At 12:52 PM 11/2/98 -0600, you wrote:
>>Because part of the Magellan installation involves adjusting the RA gear
<SNIP>
>The RA encoder gears look fine. There seems to be no binding at all.

Good, but you also had to adjust the main gear's position, as I remember,
to install the encoder and gear. The instructions note that there should
be essentially no lash - there is a fine line between no lash and binding.

>>I also note that (according to Meade) Magellan expects specific RA
>>Motor/firmware combinations <snip>.

>For my case, the firmware is fine. 1k motor and 6.0 chip. Mike told me
>that these are compatible with the Magellan (v2.1). But, it looks as if
>I'll have to contact Mike about this.

Does sound correct, and Mike is very sharp on this issue. But, there is
more detail regarding the chip number. Does that match as well (see
contact link below for more details).

>>One simple test Mike suggested. When you plug in Magellan, and turn the
>>system on, you should get at least 4 blinks of the power LED. If less,
>>there is almost certainly some mismatch.

>Do you mean the slew indicator or the actual LED on the control panel?

The actual power LED on the scope's panel, right above the power switch.
As part of the start-up for the scope, that LED is blinked a specific
number of times. The later the firmware, the more blinks. This is a
onetime event, each time the power switch is turned on - not the same as
the cycling of the Magellan LED's.

>Since I've owned the Telescope, the only time the LED on the control panel
>blinks is when the power is weakening.

You might just not have noticed it at power on. I would be surprised if
Meade dropped that little notification.

>I did have one question that some of you might be able to answer. At what
>frequency is sidereal rate? 60.1 or 60 h(e)rtz? It seems that if my motors
>are moving faster than sidereal, it would explain the drift to the east.

Depends on the gear ratio - I don't know what that value is, off hand, but
0.1 Hz in 60 is about the right difference (that is, a clock that counted
line frequency to read sidereal time would require about a 0.1 Hz
difference in line frequency. I find it hard to believe that Meade would
provide an improper oscillator - if the scope firmware and motor were
mismatched, you might have the result you describe (rapid drift of a
polar-aligned, tracking scope). However, the RA drive drives to the west
(with the sky). If your tracking problem is a drift to the east, that
should mean the motor is slow, or stopping. Be careful in direction - with
the star diagonal, the image is right-left reversed, and eyepiece movement
to the left (as you face south) is west, not east.

But, you say Mike has you as having the correct match. Since Magellan, to
the best of my knowledge, does NOT have any effect on the sidereal
oscillator in the basic RA drive, it should not be the culprit. More
likely would be that the RA drive was not running at all (or, perhaps, you
managed to damage (static or simple force) the scope main board. The main
board is a bit of a puzzle to get out, and could be damaged inadvertently.
Again, your best bet is to try to get Mike at Meade to suggest a simple
diagnostic. I am reasonably sure that, if you have a problem, caused by
having to go in and confirm that you have the right firmware for your RA
motor, Meade will not leave you hanging.

Good luck - I hope I have been of some help. Others with LX50's who are
contemplating adding a Magellan, should not be overly concerned. With the
exception of the firmware mismatch, I would have to say that the
installation of Magellan into my LX50 was one of the easier, more elegant,
and well-directed change kits I have seen (and I get a lot for instruments
at work!). However, you need to be aware that there are some firmware
changes that make it necessary to get updates from Meade when installing a
Magellan. There is a website with a lot of information on this subject,
and other subjects of interest to LX50 owners (recently updated!):
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/9573/techarch.html
which is quite informative. Note the cautions regarding handling the
mainboard. Of particular importance is the fact that the connecting plug
on the board is NOT polarized. Be careful!

One other suggestion - Go back to your basic hand controller and see if you
have the same problem. If yes, you may want to check (again) your polar
alignment procedures, as that should be the basic scope running, and any
problems there indicate either a failure or an error, as the scope should
not have been sent out with a sidereal error. If not, then you have
clearly identified the problem as belonging to Magellan used with your
current scope configuration, and Mike should be able to help.

Good luck, and when you find the solution, keep us posted. This one is a
bit of a puzzle. David
====================
David Bonnell
Germantown, MD 20874

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