Telescope Reviews: CGE misbehaving

I have been running a CGE for many year now.

Replacing the cables is not really cost effective and usually not necessary.

This is my opinion and my opinion only.

All of the Celstron mounts and the Meade LXD mounts I have owned have all mis-behaved over the years.

I replaced the cables on the CGE, and it did not really truly "Fix" the problem.

You can spend a lot of time and money on an upgraded cable system, but there is no need two.

The first thing that I have found will resolve the problem is to clean the sockets that the cables plug in to.

I believe that these contacts get either oxidation (they are supposed to be gold plated, to prevent this, but I doubt that anyone does this anymore, or loose tension.

Use DeoxIT and spray the contacts liberally.

These plugs are "Self Wiping" which means that as you plug and unplug them, the friction of one against the other is supposed to clean them, but if you don't remove and replace them regularly, I think the simply oxidize out.

About once every year, my mount will start over-driving in Dec. This is the main symptom I get that the software has corrupted. I have to do a hard reset to fix it, but if I don't clean the contacts, it will just come back.

Cleaning the contacts and in runs fine for another year (I never remove the cables when I take the head in or out, so no wiping takes place).

Once (after many years of ownership) cleaing the cables did not work. I removed the plate in top of the semi Pier and reseated every cable multiple times to wipe them. I put a new battery in at the same time. Mount worked fine after that but it has been about a year ago, so contact cleaning is almost due.

My mount will sit outdoors under a plastic cover for weeks at a time, so I am sure the exposure quickens the oxidation.

Replacing the cables can be a "Temporary" fix, because just replacing the cable will give the contact one "Wipe" and this may clean it well enough to buy you some time.

Someone said that the problem was grounding. I bonded the shells of the cables to the plugs and this did noting to resolve the problem, so I don't think that it is at all related to the failures people experience.

So, swapping the cables may "appear" to fix the problem, but it kept coming back for me.

But now, when it happens, I shoot some DeoxIT into the sockets and on to the ends of the cables and plug-unplug a half dozen times to wipe them, and away I go.

For about another year anyway.

So for me, the cables were not really a fix at all. Cleaning the cable sockets on the mount always gets me back into operation.

I had an LXD thought that kept failing. No amount of cleaing would fix it.

For this mount, I had to use a tiny spring hook and dig under the contacts on the plug on the mount that the HC plugged in to. I used this tiny spring hook (actually a tiny little crochet hook I believe) to re-arch the contacts in the plug. Fixed it.

Good luck with whatever path you take but if you clean the contacts and re-set the HC, my bet is that it will hum along fine for another year or two.