Hi Rod, while not the same thing I had something similar occassionally with my old 8". On a couple of nights I turned the scope off (you know when you do a slew and forget you've got a toUcam in a barlow or a 300D attached
) and turned it back on the fuse in the lighter attachment would blow. I soon realised what was going on and made sure I waited a while for the scope and wires to cool and reduce ????"resistance"???? and no problem. But now reading your problems I wonder if it's not an inherant problem and that my situation wasn't as bad as others.
Not much help sorry, but at least you know that your situation isnt unusual. Maybe meade need to get their act together on this if it is such a common problem. And while their at it they could fix the problem of if you put the batteries in the wrong way you can do damage. That shouldn't be able to happen. Either putting batteries in the wrong way or if you do it shouldn't be able to do damage. A warning in the manual is not enough.