ETX-125EC USER FEEDBACK Last updated: 31 August 2001

This page is for user comments and information specific to the Meade ETX-125EC. Comments on accessories and feedback items appropriate to other ETX and DS models are posted on other 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:	etx-125 portability
Sent:	Thursday, August 30, 2001 12:36:07
From:	Elco.D.Hollander@opc.shell.com (Hollander, Elco ED OGNL-OGUF)
love your site. since two weeks i am the proud owner of an etx-125. this
is my first scope, which makes me a complete newbie in the field
(although i have worked with optics during my phd project).

during the two weeks, i ran into 2 problems. one i fixed myself
(solution given below, maybe it is useful for other people also) and one
i would like your advice on.

1) since i do not have a drivers licence (not uncommon in the
netherlands), i have a problem with the portability of the scope. i did
buy the hard case carry, but i found out that the case is not in
balance, due to the heavy base of the scope. this in particularly
inconvenient if you have to walk some distance for finding a nice place
to set up the scope. i figured that it would be much easier to carry the
weight on your back by some means. i therefore constructed basically a
backpack frame around the case by making use of standard stuff you can
find in any hiking/camping shop (see attached figure).

to make sure that the suitcase would not come loose from the frame, i
made sure that every connection was tightly sewed together by making use
of a standard sewing machine. i probably won't win a first prize for
most beautiful stitches, but the suckers won't come loose again. better
save than sorry ;)

first i made two band for the long side of the case (green in drawing).
these bands are closed and fit tightly around the case. i used about 10
cm extra band to stitch the band together. then i made two bands for the
short side of the case (red in drawing). these bands should be about 20
cm too long. i connected two clips (like the ones you find on a
backpack) to these bands. this gives you the means of tightly strapping
the case in the harnass. also, you can conveniently remove the harnass
from the case (otherwise you won't be able to open in ;) ). the next
step was to sew the 4 bands together. took me a while, but it can be
done. finally, i took the shoulder bands of an old backpack i had and
attached them to the harnass (yellow in drawing). these bands should be
rather large, since you probably want to carry the stuff in the winter
also (i.e. thick coat).

i tried it out and it works surprisingly well. the weight is no problem
for someone in reasonable shape. also, since the case is on its side,
the weight is in balance. al together, the stuff costs about 10 dollar
or so, and say one rainy afternoon. i was quite pleased with the result.





2) i have had some time to use the scope now. weather conditions weren't
great (warm and humid), but i could see the moon, mars, saturn and the
pleiades. these were all objects that i could see by the naked eye and
could find manually with the scope. this is when i found out that i had
some trouble with the autostar stuff. i read the instructions,
calibrated the motors, used stars not too close to the horizon, etc.
still, the scope was off by several fields of view, even with a 40 mm
eye piece. on your web page, i found the comments on performance
enhancement. frankly, i don't think i am brave enough to do all the
stuff mentioned there. i did find out that there is a considerable
amount of 'play' in the support arms. i also found out that my scope
seems to have three (not two) allen screws in the back. i did loosen
them, found out that the tube could be rotated, found out that i could
not pull the OTA back, then decided to give it up. however, after
tightening the allen screws again, i could still rotate the OTA. this is
where i got worried. did i screw up ? if so then i might have a small
problem :( what i would like to know is: is it standard that the optical
tube can be rotated, even with the allen screws in place ? if not, do
you have any idea what could have gone wrong ? also, i would REALLY kill
for a blueprint of the scope, to see what you will run into when opening
up the scope. is that available somewhere ?

i hope you can help me out here.

regards,
dick

Subject:	Is the ETX=125EC suitable for use around the equator?
Sent:	Tuesday, August 28, 2001 10:46:53
From:	dchin@crawford.com.sg
I live in Singapore which is just above the equator.  I am new to
astronomy and have been surfing the web to find a good telescope to
start this past time.  Presently, I have narrowed my choice of purchase
to either the Meade ETX-125EC or the Celestron Nexstar 5.  It seems to
me that all these telescopes are designed to perform best at higher or
lower latitude. Considering where I am living, would the ETX-125EC or
the Nexstar 5 be a better choice.

