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Re: Dew cap internal flocking peeling off

Mike Dodd
 

On 5/3/2021 9:50 PM, Jim Fakatselis wrote:
Thanks, just ordered some Pliobond.
Jim

On May 3, 2021, at 4:00 PM, Roland Christen via groups.io
<chris1011@...> wrote:


Pliobond works really well.

Rolando
Is there any chance the evaporating volatiles from the Pliobond could fog the objective lens?

--- Mike
Re: Dew cap internal flocking peeling off

Jim Fakatselis
 

Thanks, just ordered some Pliobond.  
Jim

On May 3, 2021, at 4:00 PM, Roland Christen via groups.io <chris1011@...> wrote:


Pliobond works really well.

Rolando



-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Fakatselis <pashasdad@...>
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Sent: Mon, May 3, 2021 2:31 pm
Subject: [ap-gto] Dew cap internal flocking peeling off

The black flocking lining on my 130EDF dew cap has peeled off.  Any ideas on how to repair it?
Thank you in advance.  
Jim


--
Roland Christen
Astro-Physics

Re: AP1600 w/AE manual #Absolute_Encoders

Dhaval
 

Hi Bryan,
Thanks for responding. I did see that, but did not pay a lot of attention given that I will be getting the CP4. Not sure if there is a whole lot of difference between those connections with CP3 and with CP4. 

Outside of that, I really wanted to see how to set it up in a remote location - with respect to homing it for the first time, creating pointing model, etc.

Thanks,
Dhaval
Re: AP1600 w/AE manual #Absolute_Encoders

Worsel
 

Re: 1100GTO case

Elenillor
 

Has anyone used soft sided buckets such as:https://www.kleintoolscanvas.com/shop/canvas-buckets-pouches/wide-opening-straight-wall-bucket. as a small, light weight house-to-car-to-setup. 3M and others make similar bolt buckets. Obviously not for shipping but it seems they should work for a separated 1100. Perhaps should add some closed cell foam in the bottom and a rolled kydex sheet to keep the bag open. I might give it a try when I get the mount, scheduled for Auguest. .

John.
Re: AP1200 GTO chatter

Don Anderson
 

Again, I wouldn't worry about it Mike. From your description, it looks like you did a fine job. Good for 2-3 years depending on usage and environmental conditions.

Don Anderson


On Monday, May 3, 2021, 03:16:29 p.m. MDT, Mike C <mike@...> wrote:


Thanks Dale and Don

So I re-did the RA today. One of the gears in the RA gearbox had by far the most dried on grease on it. In the end, having assembled it all again and with a counterweight and my scope back on it, it sound like butter on both axis in both directions, I am very pleased. The PE curve will be fascinating to see when we have stars in the sky again.

The regrease instructions were a bit brief for me, a software guy who has never done anything like this. I wasn't sure how much grease to put on, the instructions say less but more evenly applied is better than more but less evenly applied, but not really how much. When cleaning the old dried grease off I kept imagining the mineral spirits and denatured alchohol running down the face of the wheel and into the main bearings, I have no idea if this is a silly thing to worry about but I worked to keep any excess from going far. I wondered what it takes to noticeably upset your PE, would a hair on the worm wheel do it, a speck of old dried lube etc. It's fun to do new things but having some knowledge about it would be nice.

 

cheers, Mike
Re: AP1200 GTO chatter

Mike C
 

Thanks Dale and Don

So I re-did the RA today. One of the gears in the RA gearbox had by far the most dried on grease on it. In the end, having assembled it all again and with a counterweight and my scope back on it, it sound like butter on both axis in both directions, I am very pleased. The PE curve will be fascinating to see when we have stars in the sky again.

The regrease instructions were a bit brief for me, a software guy who has never done anything like this. I wasn't sure how much grease to put on, the instructions say less but more evenly applied is better than more but less evenly applied, but not really how much. When cleaning the old dried grease off I kept imagining the mineral spirits and denatured alchohol running down the face of the wheel and into the main bearings, I have no idea if this is a silly thing to worry about but I worked to keep any excess from going far. I wondered what it takes to noticeably upset your PE, would a hair on the worm wheel do it, a speck of old dried lube etc. It's fun to do new things but having some knowledge about it would be nice.

 

cheers, Mike
Re: 1100GTO case

M Hambrick
 

Hi Todd

I agree that it would be better if the Dec axis could be stored sideways. There are other brands of these heavy duty toolboxes. I think Milwaukee has a similar set, but I am not sure what the dimensions are.

The footprint of the Dec axis with the DOVELM162 attached is 12" X 16" X 8-1/2". Allowing for at least 1inch of padding all around it looks like a Pelican 1607 case (inside dimensions 21.1" X 15.8" X 11.6") would accommodate the Dec axis plus saddle in a sideways orientation. Pelican sells their cases with a no foam option. You would probably want to use the high density polyethylene foam and cut it yourself.

There was another discussion about storage cases on the forum not long ago, and Roland commented that you need to make sure that the gearbox housings are not subjected to any stress when the mount is being stored.

Mike
Re: Dew cap internal flocking peeling off

Roland Christen
 

Pliobond works really well.

Rolando



-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Fakatselis <pashasdad@...>
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Sent: Mon, May 3, 2021 2:31 pm
Subject: [ap-gto] Dew cap internal flocking peeling off

The black flocking lining on my 130EDF dew cap has peeled off.  Any ideas on how to repair it?
Thank you in advance.  
Jim


--
Roland Christen
Astro-Physics
Re: 1100GTO case

midmoastro
 

Mike this is exactly what i was looking for, thank you. Did they not have a box where the DEC could fit sideways along with the mounting plate? I think I would prefer that but may not be an option with Rigid.?
Todd
Re: Dew cap internal flocking peeling off

JT
 

Double sided tape from Michaels or any craft store should do the job.

