Had a "test" tonight in Sydney. No pictures, I just wanted to see how it went.
Basically a fail, but that's down to me not knowing how to use the ASI Air
I'm all learned up now though, but will have to try again another night. That said, the mount performed fine for the bits that I figured out in time. I noticed that the power cables I used were rubbish and it was disconnecting all the time. Now at home indoors and I've switched over to other cables and everything is great.
I have lots of power cables but some of the best are the ones from Pegasus Astro. You get them with some of their gear or you can buy them from Sidereal.
side note: any store reading this - a great little business idea for you would be to do custom data and power cables for astro. Cable management is important!
yeah that seems a little risky to point load on that.
Maybe you can have something made up to fit that, but if possible, try and use a tripod with a bigger base.
That said, I would advise to rather use that tripod without raising the 3/8 screw. Even if the mount doesn't cover the entire base, if it's sitting flush with part of it, that's a lot better than balancing on a screw.
Cheers Adam. Yes, I'd definitely make sure it screwed down tight onto the base plate - which is around 50mm. There is currently a Manfrotto fluid head (the base of which does overhang the tripod mounting plate) with an ED80 on it - which it seems to handle well and is solid.
Do any new owners notice any backlash in RA?
Tighten up the RA screw and with the counterweight bar attached, give it a wiggle side to side. I'm noticing almost half a cm of back and forth... yikes.
Also be keen to hear how stiff the RA axis is as well. Since I got it, it's been fairly tight and I thought that was odd, but maybe something inside is too tight and it's induced backlash.
I'll probably be taking it back to Bintel tomorrow, and see how we go.
Do any new owners notice any backlash in RA?
Tighten up the RA screw and with the counterweight bar attached, give it a wiggle side to side. I'm noticing almost half a cm of back and forth... yikes.
Hi Adam,
Sorry to hear of your issue. I just checked and I don't have any RA backlash. Without going crazily tight, are you sure that your RA clutch screw is tightened enough? Does the amount of backlash you notice change with differing RA clutch screw tightness?
Hi Adam,
Sorry to hear of your issue. I just checked and I don't have any RA backlash. Without going crazily tight, are you sure that your RA clutch screw is tightened enough? Does the amount of backlash you notice change with differing RA clutch screw tightness?
Best
JA
Hi JA
I've tried it a few times at different "tightness" settings on the RA.
The backlash doesn't go away, and the stiffness in RA goes from "locked" (when tightened fully as expected) to "put some effort into it" (when the RA lock is loosened completely).
Think I've got a dud. Will be going back to Bintel at lunch time and see what happens.
Unfortunately it looks as if this is going to be similar to the AZ-GTI in that tuning out backlash requires almost dismantling the mount. It's not easy to do like on the EQ6-R.
Well i just spoke to Bintel and mine has not arrived it will be in the next delivery next month sometime damn,i was hoping to take it to qld with me but looks not ,good luck guys who got it keep up the reports
Unpacked mine this arvo. Sits nicely on the Vixen tripod but a little wobbly on the photo tripod. Clutches seem ok with no obvious play when locked. Balances ok with the ED80 - which I'll use visually and use the Z61/fma 180 for AP. First attempt at controlling with the ipad/synscan pro app seemed to go without a hitch and Sky Safari also picked up the scope and slewed it around (in my lounge room). Then I shut it down, attached the Asi Air Plus via a usb b cable with Eqmod selected - no problem that also worked. Chuck the polar scope eyepiece protector in a drawer as your going to keep knocking it off - it's pretty crappy. The battery cover is a little dodgy too - takes a little persuasion to line up the screw that holds it closed. When slewing, the sound is not exactly confidence inspiring! Brings to mind a tiny coffee grinder....hmmmmmm. I'll get out tommorrow evening and put the camera on for a session and see how it guides and whether I can get 3 minute unguided subs or not.
Well, that's disappointing. You would expect that SW would have their quality control sorted out by now.
Cheers,
V
Quote:
Originally Posted by AdamJL
Hi JA
I've tried it a few times at different "tightness" settings on the RA.
The backlash doesn't go away, and the stiffness in RA goes from "locked" (when tightened fully as expected) to "put some effort into it" (when the RA lock is loosened completely).
Think I've got a dud. Will be going back to Bintel at lunch time and see what happens.
Unfortunately it looks as if this is going to be similar to the AZ-GTI in that tuning out backlash requires almost dismantling the mount. It's not easy to do like on the EQ6-R.
Finally set mine up today, just with a Canon 6D and a 100mm lens. Balanced OK, clutches seem fine, but in opposition to play, everything seems very tight with my unit (with the possible exception of the screw that holds the battery cover on, which falls out every time I try to make any adjustment to it).
It moves / slews OK, but the sound it makes when doing so...I get the impression there's very little tolerance in the gears or not enough lubricant. The motor just seems to be pushing against something, and yes, I've checked to make sure nothing is overtightened or jammed where it shouldn't be.
I'm going to give it a few more "dry runs" to maybe try and work the grease through a little more. I'll keep you posted.
Finally set mine up today, just with a Canon 6D and a 100mm lens. Balanced OK, clutches seem fine, but in opposition to play, everything seems very tight with my unit (with the possible exception of the screw that holds the battery cover on, which falls out every time I try to make any adjustment to it).
It moves / slews OK, but the sound it makes when doing so...I get the impression there's very little tolerance in the gears or not enough lubricant. The motor just seems to be pushing against something, and yes, I've checked to make sure nothing is overtightened or jammed where it shouldn't be.
I'm going to give it a few more "dry runs" to maybe try and work the grease through a little more. I'll keep you posted.
Agreed on both the tightness and the sound. It's not the nicest sounding machine out there, and I find it's much tighter than I was expecting.
Just gave mine a session with the Z61 and Askar fma180 doing the guiding. Ran 10 x 5 minute subs and all seemed pretty good. Guiding ranged between .75" and 1.4" with a few spikes to 2 or 3" - could have been the odd light breeze but the subs looked fine. Did a few 60s unguided shots - a couple were fine and a couple were not. One 120s unguided which looked perfectly fine before I packed it in. The Z61/fma 180 combo tipped the scales at a little under 4kg with cameras attached and were just a little heavier than the counter weight at full extension, so an extra kg on the counter weight bar would be handy though the imbalance was very minor.
All was controlled with the Asi Air plus with usb b cable / eqmod selected in the app. Polar alignment and plate solving went without a hitch.
So far, so good...... will post the pic a little later.
Link to a bigger image I put on the Testar FB site here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/229519518411077 I'm about to head up to QLD via some nice darks skies around Broken Hill/Bourke/Charleville so should be able to give it quite a few nights useage over the next month.
what DC power cables are you all using? I've noticed that the DC and USB cables I've switched to interfere with the Dec axis turning as they bump into my EAF.
Anyone using right angled cables, and if so, where did you get them from?
Also, I've set up the new mount, and because the RA on this one is a lot less tight than the last one, I can now see that the counterweight provided is going to be insufficient. So I'll likely order the pier extension for this and add a second counterweight I have lying about (without the pier extension, the counterweight bumps into the tripod leg)
