Hi Javier,

This subject came up last year about this time, Mach1 owners were
commenting on how "stiff" the RA and DEC axis's were on the Mach1
and how this made balancing difficult. I got my Mach1 a year ago and
I noticed the same thing. Roland recommended that you could use an
ampmeter if you weren't comfortable doing it by feel. I talked to
one of the aircraft mechanics where I work and they set me up with
an ampmeter and showed me how to measure the amps from each motor to
compare the draw and thus move the weight around until they were
equal in both directions (using 64x rate, I believe) on the RA and
then on the DEC. This was a fun experiment, I did it for my M250 and
later for my AP140. However, since pulling out the ampmeter
everynight isn't really an option, I've resorted to doing it by feel
and it works fine, just as Roland said it would.

If you have just one setup, it would probably be worth doing for
peace of mind and mark where everything goes with tape or marker.

Apparently I did put a diagram in the files section on how to hook
up your ampmeter to get the readings. You can search the archives
and read the postings related to this subject.

Good Luck,
Brian


--- In ap-gto@..., "javier_laina" <javier_laina@...>
wrote:

Brian,

Could you explain how to balance a servo-controlled mount by using
and amp-meter?

Cheers
Javier
http://personales.ya.com/javier_laina/



--- In ap-gto@..., "bguerin1234" <zapkgbg@> wrote:

Tom,

I'm glad it helped!!

Brian




--- In ap-gto@..., "tucstargzr" <tucstargzr@> wrote:

I'm almost ashamed it took this long to complete this, but...

bguerin1234 posted a hand drawn schematic in the Files

section

that

illustrates how to use an amp-meter to balance the mount. I

finally

installed Amperage and voltage meters just under the rope

lights

in

the Observatory. Since I'm using an 11.5 Amp power supply, I

got

a

10

Amp meter.

With both the AP 600 and 1200 humming along, it barely

measures

an

amp! Slewing, of course bumps it up another ~1/2 amp, but on a

10

amp

meter, that isn't quite the resolution for the fine balance

task.

At the same time, for an all thumbs "electrician", it was

interesting

to see how much of a load various 12V items I have draw.

Tom
Sings with the Stars