This happened to me on my 3rd night out with the scope and from what I’ve read elsewhere its a pretty common problem. Some of the keys didn’t work, the declination axis worked in one direction, etc… Don’t panic if this happens to you! All that’s going on is that a connector inside the hand controller has come loose. If you open up the controller it should be pretty obvious what’s going wrong. Remove the 2 screws on the back of the controller and pull off the back plastic panel. Inside you’ll find the printed circuit board connected to the front of the controller (where the keys are) by a blue connector. (Circled in red in the picture) This is what’s come loose. Just push it back in, pop the back on, screw it in place and everything should be fine again. I used some electrical tape over the connector and the back of the circuit board to keep it in place. The thing’s been fine since. |
February 27th, 2014 on 14:50
Hi,
I recently acquired a LX50 without the keypad..As I looked at your picture showing the inside of the keypad, It seems to me to be quite simple, did you noticed if there are any IC and/or relay,,as I intend to build one since there are so rare.
Best reguard’s
Richard R
March 1st, 2014 on 03:51
Hi Richard. I’m going on memory here (and it has been over 10 years since I had this scope) but I do believe the hand controller had an IC. I looked though my old stuff and unfortunately I can’t find a picture of the other side of the PCB so I can confirm.
July 27th, 2017 on 01:13
Hola. Tengo LX50 EMC SCT fallaba el control. Desarme el control y conecté la ficha, esto me funcionó varias veces. Ahora ya no funciona el handbox. No se que hacer ahora. Está conectado la ficha interna
July 27th, 2017 on 17:49
Hello Javier. Unfortunately it could be anything… The controller itself, the cable or something on the LX50 main board. Have you checked the cable? That is most likely source of failure. Do the lights on the controller come on at all? Unfortunately, I sold my LX50 years ago so I don’t have anything I can help you test with…
February 28th, 2022 on 16:42
I inherited an lx50 emc scope. The hand controller is missing but the base drive electronics is working and mainta sidereal rate. I am looking for info concerning the simple 5 button hand controller serial data words associated with the buttons (E,W,N,S,Speed). I want to try building a replacement.
February 28th, 2022 on 16:50
Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of info on the controller for the LX50 out there anymore. If I still had this scope, I’d be happy to help map stuff out for you, but it’s long gone… The following links may help, though. The LX3 controller may be similar enough to work?
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/601241-how-to-get-a-meade-lx50-handbox-run-for-a-lxd750/
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/382232-meade-lx3-hand-control-reproduction/