If you have problems making the card, BINTEL ( Melb ) has a master card that will work.

Andrew

[veejo]

ohh man,
I had hoped technology would have been more standardised, used have this "fussiness" problem with other devices.

I's a transcend 1GB mini sd in a minisd - sd convertor / adapter.

I had hoped that if it would format, all would be good.

When I hit the enter key on the handset , it replies NAND failed error code 1.

It's off ASU 5.9.2

the file on the card is FIRMWARE.bin 631KB
When the card is insertted and power appled, the handset says meades ext-ls ver 1.01

Now she's bricked ...... so I'm worse off then I was before. I hope it's not one of those load v1.10, then 1.02, then 1.03, then 1.03b, then 1.04, then 1.04a etc type sceanrios.

At least it boots a card and asks for data to be copied to the nand.

would be easier if Meade just had "format card to fat 32 and unzip this file onto the mini sd card).

[AndrewJ]

It is. If you dont like the standard, just try another:D
But seriously, i had sandisk cards from china, taiwan and japan
There is something weird in how they work, but i never found out how.

I spent two months pursuing that theory :(

That should work ( software wise )
But you can also get caught by the downloaded image files as there is a special file in the updater directory as well that is used to do the loading.
Its a horrible method thats been used.

There are actually 2 versions of Firmware.bin and one is renamed when an SD card is made.
The SD card should have Firmware.bin on it as well as a whole pile of other files and directories.
What do you have on your SD card after making it?????

Nope. 1.4a can be loaded directly from SD card.

Would have been even easier if they had designed it to boot from the USB port thats there. So much more standard than SD cards, ( of which mini is now pretty much redundant ) and much more flexible.

Andrew

[veejo]

The only files on the SD card is
FIRMWARE.bin 613KB

no other files, as it fails when it creates the sd card (fails verify)

The update named the card EFINDERETX.

No other files on the SD, I had hoped to just find a .zip with all the files on it, and put it onto the SD card.

Boot off the USB, yes that would have been a good idea, maybe in the next release of firmware :-)

Other wise it might be a trip to Bintel at some stage and hope they can crearte an SD card for me :-( .... what to do in the meantime.

At least it tries to boot of the SD even though the handset is bricked.

Hate the idea of buying every dusty mini SD I can find.

[AndrewJ]

Thats not enough to do a firmware load.
You should have
Firmware.bin
FlashFirmware.bin
and then subdirectories of
Maps, Menus, Objects, Tours, User
( each with a pile of files in them )
The Firmware.bin is a copy of the Firmware.bin from your \updater directory ( and is effectively the bootloader program )
FlashFirmware.bin is the Firmware.bin from the downloaded update file,
but renamed to work with the bootloader.
If you dont have the above files on the card, then it wont work.
The data on the card is effectively the 200MB download file unzipped
with the firmware.bin file renamed to suit as the bootloader.
Sooooooooooooooooo
What data structures do you have under the Updater directory?
as the ASU uses this structure to create the SD card structure.
You should have something like
Program Files
> Meade
>> AustostarSuite
>>>Updater
>>>>ETX_LS14A <- the New firmware directory
>>>>>Maps
>>>>>Menus
>>>>>Objects
>>>>>Tours
>>>>>User

There should be a file Firmware.bin in the Updater directory
( which becomes the bootloader ),
and another Firmware.bin under the ETX_LS14A directory
( which is the actual scope firmware )
As per above, this latter file will be renamed as FlashFirmware.bin on the SD card.
Everything else under the ETX_LS14A directory should be copied "as is" to the the SD card when you use the ASU create SD card function.

Sadly its not going to happen

If thats the case, then the card is being recognised,
hence the problem is down to why its not creating a proper boot card.
More info reqd on what you are doing ( in detail ), and what data is on your PC ( in detail )

Andrew

[veejo]

Andrew,
Thanks for not making me feel like I'm the only person in the world to own one of these, you've been an inspiration.
well .........
it's now 12:40 am, and it loaded from sd.
I re-installed the autostar 5.5 suite from scratch from the disk on my pc, and managed to flash a full sd (old version ls of course), well it didn't load, but at least I got an X on the handset, and it had the structures as you mentioned.

