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AUTOSTAR FEEDBACK

Last updated: 31 July 2013

Welcome to the AutoStar feedback page. This page is intended to provide user comments on using the Meade Autostar #494, #495, #497, #497EP, AudioStar, cables, and 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 for posting. Please use an appropriate Subject Line on your message per the Site Email Etiquette. Thanks. Remember, tips described on this site may invalidate the warranty on your telescope or accessories. Neither the submitter nor myself are responsible for any damage caused by using any contributed tips.


Subject:	Re: Autostar direction keys are ineffective. ETX engines run in uncontroled manner.
Sent:	Monday, July 29, 2013 06:18:56
From:	Cassijea (cassijea@gmail.com)
I just tested another Autostar (actually an Audiostar) and my ETX worked
well! My Autostar is therefore the guilty one. Since I believe I have
tried everything possible at the Autostar "software" level and being
incompetent in electronic, I am going to order a brand new one.
Hopefully the end of a long story. I keep you posted.

Regards

JB


Subject:	Re: AutoStar Serial Control Commands for PC based software
Sent:	Sunday, July 28, 2013 21:27:31
From:	richard seymour (rseymour@wolfenet.com)
Ouch.

You are correct: The :MA# command specifically cancels sidereal.

The "GoTo" command :MS# ("S" for sidereal) maintains sidereal, but it
expects RA/DEC coordinates.

Your remote commands are the equivalent of (on the keypad) doing a GoTo
a Landmark, then changing the "Setup/Target" back to "Astronomical"

If you must send Alt/Az commands to the scope, then i think the method
you're using is the most efficient... it only requires that additional
:AA#
I can see that you are probably having some headaches due to the
ambiguity of how long it will take the scope to perform the :MA#
motion... which means it may arrive a bit late at the target (which has
now moved westward).

If you could couch (or recalculate)  your "small increment" on the
RA/DEC coordinate grid, then you could use :MS#, and sidereal would not
stop.
IF you were to mount the scope on a wedge, then the RA/DEC would
effectively *be* along the Alt/Az axes of the telescope, and doing your
small offset in RA/DEC becomes as trivial as your current Alt/Az
approach (just multiply the RA (Az) offset by 4 to convert an Az degree
to RA minutes.)

If the "small increments" were *very* small (less than a few
arcminutes), you could try using the :MgDTTTT# commands: "D" is the
direction (n,w,s,e) and TTTT is the number of milliseconds to move in
that direction.  Again, the direction is along the RA/DEC coordinate
grid, and the motion happens at "guide" speed (67% of sidereal)... so an
East motion subtracts 67% (10 arcseconds per clock second) from
sidereal, and West adds 10 arcsec per clock second to the sidereal rate.
North and South (normally not "moving") merely move in DEC at 10 arcsec/sec.
That command sends no "reply", and there is no way to test its
completion (other than monitoring elapsed time).  Sidereal motion never
ceases.

good luck
--dick

And:

Come to think about it... there IS another way...

If the "box size" and speed of the handbox's Spiral Search will work for
you, you can turn it on and off and on and off by sending these serial
commands:
:EK25#    will start the spiral.
Once it's moving,  subsequent :EK71#  commands will stop and re-start it.
You can "break out" of the invocation of the spiral with a :EK9#
...after that, you'd have to send another :EK25# to start another spiral.

Those keys are the remote way of (EK25) press-and-hold-GOTO,
(EK71) tap GoTo,  (EK9) tap Mode.

The *size* of the "spiral" (it's really rectangular) is controlled by
changing the Autostar's idea of the *focal length* of the primary optics.
Setup/Telescope/Focal Length
The *only* things that setting affects are the size of the spiral, and
the results of the eyepiece calculations under the Utilities menu.
The spiral "box size" tries to be the field of view of a 26mm Meade 4000
eyepiece.

Sidereal drive continues to operate as the box is travelled.

have fun
--dick

And:

From:	Arthur Rees (arthur.rees168@btinternet.com)
Thanks for the advice; it confirms some of my guesses.

I check the slew time of the scope using the :D# command. When it returns
the empty string I send the :AA#, this kicks of sidereal tracking again.
I avoided using equatorial mounting because of the mechanical unbalance in
the ETX105.

