On Sun, Jan 12, 2025 at 06:36 PM, Oberon510 wrote:
Replaced the lan cable and it seems to be better. I noticed that move instructions via the ASCOM driver occasionally delayed for up to 10 seconds so it seemed that the network connection was the problem.
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FYI
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Good catch!? When I see this with my recycled CAT5 patch cables I toss them in the E-Waste bin and pull another one from the recycle box.
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Chip Louie Chief Daydreamer Imagination Hardware?
Astrospheric Forecast - South Pasadena, CA?
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I get weekly emails from Farpoint Astro saying they have wheely bars in stock. I¡¯m pretty sure they might be going out of business but this seems to be something they have plenty of:
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they aren¡¯t cheap but I¡¯ve heard good things about them¡ stable and all that.?
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Re: No phone or internet at Losmandy
On Sun, Jan 12, 2025 at 07:50 AM, George Cushing wrote:
Surprised?me when fire officials said the buildings were basically made of petrochemicals. Said to self, "really?" "OK," vinyl siding, bituminous ro asphalt roofing, phenolic/wood fiber or foam sheathing, polypropylene (PP)?carpeting?on glued MDF flooring, furniture of urethane?foam?covered in PP, PVC plumbing and wire insulation, glulam framing. Didn't?learn much from the Three Little Pigs, did we?
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By weight modern homes here in SoCal are largely steel reinforced wood structures.? I manage some properties in the Pasadena area and one of my jobs are the improvements, I oversee lots of ground up work.? There is very little foam used at all and all fresh water and gas lines are copper or steel.? AFAIK the only plastic material used are for in wall electrical insulation and a single small HVAC drain.? Roofing is largely engineered plywood with the one place where petrochemicals are commonly used in asphalt shingle and treated paper.? But many roofs are concrete shingle for fire resistance.? Not sure what that guy was talking about.??
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Chip Louie Chief Daydreamer Imagination Hardware?
Astrospheric Forecast - South Pasadena, CA?
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Thank you.? Looked at scope roller and definitely a great solution.? Only issue for me is levelling once I get to observing spot.? Is the product still offered in US?
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Yes I envision castors that can be foot-raised and lowered. When lowered of course off we go.? When raised the tripod feet contact the ground.??
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Saw some on amazon MIGHT work but how to attach to losmandy legs.?
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Several problems are ID'd in here that I didn't consider like off balance when feet are raised one be one.? How to set up equatorially, and more.
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Saw this on cloudy nights which could work just like I want.? No up/down wheels and I love the screw adjustable levelling.??
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Gotta thank everyone for ideas.
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On Sun, Jan 12, 2025 at 08:50 AM, Chip Louie wrote:
Thanks Chip I will look into this.
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Also just hoping that you are not too neat the fires.? Stay safe.
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Replaced the lan cable and it seems to be better. I noticed that move instructions via the ASCOM driver occasionally delayed for up to 10 seconds so it seemed that the network connection was the problem.
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FYI
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I am not sure would want them lowered.? At one time, I made a caster system for many mounts including Losmandys that had locks on them.? I used them on my GM8 and G811G with no noticeable vibration.? I have since sold the company ton an American in Poland.? See scoperoller.com
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On 1/12/2025 11:50 AM, Chip Louie via groups.io wrote: Has anyone constructed dolly wheels that attach to the legs and can be raised and lowered? I don't raise and lower my wheels but my setup is just as stiff. Here is what I use. I have a Losmandy G811 that I keep in the garage fully set up with scope and mini-PC.? I observe from the end of my concrete driveway. To move the rig, I bought a used JMI Wheely Bar with 5" wheels.? But I quickly realized that the hard wheels (even the 5" ones) rolled VERY roughly over my concrete driveway with cracks.? So I removed all three wheels and fabricated a triangular piece of plywood that bolts from underneath to the center of the Wheely Bar as well as two of the three legs using the threaded holes for the leg extensions. The jack screws protrude through clearance holes in the plywood.? I then ran an axle across the open end of the triangle between the two rear legs and added 8" semi-pneumatic tires.? To finish it off, I made a handle from 1/2" steel conduit sections that attaches to the third leg (opposite the new axle) and makes lifting and guiding the front of the rig easy. In use, I retract the two jack screws next to the 8" wheels, grab the counterweight shaft for balance and safety, and lift the handle to tilt the rig back on the rear wheels.? I then roll it as needed on just the two 8" rear wheels.? They are soft enough that I feel comfortable with the level of vibration and they roll over cracks easily and the whole thing steers easily.? When I get to the desired location, I lower the handle which puts the front jack screw on the ground (remember, no wheel on that leg).? I then screw the two rear jack screws to lift the rear wheels off the ground and I'm open for business.? I put a pair of lock nuts on each jack screw so that when I screw them down, they stop at the same place each time, so once level it stays level from one session to the next. Total expenditure, maybe $20 plus the used Wheely Bar.? Total time from garage to observation location at the end of my driveway..... maybe two minutes, including reeling out an extension cord for power.? Ditto for the trip back to the garage. I set the rig in the same place and orientation each time so with a simple run of the NINA polar alignment routine, I'm up and running. I 3D printed some large knobs with finger holes for the jack screws to make them easier to spin up and down.? Not sure what JMI supplied as the jack screws were missing on my used Wheely Bar. The plywood piece serves two functions, actually.? First, it is the attachment point for the axle.? But it also seriously stiffens the whole assembly, which feels just as rigid with the jack screws down as the tripod does by itself.? Without it, the legs felt a bit wobbly even with the jack screws down. My approach, anyway. Did I need the Wheely Bar?? Probably not..... a larger triangular piece of plywood with appropriate holes and threaded T nuts for the jack screws would probably have worked as well.? But I had it, so..... Paul -- Paul Goelz Rochester Hills, MI USA pgoelz@... www.pgoelz.com
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Re: Alternative Azimuth/Alt locking screws/knobs on G11G
On Sun, Jan 12, 2025 at 07:40 AM, Mike Colyar wrote:
Those needle bearings are a very good thing. And a drop of oil or grease on the threads as well.
