Losmandy G11 owners chime in please

[White Rabbit]

HI guys.

As a new owner of one of these mounts and not having had any decent weather to get out and play with it. I've been doing a lot of reading about the mount and the new Gemini 2.

I'm getting quite alarmed by the amount of posts I've read where people are having real issues with this mount. Some people are reporting serious guiding issues, run away slews and horrendous PE.

I know that on the whole people only post when they have issues, but is seems as though there are a lot of people out there not happy with their mount. These are recent post I've been reading. I'd like to hear your experience good or bad with these mounts. I'm not concerned with software as I'm sure software glitchs will be rectified in time. I'm more concerned about hardware problems.

I have had a bit of a play one night and noticed that alt scale is off by quite a bit. I've dial in 34.5 the alt is way off. I thought the scale on these mounts was meant to be be spot on. I could have been doing somthng wrong though but it's got me worried.

Your experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks

[pmrid (Peter)]

I have Losmandy G11 and Titan mounts and Gemini 1 and 2 systems. The mounts themselves are rarely the problem. They do have occasional mechanical issues such as seized bearings, poor worm alignment, slipping clutches and so forth but on their own, they are just a system of gears and levers. The issues you're referring to are mostly with the Gemini system itself I think and these are independent of the mount to which the system is attached. If your G11 is doing something silly with your G2 attached, you can bet that a Titan would do much the same thing if you swapped the control box over.

So keep the faith. Your G11 is likely to be fine. The Yahoo Groups for the Gemini systems are the best source of info on specific problems and Tom Hilton's web site the best source of resource material and guidance.

Peter

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Originally Posted by White Rabbit

I'm getting quite alarmed by the amount of posts I've read where people are having real issues with this mount. Some people are reporting serious guiding issues, run away slews and horrendous PE. ..

Don't believe all you read in CN as some posters have an agenda, especially re:G11. This becomes obvious over years of postings.

The Gemini2 Yahoo forum is the "horses mouth of Gemini2" read that if you really want the latest info. The Losmandy yahoo forum is the "horses mouth regarding Losmandy products", this is the best place to read G11 info.

[alocky (Andrew lockwood)]

I have a G11 with the simpler digital drive. I've had it for two years, and have used it for imaging at focal lengths between 530 and 1200mm. With an autoguider, I regularly get seeing limited performance over 10 minute subs.
The analogue setting circles are good enough to put an object on a decent sized chip at these focal lengths. Using the PAS for polar alignment generally gets me close enough at these image scales.
Whether I would have been better off with an NEQ6, given the cost difference and similar performance (although I have not needed to touch the G11) only time will tell. The G11 is a much better finished piece of hardware in my experience.
The Losmandy Group on Yahoo is an excellent resource. I wouldn't believe everything on CN either, or I would have thought Takahashi FSQ focusers were unusable for example. There are people on there who will p!ss and moan if the thing doesn't leap out of its box and start taking award winning pictures all by itself.
Cheers,
Andrew.

[leon]

When I owned mine i never had a issue other than the ones i created myself.

Worked and guided perfectly night after night, the Gemini 2 was a gem to use.

Leon

[leon]

When i owned mine there was never an issue other than the ones i created myself worked and guided perfectly night after night the Gemini 2 was a gem to use.

Leon

[icytailmark (Mark)]

i dont really like the gemini 2 hand controller buttons. It is very easy to hold the button down and the object goes flying past. I have done it so many times very frustrating.

[allan gould]

I bought mine second hand about 10 years ago. It's been a faithful and exemplary mount. Never missed a beat. I hated the Gemini I hand box but have come to like its little Germanic idiosyncrasies and layout. Guides perfectly at 2900 mm and is easy to polar align.
Allan

[Poita (Peter)]

I've owned an EQ6, then a CGEM then a G11 in that order. I tend to image most at long (well over 1500mm) focal lengths so any problems in the mount performance tend to rear their ugly head.

Externally, the G11 looks the best finished of the lot and has the sturdiest tripod by far, that thing is a tank! But when you dig deeper, tolerances are sloppy and some things are just plain poor design.

