ETX PREMIER EDITION FEEDBACK Last updated: 31 August 2007

This page is for user comments and information specific to the ETX PE (Premier Edition). Feedback on the specific PE technologies (Automatic Alignment + SmartFinder, Level North Technology) will be covered here. Feedback on the Autostar Suite AE (Astronomer Edition) will be posted on the regular Autostar Suite feedback page. Items that are applicable to all ETX models (EC, AT, PE) will continue to be posted on the other appropriate feedback pages. If you have any comments, suggestions, questions or answers to questions posed here, e-mail them to me and I'll post them. Please use an appropriate Subject Line on your message. Thanks.

Subject:	Electric Focuser
Sent:	Tuesday, August 28, 2007 20:08:52
From:	mail.westnet.com.au (jchaurette@lightmypump.com)
I read your article on the 1247 Meade Electric focuser, it doesn't sound
like you would recommend it.

Is there another focuser you would recommend for the ETX-125PE?

Thanks,

Jacques

Subject:	Date/time retention on EXT90PE
Sent:	Friday, August 24, 2007 07:22:43
From:	peter.hamblin@tesco.net
I am very sorry to trouble you,but perhaps because of  being a beginner,
I cannot fathom out why I have to set the Date and Time every time I
switch on my new ETX90PE. I assumed that once I had set this data,it
would display the correct date/time each time I switched the scope
(Autostar) on.It seems to have retained my site co-ordinates,so I am
wondering what I have done wrong.

Again..I'm sorry to trouble you for such a trifling little problem.

Thanks  

--
Best Regards,
Peter Hamblin

And:

Many thanks for your reply..much appreciated.Auto align does appear in
the menu,so I have now gone through all of the trouble shooting tips on
the site.It would appear that the battery on the LNT may have been the
culprit,as a change has eliminated the problem.How the battery on a
brand new scope can be dead is another matter,I suppose!!!

Many thanks again...btw..your site is absolutely fantastic.

Subject:	LNT Smartfinder post 81607
Sent:	Tuesday, August 21, 2007 10:30:09
From:	Austin, Ken (KAustin@sjm.com)
FYI I broke mine off once "very easy to do"  I contacted Meade and the
said I could buy one for a couple of bucks.  I ended up buying  three of
them since I am sure I will break it again one day.  Thanks for the
great site!
Best Regards, 
 
Kenneth J. Austin

And:

A little lucky, Mike.  I managed to order a new one for $10 (out of
warranty), including shipping.  The bad news is that they are on back
order and will not be in for about a week or so.  That happened to be my
first time dealing with a Meade representative and I cannot complain
about the help or time waiting on the phone.

Now I did fax Meade from my workplace last week and still have not
received a call or e-mail.  Bizarre.  At least a replacement will
eventually be on the way.

   Craig

Subject:	Re: newbie problems with auto-alignment 
Sent:	Sunday, August 19, 2007 04:41:33
From:	mail.westnet.com.au (jchaurette@westnet.com.au)
Hi Mike, it's been very cloudy lately. I just did an easy align tonight,
it seems to get within 2-3 degrees of the alignment star.

I did a train the drive prior to that.

Jacques

Subject:	LNT Smartfinder
Sent:	Thursday, August 16, 2007 17:52:07
From:	Craig Kopra (y2craig@hotmail.com)
After having one of my many clumsy moments, I broke the Smartfinder
off the LNT module of my telescope.  Most of the notable online
stores do not sell the Smartfinder probably because of the cost. 
Aside from Ebay, do you know of any sites that might sell the
Smartfinder?
 
Kind regards,
Craig

Subject:	newbie problems with auto-alignment 
Sent:	Monday, August 13, 2007 23:59:01
From:	mail.westnet.com.au (jchaurette@westnet.com.au)
thanks for your great site and I hope you don't mind if I ask a few
beginner questions. It's not easy to get started in this field.

I just bought my first telescope, it is a Meade ETX-125. I normally live
in Montreal but I am currently in Australia, near Melbourne. The viewing
is normally excellent here as I am in a small town whith minimal light
pollution. Unfortunately recently the weather is not so good.

