Hi Dave,

I'm glad you corrected my thinking. I had completely forgot the
possibility of using it manually, without GOTO. In such case, definitely, a
N-S switch would make good sense; it would be essential in an uncomputerized
controller.

Then again, I don't think a non-GOTO version of the AP900/1200 (maybe
others) has been made since the "AP900 SMD Servo" back in 1998 - and that was
discontinued due to lack of a market for it. Besides, if you were able to
order something like an AP900 QMD or SMD today, there is no longer a "quartz
digital drive"(similar to the non-GOTO Losmandy G11 digital drive) available
for it . The only way you could adjust the position of the scope is to push
and pull it by hand, unless you attach one of those "springy rods" directly to
each worm, somehow. Shades of the 60's!

I think I am right in saying that there are no "non-GOTO" AP mount
versions available. So the hemisphere switch isn't required, unless you can
dig up an old quartz drive. Besides, the ancient digital drive is the one
requiring the switch - not the computer controlled GOTO controller, which can
do the same thing based on the firmware being given your latitude (north or
south).

Thus, the N-S switch on a GOTO controller these days, is an anachronism,
better replaced as a power switch. It is akin to leaving a place for the buggy
whip, in a new automobile :-)

Then again, I don't work at AP, so I don't know the "real purpose" of the
N-S switch, and why it wasn't removed from the GTOCP0, in 1998. Maybe it's
like that switch on the lamp post at the crosswalk, that a pedestrian pushes
to change the traffic lights - its a "feel good switch" that really isn't
wired to anything; the lights still change in their own sweet time, by some
computer controller downtown.

I'm joking, of course. Its just that it suddenly, one day, it struck me as
odd to have a manual motor direction reversing switch, when the firmware is
smart enough to do it, based on available information.

Joe