Regards
David Chin

Subject:	Declination motor failures.
Sent:	Wednesday, August 22, 2001 19:32:09
From:	gav@barnacles44.freeserve.co.uk (Gav and Ali Hunt)
I have been reading your site now for sometime and find it very useful,

I bought my father an ETX 125 some 6 months ago and was so impressed I
bought myself an LX90.To date I have had 100% success with the LX90 but
my father, very little with the ETX125.

The ETX125 originally came with version 2.0g which was updated to 2.1ek
from the Meade Website. Since then my father has now had what appears to
be a two failures of the declination motor. We think, but are not sure,
that the telescope is always rotating in the same clockwise direction to
locate an object and as a result it is winding the cord round inside,
disconnecting it from the electronics. The first time this happened the
scope was replaced by Meade, now it has happened again and we are
worried that it might be something we are doing wrong.

Is it possible to make the scope always rotate in a clockwise direction?
Is there a mechanical stop in the clockwise direction to avoid cord wrap
( we are aware of the stop in the anti clockwise direction) Is there a
known issue with 2.1EK causing the above to happen? As this has occurred
on two different scopes is it a fault with autostar?

The autostar is set-up for the ETX125 and this appears to automatically
select the cord wrap function.

What should we check next?

Best regards 

Gavin Hunt

Subject:	Photoadaptor for ETX125
Sent:	Monday, August 20, 2001 15:44:19
From:	graesser@planet-h.com (Andreas Graesser)
I own a Meade ETX125 and I'm planning to start with astrophotography.

My Question:
There are two possible adaptors from Meade for the ETX.
1. Fokaladaptor #64 for ETX (ArtNr. 410152)
2. Variable Fokal- and Projectionadaptor 1" (ArtNr. 410130)

My Dealer told me, that he only used the Fokaladaptor #64 for ETX.
Therefore I hope that you can answer my question.

Makes it sense, to use the Variable Fokal- and Projectionadaptor 1" with
the ETX125 ? And where are the difficulties ?

Many thanks for your answer

Best Regards
Andreas Graesser

Subject:	Broken Gear holding bracket
Sent:	Sunday, August 19, 2001 18:02:14
From:	RLibby@aol.com
After several nights of resonable good behavior, my ETX 125 was slewing
from Arcturus to Altair, when I heard a new noise..the sound of gears
not meshing!  I shut it off, and put it back in the case. The night was
not ruined, as I had my trusty 90 mm.

Anyway, in the light of day, I checked the batteries, which were
marginal, and put on an external power supply.. Same results.

Carefully opening the bottom, so as not to disturb those little wires
from battery box, I noticed that a piece of the plastic bracket that
holds the gears in place was riding loosely on the shaft..In my ETX, it
is blue plastic. An attempt will be made this afternoon to repair it
with epoxy, after cleaning the grease off...and if that fails, a call to
Meade in the morning will be made.

Anyone else have this problem? If not, why me?

Ralph Libby

And:

Warranty has long expired, however the epoxy seems to be working...I
will give it a try on the sky tonite, I hope.

Subject:	Major modification of the ETX125.
Sent:	Saturday, August 18, 2001 00:48:02
From:	marbla@naisp.net (Blais Klucznik)
I just thought I'd pass on a message saying that I finished doing a
major modification to my ETX125's elevation mechanics and it is ready to
go.  As the weather here is bad I only performed tests inside but the
initial results are very satisfying.

You are probably aware that this is my 3rd ETX125 as the first two were
returned to the dealer one or two days after receiving them but I
thought I would hang with this 3rd one.

