I collected the XX14i as planned this morning. Luckily I drove a van, as the cartons would not have fitted into a wagon. Everything was either double or triple boxed with double layer core flute cardboard, and fortunately the primary (centre spotted) unpacked in a single piece
The scope only took a couple of hours to assemble. I took my time and read the instructions carefully. The instructions were superbly written, and I don't believe that you could assemble the scope incorrectly if you follow them.
There were no parts missing, and all holes etc lined up perfectly during assembly. I only needed an extra spanner and phillips head screw driver during the assembly. All other tools were provided. It's a very nicely designed scope. I purchased the light shroud with the scope as well - which is made from super heavy spandex / lycra material. I was expecting rip stop nylon, but I really like this heavy duty material.
The OTA is quite heavy to lift out of the rocker box fully assembled as shown in the instructions. With the truss tubes removed, it's quite manageable but still fairly heavy.
I noticed that the secondary doesn't have a typical secondary holder, but rather, is glued onto a smaller cylinder connected to the spider. I guess this isn't a problem, just different. The secondary came pre collimated and they did quite a good job at the factory with it. It's out by just a tiny tiny bit - but nothing worth worrying about. I actually tried to loosen the secondary centre screw so that I could twist the secondary axially just slightly, but the screw has been put in far too tightly at the factory and I was unable to loosen it. Fortunately, it's well collimated.
I noticed that the altitude bearings are silky smooth, with adjustable tension. Very nice. The azimuth bearing is ebony star formica on teflon, but seems to be a little stiff for my liking. Having said that, the scope moves very positively in azimuth with zero backlash, but I would like it to be just a little more buttery. I might work on that later on (perhaps polishing the teflon with talcum powder might help, or larger teflon bearings).
The Intelliscope computerised object locator seems to work at face value. Certainly, the encoders look to be doing their jobs. However, I'll find out just how good it is tomorrow night. It looks to be quite easy to navigate and is a little similar to my LX200GPS hand controller.
I didn't manage to get the scope outside to star test the optics tonight. That'll be a job for tomorrow night when I move the scope into its new home in my obsie.
All in all, it's a superb looking scope that built perfectly. I can't wait to take a look through it tomorrow evening!
Dean