LX200 Classic Base Check

[E Sully]

These are the capacitors that should be replaced. Make sure the capacitors do not short out against circuit boards.
C1 in the power panel. Unscrew 3 retaining rings and remove cover plate.
C2 in hand controller. Most important to prevent damage to ribbon cable.
C8 in the main board, the 2 white resistors on the right are in late model Scopes
C1 on each motor controller, 2 total.
It seems replacement motor boards are available. Clearline Technology Corporation corporate website. Instrument upgrades, replacement parts.

[E Sully]

I have ordered the motor and calibration boards from Clearline Technology. Motor board will be a spare, but I am curious how the potentiometers are after all these years. I'll let you know how it works out.

[bpm990d]

Wow this is going to be a project. One of the club members has a brother that's an electronics guy and I wonder if it might be worth roping him into do some of this. I can do some basic soldering, but.....

If it was my mount I'd jump right in. Because it's a club mount, I'm a little more cautious.

B

[bpm990d]

Here is a link (Digikey):https://www.digikey.com/product-deta...493-ND/2504582

The one you linked to was only 35V, but it sounds like this should be good? I'll order a dozen of them so the electronics guy will have them when he comes to look at the mount.

B

[E Sully]

The 35v capacitor will work fine.

I have ordered the motor and calibration boards from Clearline Technology. Motor board will be a spare, but I am curious how the potentiometers are after all these years. I'll let you know how it works out.

I received both the replacement motor board and calibration board. Both look well made. I used the calibration board to check the potentiometers and it works very nicely. The leds indicate if any adjustment is needed and which way to turn it to get the board correctly set. If you give it a try, make small changes. It takes a very light touch on the adjustment screw. If you overturn, you may see a runaway, but a quick turn back and it will settle in again.
On my original board with replacement capacitor installed, there was a close fit, mainly due to the height of the capacitor I installed. The pin connector did not sit flush, but still made enough contact.

[E Sully]

One other item I thought I would bring up is the focusing. The stock focuser has quite a bit of play. I decided to try out the Peterson Engineering EZ Focus Kit.
The kit arrived quickly in a padded envelope. It includes 2 roller bearings, a custom stainless washer, grease, allen wrenches, and a long bolt that is needed for 10" and up scopes. The directions were easy to follow. Installation went very nicely, and I must say it improved the focusing quite a bit. It took almost all of the play and slop out of the stock focus mechanism, and movement is very smooth.
While not a necessity for visual use, it does make it easier to get a sharp focus. If you intend to do any AP, I would say to definitely install this kit.

[bpm990d]

Ok I'm looking at my Power Panel board and there are two capacitors right next to one another C1 & C3. Why did you just replace C1? The other capacitor seems to be the same, and if these have possible problems why not replace them all?

B

[rferrante]

Hi B,

C3 only sees +5V since it's on the inside side of the voltage regulator. It won't *hurt* to replace it, but it's probably not necessary.

--Rob

[bpm990d]

Hi B,

C3 only sees +5V since it's on the inside side of the voltage regulator. It won't *hurt* to replace it, but it's probably not necessary.

--Rob

Most excellent. I'm assuming the same is true for C8 on the main board? Looks like 20+ caps there.

[rferrante]

Yep, only C8 on the main board needs to be replaced.
E Sully's post above (#11) has the full list.
--Rob