I always imagined the HBX search pattern was a circular spiral. As the DSI
II has a rectangular viewport, my system also uses a rectangular search
pattern with a box size equal to the viewport of the DSI II (908'' X 678'').

If commands are available, my ultimate aim is to try and make the system
smart enough to adjust the tracking rates based on the frequency and size of
the manual adjustments made by the operator (that's me).

Once again, many thanks for the advice.

Arthur
Mike here: You can add a counterweight system to offset any unbalance conditions.

And this:

What happens if you send the :AA# *before* completion of the slew?

My guesses on the possible outcomes are:
(a) slew completes as requested, sidereal starts immediately <-- best
(b) slew suddenly interprets goal in RA/DEC, not Alt/Az and goes wildly off <-- worst
(c) slew completes, sidereal does not start  <-- possible
(d) slew stops immediately (before goal), sidereal starts  <-- possible

I won't have time to test this until Wednesday, but it's another
approach (in terms of minimizing sidereal resumption delays).

good luck
--dick

And:

Sidereal slew does not start. You must wait for slew to finish before sending :AA#


Subject:	AutoStar Serial Control Commands for PC based software
Sent:	Sunday, July 28, 2013 05:52:40
From:	Arthur Rees (arthur.rees168@btinternet.com)
I am writing a simple PC based program to execute a cyclic search
pattern and to make small tracking adjustments during an observing
session.

I use Alt/Azm mode and a Meade DSI II imager on an ETX105 scope. So a 2
second delay is required on each search step to allow the DSI form an
image.

Once the OTA is aligned and slewing at sidereal rate, I execute the
following serial commands:
:GA#      // to recover OTA Alt
:GZ#      // to recover OTA Azm
I then add a small increment to these values and send Target Alt/Azm
using the following commands.
:Sa+DD*MM'SS#             // to set Target Alt
:SzDDD*MM'SS#             // to set Target Azm
:MA#                                     // to slew to Target Alt /Azm
 
The scope slews correctly but stops sidereal tracking.
I find that sending the command :AA# then starts up sidereal tracking.
 
Is there a better way of maintaining sidereal tracking?
 
Great site
 
Arthur R. Rees
Mike here: I'll let Dick Seymour, our AutoStar expert, respond.


Subject:	Re: Autostar direction keys are ineffective. ETX engines run in uncontroled manner.
Sent:	Friday, July 26, 2013 03:45:45
From:	Cassijea (cassijea@gmail.com)
I just looked at the inside of the Autostar, all connectors & keys
looked very clean.

I took picture of the inside of my ETX. See attached in case you
identify any obvious issue...

Regards

Jean Baptiste

photo

photo

photo

photo

Mike here: The green and black lubrication appears to be rather messy. You might try to clean that up some. Also, the clear substance (glue?) running from the blue connector also appears rather messy. Check the connector. Other than those, I couldn't see any broken wires or blown circuit components.


Subject:	Re: Meade LX80/AudioStar
Sent:	Thursday, July 25, 2013 10:24:03
From:	Ray Porter (lrporternc@bellsouth.net)
I just got off the phone with Luis at Meade.  We had to sort of skirt
around the second owner issue but the end result is that I have an RGA
number and shipping instructions.  He anticipates about a 6 week turn
around on the repair.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that the repair is done right and that I
have no further problems with the mount.  The warranty expires in
October.

Just out of curiosity, should Meade disappear, have you guys ever
considered servicing these mounts if they have problems in the future? 
Didn't you once upon a time offer a hyper-tuning service for LXD mounts?
 What are repair options in the future if Meade goes away?

Thanks for your input.  I'll let you know how things turn out.
 
Ray Porter
Mike here: There was (and maybe still is) a Hypertune for LXD75 mounts. See my old LXD55/75 web site and do a search there for "hypertune". Don't know whether it would be applicable to a LX80 mount. And there is possibly Dr. Clay Sherrod's Supercharge Tune-up Service. His service says "ALL Meade and Celestron refractor and Newtonian series telescopes".

And:

Doc Clay does repair these mounts.  He said he is repairing at least one
per month between the LX80 and LX850 mounts these days.  I just don't
know how he feels about taking this on in the future.
 
Thanks,
Ray
Mike here: I'm sure he will do it as long as he can.

