AUTOSTAR FEEDBACK Last updated: 31 August 2001

Welcome to the Autostar feedback page. This page is intended to provide user comments on using the Meade Autostar, 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:	505 and 506 cable REDUX
Sent:	Thursday, August 30, 2001 23:34:22
From:	pug_stlouis@yahoo.com (PUGSL)
You probably have typed message 24 times by now about the #505 cable
(which you can build/emulate easily) versus the #506 (ETX-60/70) cable
(which you can't) with its 'active electronics'.

Yet, my inner child truly rebels at the thought of "can't", so I
persisted in searching...

I found a site which advertises a PIC based RS-232 to I2C convertor. 
http://www.emicros.com/i2c232.htm this only gets you halfway there --
now to figure out what commands are sent (serial to I2C)!  And note the
price: $125 (twice what the Meade #506 cable and software costs street).

So, maybe you can, but it just costs too much and is too much of a
hassle.  End of story number 24.

Great site, keep up the good work

Subject:	Is there a reset button????
Sent:	Thursday, August 30, 2001 01:14:16
From:	rhook@velocitus.net (Rod  Hook)
I bought my ETX90-CE used from a guy back east.............Now I live
Idaho..Now my question is how do I tell the telescope where its at
now........????????????????

Thanks
Rod

Subject:	swapping between 2 autostars on 1 etx125ec
Sent:	Thursday, August 30, 2001 00:52:17
From:	stever@cybercomm.net (SR)
I have two #497 autostars...

I know (I think)that if i swap one autostar among two etx125's I'd have
to recalibrate and retrain...but do I have to do anything if I swap two
autostars on one etx125 if i previously trained each on a particular
etx125??

reason I ask is because I want to update one autostar to 2.2er and leave
other with its original 2.0g till i'm sure it works and also would like
to compare.

thanks.
Steve

Subject:	re advice with setting up etx 70
Sent:	Tuesday, August 28, 2001 09:36:05
From:	DeanlCarter@aol.com
I know you have heard this millions of time.
I live in Wales, Uk and have bought an etx70.

I have been getting used to the scope and am having difficulty getting
correct auostar set up.

I have located correct longtidude and lattitude for my area and input
this into the auto stars memory.
I input date and time.
set scope to home postion, ( 0 degrees), pointing north.

As yet i dont have a tripd, i have the telescope placed on a table, so
im not sure hoe level it is.

Im calcluating north just by pointing at polaris and following a plumb
line, is this ok?

When it slews to Cappella, usuallly first allignmrnt star on easy
allign, its usually in the field and takes a bit of centering.
When it slewed for the second, Vega, it appeared to be a way off?

could this be?

the site settings for the scope
the mount i have the scope on
not an accutate home setup

please help

thanks  Dean

ps really useful site, well done.

Subject:	Astrostar Programming Question
Sent:	Monday, August 27, 2001 22:34:08
From:	calljoe@ameritech.net (Joe Campbell)
I have written a number of programs in visual basic in the past for the
LX-200.  I'm trying to adapt them to a project I'm working on with an
ETX with no luck.  I can get basic movement commands to work (e.g. #:Ms#
#:Mn# etc) however the slew rate is very slow and sending the :RG#   
:RC#    :RM# :RS# make no difference in speed.  If anyone has some
sample code (suggestions) to share, it would Greatly appreciated! 
Thanks, Joe :) calljoe@ameritech.net

P.S. I have tested the scope with commercial software it all checks out
just fine.

(paraphrasing)
> :RG#    :RC#    :RM# don't work

correct... as described in my notes on Mike's site,
and in the "Autostar interpretations of LX200 commands" at
 Meade's site, those are not implemented in the Autostar
(mantra: an Autostar is NOT an LX200)

What is/are implemented are the :Sw2#  :Sw3# and :S4#  commands,
which are faked to be equivalent to the keypad 0, 5 and 9 key
 slew speeds. (1x, 64x sidereal, and "max", which will vary with
 telescope model... assume 5 degrees per second)

So try those if it's an Autostar....

references:
http://www.weasner.com/etx/autostar/as_lx200.html
http://www.weasner.com/etx/autostar/as_commands.html
and, if you don't believe those,
http://www.meade.com/support/CommandSet.html

enjoy the project
--dick

Subject:	Autostar Accuracy-Light Pollution
Sent:	Friday, August 24, 2001 22:59:59
From:	Soularo@aol.com
having some problems with autostar. Using easy one star for alignment,
usually not very successful. About 50% will put in view finder, hardley
ever in fov.  Noticable when searching for deep sky objects, and outer
planets, such as Uranus.

I have the etx 90 ec.

Also, light pollution, just how effective can I expect my etx in
relatively poor seeing conditions, say less than 100 visible stars.

Thanks, Neal

And:

Not exactly sure how to tell which version, all I can find is #497.
The mount is the standard meade feild tripod #883.

Typically, when I point north, I do use a compass, and when I use the
"one star", it generally points to it, although in the finderscope, not
the fov, say using a 26mm eyepiece.

What concerns me is hunting for deep sky objects, such as any of the
messier objects. Not sure if It has really found them and put them in
fov, or becuase of light pollution, I just can't see them.

Mabey I have reached the practical limit of the scope with regards the
light pollution factor, as I said, with the naked eye, I can see very
little stars on the horizon, till I get to about 40 to 50 degrees up.

At the zenith, not much of a problem, say finding m13, which is a strain
on my neck, but auto start will put it in finder scope, but rarely fov.

I have read about syncronization. Should this be something that can
help.

Subject:	accuracy of the GoTo's
Sent:	Wednesday, August 22, 2001 05:57:55
From:	SchafeWe@ch.sibt.com (Schfer Werner)
My Telescope (ETX 90 EC with Autostar, SW version 2.1 ek) functioned
very well. Special the GoTo's were very exact. (About 80% in the FOV of
the 26mm eyepiece, the others in the FOV of the finderscope). Some
nights ago, a little accident happened. A friend of me stumbled over the
cable of the external power supply. The connection was interrupted. I
aligned the Telescope according to north (forgot the hardstop). During
the Easy-Alignment the Telescope runs against the hardstop.

Now the accuracy of the GoTo's became much worse. (Most of the objects
in the FOV of the finderscope, some outside of the finderscope's FOV, no
ones in the 26mm eyepiece). I made a new calibrate and a new training of
the drives, without any influence on the accuracy.

What do you propose?

Thanks and kind regards from Switzerland, and congratulations once more
to your great site.

Werner Schaefer

And:

Best thanks for your proposals. I reloaded the software, and now it
seems that the the accuracy is again much better. But because of the
weather conditions, I was not able to carry out sufficient tests.

Best greetings
Werner Schaefer

Subject:	Autostar
Sent:	Monday, August 20, 2001 17:16:36
From:	L&D Benschop
Thanks for a great site.

I have a question pertaining to the Autostar download. Does anyone know
if the programs resident in the PIC micro's on the motor cards can be
updated? I understand that the Flash chips memory is for the 68HC11 in
the Autostar, I am wondering if Meade has also stored some PIC related
info in the flash memory in the Autostar.

I am guessing not...

Also;
Richard Seymour has done a great job enlightening us all on the inner
workings of the Autostar - (thanks Dick), I was wondering if anyone has
extended information about the motor card itself. Specific interest for
me is

(1) What chips are on the motor board?

