Tak EM200 mount maintenance

[troypiggo]

Has anyone done any maintenance on their Tak mount? I bought mine used back in 2013, and I understand it's a 2003 model. Think it's time it got some love and a bit of a tune up. There's heaps of videos and pages around about EQ6's, and in many ways the EM200 is similar, but obviously I'd like to draw on the experience of others.

I tried AEC/Claude but he's not aware of any Tak mount service places in Aus. Have posted on the Tak Yahoo group but no responses yet.

[multiweb]

Best way it to take a lot of pictures when you disassemble and make sure you have no screws left on the table when it's back together. :)

[billdan]

Or put a video camera on a tripod looking over your shoulder, so you can record everything you do.

[LewisM]

DIY Troy.

[troypiggo]

Thanks guys. Doing it myself is an option, but hard to find howto's and with my noobie experience with this sort of thing, I'd like to know the path forwards.

[Dennis]

Hi Troy

Here is a link to the AstroPhysics website for their AP600 which I think is a clone/copy of one of the EM200 iterations.

http://www.astro-physics.com/index.htm?tech_support/mounts/600gto/600ebacklash

It only covers making adjustments to the mesh of the drive gears (yes - using a mallet) to reduce backlash.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Here are some photos of my disassembly of my EM200 Temma II if they are of help?

Cheers

Dennis

[RickS]

Troy is a Civil Engineer. He'll probably use a piledriver :lol:

[Dennis]

And some more of the control box, all a little random.

Cheers

Dennis

[troypiggo]

Dennis - that’s awesome mate. Thank you!



That’s about as delicate as I get :)

[troypiggo]

I got this response on the Tak Yahoo Group:

"The error should be +/- 5”. The worm period is 8 minutes. Looking at the chart at least in the beginning the error period is about 3 minutes which implies it is not a worm problem. My first guess would be that it is in the reduction gears. Either grit in the gears or a meshing problem. I don’t know how you adjust the Temma reduction gears. With the pre-Temma systems both RA and DEC motors were mounted on a single plate that could slide around and rotate. It was a little bit trial and error as you don’t have easy access to them like the NJP. It’s been a couple of decades since I messed with them but from what I remember I just moved the plate around until both sets of gears were engaged with light fingertip pressure then tightened the screws and tested that it was running fine.

Since your errors were roughly equal in both directions I don’t think that it is anything binding or slipping."