And:

From:	Andrew Johansen (johansea@optusnet.com.au)
Unfortunately, if its a damaged card,
the "repair" options will be limited.
Ie burnt motor chips ( like we suspect with yours )
can be fixed by techs with the right gear,
but if its the PIC on the cards that is bad,
there is No alternative.

Andrew
Mike here: How true. But I doubt Meade is going away. However, future options may be limited, depending on what the new money managers want to do.


Subject:	Meade LX80/AudioStar
Sent:	Monday, July 22, 2013 20:23:09
From:	Ray Porter (lrporternc@bellsouth.net)
I just picked up an LX80 on Astromart for a very good price.  The
previous owner had only had it out of the box to verify function and
never had a chance to use it.  Tonight was the first time I've had a
chance to get it out under the stars  well sort of the full moon and
high, thin clouds made any real GOTO testing on DSOs impractical.  I
decided to test the tracking while waiting for the moon to clear some
obstructions and reach a good viewing altitude. I was using a 12VDC
external power supply.  At first everything went well.  I was in alt-az
and used a magnetic north 2-star alignment. The first alignment star
(Arcturus) was close and easily centered.  The second, Vega, was even
closer.  I used the drive keys to target Antares and centered it in my
FOV.  Then I just let the mount track.  It kept Antares just about
perfectly centered for over an hour and you can bet I was very pleased. 
I then left the scope for a moment and when I returned, the star had
drifted nearly out of the field of view.  I tried to re-center it but
got a series of 'bad key' error messages with every key pressed.  It
then went through a cycle of asking me to press each key in sequence but
then went back into the "bad key" error.  I powered down, repositioned
back to the alt-az home position and tried to go through another
alignment.  It was then that I realized that one of the drive keys, the
left (west I guess) wasn't responding.  Everything else seemed fine
(though my initial alignment star was way off this time) but I simply
could not slew to the left.  I went through the cycle several times.  I
even tried switching from external battery to internal batteries to AC
with no improvement.

I've owned several Autostar 497 scopes.  My primary scope is an LX90,
now mounted on an LXD75.  However, I've never seen this error message or
behavior before.  With your experience with the Autostar, I was hoping
you might have seen this message before and can suggest a fix short of
sending it back to Meade?
 
Thanks,
 
 
******************************************************
Ray Porter
ray_porter@alumni.unc.edu
ray_porter@unc.edu
Home Page: http://www.unc.edu/~dragon/
Mike here: I have no experience with the AudioStar. Perhaps one of the AutoStar experts can assist.

And:

From:	Andrew Johansen (johansea@optusnet.com.au)
The "bad key" error is the result of pressing a wrong key
when in the handbox test utility.
Ie it says "press "mode" and expects you to press that key.
If not, it declares wrong key till you getit right.

The only way i can currently see that you can get into this routine
is to have held both the mode and left slew keys down
when the handbox is booted.
Based on you having problems with left slewing as well
i am wondering if maybe something is stuck under the keypad membrane???
that is shorting those two key traces ?????
Other than that, i cant currently explain it.

Andrew Johansen

And a correction:

The audiostar is actually the 497EC (or whatever the new designation is)
so knowledge of the old autostar 497 should still apply.
 
Thanks,
Ray
Mike here: Oh. Then it is NOT an AudioStar. Have you tried reloading it with the ROM file appropriate to that model?

And:

Thanks.  I'm going to try that tonight.  It's been a long time since
I've updated an Autostar so I've got to bone up on the process first.  I
downloaded ASU 6.0 last night.

Thanks,
Ray

And:

Just FYI, Dr. Clay Sherrod thinks it may be a problem with the main
circuit board.  I hope not.  Fingers crossed that  firmware update fixes
it.

Ray

Sent from my iPhone

And:

Possibly, but only if it involves the Mode and left keys getting shorted at boot.
Ie there is only ONE way to get into the hbx routine and that
only happens during bootup.
Maybe whilst you were away, your scope rebooted???
( or corrupted firmware, but thats currently a very low probability )
Very strange so far.

Andrew

And:

Confused here.
ONLY the Audiostars know about LX80s, so it has to be one.
DO NOT use ASU to backload the firmware until we really
confirm the model, as putting 497EP firmware onto the box
may brick it.
We need to confirm the current firmware first\
It should be A3S4 or similar.

