LX200

I purchased my Meade LX200 in March 1993 along with a SuperWedge. Later that year I upgraded the database to the 8000 CNGC Library. To date, I have had no problems with this instrument. My primary use has been astro-photography.

My main complaint is with the slope in the SuperWedge adjustments. The latitude adjustment knob turns 1 1/2 times when reversing directions before any movement is detected. The azimuth knob is better with only a 1/2 rotation of play when changing directions. I have modified my SuperWedge by adding bronze bushings and machining a new azimuth thrust bar pin. This has proven to remove almost all the slop in the SuperWedge. Please click on the link to the left to see what I did.

In late 2007 my LX200 suffered from a failure of the declination drive. I dissected the PCB that controls the declination encoder pulses and got it running again. In the process I made a new schematic of the encoder board that corrects an error on the previous schematic that has been on the web for some time. While at it, I took apart the hand controller and documented it with a new schematic and PCB layout as well. A new LX200 hand controller is on the drawing board and in the planning stages.

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