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LX 200 Classic problem. Fix or new mount
I have a 1995 vintage 12inch LX 200 and a second hand 10 inch LX 200 classic, not sure of of the year.
The 12 is in my observatory and works fine and has good pointing accurray, it can place galaxies on my st-7, 13x8 arc minute field without problems.
The 10 inch lost a dec motor about 2 months ago. On power up the fuse on the mother board blew. Replacing the dec motor from a service pack the scope worked.
On speaking with Lex from Star Optics (Gold Coast) I was told that the service packs are matched and the motors are tuned for the electronics.
Without using the matched parts the mount could losing pointing accruary.
The one time I did try the scope with the replacement motor, the pointing did seem to be off.
So I decided to replace the motherboard and ra motor to match with the dec motor. I have previously replaced two mother boards on the 12 some years ago so i was comfortable with the process.
Now the 10 is seems to be locking up after about 4 minutes of use. I am unable to slew the scope. What I have noticed is that the amp meter which shows about 3-4 bars for the first 4 minutes hits 5-6 bars when the slewing contol is lost. Also the RA shows a constant change of about 1 arc / per second.
I am now to scared to mess around with electronics in case I do more damage. Lex, said that they can do some repairs.
I also understand that Meade no long makes the service packs.
Should I
a) get the current electronics / mount for the 10 inch fix, knowing that I could still have problems in the future
b) should i look at getting a new mount for the 10, if so what sort?
The mount must be a equatorial / goto / computer control (using TheSy sofware) with high pointing and tracking accruary. Should be good enough to do at least 60 seconds unguided images without trailing. It must handle the weight of the 10, a 80mm guide scope, DSLR / CCD camera. The 10 is used as my dark site scope, so the mount needs to portable.
I can afford a new mount if I dediced to go that way. (Maybe when the electronics in the 12 fail, I'll get the excuse to buy the Paramount ME).
Brendan
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