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Questions for QH/HH owners about my recently acquired Quarter Hitch

 

Hi all,

I have an FTQ mount I acquired directly from Charles about 8 years ago and I've really enjoyed using it. It's pure simplicity - no encoders (I think only a few were built without), no slow motion, just pure alt/az.?

Today, I received my second HH engineering mount - a decked out Quarter Hitch! Unlike my FTQ, this one has all the bells and whistles - slow motion, encoders, upgraded knobs, counterbalance with extension, finder bracket - it's really dolled up! I'm looking forward to first light with it but have a few questions for owners of this type of mount:

1.) There were three nylon screws in the base of the mount. They prevented it from being screwed onto my tripod, so I removed them. Does anyone know what they are there for?
2.) The slow motion controls appear to be driven by steel rods riding directly on anodized aluminum. My mount arrived in like-new condition, and I hope to maintain it as such. Does anyone have a lot of hours on their mounts that can report on the durability of this mating? I'm a little concerned that the steel rod will eventually damage the aluminum race. I'm wondering if putting some heat-shrink tubing around the rod would maintain the function and provide a replaceable sacrificial surface in between the steel and aluminum.?
3.) Does anyone know the encoder resolution? I set Sky Safari to automatically read it but would like to confirm.?

Thanks!

-Jeremy
 

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Hello Jeremy,

I am not sure about questions 1 and 2.?

In regards to question 3 please see my reply below.

Best Regards,
Serge Antonov, Astro Devices.

On 10 Dec 2022, at 8:43 am, jeremykleinberg@... wrote:

Hi all,

I have an FTQ mount I acquired directly from Charles about 8 years ago and I've really enjoyed using it. It's pure simplicity - no encoders (I think only a few were built without), no slow motion, just pure alt/az.?

Today, I received my second HH engineering mount - a decked out Quarter Hitch! Unlike my FTQ, this one has all the bells and whistles - slow motion, encoders, upgraded knobs, counterbalance with extension, finder bracket - it's really dolled up! I'm looking forward to first light with it but have a few questions for owners of this type of mount:

1.) There were three nylon screws in the base of the mount. They prevented it from being screwed onto my tripod, so I removed them. Does anyone know what they are there for?
2.) The slow motion controls appear to be driven by steel rods riding directly on anodized aluminum. My mount arrived in like-new condition, and I hope to maintain it as such. Does anyone have a lot of hours on their mounts that can report on the durability of this mating? I'm a little concerned that the steel rod will eventually damage the aluminum race. I'm wondering if putting some heat-shrink tubing around the rod would maintain the function and provide a replaceable sacrificial surface in between the steel and aluminum.?
3.) Does anyone know the encoder resolution? I set Sky Safari to automatically read it but would like to confirm.?
Most likely the encoders' resolution is 20,000 steps. There is however a possibility that they are 5,000 steps. Do not set SkySafari to get the resolution automatically - it never worked and also Nexus-II does not need to be configured for any particular encoder resolution. What you can do to check the encoder’s resolution is as follows:
- set the encoder steps for both encoders to 20000 in SkySafari
- position the telescope pointing horizontally - using a bubble level is highly recommended
- turn Nexus-II on (the encoder tics will be set to 0 in Nexus-II every time you turn it on)
- tap ‘Connect’ in SkySafari - you will see the telescope cursor located at the horizon in north
- move the telescope slowly to point vertically - but watch the telescope cursor as it should just move to zenith:
- if it reaches the zenith mark before the telescope is pointed vertically then the encoder steps set in SkySafari are too low - this is not likely the case for your mount as the encoders in your photo look to be the ones Charles installed and he did not use any higher than 20K encoders
- if it it does not reach the zenith mark when the telescope is pointed vertically then the encoder steps set in SkySafari are too high - try lowering the encoder steps to 5000, 4096 or 4000
- for the azimuth you can do a 360 degrees test
- when changing the encoder steps in SkySafari please make sure to tap ‘Disconnect’ then change the encoder steps and press ‘Connect’ again; SkySafari will not use new settings if it communicates with Nexus-II

Thanks!

-Jeremy

 

HalfHitch AltAz Mounts Encoder Steps:


(1) NovaHitch 08192


(2) SuperHitch 04096


(3) FTX 05000


(4) HalfHitch 04000


On Fri, Dec 9, 2022 at 8:07 PM <jeremykleinberg@...> wrote:
Hi all,

I have an FTQ mount I acquired directly from Charles about 8 years ago and I've really enjoyed using it. It's pure simplicity - no encoders (I think only a few were built without), no slow motion, just pure alt/az.?

