AUTOSTAR FEEDBACK Last updated: 28 February 2007

Welcome to the AutoStar feedback page. This page is intended to provide user comments on using the Meade Autostar #494, #495, #497, cables, and the AutoStar updater software. See the AutoStar Info page for information from Meade and other users on the AutoStar, cables, and software. Send your comments and tips to etx@me.com. Remember, tips described on this site may invalidate the warranties on your ETX and accessories. Neither the submitter nor myself are responsible for any damage caused by using any contributed tips.

Subject:	meade 494 controller
Sent:	Wednesday, February 28, 2007 05:05:36
From:	Dave Rigby (dave.rigby33@ntlworld.com)
Hi, I have been looking at your site, (very nice), and I was wandering
if it is possible to get a patch that will allow me to use the Meade 494
controller with a RA DEC mount, at the moment it only list fork mount
models. I have looked on your patch page but couldn't find what I was
looking for, please can you help?
 
Many thanks
 
Dave

And:

From:	richard seymour (rseymour@wolfenet.com)
There are a bunch of answers to that, all different from what you'd like
to hear.
Practical Answer: it's not really feasible
Engineer's Answer: it can be done, but it's difficult and risky

Reasons:
(a) I don't make patch kits for the 494's.  Meade doesn't provide
downloads, and there are at least 8 different programs sets in the
494's out in the field, so i don't have the information i need to
create one.

(b) the 494 is not programmed with "SafeLoad"... if the patching
process were to be interrupted or fail for -any- reason, the 494
would be dead in the water.  (see next)

(c) the central chip -does- have a built-in bootstrapping system.
An example of attempting to use it is here:
http://home.comcast.net/~lynol1000/as_494_gc/index.html
(but that brings us back to (a), above)

What -can- you do?

(d) there is a model of the 494 programmed for German Equatorial mounts (GEM).
It has "Starfinder" as the exterior label, and was supplied by Meade
with their 4504 and 114EQ/DH-4  telescopes.  Joining the 4504 Yahoo
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Meade4504Telescopes/     group and
asking there may get you one (or watching www.telescope-warehouse.com ).
Another possible source might be the RoboScope group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roboscope/

(e) buy a 497 Autostar, and use it... it knows RA/DEC mounts ("Polar")
and GEM.  This is by far the easier/recommended course.

Sorry 'bout that...
good luck
--dick

Subject:	ASU Version 6 By Werner Schfer
Sent:	Sunday, February 25, 2007 05:55:55
From:	Kim Miau Lee (robin051@gmail.com)
My ASU 4.6 doesn't save the background image previously set as well. 
However, after I install the Meade Autostar Suite, it works. I guess
Meade forgot to include some files with the updater. The icon image of
the ASU is corrupted too.

Regards.

-- 
-Robin Lee
My Astronomy Blog- www.AstronomyNotes.net

Subject:	ASU Version 4.6
Sent:	Friday, February 23, 2007 09:15:45
From:	Werner Schfer (schaefer.cham@bluewin.ch)
I used ASU Version 3.6.1 since a long time without problems. Now I
updated to version 4.6. Now I have the following problems:

If I use in the Option Menu -> Advanced Startup the program does not
save this option, the next time I start the program, the program starts
with the small window. The same problem if I choose an other image for
the background, the program did not save the new background image.
 
I use Windows XP.
 
Can you help me? thanks in advance and kind regards
 
Werner Schaefer
Cham
Switzerland
 
Excuse some possible faults in my english, it's not my mothertongue.

Subject:	My #497 Doesn't Have Any Word On It
Sent:	Wednesday, February 21, 2007 11:48:54
From:	Kim Miau Lee (robin051@gmail.com)
My #497 can't show any word right now. So, I just unscrew the back cover
and saw the handbox and plug out the connector of the LCD panel to the
handbox circuit as seen on attachment 1. I saw that the fingers of the
end of the connector is worn (another end is melt onto the panel). Is
this the problem? Can we touch the plastic connector which have some
lanes printed on it? How do I get the replacement?






Regards.

-- 
-Robin Lee
My Astronomy Blog- www.AstronomyNotes.net

From:	richard seymour (rseymour@wolfenet.com)
Yes, you can safely touch the contacts, and/or perhaps
gently clean them with a dry tissue paper.

The connector has a locking bar that can be pulled
out about 0.5 mm .  Then you can slip the cable into
the connector, then slide the locking bar back into
position to hold it.