Andrew

And:

I'll check.  The logo line definitely says 497EP when the Autostart
starts up.  I'll check the firmware version and get back to you before I
do anything.
 
Thanks,
Ray

And:

All the Audiostars say 497EP on the top line when booting
but its the number to the right of that that is important.
( and the second line would say "Audiostar" )
Also the Audiostar Hbx will have blue keys
and the word Audiostar stencilled at the top,
and holes in the back for the audio.

If you have that, its an Audiostar

Andrew

And:

I started it up again.  The initial message is "Autostar 497EP A3S2". 
It then goes to a welcome to Audiostar screen then enters the usual
Autostar startup routine.  Does that sound like I'm safe to proceed
updating the firmware?  It definitely has the 'astronomer inside' audio
stuff.

I tried today using an old (nearly dead) Autostar with the mount and it
still would not slew in one direction (right oddly enough with this
autostar but I haven't checked to see if the directions have been
reversed on this one).

Clay Sherrod says this is a fairly common problem with the LX80 and
LX850 mounts and is symptomatic of a bad circuit on the mother board.  I
was hoping I could try updating the firmware in the hope that might
solve the problem. It worked flawlessly for about 2 hours last night,
the mount's first night under the stars before the problem occurred.  In
fact, I was happier with it than I've been with any other mount I've had
in a while.  I'd hate to have to send this back to Meade for warranty
service given their current financial problems.  Heck, since I'm the
second owner, I'd imaging they might try not to honor the warranty.
 
Thanks,
Ray

And:

> I started it up again.  The initial message is Autostar 497EP A3S2.

That is definitely an Audiostar

> Does that sound like Im safe to proceed updating the firmware?

Yes, but if you use ASU make 100% sure
it doesnt preselect 5CE2 firmware as that will kill it.
I strongly suggest you only use the freeware StarPatch
loader to do the Audiostars.

> I tried today using an old (nearly dead) Autostar
> with the mount and it still would not slew in one direction
> (right oddly enough with this autostar but I havent checked
> to see if the directions have been reversed on this one).

If a second autostar runs the scope but will only
slew in one direction, then it does sound like more than
one problem at play, ie even if the motor card is damaged
it cant start the Hbx test routine via any known mechanisms i can see.
The direction of slew will depend on the sign of the RA ratio
If your Audiostar shows a different sign to the old Audiostars ratio
then a direction swap is normal.

> Clay Sherrod says this is a fairly common problem with the LX80

Yep, the motor card mosfets control the motors using a HBridge
In a lot of cases, the PChannel mosfet that forms the top of
the drive burns out.
Open the case and have a look at the card for small chips
with burns or pimples in their surface.

Andrew

And:

Oh, BTW, ASU 6.0 has AudioStar in its drop-down but only French and
Spanish versions (the Spanish version is A3S4, French, A3S1).
 
Ray

And:

The Audiostar readout looked normal when I returned to the scope.  It
was when I pressed the slew key to re-center Arcturus that I started
getting the bad key messages.  At that point, none of the keys were
responsive.  It gave me a series of instructions to press various keys,
which I did, but when it finished, I still got the bad key message.  I
then rebooted everything and it came back up normally.  The only problem
at this point is that the left slew key isn't working at all. 
Everything else (MODE, ENTER, etc.) appears to be working normally.

Suggestions at this point?

I've downloaded the StarPatch trial program and I have the A3S4 ROM
files.  I assume that's all I need since I'm not interested in GPS
functionality?

I'm also perfectly willing to take the handbox apart.  I've done that in
the past with old Autostars to clean the contacts. BTW, what do you guys
recommend for servicing the handbox these days?
 
Thanks,
Ray

And:

> The Audiostar readout looked normal when I returned to the scope.
> It was when I pressed the slew key to re-center Arcturus
> that I started getting the bad key messages.

I simply cannot understand how that could happen.

> The only problem at this point is that the left slew key isnt working at all.
> Suggestions at this point?

If the slew works in one direction but not the other
via BOTH handboxes, then its 99% sure to be a damaged motor card.
Again, open the case and look at the mosfets for damage in their surfaces.

> I've downloaded the StarPatch trial program and I have the A3S4 ROM files.
> I assume that's all I need since I'm not interested in GPS functionality?

