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Old 14-08-2019, 08:09 AM
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lazjen (Chris)
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Flaxton, Qld
Posts: 2,064
Time for an update. I've had other things on my plate for a bit besides this hobby, so time has been an issue.

However, shortly after my last update, I got the mount on to the pier in the dome and loaded up the counterweights. Then to my shock, I discovered I could not get the RC10 or my other dovetail (for the refractor) on to the mount's saddle plate. I was very annoyed that I had not checked this beforehand while it was in the house, but it just did not occur to me that it would be an issue.

To cut a very long story short, I now have a replacement mount saddle plate that I received yesterday. My RC10 now fits it quite snugly. The other plate slides in/out much easier.

I held off on an update until this was resolved to ensure the full picture can be presented - overall support with iOptron has been good/ok given it's via email and massive time zone differences (they're in US east coast). It took nearly a month to sort out as I had to post the saddle plate to them first before they would send a replacement. I can understand this process, but it's still frustrating.

So, what was the issue you might be thinking? There's specs for what a losmandy dovertail should be, and theoretically there's also specs for the mount saddle plate too (as provided by iOptron). I hit the "perfect" combo of my dovetail plates being slightly over spec and the mount saddle plate slightly under spec. There's 2 significant measurements here - the narrow and large widths. For my problem it was the narrow width that caused the grief.

So while I was not "blameless" for this problem given the out of spec dovetails, iOptron really had the greater fault in not ensuring the mount saddle plate was correct spec. If they were at perfect spec, my dovetails would have worked, albeit with tight margins. Also, I personally believe their mount saddle plate is inferior to what I've used on the G11.

However, it should be noted that iOptron has come through and sorted out the problem for me.

I'm hoping I can do more with it tonight, weather permitting - and if we can get my dome rotation going again.
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