(2) Are the motors PWM controlled by algorithms in the PIC, based on
commanded goto positional data from the 68HC11?

(3) Does the PIC micro take the encoder counts and place the count data
o the I2C bus or does it place position data on the bus?

Has anyone put a protocol analyzer on the I2C bus and figured out if
Meade is using standard I2C protocol?

Just wondering... I have a 497 Autostar but no motor cards. My goal is
to make a Autostar based worm-drive mount for my scope. I have checked
out Bedair's site, very nice stuff. I want to use larger servo motors
and am thinking of building my own motor control circuits with PIC
micros, then use the Autostar for the brains of the system.

Len Benschop - Ontario Canada

From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (richard seymour)
> I have a question pertaining to the Autostar download. Does anyone
> know if the programs resident in the PIC micro's on the motor cards
> can be updated? 
not to my knowledge... but i don't do PIC chips, so i don't
know if the on-board ones are memory-locked or not.

> I understand that the Flash chips memory is for the 68HC11 in 
> the Autostar, I am wondering if Meade has also stored some PIC related 
> info in the flash memory in the Autostar. 

 -data- for them, but not code.
example: Calibration involves sending a single command to each axis.
The motors spin and stop, and then they each return a byte value, which
 is stored in the Autostar.
On subsequent power-ups, those bytes (one per axis) are sent -to-
 the telescope.

As far as i can tell, they're the fine tuning for how much W to PWM
to achieve a particular speed.

> Richard Seymour has done a great job enlightening us all on the inner 
> workings of the Autostar - (thanks Dick),
tip of hat, you're welcome.

> I was wondering if anyone has extended information about the motor
> card itself.
(at least) a couple of other folks have dug into them a little bit,
 but primarily from the viewpoint of trying to drive them without
 having an Autostar... direct PC-to-ETX.
I haven't heard progress reports in a number of months.
I'll forward their addresses in a bit...

>  Specific interest for me is
>  (1) What chips are on the motor board?
which PIC chips they use are mentioned on the Meade PDF files
 (and maybe the telescope's manual)
>  (2) Are the motors PWM controlled by algorithms in the PIC,
     based on commanded goto positional data from the 68HC11?
 Yes.  (Pulse Width Modulated for the non-acronym-scentii)
 No. The Autostar does 99% of the positional work.  *it* compares
  encoder readout with desired position.  The motors just whirr at
  Autostar-commanded speeds.

> (3) Does the PIC micro take the encoder counts and place the
>    count data o the I2C bus or does it place osition data on the bus?
24-bit Raw encoder numbers (perhaps even change-of-encoder... 
the Autostar has roll-over capabilites, and Ye Olde Versions of the
 Firmware could be convinced to shw the raw encoder readout on the
 Display.

> Has anyone put a protocol analyzer on the I2C bus 
yes... i've used a digital storage scope, and some of the above-
 mentioned folks/correspondents have used i2c adap[ters....
 which leads to:

> and figured out if  Meade is using standard I2C protocol?
no... they cheat.  The i2c calls for 9-bit data cells, and i forget
 where the datalines are allowed to flip.  Meade uses 8-bit cells, and
 flips/reads the data on either the leading or trailing edge of the
 clock depending upon their mood.  (this drove a "real" i2c user batty
  until understood)

If you have a 497/495 Autostar, the axes' datalines are a common wire.
The clock lines are individually driven to provide "multiplexing".
The AUX data and clock lines are totally separate.

In a Starfinder/494Autostar, all three data lines are tied together,
 and the clocks serve as the "who should listen/talk" mechanism.

> Just wondering... I have a 497 Autostar but no motor cards. My goal is 
> to make a Autostar based worm-drive mount for my scope. I have checked 
> out Bedair's site, very nice stuff. I want to use larger servo motors
> and am thinking of building my own motor control circuits with PIC
> micros, then use the Autostar for the brains of the system.

May i suggest, since you can buy a complete-with-starfinder ETX60 for
 us$99 to $140, *do so*... and then perhaps hang a follower circuit
 across a dummy "motor" load resistor.  Let your follower drive the
 bigger motors (although, why? the DS- motors seem to do quite a good
 job, looking at Steve's creations) (yes, yes... faster slew speeds...)
 (this will also give you a 350mm FL, 60mm aperture finderscope for 
   your final instrument)

Or, find a friend with a 4504 or DS- model... see if they've had Meade 
 send replacement motor units for mechanical reasons. Peek inside.
 Perform long-term borrow...

> Len Benschop - Ontario Canada
ahh... increase all prices by 50%.  Sorry...

good luck... i'll dig up the other addresses...
--dick

Thanks for the info Dick !!

I have a NexStar5 ( I like the scope, just wish that it had worm gears
and flashable memory).

I am working on my own mount for a larger scope. I have the mount
partially designed, I have already made the worm gears and worms. My
original intention was to build and code a 68HC11 scope controller
driving stepper motors. I have been aquiring parts and information for
about a year and a half now. After visiting the Weasner ETX site and
reviewing the Bedair scope mounts, I started leaning towards a
home-built mount with an Autostar controller...

Then it happened...
I bid on and won a (brand new - still sealed) Autostar 497 for $80 CDN
on e-bay. That's about $54 US. Not bad. The seller lived 10 minutes from
me and dropped it off at the door (talk about service!!). He introduced
me to the newly formed DRAA (Durham Region Astronomical Association). I
couldn't dream of building and coding a micro for that kind of money
(although the challenge is still lingering in my mind).

Yes, Slew speed is the main concern for me. My worm gears are 245 teeth
- with a thread pitch of 18 TPI on the worm. I'll need to crank on the
motors to get a decent slew rate. Still chewing over if I could code a
PIC at the motor to receive the velocity command and return the position
data over the Meade version of I2C. I may have to break down and buy a
492 motor set - just to attempt a code upload from their PIC.

This is going to be easier than building my own controller from scratch,
but still maintains a technical challenge. A win-win situation. I'll
keep you posted on what I come up with.
Thanks again;
Len B

> I have a NexStar5 ( I like the scope, just wish that it had worm
>  gears and flashable memory).
and here i've been, wishing my ETX had the Nexstar's Pittman gearbox.
"the grass is always greener..."

> I am working on my own mount for a larger scope. 
cool..
> I have already made the worm gears and worms. My original
> intention was to build and code a 68HC11 scope controller driving 
> stepper motors.
...
> us$54 Autostar via E-bay...
> I couldn't dream of building and coding a micro for that kind of money

Sound like me and my first micro... i'd settled on a mc6809, some form
of memory mapping, picking through video controllers...
and then Radio Shack brought out the Color Computer.
$400 for a fully assembled system which'd cost me over $300 in parts.
*and* with a sneaky new Motorola memory-mapper/video-chip (i called
motorola and received photocopies of hand-written data sheets).
No contest... and that CoCo was a hacker's paradise... they'll even
run Unix (OS/9 as it was called... in 1985)

> Yes, Slew speed is the main concern for me. My worm gears are 245
> teeth - with a thread pitch of 18 TPI on the worm. 
The worm pitch doesn't matter, does it?  One turn advances the main
gear one tooth. (it's late, i may be missing something obvious)
 So 245 turns per 360 degrees.  The ETX has about 108 teeth, if i
remember, so you're only 40% of that...
 You'll get 2.0 degrees/sec easily (i think).

