Frank.D
journeyman
Reged: 08/15/08
Posts: 6
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This is a very informative discussion forum about Meade problems but in summary it appears that a customer buying a Meade scope may or may not get a good one and if unlucky, then customer service may be lousy – that’s what I read into the various posts. I’d like to know if anyone knows specific problems that might be expected (such as electronic or mechanical problems).
Does anyone know of any specific reasons not to get a Meade LX200 ACF?
I’m considering getting one, since they seem to be ideal for portable quick set-up and tracking. But it appears from the posts in this forum that getting any Meade scope is taking a chance. Theo’s point about opening it up and setting up at the dealer to test it and either leave it or take it seems like an ideal solution, if the troublesome problems can be identified in a short time.
The only real problem that I know of is that about a year ago, when the GPS feature was new, there were many reports that sometimes the GPS wouldn’t acquire satellites correctly and the feature could not be disabled, and so the entire scope was useless for an hour or so.
Any comments?
Cheers,
Frank
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Spoonsize
Vendor/Clothing
Reged: 08/27/04
Posts: 2185
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IMHO...It does not make any difference what a person buys today, it seems a *BLEEP* shoot. Cars, trucks, planes, TV's or telescopes...The major difference these days is most retail outlets do little to nothing in regards to customer service. It even says on or in the packages of most items....if you have problems do not return it to the place of purchase...
That said...I'm leaning towards making sure up front that if there are issues with anything that I'll be able to deal with just the astro stuff dealer to resolve issues, even if it means NOT purchasing if that arrangement cannot be made. It's time the actual sellers of the product take some responsibility for what they sell.
I agree if one gets a bad scope it ought to be taken care of by the manufacturer, but I prefer to deal with the people I know.
THAT SAID....I, personally, see no reason to not purchase a LX200ACF. Do not take this as a recommendation, just be aware if you do buy one and if you do have issues with it, there is probably a process in place with which you have to deal with it. KNOW that process before hand so if something does happen you will be aware of it before hand, and if you do not care for the process, then don't do the buy.
(I'm very happy with the ACF we have.)
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Steve Durham
www.margesmonograms.com
(Marge made me do it)
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Frank.D
journeyman
Reged: 08/15/08
Posts: 6
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OK thanks Steve your point definitely makes sense about dealing with a reputable dealer who will be willing to deal with problems.
I am wondering if anyone else with an ACF has had any problems with the GPS feature?
Frank
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Kolenka
professor emeritus
Reged: 06/01/08
Posts: 600
Loc: Seattle Area, WA, USA
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I just received a 10" LX200ACF (labelled as an LX200R) on Aug 1st.
I did have a couple minor issues, but nothing affecting the workings of the scope itself. The GPS, motors, optics/etc all check out just fine.
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Meade 10" LX200R
Orion 80ED
Nagler 7T6, 9T6, 13T6, 17T4, 26T5
Canon XSi (Modded), TIS DMK 31AF03
Northwest Astro Photoblog
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snowdragonusa
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/04/07
Posts: 637
Loc: Denver, CO
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My LX200R is almost one year old and doing great!
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Adam
12" LX200R
AT80mm piggyback
DSI Pro, DSI-C, LPI
Denver Astronomical Society
Brighton Astronomical Group
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Joseph Gillman
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/06/05
Posts: 2342
Loc: Boothwyn, PA
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Ugh... the lack of GPS lock does NOT render any telescope unusable!! The precision ground glass, optical coatings, and the view at the eyepiece is why you get a telescope, not to get turn by turn directions to Aunt Millie.
You'd just enter your time and location manually, like in the dark ages before the LX200GPS came to market and Americans felt invulnerable to terrorist attack (WTC '93 notwithstanding).
[/5am snarkiness]
The "curved" sensor on the top of the left fork tells you it is an older LX200GPS and they switched to a flat-top rectangular gps by sony about 4 yrs ago (?) that is better. I get a signal lock very quickly. Rarely a problem is caused by a loose wire inside. Rarely though.
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Meade RCX400 30cm --
People dont like when I stick up for Meade but they're just jealous of my RCX 
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Brooklyn
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 07/24/08
Posts: 870
Loc: Central New Jersey
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Now i understand if you buy a telescope with GPS, and it ends up not working....then you have reason to be mad. But worrying about getting a scope with GPS or not with GPS? Not even worth the thoughts.
I don't think people realize just how insignificant GPS is on a telescope. I don't even think it is really NEEDED.
My telescope doesn't have lnt or dps, and it takes me less time to set mine up than my buddies' lx200 12" gps.
I put my telescope in its home position BEFORE i even turn on the telescope. I use a regular magnetic compass to point it north, and i unlock the dec lock to level the scope on 0.
