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caheaton
super member
Reged: 05/26/09
Posts: 157
Loc: SW Ohio
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Four months ago I bought a little ETX-80. I loved that little scope...the optics were great and the goto worked beautifully...even with the 9.7EP goto's were spot on. About a month and a half ago it began to get less and less accurate and I noticed that the controller would occasionally flicker ever so slightly. Many times new batteries seemed to cure the problem, so I didn't worry too much about it.
The past couple of weeks have been an exercise in frustration! I made an external power supply for the unit to run it off of a jump battery. I then retrained the drives to this power supply. Goto's were still bad, often off as much as 5 degrees. Tonight I did a full software reset, calibration and training. The stupid thing is now worse then ever! It won't even align on the alignment stars now (it seems to think Capella is a part of Orion and that Aldebaran is somewhere near Jupiter!) 
I even tried turning off the DST setting and setting the clock back an hour, but still no go. Strange thing, when slewing it pauses in the area close to the alignment star, then suddenly starts up again and goes on for maybe another 20 to 40 degrees (it varies). At one point I did get it to go to Capella, but before I could hit enter on the controller it suddenly slew wildly about 10 degrees.
To top it all off, the alt clutch now slips all the time (that had been getting progressively worse too); it feels like I'm about to strip the threads to get it tight enough to hold.
Another item I noticed...the azmith slews much faster then the alt. During training I set the speed to 64x. The alt motor creeps along (as desired), while the azmith races at about 1 degree / second.
So...this little scope is going back to Meade ASAP. It's a shame. When I bought this little scope I was a strong champion of it...now I'm reluctant to recommend it to anyone because of the apparent lack of quality (however, I know it's unfair to judge based on one scope, so maybe that's just my anger talking).
Two hours and I got to observe was Polaris (during drive training).
Craig
Edited by caheaton (10/21/09 01:45 AM)
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 244
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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I have seen so many etx 80's with silly problems with the drives, the optics are great on these scopes and I have managed to pick up quite a few that have had similar drive problems, it can be simple things that stop them working properly, optical readers on the encoding wheels out of alignment, grease clogging the spokes of the encoder gears is another, but all of those require you to get into the case which if the scope is still under guarantee is a bit of a no no. you will probably get a replacement scope as due to labour costs if these scopes even have simple problems they are not cost effective to strip down and repair from a repair shop point of view. ( I have recovered some from a skip that were in this state, and with two or three and a couple of hours work you can usually get something good going.
grendel
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Rat
super member
Reged: 10/13/06
Posts: 150
Loc: USA
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Sorry to hear about your problems with the ETX80. I bought one after reading your observation reports.
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caheaton
super member
Reged: 05/26/09
Posts: 157
Loc: SW Ohio
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Gee Rat...you've made me feel bad. However, I still stand behind the optics of the scope and I did use mine very heavily). At the end of the warranty period, I'm considering purchasing the extended warranty for this scope...it might be a wise insurance policy if I continue to use it heavily after I get the XT10 (which I probably will, since it's a perfect size for a quick grab and go).
Craig
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Rat
super member
Reged: 10/13/06
Posts: 150
Loc: USA
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Craig, no need to feel bad. I was already in the market for small go-to scope. So far, my scope works fine. Hope you get your ETX resolved and running soon.
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AlexDJ30
sage
Reged: 09/02/08
Posts: 276
Loc: Monterrey, Mexico
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Yes thats the sad story of the etx's..i dont know why but sudenlly everything goes wrong, of course celestron too have their lemons but not on the same level like meade's etx. I have hear lot of bad storys from etx that even that i have one my etx-125 haeve lots of image shift that i cant bare it to see.
If you are still on the guarantee make it effective now and dont wait, they will give you a new scope, i think thats the best option you can choose.
I wish the ext made them with more quality but i think meade is struggling to survive and not much money for better quality parts (mainly encoders, motors and use less plastic!)
--------------------
Equipment:
- ETX 125 AT
- C6 ASGT
- WO 66mm SD
- 2.5X ED Barlow, 8-24mm Zoom Eyepice
- Canon EOS Rebel XSi
- Celestron Nextimagen
- Orion Starshoot CCD cam
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astrowolf67
member
Reged: 12/15/07
Posts: 94
Loc: Western Kentucky
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I had problems with my first ETX 80. The azimuth axis started jumping as if it were slipping. It happened at about the eleventh month of ownership. Meade had me send it back, and, sent a replacement scope. When I got the new one, the focuser tube was not seated properly, but, with a quite a bit of force, it snapped in to place. No problems with it as of yet, but, I don't use it near as much as before. My little ETX 60, going on three years old, has never skipped a beat. The two of these have nearly identical bases.
In my opinion, the problem with the 80's, is the severely unbalanced optical tubes. I've even had a 40mm series 4000 plossl in my 80, and, when the ALT lock is loosened, the objective end still dives if unsupported. With the tubes that far out of balance constantly, and all gears, bearings, and clutches being made of plastic or nylon, there has to be a lot of fast wear and tear going on in there.
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David
"Seek the Spirit of the Wolf, for He holds the Secret of Life."
Edmund Astroscan/Meade DS 2000 tripod
Meade ETX 60
Tasco 60mm EQ
Meade 114 NT/LXD75
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