I'd like to hear from Brian or anyone at Losmandy to address my concerns. If it's a non issue then I'm happy to go ahead with the load as it is knowing that I'm still within the mount specs.

I hear you about no meridian flip Sonny. It is very cool indeed to have that extra space.

That CN-212 is a rescue. I don't know if any of you guys have access to the TAK group but I have a photo gallery there at?/g/UncensoredTakGroup/album?id=224698?. I rebuilt it from scratch.
Like you I haven't won the lotto yet and don't have much pesos to spend on astro gear. My one and only mount is 20 years old and that scope is even older. I have to say it has beautiful optics. I did a lot of deepsky imaging with it with that G11. It's long FL and I'm starting to do some planetary with it too.

My experience is that with more weight tracking is more stable. Maybe you have a bit of stiction. Clutch or grease in bearings/worms. Bit of cleaning and maintenance sorts out 99% of issues.

I am using a G11G purchased new in December 2018. Currently I have mounted a C11 with external focuser and imaging train with a cooled ZWO camera, aluminum dew shield on the front. Earlier this year I was using a C8 with the Hyperstar unit. The last few months I have noticed that my tracking in RA is less accurate than last year. Previously I could get 60 second exposures with the C8+Hyperstar, but my maximum this summer was 30 seconds without clearly oval stars. I now have the same issues with the C11 at f/7. The go to function is perfect and I seem to have no issues with Dec drift. Using the HC Mount Balance function, my offset on the RA axis consistently shows a value of negative 6 or so and the PWM ranges to 12-15% while tracking.

i have played with balancing every session, and check polar alignment frequently. Is it possible that I need to make a small mechanical adjustment on my RA worm drive? I am not mechanically inclined so I have avoided doing anything to the factory adjustment. If someone can give me a Dummies Guide to Adjusting Your G11 Without Sending It Back to Scott, I would appreciate it.

After a few emails with Alexander at Astro Gadget, he has kindly offered to send a replacement unit, because of the comments on this post i have asked if the replacement can be a wifi adaptor instead so fingers crossed he is ok with that.

Hi all, update, the grub screw on the Oldham coupler had come loose, the thread in the hole has gone sloppy and the screw could do with being a bit longer to catch more thread, fortunately there are 2 grub screws on either end of the coupler so I have used the other on for now to get me out of a hole, I want to try and find some longer grub screws.
The Allen key is 1/16 according to its holder, is that the size grub screw I need to order can anyone please advise?

On Mon, Sep 21, 2020 at 06:13 PM, marc@... wrote:

What payload do you have on the mount? I'm talking about C11 type load here for myself. I'll weigh the Takahashi CN-212 and see. I'd be interested to hear people experience with heavier loads.
PS: Just weighted it.? It's 13kg with Camera.?

Mine is pretty light. From the Bar up, I'm at?7.937866 Kilo's (17.5 pounds) My stuff is small, Deep Space Objects, Nebula specific, OSC Atik Infinky camera. ;^)
Just an Orion ED80T CF telescope, which is a mere 2.49 Kilo's dry. All the rest of the "fat" is my added on stuff. LOL!
Pretty fly weight, compared to you and most others. Bottom dweller here. Poor Boy Astro. ;^)
I can't see me with a beautiful scope like your Tak. I think the CFO might clip my nuts if something that nice showed up.

It looks like you have plenty of D-bar to balance with the RAEXT. So No worries, Mate.
Once you are ready, try doing a no meridian flip run. My very first one went . From eastward to near mount crash westward. I got the deepest image ever.
And all because Scott managed to make the Meridian flip obsolete.
But I did get the RAEXT to divide the load up into manageable pieces.
I had no second thoughts about balance, I trust Scott took that into consideration. And I had to rebalance after I changed to "Piggy Backed" with my Guide Scope.
I honestly think you will really like having the RAEXT. No need to dismount your weights anymore. And when you assemble, all lands in balance.

Still drooling over your Tak. ;^)



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(I post links to save server space. They go to Cloudy terms of service.)
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SonnyE


(I suggest viewed in full screen)

Hi!

Thanks for your help with new worms for GM8, in fact teleskop-express had some misinformation about Losmandy worms. New high precision worm was installed into my GM8 (steel worm is still in DEC place, propably I will replace it sooner or later) and it fits well - it also runs much smoother now in RA.
I bought Losmandy with DIY AstroEQ drive but I dumped it all except a motor and drive shaft housing- there were some bad choices with stepper motors, drivers and the mount was generally neglected when I bought it (but I bought it cheap I guess). At that time, it was guiding with 2.5" RMS and did rough spikes from time to time on both axis, even after re-lubing (240mm guider scope and ASI120).