I turn it on, press 5 to skip sun warning, press enter, enter the date, enter the time, and boom ready for alignment. It is literally a 5-10 second operation if you are doing it like me, WITHOUT GPS.
So what does one even have to gain by getting a gps scope? It saves you 10 or maximum 15 seconds of procedure, not worth it for the battery usage in my opinion.
My scope has near perfect goto, and if i were to update my 5 year old autostar version, i might even have more accuracy. I dont think the GPS or LNT features have any impact on goto accuracy; using my friends lx200 gps, it seemed to work the same as mine, even though his is significantly newer. His scope didn't put objects dead center in the eyepiece but still within the eyepiece FoV; same as mine does sometimes. Of course, none of us are using high precision, which would remove all these small errors. But really, as long as the object is somewhere in the eyepiece field of view after the goto slewing, im satisfied.
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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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Trail Jogger
member
Reged: 02/08/08
Posts: 16
Loc: Ohio
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Frank,
I took the plunge and bought a Meade LX200-ACF 10" last month and have been completely impressed with it right from the start. I bought mine from Skies Unlimited (since I live in Ohio) and it arrived on my doorstep two days after I placed the order! From shipping to unpacking to assembly, everything went well and I was surprised by how solidly built it was. My first light was amazing and I was impressed at seeing so many things in one night thanks to the GOTO technology. Once it goes through auto-alignment and you center any two stars, the rest of the night is spent jumping right from one object to another, all perfectly centered in the eyepiece. That really helps for finding dim constellations near the magnitude limit and also for learning the night sky. Now I spend only 10% of my time locating and 90% of my time observing, which makes it more enjoyable for me. By the way, the 10" is the heaviest that I'd want to carry - I think that the 12" would be too heavy to be portable without the aid of some sort of carrying harness. Once again, though, it's great to enter a Messier or NGC number on the keypad, hit Enter, and then hit GOTO and watch the scope slew right to the object and then center it in the eyepiece.
Mike
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Meade LX200-ACF 10"
TeleVue 13mm Ethos
Series 5000 26mm, 14mm, 11mm Plossl
Meade Deep Sky Imager II
Nikon Action Zoom XL 10-22x50 Binoculars.
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Frank.D
journeyman
Reged: 08/15/08
Posts: 6
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Great comments so far. I intended to get one of these several years ago, when the GPS feature was optional, and waited too long (don't have thousands of bucks to spare) but from what I can tell now, the GPS feature comes standard and the user does not have the option of 'turning off' or bypassing the feature. But I don't really know for sure and can't tell from the Meade web page description but of course the CN forums here seem to be the ideal place to find out. One huge advantage of the LX200 ACF is the GPS feature which would allow me (or any asteroid occultation observer) to travel to some location, pull out and set up the scope, and be on the target star quickly and in high precision. From my best guess, all of this would also be easily possible without the GPS. Another huge advantage (again from my best guess) of a precision mount is computer control for variable star photometry (which I currently do manually with a German equatorial mounted Newtonian) but this also seems easy to do with pre-GPS mounts. So, the GPS feature apparently allows the extra advantage of being a travelling telescope.
Frank
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SanDiegoPaul
professor emeritus
Reged: 07/22/05
Posts: 622
Loc: San Diego
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Quote:
I am wondering if anyone else with an ACF has had any problems with the GPS feature?
Frank
Frank, that GPS feature has been in these Meade's for ten years. The ACF/R series scopes have the same GPS that the ol' Lx200GPS did. Only diff. is the secondary mirror - the electronics are the same.
So the GPS feature is the least of your worries. And even if it did die, you can still use the scope normally by inputting your location.
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Meade 10" Lx200-R with Moonlight SCT Focuser
Mitty Evolution Wedge
AT-80 Guide Scope
SBIG ST402ME CCD Imager
Canon Digital Rebel DSLR
Meade DSI-c CCD for Guiding
Please visit my gallery!
http://www.pbase.com/sandiegopaul/
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Kolenka
professor emeritus
Reged: 06/01/08
Posts: 600
Loc: Seattle Area, WA, USA
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Well, the corrector and secondary are different, but that is a pretty minor nit, as your point is still spot on.
The forks and electronics are the same between the GPS and R/ACF models. The only change was in the tube itself. My main concern is with all the small accessory parts included with the scope rather than the scope itself. QC seems a bit more lax on the small accessories right now since they arrive boxed from China and are assumed to have been QC'ed there methinks.
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Meade 10" LX200R
Orion 80ED
Nagler 7T6, 9T6, 13T6, 17T4, 26T5
Canon XSi (Modded), TIS DMK 31AF03
Northwest Astro Photoblog
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blatterjr
sage
Reged: 08/13/07
Posts: 263
Loc: Saint Petersburg Florida
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My only advice is to get something to transport it easily. I love my 12-LX200-ACF (GPS sticker!) =)
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Robert
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Meade 12-LX200-ACF
BINO: Nikon AEX 10x50 6.5°
DSLR: Nikon D70+CCPro2
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Saint Petersburg Florida
27°47'22.92"N , 82°43'09.48"W
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snowdragonusa
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/04/07
Posts: 637
Loc: Denver, CO
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Quote:
My only advice is to get something to transport it easily. I love my 12-LX200-ACF (GPS sticker!) =)
Here here!!! JMI case all the way! It was the best accessory I bought for my scope since I transport it quite often.
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Adam
12" LX200R
AT80mm piggyback
DSI Pro, DSI-C, LPI
Denver Astronomical Society
Brighton Astronomical Group
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amstel78
sage
Reged: 12/21/07
Posts: 334
Loc: Manhattan
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It's a crapshoot. I've received two brand new ACF's with optical issues. One was returned because of major astigmatism in the secondary, causing one side of focus to be off in terms of collimation. The second one has a similar issue but not as bad, but does have some cleaning marks on the mirror! I'm not a happy camper, considering these things set me back almost 3k.
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-James
http://jamespaulsarte.com
Meade 8" LX200R
Mallincam Hyper+ Color
Orion ST-80A / iOptron GPS
Orion 100mm f/6 short tube
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Brooklyn
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 07/24/08
Posts: 870
Loc: Central New Jersey
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I hope you get your issue sorted out asap. You might have ordered a telescope at the most inconvenient time; its not your fault...how were you to know that meade's move from California to Mexico would cause a few problems in the QC department.
Good thing is, I hear all scopes coming out of there now are perfect, maybe even better than the California scopes made before. If you are to send your scope in to get fixed under warranty, I wouldn't worry but at the same time be on top of it. Call them regularly to find out whats going on with your scope.
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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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amstel78
sage
Reged: 12/21/07
Posts: 334
Loc: Manhattan
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I'm going to send the second one back for repair/cleaning shortly before the warranty expires.
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-James
http://jamespaulsarte.com
Meade 8" LX200R
Mallincam Hyper+ Color
Orion ST-80A / iOptron GPS
Orion 100mm f/6 short tube
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cuzimthedad
Just Be Cuz
Reged: 04/09/06
Posts: 2729
Loc: Sonoma, Northern California
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Hi Frank. I had a first generation LX200R I bought 2.5 years ago and had no trouble with it at all. I upgraded the colimation screws to Bob's Knobs, added a Peterson Engineering Mounting Assistant, a flexable dew shield, dew heater and controller, and was off to the races. I loved the scope and the only reason I sold it was to upgrade to more apeture in the 20" Obsession. Buy from a reputable dealer and enjoy the views. You won't be sorry.
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Dan
20" Obsession (Freedom I...aka cuzimthescope)
TV102 (Star Dagger)
LXD75 AR-6 (Phoenix)
Megrez 80SD
Antares 1529 (Awaiting arrival)
Bushnell 7X50 Binoc
Zhumell 20X80 Astro-binocs
EPs: TV 5,7,9,11 T6s, 17 & 22 T4s, 31T5, 13E.
The Off Fisher Lane Irregulars
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snowdragonusa
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/04/07
Posts: 637
Loc: Denver, CO
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Double ditto to what Dan said! 
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Adam
12" LX200R
AT80mm piggyback
DSI Pro, DSI-C, LPI
Denver Astronomical Society
Brighton Astronomical Group
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Dennis Chung
journeyman
Reged: 10/23/06
Posts: 6
Loc: Taiwan
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I bought a LX200R-12 last year. It works just near perfect.
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mikemc
newbie
Reged: 09/08/08
Posts: 1
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i would go for it. i purchased a 10" LX200 ACF from astronomics. it worked for about 5 minutes and died. accesory sensor board failure. it was just a lemon.
i called astronomics, said i wanted a replacement.
astronomics called meade, and meade had a UPS truck at my house the next day.
astronomics shipped the new scope after i gave them the tracking number, and i had a replacement within 4 days from the time i recieved the first scope.
the second scope works perfect.
fit and finish and electronics are much, much better than the first one.
i've heard a lot of posts about meades QA and customer service.
i purchased an ETX125 about a year ago, and it arrived with random slew issues.
i sent it back to meade, and they had it repaired an sent back to my house in deep south texas in 4 weeks.
although i had issues with both scopes when they were new, i am very, very happy with them.
just take your time and be patient. there is a learning curve.
hope this helps
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