Sometimes the bar does not hold the cable well enough,
in which case a thin piece of paper can be slipped in
on the "back" of the cable, before locking the bar.
That helps.

I think you have the "new" display module, which means
a 494, 497 or Autostar II handbox display will all fit it.
You could try to get a new module from Meade,
and one of the Yahoo RoboScope group members posted that
he had spare modules.

You could try Bill Vorce's at:
 scopehed@earthlink.net
http://www.telescope-warehouse.com
He does ship overseas.

good luck
--dick

Subject:	autostar reset
Sent:	Monday, February 19, 2007 17:46:37
From:	GARY WADE (GARYCW@SHAW.CA)
sorry to bother you with this question but i cannot find the info on
resetting the autostar.I am refering to the reset from what appears to
be a dead autostar.

Thank You For Your Help and Thanks for the Great Site.

Gary Wade

And:

Thank You for the quick Response

Subject:	Q: How to patch AUTOSTAR "quiet slew" speed for current firmware?
Sent:	Sunday, February 18, 2007 17:29:00
From:	J??rg Graffe (j.graffe@t-online.de)
as a beginning amateur astronomer, I'm thoroughly impressed by the sheer
volume and quality of your web site.

I have the following problem:

I recently purchased a Meade LXD-75 SN 6" telescope. Unfortunately, the
GOTO slewing is still very noisy even in "quiet slew" mode (while
apparently still using a fast 1,5deg/sec instead of the ordinary
5deg/sec as the slewing speed). This is all the more a problem as I live
in a neighborhood where it is rather quiet (at least during the night,
when I hope to be able to use the telescope for astrophotography soon
:-).

Sometime in 2001, Richard Seymour suggested patching the AUTOSTAR
firmware to modify the GOTO slewing speed to solve this problem:

http://www.weasner.com/etx/archive/autostarMay01.html

Now, as far as I can tell, Mr. Seymour's patch referred to an "ancient"
version (v21ek) of the AUTOSTAR firmware. Not being an embedded systems
programmer myself ;-), I was wondering if there would be a way to apply
such a patch to a current version of the AUTOSTAR firmware. I am
currently using AUTOSTAR firmware version 4.2Gg (German language
version). (I'd even be willing to switch to the English language version
if required.)

Could you give me some hints on where to find (or how to construct) such
a patch for more recent versions of the AUTOSTAR firmware? Looking for
hex codes "FF" and "C6 FF" in a current firmware image turned up so many
hits that I wouldn't dare to mess with the image for fear of damaging
any vital parts of the program logic. (Apart from that, I'd assume that
recent firmware images would probably also use some kind of checksumming
to secure themselves against tampering.)

I'd be very grateful if you could help me with this issue. I'm currently
even considering to upgrade to the LXD-75 8" SC scope, but the whole
practical feasibility of this (revived :-) hobby of mine depends on
being able to take photos of the nightly skies as quietly as possible...

Thank you very much,

J. Graffe
from Bocholt/Borken in Germany

Subject:	Autostar 497, Buttons Do Not Always Work
Sent:	Saturday, February 17, 2007 19:49:48
From:	Danny Chieppa (dchieppa@comcast.net)
I have two Meade Autostar 497 hand controls.  One of them works fine,
the other is driving me nuts.  Some of the buttons do not respond with a
single press.  I have to hold it down very hard. This happens with the
Enter, Goto and the different Number buttons. The worse buttons are the
four used to slew the telescope in different directions.  I have to use
two fingers pressing very hard to get the buttons to work.  The hand
unit is used but looks new.  I've taken it apart but the circuit board
does not look like there is anything I can service on it.  If I remember
correctly it's running on 33E software.  I don't think a newer version
of software will cure the button problems.

I have not seen this problem described in the FAQ section.  If I've
missed it and it has been covered, my apologies.

You have a great site.  It's been very helpful to me since I bought an
ETX125 several months ago.
        