Correct. If you load the patches, just deselect the GPS bits

Andrew

And:

Thanks, again.  I have StarPatch and I've downloaded the A3S4 ROM and
the GPS patch, which I probably won't apply.

I'm a software, not a hardware, guy.  I'm not sure where to look if I
open the case (assuming you mean the mount itself and not the handbox?).
 If you mean the handbox, I'm perfectly willing to open it up.  Not so
sure about the mount itself.  I've disassembled a CG5 in the past for
cleaning an re-lubricating but that didn't have any internal electronics
to worry about.

If all else fails, I may consider sending this to Dr. Clay to repair. 
He says he's currently repairing about 1 LX80 or LX850 per month.  The
mount is still less than a year old but I'm the second owner.  The
previous owner took it out to of the box to check function then boxed it
up again and never used it.  He was currently living in Florida and  the
mount was in storage in New York.  Even though I've got all the
documentation (the warranty card was never mailed in) I am the second
owner and I'm nervous about Meade's willingness to honor the warranty
and there capability to do so even if willing given their current
financial problems.

It's a real shame (never mind the several hundred dollars I may be out).
I've owned quite a lot of Meade gear over the past 15 years with never
a major problem and not much in the way of minor ones either.  I was
really pleased with this mount for the 2 hours or so it was operational
so I'd really like to have it working an reliable so I'm willing to pay
to have it fixed and tuned.  I got a really good deal on Astromart so
I've got some room to spend before even getting back to list price.

Now that I have Star Patch, I'll try the update tonight but based on
what I've heard so far, I'm not hopeful.
 
Thanks,
Ray

And this:

Very simple to do a quick inspection

Have attached a few piccies from someone who opened one up.
Just unscrew the two screws shown and move the board so
you can see the other side of it.
The two chips i have circled are the likely culprits.
Look for burns in the surface or "pimples" ie swellings
in the case surface.

Andrew

photo

photo

photo

And:

So the only part that has to be opened if the control panel where the
power supply and handbox plug in?

As we suspected, the update went fine but made no difference in the
problem.

Thanks,
Ray

And:

That is my understanding,
but i have never opened one up myself.
Based on the piccies, it looks pretty simple to
get at and view the RA card.

Andrew

And this:

From:	richard seymour (rseymour@wolfenet.com)
Just for chuckles... have you tried swapping the handbox CABLE?

You can have a dead axis by one or more of the cable's pins/wires not working.

good luck
--dick

And:

Doubt it will help as it slews right but not left
and a second handbox gave the same results.
ie a classic blown mosfet channel on the motor card.
Still dont understand how it gets/got into the Hbx test routine tho :-(

Andrew


Subject:	Re: Autostar direction keys are ineffective. ETX engines run in uncontroled manner.
Sent:	Sunday, July 21, 2013 13:01:47
From:	Cassijea (cassijea@gmail.com)
I went back to one of your suggestions from last night: I am trying to
perform a fake indoor alignment:
1. I put ETX in "Home" position
2. ETX selects Arcutrus and starts slewing.... It then go for minutes &
minutes with ETX turning progressing up & right and Autostar saying
"Slewing...". It does not seem to end (it has been 10 minutes now)....

There must really be something wrong with the first time I "trained" the
drives: it looks as if ETX thinks it needs to run its engines for a very
long time in order to perform the  smallest move.

I did follow the software reset procedure you pointed me to
(hyperterminal + I command) but my problem remains...

I wish I could find a way to totally wipe out all data in ETX and in
Autostar ans start everything again.

Cheers

JB
Mike here: Did you try the SAFE LOAD? Someone else experienced a similar problem with the ETX continuing to slew to the hard stops. We tried all the known tricks but never got it resolved. He was going to clean the encoders to see if that solved it.

And:

I tried safe load yesterday before first contacting you.

I am afraid I am not technical enough to "clean encoders". I assume this
means opening ETX or Autostar ?
Mike here: Yes, you would have to open up the ETX base and right fork arm to gain access to the gears and encoders. See the article "Cleaning the Encoders" on the Helpful Information: Telescope Tech Tips page. Or you can try this, which sometimes helps: unlock the axes and slowly move the OTA back and forth and up/down by hand, hard stop to hard stop. Do that several times. Sometimes it will redistribute the lubrication and resolve some problems.