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I build custom machinery of all sorts and whenever possible I avoid short fasteners. The object of a screw fastener is to clamp things together. I don't really care what the torque numbers might be as long as I get the clamping forces needed. As soon as you get away from cheap junk like internal combustion engines for the masses, the idea of a torque wench goes out the window. We use either hardened and lubricated washers or, if practical from a corrosion point of view, those needle thrust bearings. Friction is your enemy. Of course you can go to far in this direction and have the nut back off. Seldom an issue but possible.
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The procedure is to take the slack out of the system and then turn the nut a specified angle based on a simple incline calculation. What we want is a certain tension on the bolt. Or to put it another way, a specified amount of stretch. This is not 'rocket science' but just understanding the relationship between stress and strain. Once you get used to the idea that everything, and I mean everything, is elastic, it's easy to to figure out how to convert an angular rotation of a nut into tension on a fastener. If the bolt is short, the desired tension comes up really fast. Use a longer bolt or a finer pitch thread. Perhaps swap out that 3/8" x 16 bolt for a 3/8" x 24.
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Before you all start tuning up, I know that this is a classic case of 'Garbage in. Garbage out.' That is to say, how do you know what tension is desired on the fastener? As the preacher said to the townspeople in the movie Blazing Saddles, "You're on your own!".
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Mike Colyar
Lopez Island, Washington State
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(Wintering in Baja where it's B1/B2 skies every moonless night. Eat your heart out.)
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Unless the mount base is drilled and new threads cut the pitch is not going to change.? There is plenty of mass and friction to hold the mount stable on the mount base with modest force.
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People here somehow always think that more force is always better which is completely incorrect.? I see it every day, for example people posting how their clutches are slipping and they need more torque on the clutch plates.? Think about it, why would the clutches slip if the clutches are clean and dry?? Because they are not clean and dry? Because the saddle payload is not properly balanced on both axis???
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I have no slippage on my 20+ year old fully updated G11G with 60 pounds in the saddle while imaging and I don't have to torque the bejeezus out of the clutches for some reason.? I occasionally take that same mount and pull off the imaging gear to go visual by simply rebalancing the payload and basically fully loosening the clutches for 2 finger PUSH-TO operation and it still tracks any object perfectly all night.
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This is the way the Losmandy mounts were designed to be used and they work perfectly this way.? If your mount doesn't work this way you have an unbalanced mount payload, contaminated clutches, incorrectly assembled mount, dirty bearings, distorted clutch surfaced damaged by over torqueing the clutches end of story.?
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Chip Louie Chief Daydreamer Imagination Hardware?
Astrospheric Forecast - South Pasadena, CA?
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Hi,
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My mount tracking has been rock solid for a while now but I moved my guidescope up the mount to avoid a bigger EFW and things have been worse since then. I don't think it is the guidescope move so looking for advice.
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The indications are :-
1. in PHD2 movements in Dec seem to go weird (walkabout to the Ozzies on this Topic) and then come good - all this after a Calibration run.
2. when parking at CWD the scope ends up at ~2am and stops there - says parked and tracking off.
3. Sometimes getting PHD2 error - Pulseguide command to mount has failed.
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I have rebalanced my mount/scope and cleaned/sprayed all cables. Any further suggestions on this and I do leave the mount out overnight under a Telegizmo 365 and I do get a little moisture on the mount. The temperatures here only get down ~40 overnight so I expect it is not temp related. I am thinking of replacing the cables and opening the Gemini-2.
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Appreciate any suggestions?
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Thanks,
Ken
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George,
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Do when you say "raised and lowered" do you mean so that in the raised position the tripod will roll and in the lowered position the tripod feet will contact the ground?
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That is a huge range of motion, especially if you have decent (needed to traverse rough ground) sized wheels. Like four to eight inches.
And given the weight of the tripod you'd need something in the design to give you the mechanical advantage needed to move the wheels with the load (mount+telescope) present.
And to avoid tipping you'd ideally want them all to raise and lower in sync over that kind of range of motion (4 to 8 inches). Or to be able to move the individual wheels up and down in small increments so you could work your way around the tripod, raising and lowering the tripod incrementally.