Clear skies,
Dan Chieppa
New Bedford, MA

Subject:	ETX125
Sent:	Saturday, February 17, 2007 19:19:04
From:	Gerald Jenny (gjenn3@cruzio.com)
Well it has happened all of a sudden the autostar quit and I cannot seem
to find out why I have a ETX 125 with auto star and GPS the gps lite
comes on but no auto star how can I test the condnuity of the cables I
guess that is the first place to start and any other help you can advise
thanks Jerry PS the site is great

Subject:	RE: Daylight Savings ZONE or TIME
Sent:	Monday, February 12, 2007 05:43:35
From:	Littell, Charles C CIV USAF 88 CG/SCCV (Charles.Littell@WPAFB.AF.MIL)
Thanks for the response.  Since I can't remember seeing the
constellations abruptly leap across the sky at 2AM on Daylight Savings
night, I guess resetting the LNT clock won't be an issue.  Politicians
are probably funding studies as we speak to find a remedy to this lack
of government control.

Chas

Charles C. Littell, III

Subject:	Autostar-ETX default home position
Sent:	Sunday, February 11, 2007 14:21:19
From:	Fernando Campuzano (fcamp@ya.com)
I use to drive my ETX-125 in polar mount. Due to the accesories I have
at the rear port (SCT 2" adapter, off-axis guider, DSLR camera) is not
possible at all to start a power-up of the Autostar with the correct
Polar home position. So, I usually start with the scope at 180 degrees
AZ (pointing South) and 0 degrees DEC. Then I sync the scope to this
point from the laptop via Starry Night.

My question is the following: When you power-up the Autostar (and
stablish Date/Time/Daylight saving) it assumes the usual Polar home
position, so coordinates when pressing MODE for two seconds, are 90
degrees DEC and LST+12 hours as RA. So the need to sync to my "modified"
home position. Do you know if it is possible to patch the Autostar ROM
in such a way that it assumes when powered-up the coordinates 0 degrees
DEC and LST as RA? I think this could be quite helpful.

Thanks a lot for your site.

Fernando Campuzano

From:	richard seymour (rseymour@wolfenet.com)
I agree that it could be quite helpful.
In fact, RA=LST and DEC=0 is the default LX200gps and RCX400 power-up
position and PARK position.

For your request i have three answers:
(a) send the request to engineer@meade.com  ... if they could add it
 as an alternative PARK position, that would be the best solution.
It would be nice if they could add the full "custom park" feature
of the LX200gps, but i think Meade is running out of space in the
power-off memory.  Having -one- alternate PARK would only take one bit.
Remembering the full coordinates of an alternate PARK takes 6 bytes.

(b) my -usual- response to the general "a custom PARK patch" is that it
 is not within the "range" of my patching methods to provide a "fits
all" solution...
..but...
(c) your -specific- request (RA=LST, DEC=0 for a Polar mount) may
be feasible.  (the DEC seems easy, it's the RA which is a problem).
I'll spend some time and see if it can be done.

There are two halves to it: making it go there for PARK (easy),
and making it realize that it's there when it next powers up (hard).
A half-way solution of RA=(LST+12) and DEC=0 i -think- is fairly easy.
That would, at least, keep the camera safe.

I'm about to be very busy for a week, so if i haven't sent a follow-up
message (with a patch!) by Feb 21, feel free to ask how it's going....

One quick question: which hemisphere are you in? Northern or Southern?

have fun
--dick

And:

Thanks for your fast reply.
My hemisphere is North.

Fernando Campuzano

Subject:	Re: ETX-80 Daylight Savings Time problem
Sent:	Friday, February 9, 2007 19:50:13
From:	Bill Weeber (weeber@intrex.net)
I'm using the bubble level/compass that fits into the eyepiece holder to
get the scope into home position.

First, I release the vertical lock and level the scope and lock it down.
Next, I release the horizontal lock and point the scope to true north
which is 9 degrees to the right of magnetic north on the compass. After
locking the horizontal lock, I double check the bubble level/compass to
make sure it is level and pointing true north.

At this point I turn on the AutoStar and go through the menus for Easy
Align.

First I get past the warning about solar viewing by pressing the speed
button.  Then all it takes is 3 presses of the enter button and the
scope slews to Sirius which it has selected as the first alignment star.
		Getting Started: Enter
		Align Easy: Enter
		Alt/Az: Enter
Tonight I did a reset, so I had to go through the one time
initialization procedure.  Here is what I entered.
		Daylight Savings Time : No
		Location: Raleigh, NC (not zip code)
		Model number: ETX-80
I double checked the time and date and they are correct.

When I follow the alignment procedure that I outlined above, the scope
points about 30 minutes to the left of Sirius.

My best results come when I advance the clock by one hour and align the
scope to magnetic north instead of true north.

Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks,

    -Bill 

And:

I did use the scope in another city early on and had similar problems.
This was when I was first learning how the use the scope and had not
done as much experimentation.