I am having trouble doing an automatic alignment and I am sure the scope
is not pointing at any known stars ( I have a local star chart,
Stellarium, etc.) so I must be doing something wrong. I have set the
site for the proper latitude and longitude. I e-mailed Chriss at
Oceanside Photo and Telescope where I bought the telescope and he
mentioned that I should put the telescope in the home position, that is
turn the base of the tube counter-clockwise until it hits its stop and
point it towards the south. Is that correct?

I think I should be using an equatorial mount and not a polar,  a polar
mount  I believe is when the telescope tube is in between the forks and
the tube is pointed to the North or South depending. The equatorial
mount is when telescope is sitting flat on it's base, parallel to the
ground, is that correct?

Any advice to correct the situation?

Thanks for any help, unfortunately the manual doesn't cover everything.

I also help people out allot with pumps, just to let you know that I'm
not just a taker.

Cheers,

Jacques

Jacques Chaurette
www.lightmypump.com 

And an update:

Seems I had it right after all, I did the auto-alignment tonight then I
did a goto Jupiter and got pretty close. Hope it's not a coincidence but
that's hardly likely, is it? I just need to refine that now.

Cheers,

Jacques

And:

Thanks Mike, do you know of a forum where a newbie can ask such questions?

Jacques

And:

Hi Mike, tried to do an auto-alignment tonight and it just wouldn't
work.

I checked the time, date, DST, position, home set-up, everything seems
to be as it should be. It didn't get close to any good alignment stars,
so I moved it towards some by 5 or degrees. Then when I did a goto
Jupiter, it was way out.

Any suggestions?

Jacques

Subject:	ETX125 SmartFinder:
Sent:	Monday, August 13, 2007 20:59:04
From:	berger (berger@new.rr.com)
After trying to align the newer vertical smartfinder and not having any
luck getting the finder to be anywhere near aligned,had the horizontal
adjustment as far possible to the left and vertical up as far as it
would go but not close to being aligned. So now I did the following to
check on why the finder was so far from alignment.

Removed the LNT from the scope with one tiny Torx screw holding it
on(Very cheap way of fastening it too the scope)and after removing the
adjustment screws for vertical and horizontal being careful not to break
the small wires going to the LNT circuit board,now remove four small
screws holding the board in place.You should now see two small screws
holding the dust cover for the laser diode remove the screws and here
lies the problem with I believe many smartfinders.

Looking at the laser diode it's mounted in a plastic mount and this is
glued in place on top of the LNT in a slot. In my case the diode is
about 5 deg slanted to the right so the dot is going to be way off and
can never be fixed.

This mounting system with gluing the diode and no way of moving it
really is poor,not up to today's standards.

Meade is sending a replacement and hopefully it will have a better
aligned diode.
 
Gary

Subject:	ETX90PE Alignment/GoTo problem
Sent:	Monday, August 13, 2007 10:12:02
From:	Niels Peter Ditlefsen (k66@mail.tele.dk)
Being a newbie to ETXPE and to your ETX-site,  I did not succeed in
finding an answer to my auto alignment/go to problem, I therefore kindly
ask for a helping hand. Problem: During Auto Alignment the OTA stops
fairly close to the AZ positon,but ALT is some 25deg. below the
taget..It happens every time. Pressing Enter without any correction only
means that the same 25 deg.-failure is repeated in a Go-To attempt.
Correcting ALT to (what I think) is correct , is not accepted,  AutoStar
just sends me back to square one (Auto-Align start).

In your archive , however,  I found  Mike Hogan's "PE-setup tips" dated
5 July 2006. I followed the instructions  -to the letter-  several
times, but I am still in the same situation.
 
Thank you in advance,
Best Regards
Niels Peter Ditlefsen
( 56.1N / 10.5E)

Subject:	That ETX-PE Finder!
Sent:	Friday, August 10, 2007 11:55:25
From:	Dennis E Mathias (dmathias@unlnotes.unl.edu)
Okay. Let me chime in here. I can't get my finder adjusted either. I run
out of travel on the vertical alignment. True enough--this is one flimsy
mount. Even an ounce of torque will distort the alignment significantly.

