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GTO Keypad Freezes Problem

Terry Johnson <tjohnson@...>
 

Marj, I spoke with Roland about a problem I was having with my 600GTO mount. The problem centers around the GTO keypad. I have explained the problem below in more detail. Would you please see that he gets this information. I will also provide a printed copy when I send you the equipment he requested.
 
 
The Problem
 
I was just completing a polar alignment process using the north polar alignment procedure, I was using Polaris and Vega as my two stars, as I was doing a final alignment on Vega, and was asked to press 'menu' to have the scope slew to polaris for the final time, I pressed the 'menu' key on the keypad and nothing happened. I pressed the key several more times and still nothing happened. I pressed other keys and still nothing happened. The keypad was locked on the 'press menu to exit' command.
 
I was able to get around the problem by turning off and on the power to the GTO control box. I now had to polar align again.
Since I was very near completing the alignment in the previous aligning process, it did not take long to polar align this time. After aligning, I slewed the scope to Vega. I then added the additional equipment for taking exposures(see Equipment, after polar aligning, below). I was going to slew to another location in the sky, however, the keypad was lock up again while on Vega. The problem was the same where the keypad was locked on the 'press menu to exit' key.
I gave up for this evening, packed up and went home.
 
The next night I was able to polar align correctly. I then added my guiding equipment for camera exposures (see Equipment after polar alignment, below) I slewed to arcturus to practice my guiding on a bright star. After having success on the guiding practice, I decided to take an exposure of M-13. I keyed in M-13 using the keypad, pressed the 'GOTO' key and the scope did not move, however, the keypad did display the information about M-13 as it normally does after you press the 'GOTO' key. I pressed other keys and still no response. I had to power off/on the GTO control box to clear the problem.
 
Possible Causes
  • I had accidentally reversed the 12V polarity to the GTO keypad and mount while connecting the system on the first night. After talking with Roland, he did not see this as a problem.
  • After changing the equipment before and after polar alignment, I did not re-balance the scope. I did not mention this to Roland, however, I do not believe an out-of-balance condition will cause the keypad to lock-up.
I would appreciate any advice or experience on what is causing this problem. Roland has asked that I send in my keypad, cables, and GTO control box to be checked out. I will send the equipment in tomorrow.
 
Thanks for your help in this matter...Terry Johnson
 
 
The Equipment:

While polar aligning:
  • AP130F6 scope with 2" 'Maxbright' diagonal, 2" to 1/125 reducer, and a Meade 1/125 9mm illuminated recticle
  • AP80X900 guidescope 1/125 diagonal and a Panoptic 12mm eyepiece
  • 600GTO mount
  • AP wood tripod
  • 2 nine pound, and one six pound counter weights
  • attached to an 88amp gel cell battery
    • GTO control box and control pad
After polar aligning:
  • AP130F6 scope with focusing extender, a 2" barlow, a canon 35mm camera
  • AP80X900 gusidescope with ST-4 autoguider
  • 600GTO mount
  • AP wood tripod
  • 2 nine pound, and one six pound counter weights
  • attached to an 88amp gel cell battery
    • GTO control box and control pad
    • 12V to 110V inverter for PC
    • ST-4 autoguider
 
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