Originally this 3rd telescope had problems when trying to do an AZ-EL
calibration and only passed after successive tries.  Sometimes I could
not successfully pass the two star alignment at all and gave up for the
night.  I lived with this for 6 months before this alignment situation
made me decide to perform the tune-ups as delineated by Blessings and
Clay.  When I performed those tune-ups this ETX worked like a charm. 
For two months, or 40-50 observing sessions, you couldn't ask more from
the telescope.  Then one day last week it would not move in elevation at
all.  The only response was a clicking sound of slipping gears.  It was
then that I decided to overhaul this vertical drive mechanical assembly
once and for all.

I already stated, in previous notes, that I had filled the entire inside
of the elevation drive knob with industrial epoxy and drilled and tapped
the knob for a set screw but all of this was already submitted to this
group.  Thus all that follows applies to the right vertical support
portion of the ETX mount as viewed from the rear.

This major modification consisted of:

(1) Removing the tapped 1/4" aluminum rivet out of the OTA support and
scrapping it.

(2) Remove the drive gear, clutch plate and the keyed mechanical stop
from the OTA support.

(3) Replace with the gear, a 1/32" hard rubber washer, clutch plate and
keyed mechanical stop.

(4) Reinsert the OTA support arm assembly into the vertical support.

(4) Drill a 1/4" hole completely through the center of the knob
preferably using a drill press.

(3) Re-assemble the knob and its assembly in this fashion using
stainless steel components only:

(a) Place a 1" fender washer on a 3" 1/4x20 hex head bolt (with a 2"
shank). (b) Insert this assembly through the knob center hole from the
outside of the knob. (c) Slide the dummy circle, and a 1" fender washer
over the protruding bolt. (d) Inset this knob assembly into the OTA
assembly. (e) On the inside of the OTA support arm place a 11/16 fender
washer, a 5/8 spring washer and a 1/4x20 nut. (f) Very firmly secure
this whole assembly.  I used a 7/16 box wrench and a 7/16 socket wrench.

At this point I now tried the vertical drive mechanism using the
Autostar.  It responded to each and every command.  I then set the
driven OTA arm to be parallel with the work table, grasped it solidly
and asked my wife to push the down arrow on the Autostar.  As the arm
could not actually lower itself due to my firm hold it started to raise
the whole telescope base off the table.  All this and the 1/2A--12volt
power supply fuse did not blow.

Then I assembled the OTA to the scope and again played with the El and
Az for a good 20 minutes with no evidence of sluggishness. Everything in
the vertical drive assembly is now very secure mechanically. No "not too
tight here".

There has really been no damage to the drilled knob.  With the fender
washer under the hex bolt head it matches the color of the silver circle
Meade had placed on it and actually looks like an image of a star with a
diffraction ring.

The final proof of the rigidity and repeatability of this overhaul will
be the day to day usage we get from it.  If the ETX125 performs as well
as it did the last two months then it will have been worth it.  It is
unfortunate that Meade didn't see it that way.

Blais Klucznik
marbla@naisp.net

And:

From:	sherrodc@ipa.net (Clay Sherrod)
Sounds like an excellent design and plan.  Solid.  I would not place too
much resistance (i.e., holding back the attempt of the scope to move) on
the drive system though, even in testing, as the lock and clutch are not
the only thing that receive torque when pressing the arrow keys.

The small motor and the gear cluster are VERY delicate and about 2 out
of 10 telescopes that come into me for work are the result of stripped
nylon reducer gears that have been locked up, can't move, and
subsequently break or strip down to where the drive will NOT work.  That
is something that you cannot fix, as the entire assembly must be
installed by Meade....you cannot buy the replacement gears.

On the other hand, you have done a fantastic job....your ETX 125 must be
a workhorse and I am sure that we would all like to see some photos if
possible of this "extreme" modification.  Thanks again for the updates!

Clay Sherrod

From:	marbla@naisp.net (Blais Klucznik)
No, I didn't really overdo this Clay.  I only ran a short test of this
function.  My wording made it sound more viscious than it actually was.