Tonight I tried a different approach.  As I mentioned in my previous
email, changing the Daylight Savings Time setting did not seem to have
any effect on the outcome.  This is odd in and of itself.  I wanted to
eliminate any errors from compass readings or proximity descriptions to
the target star from my experiments. To do this, I referenced all my
home settings and star alignment  positions to the vertical setting
circle and horizontal setting ring.

Using the leveling compass I put the scope in the Alt/Az home postion
(magnetic north).  I adjust the vertical setting circle to "0" and the
horizontal setting ring to "0", so I don't have to use the leveling
compass anymore.

Here are the results from various alignment attempts using different
setup parameters.

Reset Location  Time     DST  Vertical  Horizontal
No    Raleigh   +1Hr     No   38        11.5
No    Raleigh   +1Hr     Yes  38        11.5
Yes   27606     +1Hr     Yes  38        11.7
Yes   27606     +1Hr     No   38        11.9
No    27606     current  No   36        10.8

These measurements took place in about a 30minute time span.  As you can
see the Daylight Savings Time setting does not change the outcome. 
Also, the city and zip code give the same results as expected.  I even
went through the reset procedure on two of the tests to make sure there
are no settings lingering from a previous experiment.

I also took some data points so you can see how close I'm getting to the
actual alignment star (Sirius).   This is with the clock advanced by one
hour.  It appears to me that if it was actually daylight savings time,
the correct DST time would work irregardless of the DST setting.

Reset Location  Time     DST  Vertical  Horizontal
No    27606     +1Hr     No   38        12.5    Before Spiraling in
                              38        12.4    After Spiraling in

So I'm wondering if this is a common problem that no one has realized
they have, or is this problem unique to my scope.

Thanks,

   -Bill

And:

The manual says #494 AutoStar.  The software version that I read out of
the AutoStar is 13Ed.

Subject:	Daylight Savings ZONE or TIME
Sent:	Friday, February 9, 2007 10:31:15
From:	Littell, Charles C CIV USAF 88 CG/SCCV (Charles.Littell@WPAFB.AF.MIL)
I cannot find an answer in the manual (ETX-125PE) or your (excellent!)
site to this question:

Does setting Daylight Savings "YES" make it toggle on and off
automatically per calendar date?  And "NO" would mean your location does
not observe DS?

Or, does DS "YES" manually fix DS offset, requiring manual change twice
a year?

Thanks--Chas

Subject:	ETX-80 Daylight Savings Time problem
Sent:	Thursday, February 8, 2007 19:50:57
From:	Bill Weeber (weeber@intrex.net)
I got the ETX-80BB for Christmas and cannot get the alignment to work
properly. I have experimented extensively with the alignment and it
always seems to be about an hour off of where it should be after it
slews to the first reference object (usually Sirius).

Since it seemed to be an hour off, I tried setting the clock one hour
later than normal to see if this would help. Now the scope slews close
enough and I can spiral in to achieve alignment.

-------- Settings to get correct alignment
Date  correct
Time  1 hour later than actual (11:00 pm)
Daylight Savings Time  No
Location  27606 (Raleigh, NC)

--------The following two settings result in exact same improper alignment
Date  correct
Time  correct (10:00 pm)
Daylight Savings Time  No
Location  27606 (Raleigh, NC)

Date  correct
Time  correct (10:00 pm)
Daylight Savings Time  Yes
Location  27606 (Raleigh, NC)

My experiments suggest that the daylight savings time setting does not
work properly. Is anyone else experiencing this kind of problem?

Thanks,

-Bill

And:

Thanks for your quick response.  I have tried all of the recommendations
that you suggested with no success.  I have even entered my latitude and
longitude as my location and factored in the magnetic declination.

Making changes to the Daylight Savings Time setting has absolutely no
effect.  I would expect this to cause an hour difference, but it
doesn't.

Regards,

  -Bill

Subject:	Autostar chip burnt out
Sent:	Wednesday, February 7, 2007 11:11:59
From:	Steven A. McKay (stormwatch1977@hotmail.com)
Hi there, I'm lost since Meade support in the UK is non-existent so you
are my only hope.

I have just spent about ten minutes using my ETX 125. Everything was
going fine, I was just using the buttons on the handset to look around
the sky. Suddenly there was a little electrical cracking noise, the
screen went funny on the Autostar 497 handset and there was a smell of
burning from the handset. Now the thing still switches on but it just
says "LX90" and will do nothing else.

