Meade #506 Cable Connector Kit with Software

by Meade

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 12 x 6 x 12 inches ; 8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001DZ6K0
• Item model number: 04513
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 15, 2005

Product Description

For use with ETX-60/70/80 Only

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars outdated software, April 24, 2007

By 

Ruth Ruhl-Rabis (Arizona) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Meade #506 Cable Connector Kit with Software (Electronics)

The software this kit comes with is old and outdated. It is not supported by Windows XP nor Windows Vista. The latest supported version of Windows is Windows 98.
It also appears that the included software is a limited trial software. It is limited to the included 3 catalogs (star maps). The complete set of catalogs must be purchased additionally at quite some expense.
The cable connection kit couldn't be reviewed because it was missing from the package I received, but keep in mind when you order this kit, that neither Windows XP nor Windows Vista support serial ports anymore. The additional USB to serial adapter would be required.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interface cable is fine, software leaves much to be desired, March 27, 2010

By 

Timothy F. Miller (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Meade #506 Cable Connector Kit with Software (Electronics)

I purchased this to control my DS2114AT-TC from a laptop. It was literally plug-n-play with Linux and Kstars. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the supplied AstroFinder software.

I use a cheap USB to serial converter to provide RS-232 connectivity on my laptop. The AstroFinder software failed to work with the XP assigned COM9 port, so I forced it to COM1 under the hardware advanced tab settings. When that failed to work, I set the Windows program compatibility option to Windows 98/ME. After a few more reboots, the program finally started to work.

(Technical note: If you are trying to debug the serial interface with an external RS-232 monitor, be aware that the AstroFinder software does not appear to initialize any hardware handshaking lines.)

Compared to Kstars, the AstroFinder software was archaic and very slow. The graphical interface was reminiscent of an older DOS application. Browsing the sky can only be described as "painful" when compared to the speed and user interface of Kstars.

Perhaps my biggest software complaint is that the top menu buttons only show up as relatively small icons. There are no pop-up windows describing their function, requiring one to consult the PDF documentation, or click on the icon to see what happens.

The ONLY reason that I even bothered booting up Windows XP and installing the Meade software was to simplify the update of the satellite Keplerian elements. Even that was a time consuming hassle. I found that it was far faster to just enter the data manually from the telescope.

Overall, I am pleased with the quality of the proprietary serial interface cable, but I will likely never again use the AstroFinder software. I will consider this as the purchase of an interface cable with a bloated demo-ware application included as a teaser. This is fine with me as the cable, Kstars, and Slackware Linux work extremely well controlling the DS2114 from my Dell Mini-9.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars basics OK - could be better, January 23, 2008

By 

Arnie Aistars (Ladera Ranch, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Meade #506 Cable Connector Kit with Software (Electronics)

The manual is well-written, complete, and easy to understand, and the software functions reasonably well. Accuracy is spot on. I had no problems syncing my DS2080 and the display on my laptop was what I saw through the eyepiece. There's a longer lag than I expected for the software to catch up to any adjustments made to the scope, but once I got used to it it wasn't too annoying. I could not get the "remote handbox" feature to work after several tries. This should allow you to use all of the features of the handbox directly from the laptop. Not a huge deal, but I was looking forward to being able to read object descriptions as blocks of text on my laptop, rather than annoying scroll on the 1-line display of the handbox. It would be nice to have a printable (or at least viewable) Tour and Log. You can add objects to create a Tour offline, but I could find no way to access the list or edit it. Ditto for the Viewing log. The "night vision" display (converts your screen display to red) is a nice plus.