And:

I just found Patches on your site and applied one from Dick Seymour that
enables editing Training values. It appears that my initial training
values were very high compared to the spreadsheet posted on your site:
AZ= 1847 and Alt= 699

I changed them to lower values based on the xls file (az 936 and Alt
287).

Unfortunately, the problem persists....
I have to here for tonight... I keep you posted if I get any success...

Thanks for your great help so far.

Cheers

JB
Mike here: Good thought but I never felt that the TRAIN DRIVES caused your problem.

And:

You were obviously right!

I am now thinking about encoders based on your other feedback. I found 3
posts on the internet including this one:
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/5953674/Main/5946902

I am just very concerned that not being very technical, I could end up
creating more damage to my ETX...

Thanks again for your continuous support.

Cheers

Jean Baptiste


Subject:	Autostar direction keys are ineffective. ETX engines run in uncontroled manner.
Sent:	Saturday, July 20, 2013 14:56:54
From:	Cassijea (cassijea@gmail.com)
Thank you for your site. I am unfortunately facing a challenge that I
did not see reported on your site:

When I switch my ETX-105EC on, Autostar beeps and shows "Press 0 to
Align or MODE for"Menu".
Both ETX engines then start running in an uncontrolled manner. Each
engine moves a little every few seconds, usually to the right and
upward. This does not stop until I switch off my ETX.

Autostar direction arrow keys are ineffective. I get no result either
when connecting Autostar to Autostar Suite and using the Hand Control
Panel (Ctrl + H).

I believe it all started after I aborted my first drive training (I
turned off my ETX in the middle of the alignment procedure)... 

I have done the following but the problem is still there:
Upgrade to the latest firmware I could find (43Eg)
Checked AZ/RA and Alt/dec ratio (value is correct)
Put AZ/RA percent 20%, Alt/Dec percent 10%
Rest Autostar
Calibrate motors

Any suggestion you might have is more than welcome.

Regards

JB

My config:
ETX-105EC
Autostar #497 (firmware 43Eg)
Cable #505
Mike here: Version 4.3Eg is the latest/best version for the older AutoStar #497. Continual running of the ETX motors can be caused by the ETX not "seeing" the AutoStar. Try this test: Turn off the ETX and disconnect the AutoStar HBX cable at the ETX control panel. Turn on the ETX. What happens? Turn off the ETX. Next, reverse the HBX end for end and reconnect it and the AutoStar to the ETX. Turn on the ETX. What happens now?

And:

Your site is famous. It is a reference here in France. Most French sites
make point to yours!

Mike: Turn off the ETX and disconnect the AutoStar HBX cable at the ETX
control panel.  Turn on the ETX.  What happens?
JB: Nothing happens. ETX stands still.

Mike: Turn off the ETX.  Next, reverse the HBX end for end and reconnect
it and the AutoStar to the ETX. Turn on the ETX.  What happens now?
JB: I get the same problem I reported: Autostar direction keys are
ineffective, ETX engines move in an uncontrolled manner.

Could it come from HBX cable?

Regards

JB
Mike here: Cable or other reasons are always a possibility. One more test: With the AutoStar connected, turn on the ETX and as quickly as you can, press the MODE key. Does that get you to the menu and stop the runaway slewing? If so, do a CALIBRATE MOTOR, followed by a TRAIN DRIVES (on both axes). Then do an alignment; you can do a fake one indoors by putting the telescope in the HOME position and just accepting the alignment stars as centered. Then GOTO an object. Does all seem to go well? If so, power off and back on. How are things now?

And:

I did not observe any difference with pressing MODE key very quickly
after switching on ETX:
I get the following sequence on Autostar screen
Autostar [43E]
Welcome to Autostar
Enter Date...
... and the engine keep running every now and then

I can still calibrate motors (no visible effect) but can not Train
Drives as the Autostar direction keys do not seem to have any effect on
the ETX (ie I can center an object, press enter but then I can not use
Autostar to recenter the same object)...

Regards

JB
Mike here: Does changing the slew speed from the keypad to a faster (or fastest) speed allow you to slew?

And:

Unfortunately not. Even with speed 9 (Max), I can not slew...
Mike here: One more thing to try: replace the batteries with fresh ones.

And:

I just tried new batteries but this does not change anything. I had
already replaced batteries last week.