As far as the clutch and the locking device goes Clay we both seem to
have a slightly different objective as we seem to use our scopes
differently.  Fist of all I do not claim to be correct here only voicing
my opinion.  I feel that in order to reduce the vertical slewing error
rate we do not want the driven gear on the OTA arm to slip while it is
slewing to its target.  Thus, during this interval the clutch should
play no active part.  I have insured, as best as I can, that this does
not happen during this time.

Now if we drive the scope into its stop position then we need this
clutch to play its part in allowing the OTA arm driven gear to slip thus
preventing damage to the locking mechanism.  In my case, using the Az-El
mounting only,  the range of vertical travel is 0 degrees to 90 degrees
and thus a vertical mechanical stop is never reached.  If I were to use
the 887 polar mount, which I no longer do, then i would have to modify
the assembly in accordance with your wise words.  (I use the positive
meaning of wise here Clay.)

> The small motor and the gear cluster are VERY delicate and about 2 out
of 10 > telescopes that come into me for work are the result of stripped
nylon > reducer gears that have been locked up............... (cut)

This factor is considered as noted above.

Yet this is not the only reason for the gear that is attached to the
vertical drive worm gear shaft to be stripped.  I mentioned a clicking
sound when my scope failed after about a 2+ month period of amazing
performance.

What I found to be the cause for this clicking was the long shaft with
the vertical drive worm on one end and the motor griven gear near the
other end had excessive play due to its sloppy fit into the crude hole
in the plastic case that housed the motor, encoder, etc.  I could
actually move this end of the shaft sufficiently to almost free this
gear's teeth from the driven gear.  Correcting this flaw was no trivial
matter but I was finally was able to secure this end of the shaft so
there was no apparent change in the axial distance between these two
gears and still allow the long shaft with the worm on one end to rotate
freely.

I wonder if this is the position that Meade has decided to use a
'ball-bearing' in their new ETX125s?  As Dick mentioned in a previous
comment, we'll see.

Thank You for your thoughtful reply Clay.

Blais Klucznik

Subject:	First actual trial run a success
Sent:	Sunday, August 19, 2001 01:22:20
Just a note saying that my modified ETX125 ran like a champ for over 6
hours tonight.  Really ran it through a series of GOTOs and man it
GOTO'd each time.

Then about 10:15 PM EDST I instructed it to go to M92.  Bang and there
was M92 in the eyepiece.  For the next hour and one-half, while I was
looking at M92 with my Dobs to see how many individual stars in the
cluster I could count, the ETX125 kept M92 in the eyepiece.  My wife was
the field judge on the ETX.

Motor drive, gear driving sounds  and 12VDC battery current consumption
was actually more stable than before this modification.  I could always
tell when there was some minor gear slippage on the ETX before because
of the slight current oscillation when the scope was driven in the
vertical direction, especially when increasing altitude.  I was very
satisfied with the ETX125's performance tonight.

Yet one nights performance means just that.  I will need several weeks
of this type of usage and testing before I finally put this issue to bed
and hopefully pat myself on the back.  Long way to go yet and I
certainly don't want to count my chickens.

Good Night or Good Morning to the crew

Blais Klucznik
marbla@naisp.net

From:	sherrodc@ipa.net (Clay Sherrod)
Congratulations....I knew that based on your modifications and
dedication to getting it just right that it would, indeed, work.  Sounds
like that was just what you needed...perhaps now you can really enjoy
that ETX with many observations and fewer frustrations!

Clay Sherrod

Subject:	A GO tonight
Sent:	Thursday, August 23, 2001 00:56:19
From:	marbla@naisp.net (Blais Klucznik)
Day 2 with the ETX125.  Worked like a charm for 5-1/2 hours. Tracked M31
for two hours and target remained in the eyepiece.  Haven't used the
SYNC function yet.   GREAT!!

Blais Klucznik

Subject:	My new ETX 125EC
Sent:	Wednesday, August 15, 2001 13:26:37
From:	djensen@newhall.k12.ca.us (Jensen, Denise)
Rank beginner here so please forgive my lack of proper terminology. I am
wondering how people with this scope are seeing polar caps on mars, or
the rings of Saturn. Even with my 9.7 lens in I am only seeing just a
little spot of light in the sky, no exciting details. The Moon is great
however!

