The guy who runs Telescopeservice.com was a regular here before he started
his business. I don't know enough about electronics to comment in detail,
but he sounded like he knew what he was doing, and I haven't heard any
complaints about his work.
I have heard that sometimes when you first try to contact him it may take
awhile before he gets back to you. Meade's standard proceedure these days
is to have you send the whole scope in for just about any repair, so I
suppose he's got plenty of business.
-John


>
>Thanks, John.
>
>I will first try the battery (cheap try!). I would also like to "reset" the
>entire scope to the factory default state, where nothing is entered into
>any storage (such as my home co-ordinates etc.).
>
>Q: Does anyone know if the LX-200 has some "factory reset" mode (like the
>PRAM clear on a Mac)?
>
>Also, this telescopservice.com route sounds better than having to deal with
>Meade. I have a sinking feeling that they would say something idiotic like
>"ship us the telescope, and we will look at it and give you an estimate",
>whereas I get the feeling that Tim would work with me to get the job done
>with minimum shipping back and forth (I can't imagine that anything other
>than the Main Board could be the source of this problem).
>
>Q: Do people have experience with Tim? Generally positive? Is this a
>cost-efficient route?
>
>Thanks,
>
>-Kal.
>
> > ------------Original Message------------
> >
> > >
> > >John, you were right on the money about the "time" being the problem.
> > >However, it is even more bizarre than you imagined! Here is what I saw:
> > >
> > >The Local time seems to be going just fine, second for second. However,
>the
> > >Siderial time only increases 1 second for every 12 local seconds! My
> > >understanding is that they should track *close* to second-for-second,
>since
> > >the Local day and Siderial day only differ by a little under 4 minutes.
>(By
> > >my calculation, the siderial time should only skip 1 second for every
>366
> > >local seconds).
> > >
> > >So, sure enough, as the siderial time stands still, my RA display goes
>down
> > >second for second, except for every 12 seconds or so. That completely
> > >explains the symptoms.
> > >
> >
> > So it thinks the scope is tracking, but it also thinks the sky (more
> > accurately, the earth) is barely moving!
> > (not quite consistent with your last message, because in this condition
>it
> > should think it is pointing further west over time. Maybe you have the
>The
> > Sky display mirrored E/W to match the view in the EP?)
> > I can make sense of the coordinates and celestial mechanics, but my
> > knowledge of electronics and computers is very limited. The fact that
>the
> > sidereal time is very slow, but not actually stopped, is particularly
> > troublesome, because it means it's probably more than just a loose
> > connection somewhere (which would more likely stop the sidereal time
> > altogether). This may be a case for Meade's repair department, or if
>you'd
> > rather not have to descend so deep into hell, try
> > <http://www.telescopeservice.com>.
> > And go ahead and try a new battery.
> > -John
> >
> >
> > >I tried altering the time, the date, offset from GMT and the longitude
>(all
> > >of which collectively should go into the Siderial time calculation).
> > >Nothing has an effect. It keeps chugging along at the same moronic
>rate.
> > >Also, changing from Polar mode to Alt-Az mode has no effect either (I
> > >didn't expect it to, just trying things out of sheer desperation).
> > >
> > >At this point, I am just completely stumped. The only thing I can think
>of,
> > >for lack of any better idea, is to replace the Lithium battery.
>Although I
> > >can't see how that could be affecting it.
> > >
> > >Any help or suggestions from anyone would be most welcome.
> > >
> > >Thanks,
> > >
> > >-Kal.
> > >

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