Hi Natalie: I've also had issues with cable hanging up on knobs or other things with my Losmandy , CGEM and Mesu GEM mounts.? Here is the latest way that I've dealt with routing of cabling that 1) won't hang up on any knobs and 2) provides minimal torque on an axis( which is vitally important with the Mesu).? Basically it's two loops by the Dec axis.? One loop takes care of RA movement and the other addresses the movement of the Dec axis.? I use a Velcro loop to divide one large loop into two at the Dec axis housing. ?? This setup also the tandem Losmandy dovetail mountings.
Regards
Mike
Hi All,
We are struggling to get a good (imaging) cable management solution to work with our new G11G and would like some advice.
Our mount safety limits are currently set to 95 degrees on both east and west, with the default goto limit.
We also replaced the Az hold down wing nuts with the larger, handles that are used on the top of the tripod legs. This allows the Az deck to be tightened down much more easily and firmly during PA, and then the handles can be positioned so there are less surfaces to snag on than the aluminum wing nuts;
Everything seems OK with a 12" CAT, but we are struggling with cable routing when using a small(er) 102 APO with OAG and 50mm EAA finder.
(On the CAT we are anchoring to the LX200 handle with velcro.)
Our cabling is routed through a home made sleeve, consisting of satin blanket edging sewn into a sleeve. This is super slippery and flexible and glides?
over anything on the mount except for the hook side of velcro.?
We use a LOT of double sided velcro strapping on the tripod legs, both the skinny and wide versions from Home Depot, with the loop side always facing outward to minimize snagging as well. That way we are not gooing up the tripod with velcro adhesive all over the place.
We are running ultra-flexible silicone 16 ga power for camera cooling, as well as 3 zwo flat usb3 cables and? 'ultraslim' cat6 cables for the FT focusers, and? RCA extension cables for the dew heaters through that sleeve. After about 6 feet or so, we change to a plastic loom strapped to a tripod leg, which then connects to all the various stuff velcro'd to the inside of the tripod legs, then onto the battery pack.?
The desire is to have a standard single harness that will work for both a big CAT as well small refractors.
We just can't figure out the best way to loop the cable from the saddle to the stationary part of the mount.
We have tried using loop from the saddle plate to the mount post, but we can't seem to find a place that doesn't allow the cable to snag.
We have tried using a 1/4", 16" long carbon fiber rod strapped to various positions on top ot the OTA as well as at saddle plate height to extend the loom off the back of the deck, but that doesn't seem great either.?
Also, we were wondering if the 12" post extension may be useful to provide an anchor point above the tripod legs, any thoughts there ?
Realizing that the trend nowdays is to put everything on top of the saddle, we are not ready to do this quite yet, as it does add additional payload weight that we are trying to avoid, and even so, there still is the requirement to run some kind of cabling to the deck.
Since cable loom flexibility is not our issue, we will resist moving stuff (control boxes, hub, etc) to the top of the scope (for now).
This also allows us to adjust the heater controls, turn usb devices on and off, etc, without disturbing the telescope deck much, and seems like it would keep the control units drier when they are protected on the inside of the tripod legs. As well as not having to add additional cabling for the focuser hand controllers, laser pointer remote switch, etc.
So any advice as to what works for others would be greatly appreciated as it seems that good cable management is critical for good guiding results.
Thanks,
Nat
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