Rick Woods
Postmaster
Reged: 01/27/05
Posts: 5648
Loc: Inner Solar System
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Quote:
I will observe the behaviour next time, but as i am only interested in visual observing, i can live with the feature.
("Feature" - I like that!)
But you might change your mind next time Mars comes around.
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- Rick
14" LX200GPS
83% of all statistics are meaningless.
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4553
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Quote:
This is so weird. Before the current troubles, the LX90 seemed like the Golden Child of the Meade line: reliable, low cost, high value.
*sigh*
That is the SAD part. Yes, the 90 had always been the Meade golden girl: problem free introduction, few returns; it just worked.
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4553
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Quote:
I will observe the behaviour next time, but as i am only interested in visual observing, i can live with the feature. As i said before it is not periodic, as others have experienced, but random in my case,rather small (the 5 Seconds were assumed by visual comparison with the diameter of jupiter), and does not nerve me very much. The telescope as a whole does not shake, the planet wobbles a small amount up than down or vice versa. Before i go to deepsky imaging, i will move the OTA to a GEM anyway.
Best Regards
Wolfgang Graßmann,Germay
Your choice. I wouldn't live with a scope with this problem.
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
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Brooklyn
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 07/24/08
Posts: 870
Loc: Central New Jersey
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Im so sorry to hear this issue about the lx90 ACFs.
I own a meade lx90 EMC, which i got in 2002. Since then it has been just short of a perfect telescope by all means.
I have NEVER heard any rattles coming from the telescope, despite having slammed it against a wall several times by accident.
I have NEVER needed to clean any of my optics, aside from a light dusting with an ear syringe.
I have never ever needed to colliminate the scope. Yes i know this might seem strange, but in all honesty i have never needed to. I have read almost all the collimination guides on the internet, and my star test at 400x or even 500x still looks like a perfect circle just as it did on day one.
I have NEVER updated the autostar software or firmware on the telescope. Heck i still didnt even buy the cable that connects autostar to a computer because why fix it if it aint broken? My year 2002 version autostar works near flawlessly in normal mode and i still havent even tried out the high precision mode.
GoTo capability is very nice, considering my telescope doesnt have any GPS, LNT, or any of that fancy stuff that the newer ones have.
All i have to do is type in the date, time, location is saved from previous observing date. I have a magnetic glass compass that i use to find true north, and i simply move the telescope down to 0 on the vertical axis. Hop over to 2 star alignment, and its all done....in under 1-2 minutes.
At first i was kinda jealous that the newer scopes have all this new LNT and gps technology, but after i realized that the difference in setup time is literally seconds - 1 minute apart, it makes no difference whatsoever.
Overall, aside from my own stupidity and noobness, the telescope is in perfect condition aside from a few scratches on the tripod legs, but who cares about that right? 
My telescope was made in california before meade started doing all of its cost cutting on QA, customer service, and before they decided to move production to mexico.
I have heard that the move to mexico is what is causing all these problems.
Weasners lx90 site has all of these problems documented, but be prepared to get horrified, as he went through 3 scopes, 2 new ones and 1 supposedly fixed, and they all still had the vibration issues.
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Meade 8.25"(209.55mm) LX-90 EMC (SCT)
Albert Einstein =>
“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”
“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”
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Brooklyn
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 07/24/08
Posts: 870
Loc: Central New Jersey
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Quote:
This is so weird. Before the current troubles, the LX90 seemed like the Golden Child of the Meade line: reliable, low cost, high value.
*sigh*
you're right, a close associate of Weasner named P. Clay Sherrod has said many times that out of ALL the telescopes he has seen in the all of the years of his life as an astronomer, the LX90 was the BEST OVERALL of every telescope ever made.
This is quite a huge honor to be giving to meade, and i definitely trust Dr. P. Clay Sherrod.
If you are unaware of who he is, he does the Arkansas observatory special supercharge for all telescopes.
http://www.weasner.com/etx/techtips/tuneup_service.html
This guy, Dr. Clay sherrod was a professional working astronomer his entire life and now hes retired. So to make some spare change he goes through your entire telescope and literally supercharges ALL of the working pieces. He cleans your telescope in and out and makes sure everything is working 100% properly.
He is one of the authorities on goto telescopes and astronomy, so when i see a person who knows the ins and outs of telescopes as well as this Dr. Clay does, I definitely believe him when he says:
"I still contend that the LX90 is the best telescope ever made by anyone."
taken from this website which includes his entire emial:
http://www.weasner.com/lx90/waiting_again.html
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Meade 8.25"(209.55mm) LX-90 EMC (SCT)
Albert Einstein =>
“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”
“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”
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Joseph Gillman
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/06/05
Posts: 2758
Loc: Aston, PA
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Quote:
I have never ever needed to colliminate the scope....