> I may have to break down and buy a 492 motor set -
> just to attempt a code upload from their PIC.
You may find that a fully-assembled ETX60 is cheaper than a motor set
(altho i -have- seen motor sets on Ebay).

have fun
--dick

Dick and Mike
Thanks for the info...

The ETXStar would have the metal fork arm(s), pittman motors and
encoders and the Meade worm gears...oh yeah...and an Autostar Computer.
The TPI comment - yup - you're right - only important if you desire to
know the circumferential (is that a word?) speed of the worm gear 
Ahhh; a fellow 6809er !! That was the first micro that I built a
complete circuit around. (I only used the 6800 Motorola trainer board
before that) I still have the original 6809 board that I built, 6821
PIA's, LED 7-segment displays and all !! A nostalgia item that I never
will part with (who else would want it anyway?)

Best Regards...
Len Benschop

Subject:	LX-90 Autostar Wandering
Sent:	Friday, August 17, 2001 22:22:20
From:	SixFootFve@aol.com
Thank you very much for putting up the very helpful page.

I recently purchased a LX-90 equipped with the Autostar.  I had version
2Ek software on the Autostar and it was giving me fits with unsolicited
"wandering" after performing a GOTO operation (like to the planet
Saturn).  What would happen is that when I tried to center Saturn up in
the eyepiece after the GOTO, the Autostar would slowly point the
telescope back to the starting position (only a few arc-minutes away). 
I repeated this several times trying to move the scope on both axis from
different directions to get Saturn centered and the Autostar kept moving
it back.  Very frustrating!  I think there are gremlins in my Autostar.

I updated to 2Er hoping the problem would go away but it hasn't.  Do you
know of a fix for this?

Thank you very much!
Tom Nord
Yonezawa, Japan

And:

Thank you for the quick reply.  Your reset and retrain did the trick! 
No more wandering and much happier observing!  Thank you!

Best regards,
Tom Nord

Subject:	497 Autostar
Sent:	Friday, August 17, 2001 21:32:20
From:	gmyers2@carolina.rr.com (Gary Myers)
has anyone done an analysis of the comms from the 497 to the scope? This
is an I2C bus so you would have had to do a conversion to 232... if
someone has the protocol established I would love to have the info.

Gary  Myers
www.RXDesignOnline.com

Subject:	Autostar help
Sent:	Friday, August 17, 2001 14:48:28
From:	david@alongtheway.org (David Bert)
I'm getting frustrated with trying to get the Autostar feature to work
on my new 60AT. I can do a two star alignment and have it return to the
original two stars within the field of view of the 29mm lens, but when I
then try to view other objects it doesn't even come close to most of
them. I've seen it be as far as 20 degrees off the moon. How in the
world can it be so far off the moon and seem to go right back to the two
alignment stars and a handful of other stars?

David

And:

I'm sure that it is the site location that is the problem. I have tried to
figure out how to set the location, but I simply can't find it. There is no
prompt for it and I can't find anything about it in the manual. So I'm
assuming that it is the Alt/Az alignment that sets the location.  In order
to set that I simply focus on Polaris and drop the lens till the Dec is set
on 0. That seems to me to be the only variable. Everything else that I'm
doing appears to be correct. Since it is summer I use Vega and Altair as
alignment stars. It's pretty hard to miss them. I'm in Las Vegas so I'm
using PDT. Should I be using GMT? I just can't think of anything that I'm
missing.  :-(

Subject:	ETX90EC encoder problem
Sent:	Friday, August 17, 2001 10:02:01
From:	colin.mckenzie@interlogixinc.com
Some time ago I had a problem with continuous motor errors on my scope
preventing me from performing alignment actions, the scope would stop
during when slewing to an alignment star. Eventually I discovered by
accident a command on the Autostar [ver 1.somthing] that indicated the
actual encoder values - I think I held the MODE key for 3 seconds whilst
in a calibrate motor or train drive function but can not remember . I
found that the Az encoder 'ticks' passed through 0 somewhere in the
scopes normal movement range which I suspected may be responsible for
the problem. I had been using the scope for terrestrial applications
using the Autostar to move the scope and not going through a full
astronomical alignment procedure and suspect that this may have confused
the factory settings for the zero position of the encoders.

To fix my motor fault issue I slackened off both mechanical locks and
ran the motors until I reached the mid point of the numeric encoder
ranges and then locked my scope at 45 degrees elevation and 180 degrees
Azithmuth, I then used the motors to drive back to the home position and
then re-initialised the scope. Once I had performed this step I could
calibrate the motors and then set the alignment.

I have now uploaded the latest Autostar firmware, re initialised and
re-trained the drives etc and am once again having strange problems with
my Autostar in that the scope actually moves 90 degrees for an Autostar
indication of approximately 60 degrees, this has the effect of the scope
running into the end stop during a go-to in the alignment steps. I can
make the Autostar display 90 degrees for 90 degrees travelled in Azimuth
by changing the Az ratio from approximately  1.3 to 1.9. but have not
yet attempted a re alignment.  The Attitude functions correctly.

Note I always use Alt-Az mode

My questions are :-

1)	Do you or your readers know how to display the encoder information
in the latest software

2)	Is their an alignment procedure for making sure the encoders do
not pass through 0 in normal use ( I think this confuses the scope)

3)	 What is the normal range of gear ratio's  for Az and Alt

Thank  you

Colin McKenzie
Brussels

colin.mckenzie@interlogixinc.com

Subject:	Autostar features
Sent:	Wednesday, August 15, 2001 16:12:01
From:	rkindelberger@yahoo.com (Rick Kindelberger)
Thanks so much for the great site. A wealth of info! I read somewhere on
your site that with the new Autostar software (I don't know which
revision) one could focus the ETX, or enter focus mode, using the
Autostar with the Meade electric focuser.  I also read somewhere that a
spiral search can be started after a "goto" command by pressing the
Autostar enter key for three seconds.

I wrote this stuff down when I read it, but now I cannot find it again,
and I was wondering if there were other features I might like to use
that I don't know about.  Is there some place where these features are
listed?  How do we find out about them?

Thanks in advance,
Rick

Subject:	LX90 Creeping
Sent:	Wednesday, August 15, 2001 03:57:45
From:	bnewton@spidernet.net (bnewton)
Hello.   As a newcomer and not over bright, I hope you'll bear with
me...

My present frustration with the LX90 is 'creeping'.   Not only after a
go-to, but every time one adjusts with the arrow keys, or touches the
focus.

To be fair, I haven't yet trained the motors, or indeed made any
adjustments via Autostar's menu's.  The telescope creeps too far to keep
an object in view even within the 26mm lens and it is really frustrating
trying to calculate where the object has gone and reposition so that it
eventually drifts back into view.

I'd be really grateful if anyone has an idea to overcome this.  The
Autostar Info page is no help (to me) as I'm too dumb to programme a
computer!   And in Cyprus there's only one dealer, a great chap, but
he's just trying to learn himself...

The weather's hot here and we're naturally in shorts - and while I write
a wild kitten is trying to climb my legs which already look as if
they've been pulled through rolls of razor-wire!

Good luck, and thanks for the opportunity to join in your site,

Yours, Brian   (Brian J. Newton)

And:

Thanks very much for the quick reply.  Just after sending the original
E-mail, I did retrain, twice over.  Also found Autostar's default
telescope was ETX - which is strange for one supplied with the LX90.   I
also followed a tip from your June update, in not wasting too much time
on the alignment stars, while being as accurate as possible... and set
the time a minute ahead.

