Dead LX200

[rousey346]

Gday peoples
have a problem

tonight i went out to a viewing sesion, and i made up a makeshift power supply to run from the car battery, except i wired it up with wrong polarity.

The scoped turned on, but within about 10 seconds smoke started comming out of the base unit (where you switch it on)

The scope now still powers up, and the handset does its usual thing, but it comes up with an error saying "Sensor board fail"

if you 'mode' out of it, it goes into standard setup, but slew or anything else doesnt work.


Does anyone know where you can get replacement boards from??

[Merlin66]

Try the Lx200 Y! group for help....there are plenty of experienced users over there....
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LX200/?yguid=322612425
Someone may be able to help.
ken

[PeterM]

Don from Bintel is always a good start, especially if you bought it from them.
Smoke from base at a guess maybe you did a capacitor? Assuming its the GPS I thought they were polarity protected, maybe not.
I bet you get a reply from Barry Gerdes (Meade electronics guru & IIS member ) in about ....

PeterM

[rousey346]

i pulled it apart, and all thats happened is its lifted some of the copper tracks off the board, doesnt look like its destroyed any capacitors or resistors.. i can just bridge it with a wire and solder over the damage track, but ide rather just replace the board

[Jen]

Hope you get it back up and running soon Jay :thumbsup:

[tlgerdes]

Barry is away for the next day or so.

[Rodstar]

I would second the recommendation to try to get Don Whiteman at Bintel to help. I note however that you are from the land Far Far Away, so it may be impracticable to have it shipped there and back....

[Exfso]

Might be a good idea to wire in a diode in the -ve line so you dont accidentally do this again. I speak from having done it myself recently and cooked my robofocus controller.

[Barrykgerdes]

Is it a LX200 classic or an LX200GPS.
If it is a classic all that should have happened is the 2A fuse should have blown.

The lifting of tracks makes me think you have a GPS version and blown the front panel. There is no fuse in the LX200 GPS/ACF. A reverse polarity can cause the track under the little battery to lift and fuse. If this is the only trouble you may be able to link it externally. Boards are not readily available. The sensor board may have a S/C (possibly a blown capacitor)

A photo of the damaged area may help me to pinpoint trouble.

Barry

[Jen]

:clap::clap: welcome back Barry :D see what happens when you leave for a few days LOL :P

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Jen

I had to make a quick trip to Coff's Harbour on Sunday to pick up some Meccano stuff and I spent all day Monday sorting it out.

Barry

[mozzie]

oohhh damn!!!!! what a shame barry i'm having trouble with my lx200 and i'm only 15 mins from coffs

[Barrykgerdes]

Bad luck Peter

I did not know you were having trouble. I have a brother in Mylstom and a niece in Urunga but did not even get time to call in. It was a 6.5 hr drive each way.

Barry

[mozzie]

no worries barry!!!! next time you're up.... had ric petrie around on the weekend,it's a small world????????

[scopemankit]

Once you get your problem sorted out get an electronicswallah to incorporate a couple of diodes in the connecting area to protect the circuit from incorrect connections.