LX200 tracking

[rogerg (Roger)]

Originally Posted by renormalised

....didn't Meade withdraw their maintenance kit from sale?? Pity.

Actually, you can still buy them, from BINTEL. They have re-furbished ones and can get new ones from Meade, all be it with a long wait. I went through two last year, and a brand new HC and a brand new front panel. BUT... from what I read this particular problem hasn't got to that stage yet, I'm not yet convinced it's a hardware fault yet.

Roger.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Might not be...like you said it's probably that the drive/s need training, but you can never be too careful.

[BigJ]

Roger: The handset says version 3.4, so maybe this version is way out of date.

Also, I powered up and checked the RA and DEC readings, they were stable, varying up and down slightly by 1" only.

Brendan: I don't have spare HS or cables. The HS and drive cables can't be switched. The clock seems to be working.

I think I'll take it in to Bintel for a servcie and a checkup... Maybe they can update the firmware version too, and check all the settings.

[BigJ]

Oh yes, the tracking rate is set at 60.1 which I believe is sidereal.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

I think you'll find V3.4 is the latest version for the Classic LX200

[rogerg (Roger)]

Originally Posted by BigJ

Roger: The handset says version 3.4, so maybe this version is way out of date.

Also, I powered up and checked the RA and DEC readings, they were stable, varying up and down slightly by 1" only.

v3.4 is old, and might be one of the versions where there was a southern hemisphere problem - I'm not sure.

The fact your RA and DEC are sitting steady is good.

I think your problem is alignment and the like, not mechanical. The amount of drift you're seeing is bad but not extreme. 12.5mm gives you a relatively small FOV, and 15 minutes is a reasonable amount of time.

I don't think I can off any more help at this stage, because I've only worked in equatorial mode on a wedge for the last 7 years, so am not familiar with expected behaviour and problems in AltAz mode. I'm sure BINTEL will be able to help you out and solve the problem, if there is one, they're great people.

Originally Posted by BigJ

Oh yes, the tracking rate is set at 60.1 which I believe is sidereal.

Yeap. Although some people have altered this to fix problems such as yours.

Originally Posted by Merlin66

I think you'll find V3.4 is the latest version for the Classic LX200

The newest is 4.31, it's the version I've always had.

Roger.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Roger, you are indeed correct, for the 12" LX200 Classic. I stand corrected. A senior moment on my part!