A new Autostar (and its HBXC cable) costs 170. I can not find HBX cable
for sale on its own (ie without its Autostar). I may try to build one
tomorrow based on the indications from your website...

JB
Mike here: I doubt that the AutoStar hardware is causing the problem (unless the HBX jack is messed up). And speaking of the jacks, check the HBX jack and connector pins on the ETX, AutoStar, and cable. They should be clean, not bent sideways, nor too depressed.

And:

Thank you very much for your time this afternoon. It starts getting late
here in France and I have an early start tomorrow. I will keep trying
and come back to you if I get any positive results.

Thanks again, I do appreciate.

Regards

JB

And an update:

I just followed your site instructions and built my own HBX cable.
Unfortunately, I get the same result my my new cable and with Meade
original HBX. I conclude this is not a cable issue.

Since I get the same problem when using the "virtual" hand command from
Autostar Suite software, I also conclude that the issue is not related
to the direction keys themselves.

I just posted a short video of my ETX "odd" behaviour if you want to
have a look: http://dl.free.fr/krxwTAQcw

I wish I could re-train my ETX but since Autostar direction keys are
ineffective I cannot.

Is there a way to do a fulll resest (something stronger than Reset menu
of Autostar), setting Autostar back to its original manufacturing state?

Regards

JB
Mike here: Tried to view the video but couldn't get it to appear. Good to know that the HBX cable is not the source of the problem. The AutoStar Suite sends commands to the AutoStar, which controls the telescope. So, we can't rule out the AutoStar as the culprit. As to a RESET, see the article "AutoStar RESET from Software" on the Helpful Information: AutoStar Info page. The technique described there may or may not work. There is one more thing you can try. You said you updated to 4.3Eg, but that didn't solve it. It is possible that some memory location in the AutoStar is corrupted. Do the SAFE LOAD procedure (hold down the ENTER and SCROLLDOWN keys and then power on the ETX) and then install 4.3Eg. That should totally overwrite the software in the AutoStar.


Subject:	ETX 90 Tracking Problems
Sent:	Tuesday, July 16, 2013 21:33:35
From:	Micki Goodman (goodmanf@q.com)
Sorry to bother you, but I have a strange tracking problem.

When the tracking  is accurate, on the right part of the FOV (any
magnification) when I move the image to the left side, there will be a
steady drift. The drift is such that I must correct in the RA CW
direction as if the tracking speed were too slow. This is after I had
the tracking dead-on on the right side of the FOV. Obviously, this is
most annoying when recording videos of more than 10 seconds.

If I try to adjust the tracking speed for the left side of the FOV then
the tracking is off on the opposite side (opposite drift).

I did not find a similar problem on your website, so I wonder if you
have ever heard of this type of tracking error?

Once I get this (hopefully) resolved, then I will attempt, with the
website advice, to minimize the notorious focus drift problem. I have
the Meade 1244 electric focuser (I repaired the main gear twice) and I
will make comparisons with the electric focuser vice removing it and
seeing if manual focussing has the same shift.

It was a reasonable night last night and I got a couple of decent moon
pics before it went behind my house. Still trying to improve my
camera/scope focussing (the drift issue doesn't help) to get better
Saturn pics and videos. As you well know, this is even more challenging
with the small image size, in the ETX 90.

I hope your monsoon weather is letting up.

Here's to clearer skies and light breezes.
Yours-Fred
Mike here: Hard to tell but the drift you are describing sounds somewhat like "rubberbanding". After a GOTOing an object, you slew to center it in the eyepiece FOV, but then the object moves back to where the AutoStar placed it. Typically, that is resolved by doing a TRAIN DRIVES (on both axes). If rubberbanding is the problem and it is not solved by TRAIN DRIVES, do a CALIBRATE MOTOR and then TRAIN DRIVES.


Subject:	Autostar time setting question
Sent:	Tuesday, July 9, 2013 04:05:29
From:	John (johnhill38@hotmail.com)
Hope you can help.  I have a Meade ETX125 telescope and living in the
United Kingdom.  When setting up Autostar do you need to put in local
time and daylight saving (for summer months) or should it be GMT and
daylight saving.
 
Hope you can clarify this.  Thanks John
Mike here: Use your local time and set the DST ON for BST.

And:

Thanks for your help.  Much appreciated.  John


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