Then I started to upgrade the autostar updater to 5.9, did the same thing.
Then I upgraded the upgrader to 5.9.2. and it flashed a whole sd as per directories.

The only strange thing is that it only has ls as an option for the device under the updater, before i had ext-ls as an option.

Also the create sd only has 1.02 as an option on the 5.9.2 updater.
The handset is also now 1.02, BUT at least it talks again, hmm now to figure out how to get back to 1.4a or newer ?
At least no longer a brick.

[AndrewJ]

Gday Veejo

You are having fun, arent you. :D


You missed the nuance of my earliest post.


Meades marketing dept changed the name of the scope from ETX-LS to plain LS. The software writers also changed its ID string "inside the firmware" to match. The ASU updater got missed;)
As such, once 1.4a is loaded, ONLY ASU 5.9.2 will recognise it
and SD card creation is also compromised.



Have you downloaded and unzipped the 1.4a firmware to your PC?
If not, you need to do that first ( 200 odd MB )
Then there is another bug in the Meade system in that it sometimes ignores some LS directories after it finds the first one.
As such if you have say 2 firmware directories
\Updater
>ETX_LS102A > subdirectories
>ETX_LS14A > subdirectories

you need to use explorer etc to "move" the ETX_LS102A directory
to a backup area or a new directory.
Anywhere but under \updater.
Once ETX_LX14A is the only LS type update directory under \updater
try remaking an SD card ( reformat the card first )
It should now make a 1.4a card ( just for backup purposes )
SD load process after that is the same

However, as the unit is "unbricked", you should also be able to try a std USB load ( and its much faster )
With only 1.4a under updater, the std load mechanism should show that as the only option to load.

Have fun:P

Andrew

[AndrewJ]

Gday Veejo



This is a seperate reply as its a seperate problem

You will probably find you cant use ASU to read/write Asteroids/Comets/Satellites etc
There is a seperate bug in the ASU that causes this, however my latest PEC editor will correctly read/write the LS data.

The current datasets in 1.4a really cant be used as
a) All asteroids listed are too dim to see
b) All comets have an eccentricity factor of zero:rofl:
c) All satellite TLEs have expired
Hence all the above are pretty useless.

Play with the scope first, but just remember the above if you plan to look at any of the above.

And whatever you do, dont use "Stars with Planets"

Andrew

[veejo]

I must be getting closer

I'm using autostar update ASU version 5.9.2 may 5 2010
When I select update and the autostar type LS I get the following message.
　
Update firmware via USB to 1.4a now. Note: If your telescope has experienced a "Flash Read Error" you must update your telescope firmware by creating an SD card. To create an SD card, use the Local -> "Make SD Card" utility in the AutoStar Updater. Before creating the SD card remove any previous versions of LS firmware found in the folder C:\Program Files\Meade\AutostarSuite\Updater".To download and install the new firmware, run the AutoStar Updater (ASU.EXE) version 5.9 or higher and follow the instructions. Download it now (~218-MB)?

then it looks for

ETX_LS15C.zip from www.meade.com a 86.98 MB file

When update tries to open the file, it gets

Opening zip catalogue failed! Downloaded file C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ETX_LS15C.zip was not processed!(Cause code=18).
　
When I try to unzip manually, I get a bad header error, but I can get a few files from it eg firmware.bin and a couple of other directories, so I could try to make up an SD, I don't want to wreck the sd that I have now for 1.02 "the unbricker", so I've ordered a couple of spare sd cards to play with. Be better if the file just unpacked and I was on my way to 1.4a. Have tried 2 different PCs incase something is cached or saved in an .ini

[AndrewJ]

Gday Veejo



That should work, but i see they have put up a new version over the weekend as well.



Ooooh thats cute, even for Meade
The download files MUST be 220MB. I grabbed the LS15C and cant unzip it ( as its part of a spanned set ??? )
and i am assuming its a truncated zip they have loaded by mistake.
Do not use it.



