Death of my 4" Meade DS-2102Mak

[Renato1 (Renato)]

Hi Everyone,
In my other thread, I reported the difficulty I was having collimating my 4" Meade Mak and how finally, after a week I had it working relatively well. Saturn was sharp, markings could be seen on Mars, but the diffraction ring around stars was just slightly out.

So this evening I gave it its last collimation tweak, and went out to view Jupiter. And found that the focusing knob no longer moved the mirror, so that I couldn't view anything.

It may be fixable, but I'd have to remove the inner back cover on which the collimation screws sit, to have a look inside. And even if I did see something simple to fix with the focusing mechanism, I'd then have to collimate the telescope again for days, hoping the focuser didn't stuff up along the way.

I have decided to bin it, as I no longer want to see it.

From memory, this telescope cost me around US$160, and it was brand new when I got it. I was expecting better from Meade stuff.
Cheers,
Renato

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Bad news ,,, but ,,,, have a look at that nice 127mm SW Mak in the classifieds .
Only $250 now and this would be a great step up from the old 102mm ?

These are good scopes and I am wondering why it aint sold yet ?

Worth a look Renato .

Brian.

Originally Posted by Renato1

Hi Everyone,
In my other thread, I reported the difficulty I was having collimating my 4" Meade Mak and how finally, after a week I had it working relatively well. Saturn was sharp, markings could be seen on Mars, but the diffraction ring around stars was just slightly out.

So this evening I gave it its last collimation tweak, and went out to view Jupiter. And found that the focusing knob no longer moved the mirror, so that I couldn't view anything.

It may be fixable, but I'd have to remove the inner back cover on which the collimation screws sit, to have a look inside. And even if I did see something simple to fix with the focusing mechanism, I'd then have to collimate the telescope again for days, hoping the focuser didn't stuff up along the way.

I have decided to bin it, as I no longer want to see it.

From memory, this telescope cost me around US$160, and it was brand new when I got it. I was expecting better from Meade stuff.
Cheers,
Renato

[Renato1 (Renato)]

Originally Posted by brian nordstrom

Bad news ,,, but ,,,, have a look at that nice 127mm SW Mak in the classifieds .
Only $250 now and this would be a great step up from the old 102mm ?

These are good scopes and I am wondering why it aint sold yet ?

Worth a look Renato .

Brian.

Thanks Brian, I have sent a message about it.

As for the 102mm Mak - I didn't bin it after all.

Instead I've passed it along to another member who wants to pull it apart. And I've told him that I hope he can fix it and enjoy it, as I don't want to see it again.
Cheers,
Renato

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

No worries mate just PLEASE ! don't touch this one as you now know these things are very touchy .
I would have loved to have grabbed the old 102 as well , if he looses interest can I have first dibs ? I will pay postage .
Brian.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

There are trials and tribulations just about with every scope. my then 4 year old son blew up the mount on my CPC925, thankfully I am an ex tech and was able to diagnose and bodgy it up to get it working again to begin with and once I convinced the Australian dealer that I really did know what I was on about and knew what part I needed, it was only a $40 part anyway.

Spark plugs and celestrons don't mix, not even when one is a space ship and the other a landing platform! I would have expected to see the input stage of a typical buffer chip live through an input short to earth or supply actually, but it did not.

[Renato1 (Renato)]

Originally Posted by brian nordstrom

No worries mate just PLEASE ! don't touch this one as you now know these things are very touchy .
I would have loved to have grabbed the old 102 as well , if he looses interest can I have first dibs ? I will pay postage .
Brian.

But the focuser went on this one - they are supposed to be touched all the time!

Who ever heard of a focuser dying on a telescope?

I'll let him know if he loses interest.
Cheers,
Renato

[Renato1 (Renato)]

Originally Posted by The_bluester

There are trials and tribulations just about with every scope. my then 4 year old son blew up the mount on my CPC925, .

Well, that would have been a bit of a heart stopper!

Glad you fixed it eventually.
Cheers,
Renato

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Yeah, he shorted out a buffer chip on the PC interface board. The hand controller and the PC interface use the same data line to the control boards in the mount and when the buffer blew up it tied that line to ground, so even the hand controller stopped working.

I bodged it for a while by cutting the blown up IC off the circuit board and only replaced it when I found I could get a new one for a reasonable price in Australia.

Spoiled a nights observing with a mate of course!