The result was a night of perfect performance.  No creeping and
excellent tracking, including Saturn for over an hour.

Another difficulty I had before now, was finding true north, for the
home position.  I tried a compass, but the house is mainly reinforced
concrete... with all that hidden iron, plus the telescope itself, the
needle went haywire.

Although Meade do not recommend using Polaris, I found, finally,that by
centering Polaris perfectly and then lowering the scope to a horizontal
position, the alignment stars came up well within the 26mm lens.  After
that, every 'GO TO' was wonderfully accurate.

Thanks again and best wishes, Brian.

Subject:	Upgrading Autostar
Sent:	Tuesday, August 14, 2001 16:06:14
From:	peterrossi@lucent.com (Rossi, Peter (Peter))
Your Web Site is my very favorite.  I check it immediately after I
receive the update notice from your Server.  Like Jackie Gleason used to
say, "You are the GREATEST".  (I know, I left out the Baby part.)

I just received my ETX-125EC back from Dr. Clay three weeks ago.  It is
loaded with Autostar Version 2.2Eh.  Would it be beneficial for me to
upgrade it to Version 2.2Er??  Has the upgrade solved known problems??

My problem is that I do not want to lose all of the work done by the
FANTASTIC Dr. Clay.  He programmed my four most used locations plus
added a database of comets, satellites ...  I guess my problem is that I
don't understand how to upgrade the basic software version without
affecting the other data.  Do you, Clay and/or Dick have a step by step
procedure for upgrading the software version without disturbing the
customized data?? This process in writing would be a real asset to EVERY
ETX owner!!  If it already exists on the Site, I have not been able to
find it.
 
Thanks for your Site:
 
Peter Rossi

And:

Thanks for your very prompt answer.  Might be an interesting project for
Dick to take under his wing if he has any free time to spare (Ha, ha!).
Write up an Autostar upgrade instruction guide taking into account the
different options. (Complete replacement, Partial replacement saving
some client data and Partial replacement saving all client data.)  The
Autostar instructions leave a lot to be desired.  You start the upgrade
process not knowing if your ETX will ever work again.

I know as an ETX owner, I have lots of questions regarding the upgrade
process and the use of the Meade Utility Version 2.4 for addressing and
updating the Autostar.  Such a guide would be a HUGE HELP.  Such a guide
would lower your Server traffic volume.  Such a guide would be an
instant success!!!

A MILLION Thanks to you, Clay and Dick!!!!!!

Peter Rossi

Subject:	Alignment problems
Sent:	Tuesday, August 14, 2001 00:36:42
From:	kenariz@juno.com (Ken W Anderson)
When I do an easy 2 star alignment, I have a concern . Lets say I pick
my first star as vega, I hit enter and it starts to slew to vega, it
stops , it is somewhat close. I have to unlock my declination and radial
to move the scope?shouldnt I be able to center vega with the slew keys
on the autostar? before I go to my next target  which would be arcturus
and the same happens on that star as well. It just seems to me I should
be able to use the autostar movement keys to allign instead of unlocking
the axis.

Subject:	Dead ETX 90
Sent:	Monday, August 13, 2001 22:17:20
From:	tweiler@weilerclan.org (Ted Weiler)
It was suggested I send my question to you guys...

I had a very sad thing happen the other night and wondered if any one
else had ever had the same, or similar experience. We were on vacation
and it was a fabulous clear night in the high desert in Eastern Oregon.
I set up my ETX 90 to use with StarryNight Pro on my laptop as I have
done numerous times before. Turned on the laptop, turned on the scope.
Everything started to initialize normally. Then the AutoStar display
started to dim and I smelled something burning. I quickly disconnected
everything. Unfortunately, the ETX90 electronics are dead and it appears
that the serial port and PCMCIA ports are dead, or badly wounded, on my
laptop. I'll know better when I get to the office tomorrow. The scope is
under warranty and it will go back to them in the morning.

Both the scope and laptop were being powered from a 12 volt deep-cycle
battery. The scope connected directly and the laptop through a 12-volt
power adapter. All polarities were correct.

Thoughts on what might have caused this?

Ted and Marie Weiler
www.WeilerClan.org

And:

I am beginning to think that must be what happened. I am fairly new to
it but have set it up a number of times over the last few months and
done it correctly. As soon as things started to go south I immediately
disconnected everything. It all happened pretty quickly and it was a
week ago. I simply don't know. I suppose it would actually be good to
know if that is what happened rather than have it be a mystery. I
imagine Meade will let me know when they get a look at it. Hopefully it
will be covered under warranty. If not, do you have any idea what it
costs to repair/replace the electronics?

Seems like a bit of a hole in what appears to be an otherwise very good
design. I design medical equipment. We would never consider having the
same connector for two uses which if connected improperly would destroy
the device. I wonder what made them think that was a good idea?

I was just referred to your site and haven't had a chance to look around
much yet but it appears to be full of good ETX information. Thanks for
putting it together. I am sure it will help me a lot as I get in to this
(once I get my scope back).

Ted

Subject:	Re:  Autostar-OLD version-dead
Sent:	Monday, August 13, 2001 16:32:38
From:	nitschke6696@yahoo.com (Nick JustNick)
Ok Mike...thanks for the response.

I have 2.4 Updater and the ROMs...however, the autostar is dead.  I mean
NOTHING happens when I hook it up to AC power and turn on the etx.  I
can hear it "clicking" but after that nothing...no lights, no beeps,
nothing.  Is it time to bury this poor thing or is there some way to
"force" it to accept new software?

Thanks in advance for all the help.

Nick

And:

Just to clarify the situation (and maybe in all of your email you've
heard of someone in the same boat):

Currently NOTHING works on the autostar, not with batteries, not with AC
power.  I plug it all in, power up the scope and it stays blank...all I
can hear is some faint clicks and thats it.

When hooked up to the PC and appropriate cables I power it up while
holding down the keys indicated and still nothing.

Is there anything at all you've heard of to recover a dead autostar with
old software that will not respond to any safe-load attempts or direct
power ups?

Thanks again,

Nick

Subject:	Autostar 2Er upgrade problem
Sent:	Saturday, August 11, 2001 17:39:55
From:	larry.clay@home.com (Larry Clay)
I just recreantly got my new ETX125 and Autostar 497. The Autostar came
with ver. 22Eh. I got the Roms22Er.zip file from the Meade Autostar
update site and unzipped the files and downloaded to my Autostar per the
instructions using the new Autostar Update Client. To my surprise, after
doing the download I discovered that my Autostar was now at ver. 21Ek!

I recalled seeing something about this in the archives on your site so I
went and re-read the post ( July 26, 2001 from Don Williamson). He
apparently had a similar problem and was directed by Meade support to
download the actual files (Autostar.ROM and DBase.ROM) from the update
site. This fixed his problem.

OK, said I, I'll do the same thing. After downloading the files
mentioned above and updating my Autostar I found that I was still at
ver. 21Ek!!! It would appear that in an attempt to fix the files on the
update site, the Meade engineers fix it real good! Now there isn't any
way to get the correct files from Meade.

