Hi I Don't have your name yet (not signed your postings).

You put me on the right track.

I now understand what happens with the 750 and the CCD autoguider socket.
There are NO FAULTS just some software that works in a funny way AND
NOTHING WRITTEN IN THE MANUAL to explain how it works. Hope our friends at
Meade take note of this. I've wasted 2 days rooting around trying to figure
this out!!

After you said your ST7 worked but the 208 "went west" I went back to the
scope for a toothcomb inspection of what was really happening. Now bear in
mind it's daylight - thats when sane people sort out their scopes and new
stuff they are trying to get going.

So I booted up the scope and checked directional function in full speed mode
(because you can see the scope move) All OK. I pulled a CCD control line low
and sure enough the scope seemed to freeze up. No high speed movement using
the hand controller, or so I thought, but I could hear the N/S backlash
compensation click of the dec motor reversing as I pulled low and then let
go. In the alignment mode the Dec knob is underneath the head where you
can't see it, but click click there was the dec motor compensation sound.
Good job this is a noisy mount or I would still be thinking it was stuffed.

Wierd I thought are we moving at guide speed? although selected to 8 degree
slew on the hand controller and the led indicator was on against the slew
button high speed position.

Now because its daylight you can't see any guide stars so there's no point
looking through the eyepiece, and you don't see the RA or Dec knobs move at
guide speed, not unless you look very closely - not when you are expecting
the roar of the 8 degree slew.

I looked closely at the knobs and sure enough they were moving at guide
speed and yet the keys on the controller would not cause a high speed slew -
they were also working at guide speed even tho the led was still alight next
to the Slew speed button. The action of making the first guiding correction
had automatically changed the speed from 8 degree slew to 2x guide!!!

A press of any other "speed" button and the mount jumped to that speed. So
what this means is the software is doing the right thing but the speed
indicator is not showing you are now in guide speed mode. And if the folks
at Meade were to write this down in the 750 manual simpletons like me would
not waste days screwing around wondering why the mount was on strike.

So how do you get the mount to slew to a new object after you've been
guiding and you don't want to run outside - easy use the goto function - it
goto's in full slew speed even tho the handpiece has switched itself to
guide speed.

Enough this is driving me crazy obviously Meade have better software people
than technical writers! Nah before I say that they still have to fix my
random tracking error problems. I bet your upgraded 7.342L does that.

Do you ever get the scope keep on going when you let go of the direction
button??

Regards Tom Barrett.




went thru the proceedure of pulling the control lines low an

>From: "mnewton1"
>
>I no longer own the LX200. But, 7.342L comes up on the 750 handbox at boot
>up. The mount is fairly old, at least 5 years. But I believe the guy who
>owned the mount before me had the electronics upgraded, because the mount
>box says it's an LXD700.
>
>I use a ST7, but it does have a cord that plugs into the autoguider port of
>the mount. No problems at all.
>
>But, I did try a friends 208xt ccd camera as an autoguider plugged into the
>autoguider port a few times. I could not get it to work. When ever I would
>turn on the camera, the scope would started moving at guide speed to the
>west. The hand box would lock up too, so that I couldn't use it to move the
>scope back. This happened whether I turned the scope on first, then the
>camera, or the other way around. I just assumed the cable was bad. I tried
>another cable, and the same thing happened. I finally gave up, thinking it
>was something wrong with the camera because the ST7 works fine. My friend
>has yet to try the camera with his AP900 to confirm this.
>----- Original Message -----
>Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 1:26 AM
>Subject: Re: [M]: Re: LXD750 locks up when st-4 connected
>
>
> >
> >
> >
> > >From: "mnewton1" >Sorry for the change in topic, Tom. But I was
>wondering
> > >how well your 750
> > >tracks. I have one, and it isn't too good. Nowhere near the tracking I
>had
> > >with my 10" X200.
> >
> > Good to hear from another 750 owner.
> >
> > I can only tell you what the un pec trained performance is like as the
>bugs
> > I'm having are holding up getting it ready for astrophotography.
> >
> > The untrained periodic error moves a guidestar 1/6th of a field of a
>12mm
> > guiding eyepiece with a 2000mm fl tube. If I do my calcs right I make
>that
> > about 2 to 3 arc minutes. I have what I think are software problems
> > resulting in random loss of directional control - especially when pec
> > training, so I can only complete about 1 in ten pec runs. However I did
>get
> > a good run in the other night and that holds the guide star to 2x the
> > central guider box. If I could get more runs in I'm sure I could get it
>much
> > better. With that I got some reasonable 2 min runs unguided on NGC253 at
>fl
> > 1000mm I'll send you some pics for comparison if you like.
> >
> > Now I have some questions for you.
> >
> > How old is your mount & what version of the software comes up on your
>LX200
> > handpiece when you start - mine is 7.20M and I'm sure there's a bug in
>it
> > causing my problems. I just checked the CCD port, found the 4
>directional
> > lines each with 5v on them but when I pull any of them low the handpiece
> > locks up. All these lockup probs smell like software bugs to me.
> >
> > Do you use your with autoguider? If so do you pull your control lines
>low?
> > ie 5v to ground?
> >
> > Apart from these annoying bugs I'm pleased with the robustness of the
>mount,
> > I've not "touched a fork mount LX200 but I have a 10" LX6 fork mount and
> > that is shaky. The LXD750 is like a brick in comparison, I've leaned on
>the
> > OTA whilst taking pics and it does not even know I'm there!!
> >
> > There were two main reasons I got the 750. I wanted a GEM.
> >
> > I live in Australia and our most interesting objects are quite close to
>the
> > pole. I was sick of getting into camera jams with forks. The other
>reason
> > was I was going to buy a G11 new but I read so many "bad" reports on
>their
> > group about problems it seemed like the G11 is a project in itself
>rather
> > than a tool to use. Maybe I read those postings wrong but there are
>heaps
>of
> > people forever changing worms, breaking motors, having probs with goto
>etc.
> > Finally there were delays with delivery on the G11 so I got this on
> > Astromart.
> >
> > Hope that helps you - keep in touch as us LXD750 owners are rare!!
> >
> > Tom.
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at
>http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>


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