Celestron C8 Scope Issue

jArgHA

A fairly serious problem cropped up with my Celestron C8 scope a couple of months back which I have yet to resolve, I'll appreciate any advice/insights which can be offered on the issue.

I recently got my first CCD camera, a Starlight XPress MX516 (16-bit Black & White) and purchased a STAR2000 Guiding Unit with it. On the first night of testing, I hooked up the camera to the scope and laptop, and then connected the STAR2000 unit from laptop to drive unit of the C8 (plugs into telephone type jack input).

I was trying to configure the STAR2000 unit to track a fairly bright star when my laptop battery ran out. I powered up the laptop from the main and rebooted the machine, with the serial output still connected to the scope drive via STAR2000. After a further 5 minutes or so I noticed that the drive seemed to be going too fast and the power led indicator was flashing rapidly, soon after the 9V battery in the scope drive unit was drained and the drive stopped altogether.

After checking the electronics the next day, I put a brand new battery into the scope drive unit, removed all peripherals and simply turned on the drive, after about a minute the same thing was happening - drive going too fast, led flashing and then it just went dead after a minute or so.

At this stage I am pretty sure that the drive unit is borked, effectively meaning the end of observing/photography. What may have caused the issue was the reboot of the laptop with the cable still connected to the scope ?

This may be a long shot but I was wondering if anyone had heard of such a problem before and/or have any suggestions on resolving the problem ?

jAH

albertw

Originally posted by jArgHA

After checking the electronics the next day, I put a brand new battery into the scope drive unit, removed all peripherals and simply turned on the drive, after about a minute the same thing was happening - drive going too fast, led flashing and then it just went dead after a minute or so.

This may be a long shot but I was wondering if anyone had heard of such a problem before and/or have any suggestions on resolving the problem ?

jAH

My only experiance comes from a Meade scope and I've never used any autogider gear.

My scope does have various settings (via the hand controller) for adjusting and calibrating the motors.

Its possible that somehow the scope has lost its calibration settings and just whirrs about at full speed, so see if you can find something in the software to calibrate or train the drives.

Cheers,
~Al

halenger

I honestly wouldn't have a clue! The reboot might have been just coincidental or it could be a software glitch.

My only suggestion would be to give the A&S Shop a call. I'm not sure whether you bought it from them or not but that's not really important. Give them a call on (01) 847 0777 and tell them about it. I'd be surprised if they couldn't help you.

jArgHA

Cheers for the advice. I did in fact call the AI shop and the matter is in their hands now, hopefully something will come of that.

Thinking about purchasing a new mount, possibly a Losmandy...

Slán,
jAH