I plan on contacting Meade Monday during normal business hours to inform
them of the problem. In the mean time, can you possible email the
correct Autostar.ROM and DBase.ROM files to me? Zipped or not, I have a
broadband connection. If you don't feel comfortable doing this I will
understand, but I have no idea how long it will take Meade to correct
the files on their site.

Thanks,

Larry Clay

07/06/01 ETX Autostar model #497 Roms22Er.zip (file size 426,434 bytes) This file contains both Autostar.rom, Dbase.rom, and update.txt. Update.txt is a text file containing the major changes from version 21Ek. Please note that this version is ENGLISH only.

Thanks, you nailed it. I copied the files to the Autostar Update folder
instead of the Autostar Update\Ephemerides folder. I had miss-read the
instructions. I really hate when I do that, but at least no one can say
I'm perfect:. FYI the zipped files on the Autostar update site are
correct now.

Keep up the good work. Your ETX site is great.

Larry Clay

Subject:	ETX 125 Motor Training
Sent:	Saturday, August 11, 2001 14:43:02
From:	eaa@peakpeak.com (Ed)
There's a question I've been searching the site for and haven't found an
answer. If one wishes to re-train the motors, must the AutoStar" be
'Reset' first?

I have re-trained several times, each time doing a reset first. It's a
real pain having to re-enter the site information after each reset.

Ed..

Subject:	Re:  Alignment malfunction
Sent:	Saturday, August 11, 2001 12:41:34
From:	woodjc@netcom.ca (John Wood)
Thanks Mike.  RESET and RETRAIN worked fine. There had been no Autostar
upgrade but a new battery for power.

Regards...............John

At 09:04 PM 01-08-08 EDT, you wrote:
>I always recommend that if the Autostar goes batty, RESET and RETRAIN.   
>Solves most ills.  Let me know.

Subject:	Change telescope model
Sent:	Friday, August 10, 2001 21:45:38
From:	theodorejr@msn.com (theodorejr)
I recently downloaded the newest version of the autostar software 22.er
and uploaded it to a 495 and a497 etx Autostar. I can nolonger change
the telescope model  Is this a common situation
            Thanks Ted Theodore

Subject:	Autostar-OLD version-dead
Sent:	Friday, August 10, 2001 9:29:48
From:	nitschke6696@yahoo.com (Nick JustNick)
Great site, I've visited many time but never really had a problem with
my ETX EC...until now.

I had version 1.0c (I know, 400 years old) and I finally got the #505
cable set and proceeded to upgrade to the latest and greatest.  However,
something died during the "downlaoading...do not turn off" phase and
eventually it just went blank.  I got the ETX and autostar over 2 years
ago (at least) and so I don't know what to do about getting it replaced
or repaired.  Before I have to resort to going back to the Discovery
store and getting another one, are they ANY "Flash Loads" or other
tricks that you know people have used on version 1.0c?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Nick

Subject:	upgrading autostar and blown rs232 ports
Sent:	Thursday, August 9, 2001 17:36:03
From:	rs@stepequipment.com (Robert Sharpe)
Great site....

I recently purchased an etx125ec. The first night the unit seemed to
slew to the 2 alignment stars (polar mode) OK, but every other slew was
barely in the finder scope. after reading up on your site, i decided to
tune up the unit myself, performing all of the hardware mods mentioned
on your site.

When I got to the software upgrade for the autostar controller, all hell
broke loose. I downloaded the latest revision from meade, and hooked up
all cables with power off to all systems. After booting up the computer,
and the scope, I ran the meade program and it could not find the
autostar. I doublechecked all port settings 9600, 8,1 no parity, no
handshaking, and tried again. Still no luck.

I shorted pins 2+3 on my rs232 port on the computer, and using
hyperterminal could not see any characters come back. Thinking this was
a computer problem I then got my laptop and performed the shorting test
on it's rs232 port. I could see the characters coming back into
hyperterminal when I shorted 2+3, and verified that they did not come
back when the pins were not shorted. I ohmed out all cables and checked
wiring of the rj11?? to the db9 connector...All seemed OK according to
the several drawings that were on your site.

With everything looking good, I then proceeded to rehook up autostar,
scope, and laptop computer with all power off. I rebooted and tried to
update autostar....Same results, the meade program reported that it
could not find autostar. Looking at the control panel / system/ device
manager, all com ports reported OK.

I then repeated the com port test on my laptop, shorting out pins 2+3,
and to my surprise, the characters did not come back. This setup fried
my com port on the laptop! I then purchased a pci serial card, and tried
the whole mess again. same result, Hyperterminal reported good results
shorting pins 2+3 BEFORE I hooked up the autostar / etx125, and failed
the pin 2+3 test after the autostar update failed....3 attempts, 3 fried
com ports...

For several days i have been trying to get a response from meade, their
customer service dept tells me it's a software problem, and passes me
over to a phone that has an endless ring, with no answer....

Note that I am using the meade AC adapter with this setup. It is putting
out 15vdc, although the transformer says 12vdc. But from the email i
have read on your site, this seems normal.

I have plans to get the SAC IV ccd imager, and starry night pro, to
control the etx, but at this point I am hesitant about plugging the
telescope / autostar into anything, lest it gets blown to
smithereens....

My attack plan at this point is threefold:

1- Harass Meade incessantly until I get to talk to somebody who can help
me there
2- Verify proper voltages on the rs232 lines coming out of the Meade
3- Sending you this e-mail in the hopes that someone out there has had a
similar experiance and can share some knowledge...

I am also considering putting another external serial card at risk by
attempting an autostar upgrade with the AC adapter unplugged, just on
internal battery power.

Another thing I have noticed is that if I have all the cables hooked up,
autostar to scope to pc, and power up the pc first, the power led on the
scope lights up halfway. When I power up the scope, it reaches normal
brightness. I assume this is just the rs232 power from the pc causing
the half lit state. Is this normal? Could this be part of my problem?

Thanks for any input you might have, and keep up the good work on the
site. I am impressed enough with the wealth of information here that I
have made your site my startup homepage!

Thanks,
Bob Sharpe

And:

From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (richard seymour)
If you check out the procedure outlined at:

http://www.weasner.com/etx/autostar/as_test.html
and
http://www.weasner.com/etx/autostar/as_testing.html

they detail how to test the Autostar end of the game...
it has a self-test which will verify that its connections and
internal components are happy... no need to sacrifice another PC card.

--dick

I tried to get the autostar in the "rs232 testing" mode, but with no
success. It looks like the autostar, or whatever electronics are in the
scope is the cause. I tested this using scope battery power only, as I
am wary of the unregulated ac supply and my blown rs232 ports....

I will probably bring the autostar back to the discovery store, where i
bought it. They are usually pretty good about doing exchanges.

Do you know what electronics are on the little board in the scope? Are
the rs232 lines just hardwired to each jack in parallel, or do they go
thru some chips before going out to the autostar?? Anybody have a
schematic on the board supporting all the jacks?

Thanks for all your help!

Bob.

And this:

From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (richard seymour)
er... does the light dawn?

> Do you know what electronics are on the little board in the scope?
> Are the rs232 lines just hardwired to each jack in parallel, or do
> they go thru some chips before going out to the autostar?? Anybody
> have a schematic on the board supporting all the jacks?

The rs232 lines do not GO through the base of the scope.
If you have been plugging your PC's serial cable into the AUX
jacks on the  scope... that's the problem.  Don't DO that!!!
They are NOT rs232.