It's clear the thing has wrecked itself - is there anything I can do? It
was bought second hand so no real comeback there. Is there even any
point buying another handset, chances are this will happen again. I took
the back off the handset and the chip that's blackened is the one just
above the little round thing (a speaker?) - would you have any idea why
this particular chip would burn itself out during normal operation?

Any help or advice would be fantastic as at this point I see no option
but to sell the scope minus handset on eBay and just buy a 'scope with
no electronics.

Thanks for your time
Steven McKay,
Scotland

And:

From:	richard seymour (rseymour@wolfenet.com)
>> Hi there, I'm lost since Meade support in the UK is non-existent so  
>> you are my only hope.

Actually, many people have had success with BC&F, who are the Meade
importers/distributors.  They're in London: +44(189)261-6131
Email: telescopehouse@telescopehouse.co.uk
Web: http://www.telescopehouse.co.uk

There are some "used telescope" web sites in the UK, some are listed here:
http://www.r-clarke.org.uk/astrolinks_vendors.htm

There is also a 497 Autostar for sale for $100 on www.astromart.com
http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=480407
(the seller is in Canada, so he may not have any problem thinking
about posting it to Scotland).

>> I have just spent about ten minutes using my ETX 125. Everything  was 
>> going fine, I was just using the buttons on the handset to look  
>> around the sky. Suddenly there was a little electrical cracking  
>> noise, the screen went funny on the Autostar 497 handset and there  
>> was a smell of burning from the handset.
>> Now the thing still switches on but it just says "LX90" and will do  
>> nothing else.
>> It's clear the thing has wrecked itself - is there anything I can  do? 
>> It was bought second hand so no real comeback there. Is there  even 
>> any point buying another handset, chances are this will happen  again. 
>> I took the back off the handset and the chip that's  blackened is the 
>> one just above the little round thing (a speaker?)  - would you have 
>> any idea why this particular chip would burn  itself out during normal 
>> operation?

That chip is directly connected to the main cable heading to
the telescope base.  If anything went wrong inside the base,
or if you had (for example) a 505 serial cable plugged into
the base's AUX port instead of the proper second hole in the
Autostar itself, such damage could happen.  That chip is also
-unique- to the 497/495 Autostars... it's a pre-programmed PIC chip.

good luck
--dick

And:

Thanks for the help Mike, I'm just going to sell the scope back to the
guy that sold me it and buy another one (probably not an ETX one).
Cheers
Steven McKay

Subject:	autostar problem
Sent:	Monday, February 5, 2007 17:29:56
From:	Chris Hill (shermanjumbo45@bellsouth.net)
I have a meade ds-2130, the optics are great, the trouble im having is
with the autostar 494.  First night out, home position, alignment done
with sirius and rigel.  Goto between these 2 stars, perfect ,I thought I
was in good shape, then tried to goto the plaides...the scope went into
crazy mode and did 4 or 5 complete 360 rotations before i turned it off.
The rest of the night i just used the motor manually to view.  What is
happening, is it a bad autostar unit ?

Subject:	Autostar Direction keys and alignment stars
Sent:	Friday, February 2, 2007 06:55:15
From:	McNamara, Donal (donal_mcnamara@merck.com)
I have one issue for you. I am familiar with and comprehend the Left and
Down arrow concept for Drive training. (IE The last thing you should do
to centre the reference object before Training is to use the Left and
Down arrow keys).

Just wondering if the same principle applies to centering alignment
stars or even doing a Sync on a star!

PS Love the site. Its been a great resource to me for years. Keep up the
good work.

Subject:	Converting Autostar 495 to 497
Sent:	Wednesday, January 31, 2007 19:05:41
From:	Jerry Rozanski, AIA (grozanski@rgarchitects.net)
I just bought a new #495 on ebay and plugged itinto a ETX-90ec.  All I
get is ""Use ETX Autostar with this model"

On your webiste you answered this question for someone else a few years
ago.  Could you please tell me EXACTLY which patch files and programs I
need to download (today) in order to upgrade my 495 to a 497?  Providing
the link would be extra special!  I tried to figure it out on your info
page but there is so many I dont want to install the wrong patch and
make things worse.

I ordered the 505 cable kit and will have that shortly so that I can
link up with the computer.

Thanks a lot!
Jerry Rozanski

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