That's more of a luck thing than a "pre-Meade QC troubles" thing, even the handcrafted Celestron's of the 70s (their heyday) needed collimation once in a while.
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Kolenka
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 06/01/08
Posts: 1009
Loc: Seattle Area, WA, USA
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They could have moved the factory to Indiana and still have QC issues if their old QC staff aren't on hand to train the new guys. It just comes down to poor transitions, in my opinion. Where the factory is isn't the source of the woes, the fact that the employees are likely undertrained is the issue.
I wound up buying An LX200 ACF instead partly because of this issue. So far the mechanics are solid. Just need to address an issue with the wrong collimation screws sent with the mounting rings, and possibly an issue with the Autostar handbox display. Minor and nagging issue that have been around for awhile but don't destroy my use of the scope.
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Orion XX12 / Orion 80ED OTA / AT66ED
Nagler 7T6, 9T6, 13T6, 17T4, 26T5
Canon XS, TIS DMK 31AF03, AstroTrac TT320X
Northwest Astro Photoblog
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Brooklyn
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 07/24/08
Posts: 870
Loc: Central New Jersey
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Quote:
They could have moved the factory to Indiana and still have QC issues if their old QC staff aren't on hand to train the new guys. It just comes down to poor transitions, in my opinion. Where the factory is isn't the source of the woes, the fact that the employees are likely undertrained is the issue.
I wound up buying An LX200 ACF instead partly because of this issue. So far the mechanics are solid. Just need to address an issue with the wrong collimation screws sent with the mounting rings, and possibly an issue with the Autostar handbox display. Minor and nagging issue that have been around for awhile but don't destroy my use of the scope.
Yes but think of the language barrier! Its probably very difficult to explain things to a staff of mexican workers whos english is only a secondary language taught at school.
Weasner went through 3 different lx90 acfs, all 3 were broken....this tells me that they had no idea how to FIX that problem, even tho there were a plethora of complaints.
Even after they replaced the entire dec motor on weasners lx90, it STILL had the vibration issues.
There is a REASON meade chose to move to mexico. That reason is simply because they will save millions maybe 100s of millions by having mexican workers, in a mexican built facility.
All this money saving surely has an impact on quality.
The less you pay, the less you get (generally). This rule works for big companies as well as individual customers.
Edited by Joad (08/07/08 09:12 PM)
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Joad
Wordsmith
Reged: 03/22/05
Posts: 12861
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Well, the RCX (now the ACF 400), which really gave Meade quality control fits, was manufactured in Irvine, California.
And we have a policy on Cloudy Nights not to conduct derogatory commentary on other, non-U.S. countries. We have an international roster of users here, and everyone must feel comfortable on the site.
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12.5 inch Portaball + Osypowski platform
LX10
Oberwerk BT100 45° binocular
Orion binoviewer + ScopeStuff extender (so it focuses at f/4.9)
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Brooklyn
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 07/24/08
Posts: 870
Loc: Central New Jersey
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I apologize if that is how it sounded, that was never my intention or personal view. I am a supporter of the idea that internet forums operate better with the increasing number of international members from everywhere on the globe.
My intent was simply to point out a theory that i had heard in other places as a possible cause of the problem. It isn't about the country where it is moved to, as any relocation introduces a transition period where things may go wrong.
On the bright side, I have heard newer reports. They say ever since they found out the reason for this vibration problem, they started working on fixing the unsold telescopes in stock, and replaced certain mechanisms on their production line.
I did not hear of any recalls for the already shipped telescopes, so if anyone has a problem definitely send your scope back to Meade.
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Meade 8.25"(209.55mm) LX-90 EMC (SCT)
Albert Einstein =>
“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”
“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”
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Kolenka
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 06/01/08
Posts: 1009
Loc: Seattle Area, WA, USA
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"You get what you pay for" only works when a dollar has the same value everywhere. Since this isn't the case in the US by itself when talking about land and cost of living, we can throw that out the window when it comes to labor.
The failure is in the transition, you are right. But it may not just be the language barrier. If a company assumes that scripts are equivilent to training, they are wrong. Employees need a little hand-holding to get into the groove of things and recognize when something subtle is wrong. Looks to me like that is the case here.
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Orion XX12 / Orion 80ED OTA / AT66ED
Nagler 7T6, 9T6, 13T6, 17T4, 26T5
Canon XS, TIS DMK 31AF03, AstroTrac TT320X
Northwest Astro Photoblog
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Brooklyn
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 07/24/08
Posts: 870
Loc: Central New Jersey
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Quote:
"You get what you pay for" only works when a dollar has the same value everywhere. Since this isn't the case in the US by itself when talking about land and cost of living, we can throw that out the window when it comes to labor.
