Thursday, August 21, 2014

met Mike

Michael asked for help via the Starfest Facebook page. Katrina directed him to our site. Immediate he came over with gear. And immediately I was anxious.

He came by with a power problem. His small Meade 102 Star Navigator refractor didn't work on external power. The mount went nuts. But on the built-in 8 cell battery pack, it was fine.

That sounded strange. Same volts. The lead acid battery would have plenty of amps. I said I could take a look later. I said I was interested in researching the issue. But the internet service, courtesy Wayne Parker, was not up and running yet.
Posted at 6:01 pm
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5 comments:

Neil Graham said...

Does the StarNavigator 102 have an external power socket as standard?

My StarNavigator 114 will only accept batteries and has no external power input, although I am looking into modifying it to work on a 12v gel battery

1:01 pm
bla said...

Neil,

As far as I know the mount does not directly support external power. There is the port for the hand controller plus an AUX port, used on some for particular accessories, like a focuser. There's no power jack.

Blake

7:08 pm
Neil Graham said...

That's what I thought, so I assume a custom power adapter has been made and that's where the issues are coming from?

4:44 am
bla said...

Meade does sell a AC wall adapter with the 9V snap connector and it works on the DS-2000 mount. I've heard of some owners making a little cut or notch in the cover so the cable is not crimped.

4:38 pm
Neil Graham said...

I've just made my own adaptor for DC use and tested with AC, seems to work fine

8:17 am

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