Menifee event and telescope question

[John Garrett]

Yesterday, Adrian, Tytan and I setup solar telescopes at Menifee’s May the Fourth event. It went well, except that we had to compete with R2D2 and other crowd pleasing droids (Hobbyists create these. Via remote control these droids do everything I’ve seen in the movies).
As far as outreach went, it was a success.

Second question. The club has a 10-inch fork mounted Meade telescope. I’m looking at the power connection and trying to figure out what the connector is. It’s shown in the 2nd picture, labeled 12 VDC. I don’t know what type or size of connector plugs into the power connection. I have cords that look close, but are too big. What name of specification should I be looking for?

Thanks
John

[Cla...@s-i-g-h.com]

Looks too me like a 6-pin DIN connector. They were popular in the 1970s through the 1980s. 

DIN stands for Duetche Industrial Norman. 

You will need the amps and we’ll need to find out if  it is a dual voltage device. If so the pin designation can be one of two standards. Most likely it is not dual voltage as those were mostly used for disk drives that required 5V/12V power. 

You’re looking at about 12 to 25 dollars even from Amazon which you should avoid using if possible. They are still used and still work well.

The little square hole in the left side of the image is a key to prevent improper insertion. 

Hope this helps 

Clark 

brick

A 6-pin DIN 12V power brick is commonly used for external hard drive enclosures, small ITX power supplies, and specialized electronics, with prices ranging from approximately $18 to $36 for replacement models on Walmart and Amazon. These units frequently feature a combined 12V/5V output (dual voltage) and are designed with 6-prong connectors to power both the motor and logic board of devices

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On May 10, 2026, at 08:02, John Garrett <garr...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yesterday, Adrian, Tytan and I setup solar telescopes at Menifee’s May the Fourth event. It went well, except that we had to compete with R2D2 and other crowd pleasing droids (Hobbyists create these. Via remote control these droids do everything I’ve seen in the movies).

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[li...@issabove.com]

Hi John

The actual power connection looks to be a standard 12V power plug (note the little line connecting to the circular plug where it says "12V" not the DIN socket you reference). The DIN socket will likely be for both power + data/control for "something". Can you take a wider photo of the entire control board?

John Hoot (OCA Member) worked with Meade on many of their control systems/boards and may be able to help - but will need to know any identifying model numbers.

I know we also have a bunch of spare cables for various Meade scopes at the OCA Observatory, and I will be able to check for those next Saturday when I'll be running the Observatory for their monthly member star party.

-Liam

[Mark Baker]

Hi John…. The several times I used it for solar observing there was a power cable for it that I plugged into a power pack via a cigarette lighter connection. It’s been a long time but I thought it was in the aluminum accessory case…

Mark Baker
951-691-0101
KN6CQR
President Emeritus, Temecula Valley Astronomers
Solar System Ambassador, NASA / JPL
Docent, CalTech Palomar Observatory
Citizen Scientist Emeritus, Planetary Defense Coordinating Office

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[John Garrett]

Here’s a wider field pov. 

Mark, the mounting bolts and power supply are both unaccounted for. I looked through the accessories case and tripod case. I found bolts that will work (same spec as my Losmandy mount), but if you find the originals, I’ll reunite them with their mount. 

Liam, yes, I’m wondering what the jack labeled 12VDC is. It’s close to the size of the cable I put next to it in this picture, but the cable doesn’t fit. It’s too big.

If I knew what that jack size is, I’d wire it to my 12V battery.

There’s nothing in the accessories that connects to the drive controller. I’m only hoping to get the clock drive working, but if anyone had or could suggest a controller, I’m interested.

I see online there are dozens off connectors in the approximate size 

Thanks

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On May 10, 2026, at 10:26 AM, Mark Baker <shkn...@gmail.com> wrote:



[li...@issabove.com]

This photos come across as very low resolution. Is there any way to get better quality or is this something to do with the way googlegroups works? 

Note: DIN is merely a connector standard – the way it will be wired up is custom for the specific devices.. so you’ll need the wiring diagram from somewhere.

 

From: tvastr...@googlegroups.com <tvastr...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of John Garrett
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2026 11:47 AM
To: Mark Baker <shkn...@gmail.com>
Cc: TVA <tvastr...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [TVAstro] Menifee event and telescope question

 

Here’s a wider field pov. 

 

Mark, the mounting bolts and power supply are both unaccounted for. I looked through the accessories case and tripod case. I found bolts that will work (same spec as my Losmandy mount), but if you find the originals, I’ll reunite them with their mount. 

 

Liam, yes, I’m wondering what the jack labeled 12VDC is. It’s close to the size of the cable I put next to it in this picture, but the cable doesn’t fit. It’s too big.

 

If I knew what that jack size is, I’d wire it to my 12V battery.

 

There’s nothing in the accessories that connects to the drive controller. I’m only hoping to get the clock drive working, but if anyone had or could suggest a controller, I’m interested.

 

I see online there are dozens off connectors in the approximate size 

 

Thanks

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvastronomers/C2A4D90D-4B11-43E1-BE67-30CBE5A482BE%40gmail.com.

[li...@issabove.com]

The hi res photo helped a lot

 

Lots of info “on the internets” that may be helpful – especially this I think: https://www.cloudynights.com/forums/topic/960969-meade-2120-10-lx3-clock-drive-power/

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvastronomers/71d9e01dce0bf%24dd3fbef0%2497bf3cd0%24%40issabove.com.

[li...@issabove.com]

What do you expect the DIN connection prong will do?  It says “drive corrector” for that port… and the info I have found shows a handbox that connects there. It isn’t for powering anything.  Although it does look like a pretty important part of the telescope control.

 

https://www.cloudynights.com/forums/topic/775349-lx3-from-late-80s-decent-optics-broken-clock-drive/

 

From: John Garrett <garr...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2026 4:33 PM
To: li...@issabove.com
Subject: Re: [TVAstro] Menifee event and telescope question

 

Thank you. This is a long thread (in a good way) so I’ll read through it in case anyone let slip some useful specs on the connection prong.

 

jg

 

 

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On May 10, 2026, at 3:51 PM, li...@issabove.com wrote: