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SpunkyMonkey
newbie
Reged: 07/14/09
Posts: 2
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I'm having terrible issues with my 80. I've done resets, trained the drive, calibrated the motors, etc... It worked great at first. Now everytime I put it in the home position and do the easy align it swings way counter-clockwise. I align on the star it picks and it picks the next. I align on it and arrow it way back to where it should be and either it says it had a problem aligning or it continues and it is way off. I thought I had a timezone problem or something. I started setting the time ahead and behind and the stars it chose for those times where appropriate but it always goes way off kilter.
Is there anything I can do? Or do I need to send it in?
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Treehopper
professor emeritus
Reged: 07/29/08
Posts: 582
Loc: Upstate NY
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Hmmm...well, let's take it from the top:
- Fresh batteries? (this can be the root of all sorts of GoTo evils)
- OTA level and facing North?
- RA/Dec clutch locks firmly but not too tightly locked down?
- Location verified? (Either Zip Code or actual Lat/Long coords)
- Local Time?
- Daylight Savings set?
If all else fails, try flushing and re-programming the hand-controller. If it's still acting wonky, sounds like you and Meade need to hook up.
You might want to also check out Mr. Weasner's website.
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Tim
Champion of small aperture scopes everywhere!
Meade ETX-125PE
Meade ETX-80
Celestron FirstScope 76mm Mini-dob
 Updated: 09/16/2009
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SpunkyMonkey
newbie
Reged: 07/14/09
Posts: 2
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Fresh batteries - yes
OTA Level and facing north - yes
RA/Dec clutch loosened when align and then gentle tight when align
Verified zip
Verified Local Time
Verified Daylight Savings
I'll look at flushing and re-prog of the controller, and thanks for the link! The controller seems to know what day/time it is, but the motors want to keep swinging way off. At first I thought it was a time issue because it seemed to want to swing where the star would have been 3 hours prior, but when I tweaked the time it started picking stars that were appropriate for the time I set it for. Again, thanks for the advice.
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Treehopper
professor emeritus
Reged: 07/29/08
Posts: 582
Loc: Upstate NY
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Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance. However, Mike Weasner's Mighty ETX site is a goldmine of information on anything for the Meades. There very well may already be some articles on how to diagnose and cure the problem that's ailing your 80 right now. Look them over, and drop them an e-mail. They just may have a simple solution that will save you from having to ship the scope back to Meade.
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Tim
Champion of small aperture scopes everywhere!
Meade ETX-125PE
Meade ETX-80
Celestron FirstScope 76mm Mini-dob
Updated: 09/16/2009
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Quads
sage
Reged: 09/07/08
Posts: 296
Loc: Central Sands, Wisconsin
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Sometimes it will be off a bit on the alignment stars, often not even in the field of view. That's ok. Just make sure you are centering on the right star, hit enter, and go on to the next. After alignment is done, it should slew accurately to whatever object you choose.
Also, lately mine slews way counterclockwise too, looking for Arcturus as the first alignment star, since Arcturus is counterclockwise from the home position. Then it looks for Vega, also slewing counterclockwise from Arcturus to get there.
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I'm a "just for fun" photographer that also takes nighttime sky pictures.
Meade ETX-80AT-TC-BB
Canon PowerShot SX100 IS
Affordable Astrophotography
Powered by Ni-MH Rechargeable Batteries
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rob0260
super member
Reged: 01/31/09
Posts: 116
Loc: Teulon, Mb., Canada
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This has happened to me once with my etx 80. I calibrated the motors and trained drives, yet the alignment stars that it slew to were waaaay off. I did some research on Weasners site and the advice was to re-calibrate and re-train the drives a second or even a third time if necessary. I re-calibrated and re-trained the drives and it worked fine. Try that.
Edited by rob0260 (08/01/09 12:55 AM)
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