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Old 19-01-2016, 09:48 AM
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Paul Haese
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Paul Haese is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Adelaide
Posts: 9,944
I have owned a few commercial mounts in the last 12 or 13 years. I have had an EQ6, CGE, Takahashi EM400, Paramount ME and Paramount MX. The later two I still own and operate robotically each clear night.

The first 3 were good mounts but the first two required some work to get them working well. The EM400 was probably the best mount of every mount I have owned. It had very good PE, it was lovely to operate including the altitude and azimuth adjustments but it did not have a home position sensor. Beautiful mount but without a home it was useless to my needs as it could not be used robotically.

The Software bisques mounts have had their own issues. My ME I bought second hand and there were some issues with a worm that had been incorrectly replaced but that was all sorted years ago. I had to replace the optical encoder cable and sensors when one cable got damaged only a year or so back; an easy enough fix with the vast room inside the mount. I have a dicky cable off the RA motor (which needs replacing) but have managed to stabilise that to prevent it from producing a mount RA alarm; its not a flaw of the mount but an ongoing issue and something to think about if you buy a second hand mount. Essentially the mount is near bullet proof and has done thousands of hours of work since I have owned it. They are easy to service and work on. If you can get a good second hand ME, it will be worth your while. I trust this mount now to do its job.

The MX has had its own little issues with a worm being out of spec. It took some time to get this sorted with SB because they wanted all sorts of evidence. SB were replacing a lot of worms at the time and I gather this would have had some bearing on how they handled things. Their customer service for southern hemisphere people leaves a bit wanting generally. In the end they sent out the worm gear and I have replaced it. Not as simple a task as working on the ME but it has worked. The mount carries a fair bit of weight now and produces very good results. A nice little mount. Generally not bullet proof but very near to it. The through the mount cabling ports and tunnels are rubbish on the MX in my opinion. The ME design was correct and changing the diameters and clearances was a mistake. Overall though the mount is a good performer.

I was not impressed with how SB listens to southern hemisphere people (I am not the only person who has experienced this either). The PE software within the SkyX is rubbish, but the SkyX is generally pretty good and operates the mounts well.

I would recommend SB mounts generally. I have used them for thousands of hours with and without robotic work. They rarely break down even with the hours I have put them through and expect to put them through. I don't know if any of the other mounts listed could do the same, maybe the ASA one but I don't have any experience with those. I would think by now the MX is fully mature in production and fault free. I don't know anything about the MyT but am sure some of the lessons of the past are being put into practice. For my choice I would go with the MyT, but think you should get an MX to allow for later expansion.
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