The only rs232 port is on the Autostar -itself-.
On the bottom, right under the scroll-up key.

If you've been plugging -anywhre- else, that's the probable
reason for death-of-serial ports (unregulated 16v directly
into your PC, although an rs232 input should be able to handle
that (since the original standard was +/- 25v )

If you had a Starfinder (no numeric keypad), then yes, you'd plug a
 #506 serial cable in to the AUX jack... but they still are NOT rs232.
(the 506 generates rs232 all by itself).
--dick

...and, re-reading your original message, 
(mis)usage of the AUX ports would definitely cause the 
 dim-LED symptom you reported (and which i missed
 on the first reading).

So, i suspect your Autostar and (with luck) ETX
are still happy (do you have a focuser?)...
although you could have conceivably damaged the
 Autostar's AUX driver circuits.

The AUX connections on the ETX's inner circuit 
 card are merely printed-circuit traces putting
the two AUX ports in parallel with eachother,
and with two of the Autostar's signal lines 
and the power and ground.
No active nor passive circuitry at all, other than that.

--dick

From:	rs@stepequipment.com (bob sharpe)
i'm embarrased.....very embarrased.....

You are right, I was plugging the pc line into the AUX line of the
scope, assuming the signals went thru the HBX port. I do have an
autofocuser, but luckily, everything seems to still work!

Retracing my steps, I re-read the meade instructions on the web that
instruct how to use the cable set to upload to autostar.....it's all
there, including their warning NOT TO PLUG INTO THE AUX PORT!

Now, I read this stuff before attempting anything, but I think I made 3
critical errors:

1- I glossed over the instructions at warp speed, due to the fact that I
work on electronics just about every other day! Didn't give it a 2nd
thought! AUX means RS232, right????

2- I was so hyped up about learning how to use the scope ( this
astronomy is all new to me ), that AGAIN i speed-read the scope manual,
and somehow assumed that AUTOSTAR and SCOPE were one entity, not 2
separate objects to be treated separatly. ( Hook the pc cable up to the
AUTOSTAR, the instructions said...)

3- In my speed reading hell, I somehow gleened that the 4 conductor port
on the AUTOSTAR was to be used ONLY for cloning to another autostar.

Now, considering that, for a living, I

1- Run my own semiconductor manufacturing equipment parts,
refurbishment, and repair business
2- Help design boards using Protel
3- Repair all sorts of complicated boards for this equipoment
4- Program in VB and C
5- etc, etc, etc

for me to make this kind of error is akin to :

1- a baker mistaking salt for flour
2- a bartender making a strawberry daiqueri, using bud lite...
3- Jesse Jackson preachin about infidelity....( wait, that won't
work...)

anyhow, I've decided to take a step back, and just observe the waxing
gibbous moon for the next 3 months, until I can once again trust myself
to plug a 3 pronged plug into a 3 holed socket ......

naahh, i'm goin after saturn this weekend, if possible......

thanks again for all your help....

Bob.

Since the focuser system involves two-way communication
with the Autostar ("are you there?" "yes"), the fact
that it still works indicates a fully-happy autostar.

..which leaves you free to start repairing a bunch
 of PC/laptop serial ports....

glad it turned out OK...
--dick

Idiot-proofing is EASY...
    professional-proofing is perhaps impossible..

Subject:	Question about High Precision and Synchronizing
Sent:	Thursday, August 9, 2001 15:21:21
From:	hpwallner@aon.at (hpwallner)
I use "high precision" nearly entirely during observing sessions -with
DS motors (Vers.22ef) and with my ETX 125 base with an Astro-Rubinar
100/1000  Vers.22er. Of course there`s a noticeable improvement in GOTO
accuracy.

But as I want to understand things better here`s my question: Using HP
Autostar slews to a star near the object i want to observe and asks to
center it. Does this "overwrite" the entire align process? As i
understand it HP syncronizes the current telescope position to the
calculated position of the star. The encoder system counts the steps
while centering and takes them into account for the final GOTO
calculations -right? I didn`t notice any inacurracy in HP GOTO to
different parts of the sky.

So what exactly is the "Enter to syncronize" function doing? Basically
you have to do the same steps as in HP. Centering a star and press
enter. But why does this only work for a limited part of the sky? Does
this function "magnify" initial setup errors like time, north, level..?

And why does new firmware improve GOTO accuracy? I can understand that
with the solar system objects (better and more accurate algorithms) but
with the stars? Isnt the encoder resolution a limit?

Thanks: Peter Wallner

And:

From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (richard seymour)
Quick short answer re: HP:  "I don't know".

It's a -really- messy/convoluted chunk of code... my hunch is that
it biases the alignment, at a fairly esoteric level (i.e. as if
you'd done a 3-star align), rather than simply keep a "ten steps 
left, 5 steps up" offset.  Someday i'll have that chunk better 
understood, but at the moment it's rather beyond me.

So it's a constant tuning procedure... if the guide star is centered
when you get there, then you're not changing alignment.
Warning: if you hit [enter] -during- the slewing to a guide star, the
 alignment -does- get totally whacky...

> Does this "overwrite" the entire align process? 
better to think that it "skews" it a little bit.

> >So what exactly is the "Enter to syncronize" function doing? 

HP and SYNC are -exactly- the same operation, where the scope knows
the RA/Dec of the target, and your eyeball is adjusting the position.
But the Autostar doesn't give up on what it already "knew", so it's
a stretch (with trig functions attached) rather than a shift.

> >But why does this only work for a limited part of the sky? 
Well, it improves it closest to the new "anchor" point, but there's
no reason that it should mess up the rest of the sky, unless the
initial alignment (or scope base placement) was poor.

I've had SYNC improve 90% of my sky at times.

>Does this function "magnify" initial setup errors like time, north,
> level..?
doesn't touch "time", and how much it skews the others is a 
case-by-case answer.  IF you're in Alt/Az, and your base isn't level,
then the Az axis is tilted relative to the sky... and things go 
downhill from there (the scope actually determines from the alignment
that it's at a different Lat/Long than the Site says).

>>And why does new firmware improve GOTO accuracy? I can understand that
> >with the solar system objects (better and more accurate algorithms)
>> but with the stars? IsnYent the encoder resolution a limit?
What they keep tweaking and (hopefully) improving is/are the minor
corrections and elements of the equations used in determining where
to put the scope for a given RA/Dec.  And backlash corrections.
The Autostar uses really primitive floating point (32-bit... hence
 6 plus a smidge significant digits) and rolls with it.  Your PC, 
for exmple, can use 32-, 64- and 80-bit floating point.

There are -lots- of minor tweaks they're constantly adding/tuning
to try and improve how well it works.  Long-term Comets were another
recent improvement. (pushed by Linear A2)

Mike said:
> I can't say whether GOTO accuracies are really "improved" with 2.2Er
> or just what the user experiences is improved.
i vote for both.  In some cases MEade has -removed- complications
in some of the motions... trusting/demanding better Polar setup if
the user has an LX-90, for example.

They -do- get better... there are occaisonal potholes in their code,
but overall the general user experience has grown much richer...
--dick

I said:
> occasional potholes...

but i must admit to not finding any new ones in 22eR.
It's really solid (there are a couple of teeny tiny old ones,
but they're very esoteric (such as poorly handling satellites
with -really- eccentric (0.7) orbits...)(or geostationaries).

it gets the geostationaires half-right: it shows where they are
 *now*... then decides they'll set in 4 hours.
--dick

Thanks to both of you.

