LXD75 - Drive the train

[pvelez (Pete)]

I mean train the drive

Another question for the gurus with a Meade LXD75...if I train the drive, does it stick or do I need to redo it each time I turn on? I live in suburbia and there are no convenient distant objects to use to train the drive. So I pack up the gear in the car and drive a few blocks to find a view of something terrestial and obvious. But does the Autostar remember the training after I turn it off?

I've found the pointing accuracy less the perfect - I have finally (after much anguish) worked out how to drift align and this has made a big difference. To improve things, I'm also looking at aligning the axis on the mount - again, do I loose this when I turn off the Autostar?

Any tips would be great

Pete

[AndrewJ]

Gday Pete

Drive training is remembered across cycles, as are the backlash percentages.
If you have Dick Seymours patch installed, you can view the data ( and manually edit it ) via the Hbx or my PEC editing app.

As to the second part of yr question, i dont understand
You drift align or do a new alignment each time you setup
This is always different.
There is nothing the Autostar can save in this case.

Andrew

[pvelez (Pete)]

Thanks for that. I had a suspicion that that was the case but its good to have it confirmed.

On the second point, the Meade manual refers to aligning the axis of your scope with the mount - it looks like a series of exercises on both sides of the mount to ensure that everything is properly aligned. I guess it saves the information in the same way as the drive training.

Yes, I do align afresh each time I power up. The luxury of a pier is well beyond me at the moment so I do drift align each time I'm serious about firing up the scope.

Thanks again

Pete

[Fox]

The drive training is remembered by AutoStar once its done. Although I have read that some people train the drives on a regular basis which they claim improves performance. Its definitely worthwhile to train the drives if you do any major tinkering/adjusting on the mount.

There is an easier way to train the drives during the daytime without driving to a viewpoint/lookout site. Bintel told me this method. I set up the and mount the scope in-doors in the middle of my (largish) lounge room. Draw a small circle target/bullseye (black texta is fine) on a post-it note and then stick it up high in the room, say up in the wall/ceiling cornice. This is your 'star'. I then attach (using elastic bands and bluetack) a laser pointer to the scope with the switch 'on' (again using elastic bands to depress the switch).' You are then ready to train the drive indoors using the laser pointer and your hand-drawn star during the daytime. I assume its probably not as accurate as using a distant object and the eyepiece, but it well and truely works well enough for me. Fox.