TheSkySearchers

Our club has a 16" and a 12" LX200 Classic. I think the hand controller on the 16 is flaky, it moves the scope fine until it gets pointed at the zenith (the markers on the side say 50 degrees) and SOMETIMES it will suddenly stop, it isn't that the scope stops and the motors keep going (that used to happen a couple years ago) it just totally stops when pushing the North button, I can back it up with the South button but then when I push "N" it will move the scope until it reaches about 50 again and just stops, no sound from gears or motor. If I turn the scope off and back on it will start working again but then soon after it will do the same thing.

I tried plugging the hand control from the 12" into the coiled wire on the 16" and it worked fine as far as E-W N-S but I got yelled at by one of the members he said it is a different software version and will screw up the electronics.


So I have 3 questions


1) Has anyone experienced anything like this?


2) are there replacement hand controls available for the 16" I can only seem to see ones for the 8,10, and 12" scopes.


3) Can the 12" hand control be plugged into the 16" and what will happen, will it work as if it is the original control or totally screw things up?

I thought all LX200 controllers were the same. I replaced the one on my 16 a couple years back, $80 if I remember right. I also think that buried in one of those menus is a soft limit setting that will stop the scope from banging a camera for instance when going too far north, or south.

Mine is a 2005 model if any of this helps,
Steve

We have the soft limit set when the scope is parallel to the ground so it doesn't bang the mount. but it will slooh north until the EP goes through the fork

Ours is about the same vintage

"[...] screw up the electronics"? How exactly is that supposed to happen?

pakarinen wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 1:30 pm "[...] screw up the electronics"? How exactly is that supposed to happen?

I was just saying what was yelled at me when I went to swap controllers. I went back later when the person wasn't around and did it anyway and it picked up the software version from the 16 which is different than our 12

Can you check for continuity of the cable in different positions? Maybe one of the wire connections is getting worn.

Lady Fraktor wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 7:53 pm Can you check for continuity of the cable in different positions? Maybe one of the wire connections is getting worn.

Or corroded contacts maybe?