Having "more stars alignment" would be an improvement Dick. At the
moment i`m quite happy with GOTO accuracy. One question: Does the larger
worm gear (LX90) influence GOTO accuracy? - I think no because the
encoder resolution is still the same -Alt.and Az. rates are changed but
the basic calculations are still the same. And I get great results with
both setups.

I hope Meade`s "esoteric" level is restricted to there alignment
procedure (ritual?)

I agree -user experience is very important. That`s why i like the
Autostar - you have to learn and try a lot. Most of the times (if it
doesn`t work like i want it to) i find out that the mistake was on my
side. Satellite tracking was such a learnig experience.

Thanks again

Hans Peter Wallner

Subject:	Alignment malfunction
Sent:	Wednesday, August 8, 2001 17:54:28
From:	woodjc@netcom.ca (John Wood)
Mike, thanks again for all the work you put in maintaining your site. 
It is a stupendous resource in learning and trouble shooting the ETX. 
Last night, after several weeks working well, I had a new (to me)
problem.  I placed the ETX-125 horizontally pointing North and turned it
on.  After the preliminaries I chose easy align.  Autostar chose a star
then slewed the ota straight up, past the zenith and kept the
declination motor running while it rotated it to NW .  After pressing
"enter" it left it pointing almost straight up and rotated back to E. 
The ra settings may well have been correct for the stars chosen but the
declination was clearly wrong. After turning off and putting it back in
home position, the same thing happened a second time.

I have not read of others describing this malfunction.   Do I just have
to do a "reset"?

Regards..............John

Subject:	autostar update 2.1ek
Sent:	Wednesday, August 8, 2001 11:20:06
From:	jt.stinson@home.com (jt.stinson)
I recently downloaded and upgraded my autostar 497 to version 2.1ek.  I
had no trouble discovering a couple of major problems with this version.
After reading up on your site i see that although these problems have
been identified there seems to be no fix.  If this is the case i need to
know so  i can get rid of this version  asap.  Currently i can not
observe with this version.  Any help you can give would be greatly
appreciated.       Jamie.s

And:

I guess in my frantic panic i gapped that one.  I didn't even see that
upgrade. It must be this blastid heat wave.  We Canadians are just not
used to it.  I didn't think the thermometers went this high. Thanks
again.   Jamie.s

Subject:	Re: LX90 manual, Autostar abbreviations
Sent:	Wednesday, August 8, 2001 4:37:49
From:	brass@uconnvm.uconn.edu (Emory Braswell)
Thanks for your quick answer.  I downloaded it last night from the
astronomics site.  But I still havn't found a good glossary for all the
abbreviations used by autostar in the star descriptions.  What a great
site and what great experts!
Emory Braswell

From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (richard seymour)
Well.... let's take a stab at it... 
Since there are (perhaps) thousands.. 
Can you provide specific examples of which abbreviations are
among the more opaque?

Some require/expect some background reading, such as the "Del. Scut."
you sometimes see... (Delta Scutum-type variable star, so named
because Delta Scutum was the first commented-upon example.)
(but i'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to dig deeper into
 what kind of variable that is).

(HR is Harvard Revised... the original Bright Star list used for
the database (see postings under "database" in Mike's "Autostar Info"))

So please provide a clue/starting point, and we'll ramble from there.

--dick

Subject:	Re: ADVENTURES WITH AUTOSTAR
Sent:	Tuesday, August 7, 2001 21:45:56
From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (richard seymour)
To: Ed Johnson (EdHiker@mediaone.net)
v22eR is better in the creep-after-beep arena than 22eH,
but careful training and percentage-setting help, too.

If you always make your final slew in a with-sidereal direction,
that'll also pretty much cancel it (i know you can't control
how a GoTo arrives... but accurate training
(setup > telescope > Training > Az Train  (and Alt Train)
-can- completely remove creep-after-beep.

> I made a test bed, using two Meade motor assemblies running a
> ALT-AZ platform having gear ratios of 82 and 89, with a
> small refractor attached.
cool... DS- or 4504- motors?

> The first thing noticed is that "creeping after the beep".
> I would assume that the beep means it's done acquiring
> the object, all to be done now is compensate for the earth's
> rotation. Did I assume wrong?  Training motors has made this
> a sometimes affair, a bit of a game.  How do I turn all this
> black-box-itis off?

What you're usually seeing is the backlash-compensation
invoked by the motors -reversing- from the GoTo (or manual) slew
to the direction mandated by the sidereal drive. 

> The printed Autostar manual is abysmal, so I printed out the
> version from Meades website, making an enlarged/sharpened
> copy of "AUTOSTAR PRIMARY MENUS AND OPTIONS" 
> that is where I make my notes --- things like
> "sync", "slew speed", and how to enter RA/DEC for GO TO.

The Autostar manual also does not cover the "Browse" and
 "Spiral Search" introduced with 21eK.
For those, refer to the LX90 manual
http://www.qsl.net/wb5rue/lx90.pdf
(that link will be valid for only a few days... it's posted
elsewhere, too (the Files section of the LX90 egroup,
astronomics)...but that's the link i can find at this moment)

> The manual has no index,
under Acrobat (and any browser) you can search for text....

> The jury is still out as to how well all this will work.
> Last night, I got to within 1/4 degree of most nearby
> objects, after using SYNC. Tracking is nothing to write
> home about, more testing to be done.
You should be able to get within 1/4 degree, i'd think.

> I tried three planetarium/astronomy programs, my vote goes for
> ECU, its fast, intuitive, and fun to use  it controls and tracks
> through the Autostar. http://www.nova-astro.com/index.html
thanks for the reference...

good luck
--dick

Subject:	autostart
Sent:	Monday, August 6, 2001 21:19:30
From:	vautieri@stny.rr.com (Vincent Autieri)
My telescope came with the autostar but no Meade Autostar #505
Connector.  I'm sure I have the connectors to construct a compatable
one, but I don't have the pin layout(the  DB9 side is a no brainer, but
I don't know about the other side.)  I would be grateful if you knew
what it was and could pass it along.  Otherwise I'll need to order and
wait...

Thanks in any case!

V

Subject:	ADVENTURES WITH AUTOSTAR
Sent:	Monday, August 6, 2001 18:55:29
From:	EdHiker@mediaone.net (Ed Johnson)
ADVENTURES WITH AUTOSTAR   -- a few days after my Meade motor system
first light (or is it first flight?)  --  The following should be taken
in spirit of adventure, this is all new.

How perfect is "PERFECT GO TO"? 
Amateur telescopes can reasonably aspire to 30 arcseconds RMS, placing
objects in the center of even the highest-power eyepiece.
http://www.tpsoft.demon.co.uk/pointing.htm
******************************************

I made a test bed, using two Meade motor assemblies running a ALT-AZ
platform having gear ratios of 82 and 89, with a small refractor
attached. Firmware downloaded and installed is 22eh. It took some
looking to find out that Meades updater called an earlier version, not
from the web, but residing where else than in a folder called
"ephemerides". (I renamed the two files in question and unplugged my
modem) -- later I see 

"Mike here: If you grabbed the Autostar Updater 2.4 from Meade, the
downloaded ZIP file includes 2.1Ek. To get the 2.2Er ROMs, download them
from Meade site, unzip them and place them in the ephemerides folder,
overwriting the older ones that are there. Then run the Updater and
download to the Autostar."