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I think this is why George Cushing couldn't find any.
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The usual solution is to make/buy what is called a tripod dolly (JMI makes what are known as "Wheeley Bars") that have jack screws (with pads to spread the load) to slightly raise the wheels off the ground.
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If you are handy with working with metal (nuts and bolts or even welding) you can readily make one. Otherwise, spend the money. Or make something out of plywood.
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The advantage of building your own is you can use proper jack screws (it is a special square section Acme thread). The commercial astro-specific models use a standard, triangular, National Coarse thread which, over time, will strip under the load of going up and down. I know this because I maintain the Wheeley Bars our local Park District has. And whenever I set it up for them I place metal pucks (they now sell as an upgrade pads but that reduces the ground clearance) under the screws so they don't punch thru the blacktop. And we replaced the (cheaper) pneumatic (billed as providing a "soft ride") tires with marginally more expensive solid ones that never need inflating and actually give a better ride.
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Best regards,
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Mark Christensen
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On Sat, Jan 11, 2025 at 02:45 PM, George Anderson wrote:
Has anyone constructed dolly wheels that attach to the legs and can be raised and lowered?
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The best dollies I have seen are the old Wheeliebars, I have one I use to roll my rig out of the garage to the observation point on my paved driveway.? The Wheeliebars I have are the medium payload with small wheels and 1/2" threaded jack screws that I put large 2 ton equipment leveling foot pads on. I have probably been overloading them for the last 10 years, I leave a G11G on an old Losmandy HD and more recently a LWT, 60 plus pounds in the G11G saddle and 70 plus pounds of counterweight as well as a medium 30Ahr battery pack and networking gear. They are worth finding and buying!?
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You can sometimes find them used for a few hundred dollars which seems high but there is nothing else like them and unless you are a steel fabricator you won't build anything as strong or as stable in wood for even a few hundred bucks.??
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Chip Louie Chief Daydreamer Imagination Hardware?
Astrospheric Forecast - South Pasadena, CA?
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Tripod dollies are common, but castors are made for studio use where a level?floor is expected. Can't find any that are adjustable.
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Re: No phone or internet at Losmandy
Surprised?me when fire officials said the buildings were basically made of petrochemicals. Said to self, "really?" "OK," vinyl siding, bituminous ro asphalt roofing, phenolic/wood fiber or foam sheathing, polypropylene (PP)?carpeting?on glued MDF flooring, furniture of urethane?foam?covered in PP, PVC plumbing and wire insulation, glulam framing. Didn't?learn much from the Three Little Pigs, did we?
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Re: Alternative Azimuth/Alt locking screws/knobs on G11G
Those needle bearings are a very good thing. And a drop of oil or grease on the threads as well.
?
I build custom machinery of all sorts and whenever possible I avoid short fasteners. The object of a screw fastener is to clamp things together. I don't really care what the torque numbers might be as long as I get the clamping forces needed. As soon as you get away from cheap junk like internal combustion engines for the masses, the idea of a torque wench goes out the window. We use either hardened and lubricated washers or, if practical from a corrosion point of view, those needle thrust bearings. Friction is your enemy. Of course you can go to far in this direction and have the nut back off. Seldom an issue but possible.
?
The procedure is to take the slack out of the system and then turn the nut a specified angle based on a simple incline calculation. What we want is a certain tension on the bolt. Or to put it another way, a specified amount of stretch. This is not 'rocket science' but just understanding the relationship between stress and strain. Once you get used to the idea that everything, and I mean everything, is elastic, it's easy to to figure out how to convert an angular rotation of a nut into tension on a fastener. If the bolt is short, the desired tension comes up really fast. Use a longer bolt or a finer pitch thread. Perhaps swap out that 3/8" x 16 bolt for a 3/8" x 24.
?
Before you all start tuning up, I know that this is a classic case of 'Garbage in. Garbage out.' That is to say, how do you know what tension is desired on the fastener? As the preacher said to the townspeople in the movie Blazing Saddles, "You're on your own!".
?
Mike Colyar
Lopez Island, Washington State
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(Wintering in Baja where it's B1/B2 skies every moonless night. Eat your heart out.)
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Re: Alternative Azimuth/Alt locking screws/knobs on G11G
On Sat, Jan 11, 2025 at 01:19 PM, Gerard wrote:
Are they ball bearing or thrust bearings?
The 3/8 thrust bearings were thin pin bearings.? Given the use, I purchased mine off amazon (example: ).? I use them on the G11G head and HDT leg knobs.
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Lowering the nut friction only increases the clamping force at the same applied nut torque. In practice this accessory only makes it easier to hand operate the knobs.?
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Doug
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Has anyone constructed dolly wheels that attach to the legs and can be raised and lowered?
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Re: Alternative Azimuth/Alt locking screws/knobs on G11G
Doug,
That sounds like a great idea, more torque, and I also guess less alignment shift when tightening.? Are they ball bearing or thrust bearings?
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Jerry
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Re: Alternative Azimuth/Alt locking screws/knobs on G11G
Thanks Brendan and Doug - my order is in.
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Chip Louie
Ryan Noonan