As to the vertical travel problem, stuffing a matchstick under the front
of the finder mount (just for a test) will allow alignment to happen. So
I'm now investigating some method of mounting by taking the two screws
out of the mount, inserting perhaps neoprene tape under the leading edge
and then reattaching.

I suspect that there were some last minute engineering changes on this
mount and some of us got caught. There is a suspicious hole where logic
would dictate a screw should go to stabilize the assembly but
disassembly shows there are no threads for a screw to go into.

BTW, this is the PE with the finder lens VERTICAL and NOT HORIZONTAL. I
think that is a recent solution. Were it not for the LNT I would
definitely jetison this finder for one more robust even though a NO GAIN
finder idea (i.e., red dot) is a good one since once the scope goes
through the autostar alginment it is not needed for the rest of the
viewing session. Just not this finder.

Also, my alignment after motor training and calibration has rusulted in
field accessible objects in the 26mm stock eyepiece. That has been VERY
gratifying. It works. I do NOT home then backoff. I just home the scope
and go for alignment and after second star acquistion I'm done. I read
the trials and tribs of others doing this and don't know what to think.
Not my experience.

If I can just come up with a finder stability solution I'd be real
happy. I kind of wish that the LNT module and finder would dovetail into
a connector so it can be removed for transportation. Somebody comes up
with this and they'll make a fortune.

My scope is the 90PE BTW.
----------------------------------------------
Dennis Mathias

Subject:	ETX-125 PE Problem With Smartfinder Allignment
Sent:	Wednesday, August 8, 2007 09:38:31
From:	Dalzelle, Josh (IE) @ CIN (Josh.Dalzelle@L-3Com.com)
I just recently purchased a brand new ETX-125PE with the newer
SmartFinder design (with the fixed lens) and tried to perform the
allignment per the manual. First off I'll say that I'm very dissapointed
with the quality and design of the LNT/SmartFinder unit for such an
expensive instrument. It's so flimsy and weak I'm not sure if it will
ever stay in allignment. The main problem I'm having is that I'm out of
adjustment travel, I've run out of thread on the thumb screw and I'm
still far to the left of the target. Has there been any kind of
consensus on the best way to deal with this problem?

Other than that I've been pretty happy with the purchase. Despite not
being able to use the SmartFinder I took it out in my yard for a test
drive and the LNT and Auto Allign worked beautifully. I was looking at a
fairly clear image of Jupiter literally 10 minutes after setting up the
tripod. I definitely look forward to some great nights with this thing
once I get my case and travel to someplace dark with it, I'm just more
than a little skeptical about the SmartFinder module being of such a
shoddy design and of course I'd like to be able to actually allign and
use it. Thanks guys.
                                                                                 
Joshua Dalzelle 

Subject:	Positive review of Meade's Revised ETX LNT / SmartFinder & Meade's manufacture / warranty shortcomings
Sent:	Monday, August 6, 2007 02:41:38
From:	Tom Farrell (tsfarrell@carolina.rr.com)
Mister Mighty ETX 
 
I corresponded briefly with you a number of months ago regarding
alignment issues affecting my new ETX 90 PE with UHTC.  So very very
very much has since happened.  Wanted to report both good news and bad:

Here is the GOOD:  The new Smartfinder / LNT combination is SO superior
to the old one I consider it is criminal that Meade calls this an
"improvement" and did not do the honest thing and put out a mass recall
on the original less-than-perfect units.  The redesigned unit is
practically turnkey  a real revelation, being the first time I saw this
technology function properly after my original purchase nearly five
months prior.  Where the original unit I had was entirely random in all
it did, and the second I was sent never even powered up, this one gets
so close to dead-center on its celestial targets I am awe-struck.  And
none of the extra instructions so helpfully given on your website for
prior LNT / Smartfinders are even necessary.  Doesn't matter where you
point the base, you don't have to do any partial turns back from the
documented "home position."