Today, I received my second HH engineering mount - a decked out Quarter Hitch! Unlike my FTQ, this one has all the bells and whistles - slow motion, encoders, upgraded knobs, counterbalance with extension, finder bracket - it's really dolled up! I'm looking forward to first light with it but have a few questions for owners of this type of mount:

1.) There were three nylon screws in the base of the mount. They prevented it from being screwed onto my tripod, so I removed them. Does anyone know what they are there for?
2.) The slow motion controls appear to be driven by steel rods riding directly on anodized aluminum. My mount arrived in like-new condition, and I hope to maintain it as such. Does anyone have a lot of hours on their mounts that can report on the durability of this mating? I'm a little concerned that the steel rod will eventually damage the aluminum race. I'm wondering if putting some heat-shrink tubing around the rod would maintain the function and provide a replaceable sacrificial surface in between the steel and aluminum.?
3.) Does anyone know the encoder resolution? I set Sky Safari to automatically read it but would like to confirm.?

Thanks!

-Jeremy

 

开云体育

Hi Jeremy,

?

My ? Hitch mount has 04096 tic encoders.

?

With respect to your question about wearing due to the stainless steel pinion bearing directly on the anodised sector- I can confirm that on my mount the pinion did wear thru the anodizing on the ALT axis. It did not impair the use of the mount, but it did start feeling a little ‘rough’ when traversing over the worn section. The AZ axis seems OK, most likely as it is not having to overcome out of balance issues like the ALT

?

You could try your idea of putting a rubber/plastic sleeve over the pinion shaft. It wouldn’t hurt anything and you can always revert if it doesn’t work out. I think it would slip, or feel lumpy – but no harm in trying.

?

I think those 3 nylon screw heads were on the base to ensure positive contact on a flat surface. They were redundant on my tripod mounting arrangement too, but did not interfere with anything so I left them on.

?

Regards

Malcolm Bird

?

?

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Gastronaut
Sent: December 9, 2022 10:33 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [halfhitchtelescope] Questions for QH/HH owners about my recently acquired Quarter Hitch

?

HalfHitch AltAz Mounts Encoder Steps:

?

(1) NovaHitch 08192

?

(2) SuperHitch 04096

?

(3) FTX 05000

?

(4) HalfHitch 04000

?

On Fri, Dec 9, 2022 at 8:07 PM <jeremykleinberg@...> wrote:

Hi all,

I have an FTQ mount I acquired directly from Charles about 8 years ago and I've really enjoyed using it. It's pure simplicity - no encoders (I think only a few were built without), no slow motion, just pure alt/az.?

Today, I received my second HH engineering mount - a decked out Quarter Hitch! Unlike my FTQ, this one has all the bells and whistles - slow motion, encoders, upgraded knobs, counterbalance with extension, finder bracket - it's really dolled up! I'm looking forward to first light with it but have a few questions for owners of this type of mount:

1.) There were three nylon screws in the base of the mount. They prevented it from being screwed onto my tripod, so I removed them. Does anyone know what they are there for?
2.) The slow motion controls appear to be driven by steel rods riding directly on anodized aluminum. My mount arrived in like-new condition, and I hope to maintain it as such. Does anyone have a lot of hours on their mounts that can report on the durability of this mating? I'm a little concerned that the steel rod will eventually damage the aluminum race. I'm wondering if putting some heat-shrink tubing around the rod would maintain the function and provide a replaceable sacrificial surface in between the steel and aluminum.?
3.) Does anyone know the encoder resolution? I set Sky Safari to automatically read it but would like to confirm.?

Thanks!

-Jeremy

 

Serge - thank you for the tips on determining encoder resolution. Also, it's good to know the "home" position for the NexusII. Typically, I'll turn it on and it will think up is down until I actually align on some stars - it will help to have a starting position close to reality.?

I may try some heat-shrink tubing on the stainless shafts - it looks like the design has some spring-loading that should accomodate the slightly larger diameter from the plastic.?

For the nylon screws, it makes sense that they'd make a 3-point contact surface for a tripod head. However, my tripod plate is skeletonized, and the protruding screws did not play nice with the holes in the plate :).?
 

Hi, on the 3 nylon screws, I was going to remove them, but they 'dropped' into three exactly properly positioned indentations on the top of my tripod, so I left them on. I then just tightened the 3 engagement screws on the tripod so they would come into contact with the bottom of the quarter hitch. Seems really stable to me.
 

They are meant to function as three legs of a tripod and these three nylon contact points are meant to be the only points of contact between the base of the HH mount and whatever supporting structure ( pier or tripod ) you are using.



This is per Charles Riddle. ?

I own one of the first HH mounts ever made and had many discussions him on his mechanical designs.

The original HH is a marvel… don’t try to improve on it!
I treat mine with loving kindness. I use it with my SV90TBV.? At ridiculous high power with an Ethos 3.7mm I can manually track Saturn and Jupiter for hours!

Feel free to email me if you have any questions < rfwerkman@... >

On Thu, Mar 2, 2023 at 11:05 AM Mark Manner <mark.manner@...> wrote:
Hi, on the 3 nylon screws, I was going to remove them, but they 'dropped' into three exactly properly positioned indentations on the top of my tripod, so I left them on. I then just tightened the 3 engagement screws on the tripod so they would come into contact with the bottom of the quarter hitch. Seems really stable to me.

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