Can someone in Canberra help me (Nexstar)?

[bindibadgi]

Just after Christmas I bought a Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT as a grab and go scope. With all the clouds I've hardly been able to use it!

Anyway, that's not the issue. Yesterday I decided to take the scope out and have a look at the sun, using the Baader filter which I made. When I turned on the scope, I got "BOOT LOADER Invalid Pkg: 0080" and the hand controller will no longer respond at all. I've only ever powered the scope with a genuine Celestron PowerTank, apart from once when I tried it with alkaline AAs in the base.

I sent an email to the store where I bought the scope, so I'll see what they say, but since then I wondered if there's an easier way. Is there, perhaps, someone in Canberra with the correct cables who can help me flash the firmware in my HC? I have the latest HC with what I think is the latest firmware (NXS 5.21.2064), but I wonder if it might fix my issue by just flashing the same version over the top.

I'll see what the shop says, but does anybody have any other ideas?

[Poita (Peter)]

Yes, try reflashing the firmware over the top, there is a good chance it has just become corrupted.

[Poita (Peter)]

I can post you a cable if you PM me your address.

[bindibadgi]

Thank you for the advice, and the very kind offer Poita.

Before I allow Poita to go to the effort and expense of sending me a cable, I'll wait and see if anybody near me has one and can spare the time to help me flash the controller. That way nobody is out of pocket.

In the meantime I'm encouraged that it ought to be a simple fix. I know the scope was working before, so it's not a total dud!

In other news, I had lent my Edmund Astroscan to a friend some time ago, and he randomly returned it today (apparently his wife wanted her laundry shelf back!), so I'm not without a grab and go scope. I'm also not without clouds, so I guess there's really no hurry!

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Hi there.
Did you look on the Celestron site?

The hand control of my new scope shows the message “Bootloader invalid package 0080” or “Bootloader invalid package 0002”. How can I fix this and make the mount work?

Reply:

Originally Posted by Celestron Support Center Knowledge Base

It needs to be programmed using the Celestron Firmware Manager (CFM).

Please go to this link for the instructions:
http://www.celestron.com/c3/support3...articleid=2584

Here is information on the USB-RS232 cable you need:
http://www.celestron.com/c3/support3...articleid=1698

Here is information on the other cable you need:
http://www.celestron.com/science_edu...ar-rs-232.html

Sorry if you already had this information.
There are quite a few hits come up from a Google of that Error. Seems pretty common for some reason.

[bindibadgi]

Thanks Allan

Yep, it looks like it will be pretty straightforward to fix, which is nice. I'm reluctant to purchase cables that I'm unlikely to need for anything but this, so I'm hoping that somebody near me might already have them and can help with the firmware flash. If this happens often enough that I need to buy a set of cables myself, then I guess I'll be disappointed about the quality of the hand controller.

Anyway, thank you all for your input.

[WingnutR32 (Sam)]

Hey mate, you are only 4km away from me, apparently.

If you want to have a go at flashing the firmware, I have a couple of different USB - Serial cables we can try and also the other cable I have as well I believe.