The failure is in the transition, you are right. But it may not just be the language barrier. If a company assumes that scripts are equivilent to training, they are wrong. Employees need a little hand-holding to get into the groove of things and recognize when something subtle is wrong. Looks to me like that is the case here.
All we can do now is hope they learn from this mix up and never have it happen again.
I'm very surprised how understanding many customers are. Even after going through 5-6 months of a frustrating back and forth, with a product that continually came back with the same mechanical issues, people were still willing to do plenty of business with Meade in the future.
The main sentiments Ive heard are that people are willing to go through these stretched out repair periods simply to let Meade better themselves in the future. It certainly goes against the regular consumer trend of "you mess up once, I will never talk to you again."
Meade is really lucky that it has such a loyal fan base. 
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Meade 8.25"(209.55mm) LX-90 EMC (SCT)
Albert Einstein =>
“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”
“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”
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Joe Lalumia
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/24/07
Posts: 3594
Loc: Rockwall, Texas, USA
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I second some of these posts above-- my LX90 8" LNT has worked perfectly since day one! The gotos are EXCELLENT! after normal alignment. Never one bit of trouble-- and it is used regularly at public observing events.
The scope tracks an object (even planets) for HOURS !! I also believe the old Classic LX90 and the LNT - were their most reliable telescopes.
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LX90 8" LNT, SV Nighthawk & TelePOD, SV 80/9D & M4 mount, ETX 90, Orion XT10i, 20x80 binoculars, SV-BV3s-- www.texasastro.org
"Great minds discuss ideas;Average minds discuss events;Small minds discuss people." Unknown
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Satisfied
member
Reged: 02/14/08
Posts: 47
Loc: Colorado
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My LX90 is still being repaired. It was fixed once, but failed QC, so it went back to the service department. Meade cannot tell me how much longer it will take, but customer service promised it would be perfect once I receive it.
We will see.
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8" LX90 ACF
ETX 105 AT
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WolfgangG
member
Reged: 08/06/08
Posts: 13
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Back again.
I am still worried about the rattling of my scopes declination motor, though the visual effect isn't that big.
I wonder how this sound comes about.
When i touch the holder of the worm i can feel the vibrations. But how can this come apart? The motor certainly can only spin left or right, or it may oscillate rapidly forth and back. Spinning left or right certainly does not make the gear drive vibrate. In fast motion the velocity is much higher.
So the motor must oscillate, maybe it gets to much forth back command in alternation.(The whole thing look very much like a violation of momentum conservation ;-))
To send the scope back to meade from germany is out of question, ( so i havent contacted my local dealer yet)
it would take months ( maybe years ) the get a repaired one.
So i am thinking about fixing the error myself.
May be some stuff of dampening material may be placed
besides the pivot spring, that pushes back the Worm at the gears.
What do you think?
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Satisfied
member
Reged: 02/14/08
Posts: 47
Loc: Colorado
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WOOO HOOO!
I finally got my LX 90 ACF back from Meade. It only took 3+ months, but it seems that the vibration problem has been fixed!
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8" LX90 ACF
ETX 105 AT
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DarthNebula
member
Reged: 10/27/08
Posts: 50
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Has this problem now been fixed in the current LX90 line or are people still seeing it?
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4553
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Quote:
Has this problem now been fixed in the current LX90 line or are people still seeing it?
Apparently it has not been fixed. Mike Weasner received is _third_ 90 and it still displayed the problem. Read the (sad) story here. Good part? Meade and his dealer did the right thing.
http://www.weasner.com/lx90/lx90-3a.html
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
Edited by rmollise (12/05/08 10:03 AM)
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DarthNebula
member
Reged: 10/27/08
Posts: 50
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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WOW...that,s terrible....I have been back and forth trying to decide between the LX90 12" ACF and the CPC 1100. After reading all this....I am going for CPC 1100. I would lose it having to go through what Mike did. That is sad for a product priced as these telescopes are. Good thing Meade finally righted his situation. Still does not give any perspective buyers confidence.
DT>
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Kenn1
super member
Reged: 09/28/06
Posts: 158
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I stumbled onto this post just browsing this forum.
I will try to describe an issue that I had when I bought my LX90 about 5 yrs ago.
The scope was making some vibratory noise from the right arm. It also was not moving smoothly (Dec) when I would slew it at slower speeds.
Long story short, The large ring gear was rubbing, but just barely, against the right fork arms INNER plastic cover.
I had to literally cut/sand a portion of the plastic cover to keep it from rubbing on the large Dec gear.
It was difficult to diagnose, and after enlarging the inner plastic cover that was rubbing the gear, it worked perfectly.
Thats the short version of an issue I had.
Wanted to put it out there, in case it could be helpful.
Ken
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ETX 70
Orion Skyquest 4.5" Dob
LX 90 8" SCT
Meade LPI
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