>I made a terrible mistake recently and left my LX-200 "on" and tracking
>Mars after I left my small observatory. I discovered the problem three
>days later with the scope strangled by the Dec controll cord....

>You would think with all the CPU power available that it could figure
>out to stop tracking when it gets below the horizon :-( It knows not
>to GOTO an object below the horizon, after all!

>Bill Arnett

If meade put a simple watch timer into the software that timed out if the
motor pulse from the drives stopped for more than 100 pulses then all of
these problems would be fixed.The watchdog timer would simple turn off the
drive motors completely so no damage would occur to the scope drive
electronics.In normal operation there are always pulses from the RA motor
assembly and if they disapeared you have a fault condition.Even if it was
not built into the software a latched relay controlling the main power could
be tripped out by a device monitoring these pulses which are readily
available on the pins on the motor gearbox assembly.

Brandon S. Jones

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