The problem with he redesigned LNT / Smartfinder (and this is not the
"BAD" part I mentioned about) is that the unit juts up  inches higher
than then old one, and while crafted of a sturdy polymer, the mount is
so slender in places, I can just see it snapping off with relatively
little pressure.  The Smartfinder, which now juts from atop the LNT
module rather than from its side as in the old version, also looks
liable to snap off  and I honestly cannot see any functional reason why
the redesinged Smartfinder could not have been hinged so as to fold down
when not in use.  The Smartfinder creates a storage problem as well. 
This was also true of the original LNT / Smartfinder desing, sine Meade
never produced an ETX 90 case designed to store either model.  I think
the old version could have been accomodated by the existing case after
recutting the foam padding,   But the redesigned LNT / Smartfinder
simply requires a case deeper than the aluminum ETX 90 case which I own 
at least when placed in the intended oritnation, withi the flat
screw-threaded based of the tube facing down.  Only thing I can think to
do is recut the padding so as to be able to secure the newly redesigned
ETX 90 PE / UHTC when resting on its side.  Assuming this can be
successfully done, what would be sacrificed is accessory storage space. 
But anything is better than keeping my ETX 90 PE UHTC on my desk, using
the clear plastic bag it was delievered in as a dust cover.

(I WOULD LOVE TO HEEAR FROM ANYBODY who can offer tips about the most
effective way to cut and modify this kind of foam in a neat and
efficient manner.)

Now for the BAD:  There seem to be at present, based on my experience 
which spans over five months simply to obtain an ET 90 PE UHTC in
reliable condition  signs of some major problems at Meade  with regard
to manufacturing, management, customer service telephony and response to
directed customer complaints.  In saying this I want to be clear that I 
think Meade makes a great product, I am disappointed but not irate, and
nothing I am saying is a condemnation of the Meade brand  One or two
inadequate employees can gunk up the whole works, and it's clear from
what Meade phone support representatives have shared that Meade
employees are somewhat overworked at present.

I am attaching the email I sent to Meade's customer support manager,
because it concisely explains the issues I outline above, and I am
hoping  it might be of assistance to readers of your website  where
Meade seems either too busy or overworked to properly attend to email
inbox queues.  Hoping my experience would provide welcomed feedback for
management at Meade, I went to great pains to clearly, callmly detail
everything which lead to my current warranty issue, including:
 
the timeline and sequence of flaws, over five months, which I am still
incredulous about having encountered;
my testing methods so as to dispell the natural suspicion (which I would
have as well) that I misunderstood how to use the equipment;
Meade's endless and erratically-functioning phone queues;
unbelievable randomness on the part of UPS.
 
Readers of the Mighty ETX webiste, including any of Meade management,
are free to judge my experience or even me as they wish.  I will be glad
to field any questions readers might like to pose.

(I AM PARTICULARLY INTERESTED  to know if others have encountered
similar difficulties, so as to ascertain whehter my experience is as
unique as what almost all Meade customer representatives have told me.)

I AM ALSO MOST CURIOUS as to reader's take on the final issue I seek
warranty service on  as detailed in my letter to Meade  since I it does
not affect function at current but, at least to me, indicates likely
failure in the future.

I WOULD ALSO BE GLAD TO SEND ANYBODY a short MP3 of my motor drives
moving in each direction, should anybody wish to attempt a diagnosis of
my remaining mechanical issue, based on sound alone  which is the only
kind of diagnosis possible short of opening he telescope up and voiding
the warrant.)

At any rate, it is now two weeks since this email was sent.  Maybe I
should wait longer, but time lapsed is what is at issue on Meade's side
of things anyway.  I have left messages on the recipient's voice mail,
not demanding immediate attention, but simply requesting confirmation of
receipt of my email as submitted to the email address as provided by
Meade customer support  and if not received then an email address to
which to send.

This email did NOT get bounced back to me from Meade's SMTP server as
undeliverable.  So I assume it made it to the recipient's inbox, even
though I got neither of my requested but optional "received" and "read"
confirmations.  Even if my email got miscategorized on the recipient's
comptuer as  "Junk" email, after recieving my phone messages, it should
have been an easy thing for the recipient to look for it there.