NO:sadeyes: Dont do that. Something is wrong with the file
To grab 1.4a use this link ( its 220MB )
http://meade.com/support/auto/ETX_LS14A.zip



Wont help;) Meade use hidden files as part of the download processing and if they screw up, it wont redownload.
Just grab the file from the above link and unzip it under updater,
then proceed as per normal ( whatever that is )

Andrew

[veejo]

Andrew

looking good,
I sent an email to meade, and ....... asking why the 15 zip file fails ...the version 15 (guess it's 1.5) was removed from their site / link you sent me this morning (6 hours later).

Start updater and ALL is OK.
Seems the problem was this 86mb file they had which was incomplete, must be getting ready fro a 1.5 release :-)

Another interesting thing ........... now updater gives me the option of ver 1.4a or 1.5C !!!!! haven't tried 1.5C.

So it seems most of my problems were due to their web site and updater.

Haven't had an Email reply from Meade though.

Looks like it will make a great starter scope, guess we have to support innovation to help progress, and the LS is a sign of things to come and the bar has been set higher than with my Celestron GOTO

Andrew, thanks for all your help, faster and more informative than Meade. I guess they are cautious ......

Love then scope :-)

[AndrewJ]

Gday Veejo

Dont hold out for a reply.
Meade dont normally respond to emails, you have to "call" their helpdesk,
and hope you get an operator that knows what they are talking about.

My understanding is part of it is to do with 64bit Win7 compatability.
The LS have an integrated USB to Serial converter in them
and it appears 64 bit systems are causing grief all round.
On top of that, the current firmware still has quite a few bugs to address.


Dont touch 1.5c yet. 1.4a is the officially released version.
Also, double check your C drive and if there is a LS15C directory under \Updater
just delete it. ( This will be the dud data you downloaded last night )

Yes and No.
I dont like the fact that you cannot bypass the "full" startup and aligning procedure. Once you get the hang of the scope, this can become a pain.
I also dislike the fact there are no clutches, and the firmware still has a lot of bugs.
The optics are superb, and the internal gearing is very solid compared to ETXs or even LX90s, but then again, you cant balance the OTA
and the design makes fitting "bulky" dewheaters and/or dewshields a bit of a problem, and weight rails are a nono as weights will block the camera:shrug:

Anyway, load er up and see what happens.

Andrew

[veejo]

not being able to over-ride auto alignment will become a nuisance on the ETX-LS, espcially if you just wnat to do some quick planet watching. That should be fixable with a software update if they get enough feedback.


Also the lack of clutch has had me wondering also, how do I move the tube vertical so that it can be packed into it's case if the battery goes flat ?????
I pressume it isn't smart enough to finish up when battery is low rather than just stop when the battery is flat ?

[AndrewJ]

Gday Veejo


You can turn off the full autoalign, but you cant "easily" get past all the guff at the beginning where it levels itself, finds home, does GPS etc etc etc.
With my ETX125, i can just plonk it down, turn on, manually set the tube and do an align in less time than the LS takes to initialise.
Horses for courses i guess.



Brute force and ignorance;)
There are clutches in there, but they arent user adjustable.
The DEC has a rubber clutch plate and the RA is a "dry" clutch.
If you grab the OTA "casting" ( not the OTA ) and apply firm gentle pressure, the DEC clutch will slip to allow you to set the OTA if the batteries die etc. The RA clutch can also be manually forced, but it may squeal like a stuck pig when you do it, as there is a pin inside that sometimes isnt fitted fully.

Just for info, the DEC clutch can cause problems, as you cant release it to test for balance.
For fun, I set a unit up with Meade 1209 Microfocusser on the back, with a 2" diagonal, a binoviewer and 2 heavy EPs
With this load on the back, the DEC clutch actually "oozed".
Until i found out what was happening, the aligning and viewing was really interesting as i couldnt understand why the tracking rate was so far off:rolleyes:

Also, if you put 2 "C" cells in the left slot of the battery compartment, it will keep the GPS almanac alive and hence speed up GPS fixes.
Another trick is to always start with the OTA pointing East of Mag Nth,
as the tube always goes CCW looking for Nth. Very annoying to spin 355deg if you are just west of Nth.

Andrew