I am also experiencing a little trouble with the autostar controlling
the horizontal directions (I've made sure the lever is tight on the
base) I have to push the horizontal buttons 10 or 11 times before it
moves at all and then it jumps much further than it should and keeps
going. The vertical is quick and responsive in comparison.

I appreciate any suggestions,  Thanks

Denise

And:

Thank you for your quick reply! I will put your suggestions to good use.
Your web site is a goldmine for someone like me who is just beginning to
look upwards at night ... this is all too cool :)

Subject:	random altitude slew etx125
Sent:	Sunday, August 5, 2001 15:36:24
From:	stever@cybercomm.net (SR)
anyone ever experience a random slew of maybe 5 to 10 degrees altitude
while tracking on an object..Ive had it happen a couple of times.

thanks, Steve

And:

I looked at my Autostar's "statistic" section and it came back with
version 2.0g..do I have to upgrade to an intermediate version before
upgrading to the latest version (is it 2.4?)..I am a little confused by
meades notes.. I did buy a second autostar as a spare this past week
which is also version 2.0g..I don't think it was sitting on the dealers
shelf too long either, so I wonder why it is so old a version. I do have
the #505 cable and i have a basic idea of downloading a newer version
but feel shakey about it.

Subject:	 The Beautiful Blue ETX-125
Sent:	Saturday, August 4, 2001 21:27:13
From:	marbla@naisp.net (Blais Klucznik)
After two months of flawless operation as a GOTO, that is following a
6-month period that it was essentially useless, the ETX125 performance
even amazed a skeptic such as I.  Then, a few days ago, upon turning the
unit on for initialization the scope would not moved either up or down
in elevation.  I did hear what appeared to be a slipping clutch and shut
down power.

This evening I decided to take the ETX apart once more to determine what
the cause for this failure was.  What I found out disgusted me but I
would like to pass the findings on to the group in order to possibly aid
them or warn them of a prospective problem.

When I started this evening I found that I could not loosen the knob
that is secured to the elevation drive clutch and gearing.  It turned
but did not loosen.  (This is the right-hand side of the scope with the
OTA pointed away from you.)  Because I had previously modified the knob
used on this side of the scope by adding a set-screw through a hole
drilled and tapped a hole into the knob for a set-screw in order to
firmly secure the knob to its very small pressed-in screw it was a
simple case of loosening this set screw and removing the knob leaving
its short pressed-in screw in the drive assembly.

I then investigated why I couldn't loosen the knob in the conventional
way.  What I found was that the knob pressed-in screw was screwed into a
tapped hollow 1/4" aluminum tube that had a flat head resembling a nail
or rivet.  This rivet looking 1/4" tapped tubing was simply pressed into
the plastic housing from the inside of the vertical support arm and
epoxied at its head-like tip to the plastic housing.  As the tubing was
not difficult to remove from the plastic housing it clearly showed that
the only means of securing this item to the support arm was a thin
coating of epoxy on the top inside of the nail-like head.

Previously I had witnessed a dealer render defective one of these
ETX125's by trying to tighten this knob during a demonstration but
wasn't sure what caused the failure but I now realize that ALL owners of
the ETX125 might eventually be faced with the same failure caused by the
same mechanism.

This is really unfortunate because after rebuilding the scope, per the
information of Blessings and Clay Sherrod two months ago, this scope has
been marvelous.  Yet very poor design and manufacturing will rear its
ugly head.  Fact of Life.  Its the case of pay now or pay later.

Blais Klucznik
marbla@naisp.net

From:	sherrodc@ipa.net (Clay Sherrod)
That is, indeed, unfortunate but a very common problem.  Most times, yet
I doubt in your case since you have taken such care and thought on the
use of your ETX, the problem originates by the owner tightening WAY too
much in the Altitude clamp.  Part Two:  usually this over-tightening is
a direct result of the clamp slipping in the first place.

