Another LX200 Classic 8" Declination Runaway
Posted: Mon May 04, 2020 12:20 pm
Hello all.. I'm coming here from AstronomyForum.net and just saw that it's pretty much inactive. I have owned my 8" LX200 Classic for many years and have gotten so many tips from just searching around however this time I'm not sure where to go..
I pulled my LX200 out of the closet after about a year and when I set it up found that it had a few issues. The fuse on the main control panel was blowing whenever I attached theDEC cable so I decided to go ahead and replace all the recommended capacitors in the main board, the control panel, the RA & DEC drive boards and the handset. All went well without incident however I found that the capacitor on the DEC board had blown. Other than a slight burn on the plastic flat connector there didn't appear to be any obvious damage.
I began powering things up - starting with the control panel by itself, which was fine. Plugged in the control panel to the flat cable, powered up, all fine. Added the keypad, powered up, keypad initialized,RA motor whirred a bit, got to the menu and all was fine (even added a brighter map light LED!). Finally I plugged in the DEC motor cable and powered up:
TheDEC motor IMMEDIATELY started moving the scope down as soon as I flipped the power switch.
I checked all the connections - both ends of theDEC cable, the flat DEC cable running from the control board to the opposite side of the coupler, everything good. Powered up again, same thing. Tried unplugging the DEC cable while power was applied - that stopped the motion but as soon as I plugged it back in the motor started at full slew downward again.
I've just done some cursory checks at this point, looking for broken / loose wires, bad solder points, etc. Nothing yet. I disconnected the plastic flat connector on theDEC control board and powered up again with the DEC coiled cable attached - same thing, runaway downward.
The only thing different I've noticed is that sometimes it will go the other direction - "up", but 9 times out of 10 it goes down.
I've spent 2 days reading about allllllllllllllll the zillion possibilities it could be. I thought I would try here first to see if anyone had a "magic bullet" they could send my way. I think I feel more bewildered now..
Thanks in advance!
I pulled my LX200 out of the closet after about a year and when I set it up found that it had a few issues. The fuse on the main control panel was blowing whenever I attached the
I began powering things up - starting with the control panel by itself, which was fine. Plugged in the control panel to the flat cable, powered up, all fine. Added the keypad, powered up, keypad initialized,
The
I checked all the connections - both ends of the
I've just done some cursory checks at this point, looking for broken / loose wires, bad solder points, etc. Nothing yet. I disconnected the plastic flat connector on the
The only thing different I've noticed is that sometimes it will go the other direction - "up", but 9 times out of 10 it goes down.
I've spent 2 days reading about allllllllllllllll the zillion possibilities it could be. I thought I would try here first to see if anyone had a "magic bullet" they could send my way. I think I feel more bewildered now..
Thanks in advance!