I had been really enjoying the last 4 nights of astronomy, after having what was a solid 2 month break and practically a 6-9 month break from it. I was unenthused, and didn't have the time. Now I'm enthused and had made the time for it.
The LX200 was working great. Great goto accuracy, smooth slews, ... just nice.
Then, last night, at 10:30ish I posted a message about photo's taken with the Megrez setup.... at 10:31ish, litterally seconds after posting that message, CCDCommand returns that the pointing of the LX200 is off by greater than 3 arc minutes. Odd I thought, I'd never seen that error before.
Within 2 minutes I had worked out what's going on - the RA motor is dead. No life.
Symptoms:
- before turning the LX200 off, it was alive in goto and DEC movements but RA was not moving anywhere.
- amp meter is reading a couple of bars lower than usual
- then after turning it off, turning it on it won't get past the "Meade" start up screen on he hand controller.
Doh!!! argh!!! why! why!!!
It was only 2007 I went through the whole drama of 9 months down-time due to lightning strike
Now I need to some how source spares and fix it again
I have a spare set of components for the scope, but they are not yet 100% working from the last problem
One thing after the other isn't it?
Oh well, guess I'll be doing some diagnosis today - replace cmos battery, test input voltage, shake the motor around a little, then ring Don @ BINTEL.
PS. Clarification: LX200 classic.