As for performance, out of the box the CGEM was the best performer, the G11 had a PE of over 30, even after adjustments, and also had the 76s error which I couldn't get around with an autoguider and this made PEC a useless waste of time. The adjustment dials were also considerably off and tt also had the problem with the clutch being difficult to get tight enough. This turned out to be a problem with the clutch plate not being machined flat enough, as per this page.

http://www.helixgate.net/g11.html

After adding an Ovision worm the G11 finally performs as well as I think it should straight out of the box for the cost of the thing, and it is usable at long focal lengths. I really think their quality control is little better than the Chinese mounts, I expected better considering the cost and reputation, but really the G11 is in the 'budget mount' category.

I tested the losmandy single block worm (like this one http://www.helixgate.net/G11opw3.html) as well, but the Ovision is far far better.

The G11 is an okay mount, it isn't worth the price differential over an EQ6 in my opinion, especially if you are going to use it on a pier.
You could get an EQ6, have it reworked/hypertuned and get an adaptive optics unit for less than the cost of a G11 and get better results and have cash left over.

With any of these cheaper mounts, if you luck out and get an exceptional one, you do very well with it. If you don't and are willing to strip them down and rework them, then any of them work very well. The G11 *can* be a really good mount, but it takes some work to get there, just like the other two contenders.

If the mount was $1999 I'd say it was a good deal, at over 4K optioned up I think it should be a lot better than it is, and I would rather save up and get a Mach1 which is a massive step up in quality.
Or I'd rather save the money and get an EQ6 and trick it out and put the extra money to better use.

[White Rabbit]

Thanks guys.

I have joined both the gemini and g11 user groups ill submit some questions to the groups shortly.

I'm out in the garden ATM drif aligning and have to say how disappointed I am that the alt markings are 6.5 deg out. I'm in Sydney so scp should be 34.5 , this mount is sitting steady showing 28 deg. I've also had two run away slews tonight. That's a software thing so I'm not too fused by it, I'm sure that will be fixed in time, it's just a bit unnerving when it happens.

Does the gemini to automatically adjust for day light saving. I tried to use the polar align assist and it was hopelessly off even though I set it roughly with a compass and inclinometer. So I know it shouldn't be that far off but it was wwwwasaayyy off. The only thing I can think of is day light saving.

Anyway I'll stop whining like a kid that's dropped their lollipop and experiment some more. Not off to the best of starts.

[John0z (John)]

Hi,

I don't know about the G11, but I have a GM-8. I just checked the altitude scale - it appears to be correct, according to my inclinometer app on my Android phone. I checked that the difference between the base and the RA shaft is 34 degrees and the marking is pointing to 34.

BTW Sydney is just under 34 degrees for the SCP - I use the longitude of Sydney or my actual location as from Google Earth, or shouldn't I?

-John

P.S. I have a HEQ5Pro, and the altitude scale shows 38 degrees, but I will have to double check by looking through the polar scope (might be difficult with all the clouds).

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

If I level the G11 using its bubble levels the alt scale is pretty close.

Unlike alt on my CG5-ASGT. I level that tripod using multiple measurements with a torpedo level and ignore the circular level in the head. The alt scale is a few degrees out and needs the digital level I carry.

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Originally Posted by White Rabbit

.....Does the gemini to automatically adjust for day light saving. I tried to use the polar align assist and it was hopelessly off even though I set it roughly with a compass and inclinometer. So I know it shouldn't be that far off but it was wwwwasaayyy off. The only thing I can think of is day light saving. ....

Gemini does not autoupdate DST as DST dates change from year to year. Gemini DTG is not in the normal format you must enter it in yymm.dd: hh.mm.ss format (well this was G1 and I'm pretty sure its the same structure for G2), see here the link right at the bottom of the page.

Positioning also depends on how well you did your CWD cold start as well.

Since you are running a G2 then the yahoo G2 site is also choc full of info you might want to peruse, also the Gemini2 help site, some time zone info here.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by wasyoungonce

Gemini does not autoupdate DST as DST dates change from year to year. Gemini DTG is not in the normal format you must enter it in yymm.dd: hh.mm.ss format (well this was G1 and I'm pretty sure its the same structure for G2), see here the link right at the bottom of the page.

Nope. G1 is mmdd and some number of 'y' but then I have a GPS so never look.
Use UTC for the time and forget about silly timezones and DST.

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

The altitude scale shouldnt be that far out. My G11 is under a degree out, 33.01 at Wiruna gives me just over 32 on the scale when I drift align.

[originaltrilogy (Petr)]

Mine is 4 degrees wrong. I also have not flat clutch plate. After machining flat, no need for extra bolts and so on, clutch now holds super easily.
Gemini software fixes are long time coming, I think it is just one persons writing software.