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.

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

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

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?

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.

Neil Graham said...

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