Nonetheless, this IS a very weak point in the ETX design and one that
hopefully Meade will address.  I fix way too many of these stripped-out
threaded tubes, and yes it is always broken away from the epoxied and
press fitting.

Certainly I would recommend you attempt to re-fit via some Superglue or
epoxy as this will remedy the problem in 4 out of 5 cases.  But once
again, my advise is to never overtighten this axis....just enough to
engage the motors to move the telescope.

Best of luck.  I am sure that you will get your scope jumping through
hoops in no time!

Clay Sherrod

I do agree with you Clay on the two points you make in reference to the
secondary cause of this particular failure mechanism but, to me, the
primary cause is the design and manufacture of the ETX125 vertical drive
mechanics itself.  How anyone with any mechanical design education and
experience could produce such an abortion is somewhat beyond me.  Then
again we do wonder what our new engineers are being taught today, don't
we.

The whole purpose of any  drive of a driven mechanism is to consistently
move the mechanism to a predetermined position.  The gearing HAS to be
firmly secured to minimize any slippage.  It should take great effort
for one to over-secure and destroy the mechanism.  This certainly is not
true of the ETX125.  Keep in mind I saw a Meade representative do
exactly as I have done during a demonstration of the ETX125 to an
audience.

Based on my many years of experience dealing with militarized equipment
in many guises I, no mechanical engineer, can come up with a much more
secure and foolproff method of doing just that and not what Meade
presents to the general public.

As you are a busy person Clay please do not take up what little time you
have to answer my notes.  I just thought I would pass my findings to you
although I did feel you were already aware of this  I would also like to
say THANKS for your continuing release of the CONSTELLATION themes on
Mike's site.

Thank You

Blais Klucznik

Subject:	Advice needed....
Sent:	Friday, August 3, 2001 12:21:54
From:	kjmalla@yahoo.com (Ken Mallard)
Website is GREAT! I own a great LX200 scope. However, I'm looking for a
lighter scope for mobility purposes (actually was recently diagnosed
with a back disorder). I'm trying to make this as inexpensive as
possible...I'm interested in the ETX125..is it possible to mount it on
my existing LX200 tripod? Maybe with some type of adaptor?

Thanks again..your website has helped answer many questions for me
concerning the ETX scopes..(my question above may be answered there as
well..sorry if I missed it).

-Ken

Subject:	Internal battery problem on ETX-125
Sent:	Thursday, August 2, 2001 6:00:33
From:	edutton@infi.net (Ells Dutton)
I have the same problem with my ETX-125, internal battery power no
longer works.  Have not been too concerned because of using either the
AC or external batteries but sure would be nice on occasions to have the
internal supply working.  I do have easy access to the ETX's control
panel, and internal power is good all the way to the connections to the
board. But, I have not figured any way to unstick the "springy shutoff
thing", if indeed that is the problem, which makes good sense.  The
scope is well used now, having finally finished the Herschel-400 search
with it, barely, and figure it may be getting about time for the Sherrod
tune up anyway.  So, would like to know if the battery problem might be
fixable also.  Having recently purchased an LX200 10" (missed the deal
on the 12" but got an excellent buy on a used 10"), I could part with
the ETX for a few weeks now.

Ells

Subject:	ETX 125 Spotter
Sent:	Tuesday, July 31, 2001 21:59:28
From:	nicnrick@mediaone.net (Rick and Nicole Happoldt)
I have been considering a second scope to go with my 8" LX200.  I was
thinking about a 4" refractor, but the cost is higher than I want to
spend.  I don't care for achromats.  I need something easy to set up,
doesn't need batteries, has great optics for lunar and planetary, and
would also work well on my bogen tripod (maybe even with a TeleVue
mount).  So, I thought about the ETX 125 spotter!

What can you tell me about the 125's optical performance on the moon,
planets, and brighter deep sky stuff.

Any input would be great!

Rick

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