The first thing noticed is that "creeping after the beep". I would
assume that the beep means it's done acquiring the object, all to be
done now is compensate for the earth's rotation. Did I assume wrong? 
Training motors has made this a sometimes affair, a bit of a game.  How
do I turn all this black-box-itis off?

The printed Autostar manual is abysmal, so I printed out the version
from Meades website, making an enlarged/sharpened copy of "AUTOSTAR
PRIMARY MENUS AND OPTIONS" that is where I make my notes --- things like
"sync", "slew speed", and how to enter RA/DEC for GO TO. (today I used
this for tracking the sun, (with filter)) The manual has no index, on a
couple of occasions, I've used Google  goes to the appropriate Weasner
page. The learning curve is a bit steep for something sold in department
stores!

The jury is still out as to how well all this will work. Last night, I
got to within 1/4 degree of most nearby objects, after using SYNC.
Tracking is nothing to write home about, more testing to be done.

I tried three planetarium/astronomy programs, my vote goes for ECU, its
fast, intuitive, and fun to use  it controls and tracks through the
Autostar. http://www.nova-astro.com/index.html

Ed Johnson

Subject:	LX90/Autostar menu question
Sent:	Monday, August 6, 2001 17:13:00
From:	bill@baderland.com (Bill Bader)
I recently discovered your Mighty ETX page and have learned quite a bit
browsing around. However, I'd like to ask for a pointer or two about the
Autostar menu, if you have a moment. (BTW, I really got a kick of you
posing with the ETX. Ain't digital wonderful?)

Basically, I haven't been able to figure out how to get access to most
of the 16,888 stars stored in it. When I browse a constellation, I can
get maybe the first 5 to 8 Greek-letter stars before it recycles back to
alpha. It's not much better when I go via the double-star route. While
I've gotten a few lists of interesting double stars (I'm a junkie) off
the net, including the 10-page MAPUG list, I find that many of the SAO
numbers aren't in my Autostar. And while it works fine entering the
coordinates, I'd like to benefit from what all is there.

Recently, someone posted a question (more or less) about this to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lx90 . In message 10857, Clay Sherrod
replied by suggesting pressing buttons to "learn the vast amount that
some unidentified programmer has done an excellent job of cramming into
that little Autostar of ours." I've tried every button-pressing approach
I can think of, and haven't figured out how to get farther than I have.
(BTW, my membership in the message group has been pending for several
days, or I wouldn't be bugging you! Thanks for your patience, if you've
gotten this far.)

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Bill Bader

Subject:	Re: updating autostar
Sent:	Sunday, August 5, 2001 4:59:53
From:	sherrodc@ipa.net (Clay Sherrod)
To:	Jason
Thanks for the kind words!

There are so many great articles posted on Mike's ETX site for the
Autostar that I would refer you to:

http://www.weasner.com/etx/autostar_info.html 

which is the overall directory index for all of them.  Under that you
will find a plethora of material that you need from "flash loads" to
versions, to re-entering your lost astronomical data, and yes - to even
uploading new firmware!  Dick Seymour and others have done a tremendous
job on keeping all of us up to date on the latest and best methods (and
frustrations!) with Autostar and new versions.  If you don't find what
you need there, please write back.

Good luck! By the way, v2.2eR is a very good version for the ETX and LX
90 scopes....one of the best so far.

Clay Sherrod
    -----Original Message-----
    hey clay, great job guiding us.  im sure you know how invaluable
    your contribution is.

    is there a page on this site or any site for that matter that deals
    with updating the autostar? i have the cable, and am ready to do it,
    but in true meade style, the instructions are minimalism at their
    best.  thank you for your help.
    
    jason 

Subject:	Autostar satellites list?
Sent:	Thursday, August 2, 2001 9:08:19
From:	pst@ksu.edu (pst)
If you like to view comets, asteroids, and satellites then you need to
constantly update your autostar with current ephemerides. Harvard
University has a nice site

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Soft16.html

that posts CURRENT comet and asteroid (minor planet) ephemerides in
AUTOSTAR format. All you do is download the file and drop it onto the
autostar updater. I have not found a site that does the same for CURRENT
satellite ephemerides. I do know that Heavens-Above
(http://www.heavens-above.com/) and Celestrak
(http://www.celestrak.com/) have orbit data for sats, but I don't think
either regularly posts CURRENT sat data in AUTOSTAR format. Does anyone
know of such a site?

Thanks!
Paul

From:	pst@ksu.edu (pst)
On Thursday, August 2, 2001, at 08:14 PM, etx@me.com wrote:
> Nice find about the Harvard site.  It would be nice if someone did the
> same for current satellites.  Thanks.

Actually, someone does. I did not realize it, but the proper file format
for autostar satellites is simply the TLE format. I just tried it. I
originally thought that the file would need to be in some type of Meade
proprietary format, but the files from Celestrak work fine! Just drag
the file to the updater!

Paul

Subject:	 Park and GOTO hitting a stop on Two-Star Alignment
Sent:	Tuesday, July 31, 2001 22:08:35
From:	marbla@naisp.net (Blais Klucznik)
Several weeks ago I mentioned that it is possible to have the GOTO run
into one of its mechanical STOPS while slewing per 497 GOTO command. 
Although there has been skepticism from a few readers plus the fact that
it happened very seldom it was somewhat hard to prove.

Well this condition arrived again last night.  As I had PARKed the
ETX125 just prior to bringing all equipment into the house a few days
ago, I once again took the scope outside and positioned it on the 887
pointing within a few degrees of Polaris although still in the
horizontal PARK'ed position.  PARK'ed that is using the Rev2.2er ROM
software GOTO command.

When it got dark enough, and after initializing the 497 I raised the
scope using the 497 and just had to tap the left arrow to center the
'North' star in the eyepiece.  The next step was to lower the
declination until the OTA was level with ground for I am using the AltAz
mounting.  Then I started the Two-Star alignment.

The first star was DENEB and the scope slewed so that it placed DENEB
just slightly below the crosshair in the finder.  A slight nudge of the
down arrow and it was centered.

For the second star I chose ARCTURUS.  The scope slewed clockwise and
drove into a mechanical stop before it could reach the RA or horizontal
coordinate of ARCTURUS.  At this point I shut off all power and used the
familiar mechanical adjustment to locate the CCW stop etc.

Now according to Meade's UPDATE.TXT file that is included in the
ROMS22ER.ZIP file PARK command should, I would assume, return the scope
to the original HOME position you started with.  Quoting from that same
UPDATE.TXT file:

"4) For ETX-90 and ETX-125, park position is always home position."

Apparently I mis-interpret Meade's statement.  The PARK command simply
seems to move the OTA level with ground and pointing North.

So I suggest that when you are ready to start to align your scope the
next time out first insure you are positioned per the manual, ie,
approximately 130-140 degrees CW of its CCW stop.

Blais Klucznik
marbla@naisp.net

Subject:	Autostar upgrade problem
Sent:	Tuesday, July 31, 2001 22:04:15
From:	RLibby@aol.com
I  an currently using ver 2.0, and was trying to download the 2.ek using
the A 2.4 download program. After verifying that there was an autostar
present, it set up, all set to go... Clicking on "get from web", it
tells me that the firmware is current.. How do I get to ver 2.1ek?

Ralph Libby

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