I am mystified and worn out from trying and trying and trying.  At this
point, having no further recourse, no more direct way to get Meade's
attention, I am giving up on trying to contact Meade, giving up on my
issue, givng up of Meade doing what they can to make this
excruciatingtly prolonged siuation right.  If Meade refuses to pay
shipping, I may as well wait and see if the telescope actually fails
before footing the shipping bill myslef.  But until such time, every
time I use the telescope, the suspect noise it makes will continue to
irritate and concern me.  What else can I do?

Anyway, I truly hope some good for others can come of sharing my
experience in this venue.  Letter to follow my signature below.
 
Thanks,
 
 Tom Farrell
 
From: Tom Farrell
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2007 7:57 AM
To: Ty Robertson
Subject: Supervisor assistance needed on RGAHR00998
 
Mr. Robertson 
 
I have obtained your email address after having just spend a second half
hour waiting to speak to a second customer representative after being
transferred to a supervisor's voice mail and encountering a full queue.

I am not irate, only weary and frustrated, and not just about today.  I
understand this is not the customer representatives' fault and in fact
they give excellent service  when I can get through to them.  I
appreciate Meade's reputation for quality optics, but am  I do hope  at
the tail end of dealing with a seemingly endless set of issues in simply
trying to obtain  through an implausible number of warranty repairs and
replacements  the perfectly working brand new ETX 90 Premium Edition
with UHTC I thought I had purchased a number of months ago.

What I need is quite simple:  for you to approve shipping for on
RGAHR00998 at Meade's expense, so as to correct  at no cost to me  what
I pray proves to be the sole remaining ETX 90 PE / UHTC flaw I will have
to deal with.  Evidently, the shipping requires your approval, since the
unit in question arrived more than one month ago.  However, there are a
number of extenuating circumstances warranting your consideration which
I will discuss gladly with you (704-770-0420) if desired:

1.      This unit arrived from Meade with a faulty AutoStar unit (would
not light, buttons would not function).  The replacement AutoStar was
misdelivered by UPS and did not find its way to me for weeks. (UPS
persistently just leaves stuff on the doorstep  even an entire ETX 90 PE
/ UHTC  without knocking or concern as to whether anybody is at home. 
UPS also, by the way, creates, and leaves behind when nobody is home,
shipping labels for "single pick-up only" and never returns  all without
regard for the scheduled pick-up days or what Meade actually requested. 
This typically resulted in the actual pickup occurring one to two weeks
after originally scheduled.)

2.      Trying to get in touch with Meade customer support so often
results either in being on hold indefinitely only to end up being
disconnected or shuttled off to a voice mail queue which is full. 
Likewise, my attempts to utilize Meade's online repair request form
resulted in a "server error."  (Not a "user error"  I do software
development for a living and I know the difference.)  All this has
caused non-trivial delays.

3.      I feel Meade needs to go the extra mile to make good on my
warranty after this ordeal of faulty equipment, repairs and replacements
which stretches back to my original purchase in February:
 
	 Original unit faulty brand new out of box and  still faulty
	 even after return from factory for repairs (faulty motor
	 drives, randomness in LNT and AutoStar function).

	 First replacement unit not properly manufactured and unable to
	 power up (LED on base would not light  battery contacts sliding
	 around, not fastened to battery compartment, power lead(s)
	 evidently not securely soldered).

	 Second replacement unit delivered with perforated rubber
	 light-guard on eyepiece and non-functioning AutoStar which,
	 when replaced, finally proved the ETX 90 PE / UHTC to perform
	 according to specifications (and even beyond my expectations!) 
	 but with an aberration in one motor drive I would be a fool not
	 to have repaired under warranty so as to avoid potential
	 failure later on (when slewing counter-clockwise ONLY, a loud,
	 irritating sound on top of the expected motor drive sounds  not
	 unlike motion picture film shuttling through a projector
	 (tick-tick-tick-tick-tick )  suspect of a loose, flawed or
	 improperly installed gear  which did not go away but even got
	 worse with use).
 