Installed OnStep with new 400 step motors and 3:1 reduction on belt, installed High Precision worm and new EZO bearings for drive shaft and my worm blocks. On the first night after upgrade I had 0.8"RMS on PHD2 and it was really good except some RA spikes - I had both some failure on Onstep with weather control as well as my Oldham couplers are worn out and I thing they were slipping. Picture for thank you below!

I now installed new dog clutches and needed some grinding of tightening screws, that's why it's messy, sorry! - unfortunately there is very little space on Losmandy for clutches. Dog-clutches that are really tight and also run smoother that Oldhams with no strange pulsating under fingers when moved manually.?

I hope next upgrade is installing Belleville washers (but I really can't find anything suitable in EU right now). On the other hand, the drive shaft is already pushing a bit of force on worms and PHD2 didn't really complain about backlash, also measured RA and DEC movement was really close to the predicted one. Maybe a DIY-spring loading for worm blocks or DIY one-piece worm blocks from current housing (I saw it somewhere on the internet and can't find it now) would be nice.

A last short look on Pleiades and photo of my DIY drive for you.

Thanks,
Dominik

Here's a pic of the whole setup indoors.

Wow, thanks for all the input! I'm going to stick with cleaning the clutches, but I'll try these alternative clutches to see what kind of difference it makes. I've also ordered an old fashioned beam 1/4 torque wrench, and when conditions are not good for photography I'll try some tests on my own about tightness. I previously did some simple tests and found that looser was better for the clutch (within a limit), but I did not do this in any sort of a repeatable way. I'll try again next time, adjusting tightness in a repeatable way, and checking the RMS during the same session.?

Jamie

On Mon, Sep 21, 2020 at 01:54 PM, Jamie Amendolagine wrote:

Not that old. Got to my house?Jun 24, 2019 to be precise.?

For now I'll look at cleaning the clutch.?

Jamie, here's a link to clutch cleaning:?https://youtu.be/oQgSfXKQJ5A
?
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SonnyE


(I suggest viewed in full screen)

What payload do you have on the mount? I'm talking about C11 type load here for myself. I'll weigh the Takahashi CN-212 and see. I'd be interested to hear people experience with heavier loads.
PS: Just weighted it.? It's 13kg with Camera.?

Actually, I'm at 34.5° North.
So we may not be that much different.
Except the water in our toilets spins backwards. That is a bit annoying.

I love the RAEXT. But for other reasons as well.
I tried the No Meridian Flip of it. I found it amazing!
I think once you get to using it you will probably like it a lot.

(Looks around) I might be the only other one using the RAEXT around here. 8^0
But I got it so I could manage my set-up better. The No Meridian Flip is a treat for me.
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SonnyE


(I suggest viewed in full screen)

Anybody else has an opinion or can shed some light on this?

Very likely your coupling gave way.? This can happen with the inline couplers. The clamping type. If the worm meshing gets tight with dropping temperature and you have high torque motors they won't stall. The coupler will give on the worm side or gearbox shaft side. Never happened to me with the oldham because they have grub screws. Different system.

On Mon, Sep 21, 2020 at 01:25 PM, Jamie Amendolagine wrote:

My DEC seems to need quite a bit more tightening that it used to. I seem to remember that there was a "imaging" version of the clutch that was sticker? Is that right? I might want to switch to that one. I pretty much just image with my GM811G, and a sticker clutch would be great.

I seem to get much better tracking/guiding when I've tightened the clutches just the right amount. It seems that tightening them puts pressure on the bearings and I imagine there is an optimal torque for those bearings. I almost want to use a torque wrench on them to dial them in to just the right amount.?

Jamie

If you put three dabs of Dow Corning 3145 RTV on the side of the disc opposite the bearing on the flange you'll limit the slide by half.

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开云体育

Kofi,

Brian,
I think that I tightened the clutches a little more than usual, but I noticed that the accuracy improved. Is there a potential for damage to the bearings when I tighten down?

-Erik

Hi, All. I have been using my new G11t for about two and a half weeks now and have yet to figure out how to hook it up for auto guiding. I have been using PHD2 with my Celestron CGX-L mount with some success, but I have a few issues getting PHD2 to recognize my new mount. I tried getting a connector bit that would go from the old phone jack type port that is labeled “autoguiding” on the mount. Old telephone port to USB port dongles don’t seem to exist anywhere I have checked. I also tried using the ethernet port using an ethernet cable and a usb crossover. My relatively new PC doesn’t have ethernet ports. So far nothing works. Can anyone enlighten me how to make all this work?
?
Thanks,

Jeff