Telescope Reviews: NEW CPC 1100... Did I Get A Lemon ????

Help.

I have been having 2 major issues with my brand new CPC 1100. You all here on CN are my last resort to turn to for help before I call the retailer who sold it to me and ship it back for a refund. One issue is minor (GPS not working) but the second issue is the major, more frustrating one , a dreaded "NO RESPONSE 16 (or sometimes "NO RESPONSE 17") error on my HC and I have no function after that.

MY CPC 1100 XLT scope was delivered Jan. 7, 2008 [edited]. First time I turned this scope on it displayed a saved location of Los Angeles CA and a date of December something 2006. Could this have been when it left Celestron's factory for it's final QC ? Over 1 year ago ?
It was delivered in the proper sealed, double box and in perfect, new condition with all the wrappings and inserts perfect. Believe it or not, after the initial 2 hour cooldown I gave it outside, it came up with a textbook perfect star test and I have not had to collimate it yet, evn though I have a set of Bob's Knobs standing by ready to be installed( I figure, if the optics are aligned, don't mess with it).

Anyhow, I have GPS turned "on" in UTILITIES MENU, even though the manual does not mention it, but my scope always comes up with GPS "OFF" by default in the UTILITIES menu. Is this normal or not ? I have never seen ANY indication that the GPS found my time and location. I am in a wide open yard and my hand held Garmin GPS works fine. THE CPC Manual (which is vague to say the least) says I should see a status "GPS LINKING" after I select SKY ALIGN. This has NEVER happened once since I got the scope, even after waiting the required 20 minutes that the side column states in the manual for a first fix to occur... I must always manually enter the time & date (on power up HC always indicates CPC READY and asks me to confirm by ENTER saved location (this is the location CITY and STATE, that I manually entered LAT and LONG coordinates from the first time I used the scope).

The second, and more disturbing issue, is when doing SKY ALIGN , scope HC will randomly display "NO RESPONSE 16" or "NO RESPONSE 17". Sometimes it will show this "NO RESPONSE 16" at random shortly after I power the scope on and even before I start slewing to any object and get a "CPC READY". Sometimes it let me complete a successful SKY ALIGN and then, suddenly, while slewing to a subject, it will give the dreaded error and just keep going past the target. I must then unplug HC, or jiggle the connector where the HC plugs in to the scope, or shut power off or press UNDO multiple times to get CPC READY status again. Sometimes it comes back, sometimes it does not. However, whenever it does come back to CPC READY state I must ALWAYS start SKY ALIGN once again from scratch. I have not had one good uninterrupted "1st light" session with this scope despite having it out 5 times since I got it. Whenever I get this error I must re-do SKY ALIGN. Very frustrating at this point and I am not a happy camper to say the least. I am using a brand new Celestron Power Tank 17, fully charged and also , with the stock CELESTRON cigarette lighter cable that came with the scope..This is getting very frustrating for a new $2800 telescope and I am ready to send back to the dealer] for a full refund unless I get this remedied sometime very soon. FIRMWARE versions NXS 4.12, MC 5.07.

P.S. I was at first going to purchase the CPC925 due to the incredible amount of "PROS" here on this board I see owning that scope as opposed to the 1100. However, I let the salesman at [the dealer] talk me into getting the 1100 for the extra $200 since, as he stated and I have come to learn, "APERTURE ALWAYS RULES". Well, I am now almost sorry I did not get the 925, even though I believe it is only 8 lbs. lighter, since the weight and heft of the 1100 has me cursing every time I go to set it up. I rarely see myself in the future lugging this beast into the field and instead plan on getting a good LPR filters (canyone recommend "the best" ?) and using it in my moderately light polluted backyard 20 miles west of downtown Phoenix. On a positive note, at least I did get a pretty good look at Saturn the other night with my 12T4 and 2X Powermate. That was after the ONLY successful SKYALIGN I did and after punching in SATURN it slewed right to the center of the EP.
At 467 power and filling up an estimated 25% of my FOV with only average seeing conditions that night, I was able to get a decent look and I clearly could make out the Cassini Division but little else in terms of detail (it was TOO bright and not enough contrast or detail), that incident almost made me fall off my chair and has ALMOST made me a believer in this scope.

I have been lurking here for the past month and made all my purchasing decisions as a first scope user based on the CN FORUMS. And I thank all of you for that. I spent a sizeable amount of money in this but my first inclination, as I do everything in life is to get a first class product. I think I did OK with my initial decision as to which optics to purchase ( I took advantage of [an] end of year sale so I stocked up on what I, and the salesman, felt, was a decent variety and selection of magnifications for this scope. Yea or Nay ?). Now, I have read a couple of threads that I believe Randy R. and David K. has answered re: GPS issues, such as something about charging an internal battery ? I also replaced the stock power cord with a shorter, heavier ga. cable I built myself with a tighter fitting connector to the scope ( I am a Television Engineer by trade so I am handy with a soldering gun and not a technical idiot by any means). Still the same issues. Now I recall reading again from Randy I think, issues about the Hand controller not liking the cold weather, but here in the outskirts of Phoenix where I am it has dipped into the 40's the past couple of weeks at night. I would imagine that by looking at some of your locations in your sigs, that the 40's would be considered warm this time of year by your standards 8-). I have also called Celestron twice in the past week, only to have my name and phone # taken and told I would get a "call back" in 5 to 7 DAYS ???? !!!!! I have also e-mailed their online tech support 5 days ago and received a ticket ID but received no response yet. Thanks in advance to all of you guys and gals for any info you can shed on my myriad questions.

Edited by RandyR (01/30/08 12:02 AM)