Honestly, I have always felt incredulous when having to telephone Meade
to request these various repairs / replacements.  I have a hard time
understanding how one customer could encounter all these problems  yet I
know that none were imagined, improperly diagnosed or in any way
trivial.  Only when I could diagnose a flaw with certainty and
repeatability (as is my training in the field of software development)
and only when a Meade customer representative agreed with me, have I
requested warranty service.  My diagnostic procedures have not been
sloppy or rash as I would imagine is the case with many customers.  I
fully read the instruction manual multiple times, consulted with Meade
customer support representatives and tried everything they suggested,
studied the more detailed set of procedures posted by users on the
"Mighty ETX" website  checked, rechecked and had friends check
everything  from battery life and polarity to why Polaris wasn't a few
degrees south of due east as my first unit kept insisting  and spent
many, many, many nights checking off each step involved in proper setup,
alignment, calibration and use of my telescope, reviewing and repeating
procedures till my fingers nearly froze off.

Until just a recently, once I had the replacement AutoStar finally
arrived, I had never even seen a targeted alignment star anywhere near
the SmartFinder viewer  had never even one of these telescopes be able
to slew itself anyplace near the moon.   I was so relieved and delighted
to finally see that  with everything finally functioning correctly  the
ETX 90 PE / UHTC provides with near turn-key performance.

In short, I hope you can see how the situation I find myself in is not
of my own making  and I believe that, considering all I have had to
endure, Meade owes it to me to pay to the shipping for warranty repair
of the only remaining flaw I ever hope to encounter.  I think at this
point that, considering the track record, it is better to fix one known
bug rather than swap out for yet another replacement unit with unknown
possible issues of its own.

Let me assure you I am still upbeat about Meade and my ETX 90 PE / UHTC
and know that manufacturing flaws do occasionally occur  though the
chances of as many as I have encountered with this telescope are  well 
astronomical.  I have appreciated Meade's professionalism throughout.  I
look forward to getting my telescope back from repair, being able to
recommend Meade to anybody who asks, and nights of happy star-gazing.

Only then I'm sure I'm going to want one of those cool new mSky devices.

Thank you for your time and attention.
 
Sincerely,
 
Tom Farrell

And more:

Subject:	Two ETX things:
Sent:	Thursday, August 9, 2007 12:54:53
From:	Tom Farrell (tsfarrell@carolina.rr.com)
1)       You'd asked to learn what happened as regards my submission on
multiple problems with ETX manufacture / repair and communication, and
I'll be glad to let you know.  Honestly, it may be a while, since I
have tapped out all my communications options and your website is in a
way a final attempt.  Part of my motive in posting what I did to you is
and I don't mean this in a cruel or nefarious way  use the pressure of
unfavorable PR to get Meade to act where they are not now.  If that is
unacceptable to you I understand.  I've tried to be sensitive and
undemanding with Meade throughout.

2)     One thing I mentioned in my write-up was interest in sending
anybody who could tell by listening (as one Meade customer support
representative no longer working there could) whether the aberrant
sound one of  my drives is making in one direction only is liable to go
away on its own or lead to eventual trouble -- the issue I had hoped to
send the scope in to have repaired.  It appears that your website
supports pretty much only plain ASCII text user input.  Or am I wrong? 
Is there a place I could post a brief MP3?  (I know, I can post it on
my own website, and perhaps send a link to be added to my post  would
that be acceptable?)

Funny thing is, based on what I read In your website, I could likely
open up the telescope and fix this issue with little or no problem  and
I do this all the time even with  devices under warranty  here I think
it's prudent not to risk a voided warranty.

Thanks very much.  I really need to spend some time reading up on your
website.  It's been a few months and, now that I've gained familiarity
with my telescope, I will be able to get so much more out of what I
read.
 
Tom

Feedback Archives

Check the Feedback Archives for previous editions of the ETX PE page.

Go to the ETX Home Page.