Meade LX3 8" quatrz

Back in 1987 I bought in Richmond VA a Meade LX3 8" quatrz.
I'm now back home in Belgium and last spring one or more of the electronic components on the card inside the telescope failed; It might also be the little transfomer.
I contacted Mead germany (the official dealer in Europe) and they canot repair my instrument.
I wrote a not to Meade California to complain about this, but no answer. Anybody having a trick or spare parts he would agree to ship to me for resonable fee ?

Make sure it is not just a fuse. I use a schools LX200 that has something flaky on the board, so a fuse goes out every year or so. I don't know if the boards are similar to the LX3, but they may be.

Also on that same scope (maybe this is where the problem started) I replaced a single large capacitor. The old one had blown out (probably from voltage reversal) and the new one was from Radio Shack. Look closely at the board and see if anything looks like it got too hot.

Good luck,
Charlie

Jean,

The board for a LX-3 should not be all that complicated. It's a quartz controlled osc. into a power amplifier driving a transformer for the RA drive motor (probably not even PEC adjustments onboard). A very straight forward desin to anyone into radio/electronics. My guess (assuming the fuse is OK) is that it's probably a bum capacitor at that age. Look for some slight heat/bubble damage on the plastic coated "can-like" board items. In your case the hardest part may be getting the PC board out of the mounting base, however.

Any TV or Radio repair shop worth it's salt should be able to remove and "back engineer" the board for the design and then repair it. Also, try the local Radio Armature group in your city and I'd bet they might even do it for free if you offer to let them look through it when it's fixed.

Good luck! TM

These can be repaired with new parts, many of which are still available. I fixed someone's LX5 quartz drive by replacing the SAA1027 stepper motor chip, all of the 4000 series logic chips, burnt caps, and diodes. Wrong power supply fried the board.

I don't know the LX3's layout, but start with the power supply, switching, and hand paddle. Verify that power is OK before swapping out logic chips.

If the LX3 uses the SAA1027 chip, it is available at:

http://www.optecinc.com/astronomy/prices/astronomy_price_list.html

Happy Soldering (and desoldering)!