ETX-LS location problems cause (my guess)

[patm]

It seems a lot of people have absolutely no problems with their ETX-LS auto-alignments while other have absolutely no luck. I fall into the latter category and I think I've figured out why. Here's my guess as to the source of the problems.

Although the ETX has GPS the scope does not use the obtained lat&long in any calculations. Instead, it compares the results to existing sites in its site list and picks (what it thinks is) the closest existing site and uses the data from it.

If you live in the more populated areas of the United States then there is a good chance that it will pick a site very close to where you are. If you live outside the United States in an area with few or no sites listed then you are probably not going to have ANY luck with the automated alignment and goto functions.

In my case I'm in Surrey, British Columbia Canada and the only site listed is Vancouver (extreme SW corner). When I first tried the scope I couldn't get a GPS fix so I manually set the site to Vancouver and the scope was just barely able to find the alignment stars (though subsequent GOTOs were WAY off). That scope died within an hour and I didn't get a chance to try the replacement until I got to Merritt BC. The GPS chose "Omak" as the site (which is in Washington state and several hundred kilometers away) and the automated alignments were way, way off (like 40-50 degrees) to the left.

Back in Surrey with the second scope I found a spot in my yard where a GPS fix worked (took less than a second) and it changed my saved "Vancouver" to Oak Harbour (also in Washington State and MUCH further away than Vancouver).

So, I think if you're in a USA area that the scope has lots of nearby sites stored for then the scope will work great. If not, then you've spent a lot of money on a 6" manual scope.

[matthewota]

You need to see if you can change the settings of the AutoStar III to display longitude and latitudes instead of city names. I cannot believe that Meade would dumb down the software to the point where you locate yourself by city name instead of longitude and latitude. I also find it hard to believe that Meade would write software that would only work CONUS and not worldwide, as they sell telescopes all over the world.

Although I do not own an ETX LS, and use an LX250GPS with Autostar II, I will join the ETX LS Yahoo Group to monitor analysis of the software. I will also download the manual to learn more about it.

[patm]

Believe it - there's no place to enter lat & long and you can't switch to viewing lat&long instead of sites. There is a "custom site" listed in the sites menu but it only asks date, time, and daylight savings. Others have confirmed with Meade that there is no way to enter your own site or manually set your location. You are at the mercy of the Autostar III's selection of pre-set sites.

I don't think its a case of "dumbed down" so much as a case of alpha stage software. The ETX-LS routines are buggy as hell and some menu items (like custom site) are not implemented even though they appear on the display.

I think the hardware is probably top notch (the view sure is with that ACF) but the scope was shoved out the door before the software was close to done in order to meet stock speculator expectations.
The GPS could work for people outside the con-USA as long as they have a pre-set site close enough to where they are (at least it might if they aren't on the same longitude as a USA site).

I can't get to the shop to return the scope until Wednesday so if I have a clear night I'm going to see if setting daylight to "no" has any effect. I'm thinking maybe its ignoring daylight savings and showing me where the star will be in an hour instead of where it is at that time.

[Castor26]

AutoStar box can be linked to PC computer by RS232 link (as autostart #497) in order to connect ETX-LS with another software than autostar suite using LX200 compatibility language ?



Patm, I expect that your problem can be solved quickly.

Thanks