On May 3, 2021, at 15:31, Jim Fakatselis <pashasdad@...> wrote:



The black flocking lining on my 130EDF dew cap has peeled off.  Any ideas on how to repair it?
Thank you in advance.  

Jim
AP1600 w/AE manual #Absolute_Encoders

Dhaval
 

Hello all,
I was looking for the manual for AP1600 with AE on A-P's website, but could not find one. Does anyone know how I can lay my hands on the manual?

I am getting a used AP1600 w/AE and want to ensure that I set it up appropriately. I have an AP1200 right now, but that does not have encoders, obviously, so that is the piece that is bugging me - how to set up an AP mount with encoders.

Thanks,
Dhaval
Dew cap internal flocking peeling off

Jim Fakatselis
 

The black flocking lining on my 130EDF dew cap has peeled off.  Any ideas on how to repair it?
Thank you in advance.  

Jim
Re: Spikes in DEC #guiding #Guiding

Brian Valente
 

Hi Sebastian

I meant things exactly like what Roland said - he suggested it was DEC imbalance.

On Mon, May 3, 2021 at 11:43 AM Seb@stro <sebastiendore1@...> wrote:
Hi Brian,

encoder mounts like the Mach 2 require some basic correct setup, and i'm not sure yours is there

Just re-reading your comment above and  I'm not sure I clearly understand what you mean by "basic correct setup". Are suggesting I should refine some settings within the imaging/guiding softwares ? Or are you saying I should look into the mechanical aspect of the OTA, OAG, camera, etc. ?

I just saw Howard and Roland also replied, so I will follow-up with them as well. 

I must add I am not just blown away by the mount's performance which, as you pointed out, is very good at < 0.5", but also by AP's ***** (five stars) customer service. A flawless customer experience...

Sebastien

De : main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> de la part de Brian Valente <bvalente@...>
Envoyé : 3 mai 2021 03:00
À : main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io>
Objet : Re: [ap-gto] Spikes in DEC #guiding #guiding
 
HI Sebastian

I suggest you take this up with AP in their forums

encoder mounts like the Mach 2 require some basic correct setup, and i'm not sure yours is there (i'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with the mount at all: you are guiding < 0.50")

 looking at a typical run, your DEC is odd for the following reasons: 
- those excursions are not the result of any PHD type of correction
- all your corrections are in one direction both RA and DEC, and corrections exhibit a clumping 

this is dec showing the large instantaneous jumps and guiding in only one direction 
image.png

image.png

I suggest you do a guiding assistant run for a few minutes to measure polar misalignment. it could be something is terribly off on polar align, but based on what you're saying i don't know. 



On Sun, May 2, 2021 at 10:29 PM Seb@stro <sebastiendore1@...> wrote:
Hi Brian,

Thanks for your reply.  Logs here: https://openphdguiding.org/logs/dl/PHD2_logs_BqZp.zip

I should probably have added that my imaging scale is 1.04"/px. So it's probably impacting a bit, maybe not much... But to be honest my concern was also about the working order the mount.  

But don't get me wrong, I'm coming from a low budget asian mount and got the Mach2 about 2 months ago. It performs WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY better, no question there. So there's the fact that I'm not very familiar with AP mounts limits regarding tracking and guiding yet. Had a handful of clear nights only. And I know my system is the challenging kind (mirrors, long FL, reducer backfocus, etc.)... So I just thought I'd ask for educated guess here.

Might also be PA as you pointed out. But I thought I did well since I polar aligned with RAPAS at the beginning of my session and refined with PHD2 polar drift align afterward. When I ran the Guiding assistant, I recall it was saying it was around 2-3 arcmin from the NCP... Do you think it's reasonable for my imaging scale (1"/px) ?

Sebastien

De : main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> de la part de Brian Valente <bvalente@...>
Envoyé : 3 mai 2021 00:48
À : main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io>
Objet : Re: [ap-gto] Spikes in DEC #guiding #guiding
 
Hi  Sebastien

Please upload your guidelogs for this https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/ 


Screen caps aren't enough information, but a quick glance looks like you have pretty bad polar alignment which would dramatically impact your DEC guiding

guidelogs would tell more


I wonder how much of an issue guiding is here - your overall rms is 0.49" and your image scale is 1.7"/pix, i'm guessing even if you addressed this you may not see a difference in your images


Brian
 

On Sun, May 2, 2021 at 9:44 PM Seb@stro <sebastiendore1@...> wrote:
Hello all, 

I'm having some spikes in my DEC guiding at times tonight. The worst ones seem to occur at periodic interval around 20-25 seconds but not all the time. Like about a dozen times in 400s periods. RMS values are good but DEC is about 40% bigger than RA because of these excursions. 

Conditions are fairly good now. No wind at all. Balance was quite accurate (as far as my eye can tell) in both RA and DEC. PA error reported by PHD2 is below 5 arc-min. I have a NUC on top of OTA, so no cable snag possible. Seeing is fair at 3.5-4".

My setup:
-EdgeHD 800 reduced to 1400mm FL
-Guide cam pixel scale : 1.7"/px
-Guiding through OAG at 3-4 seconds interval

Imaging M106 which is about 2hrs past meridian at the time of writing this.

That said, I'm not that familiar with guiding at such focal length... Any thoughts on what might be causing this ?

Sebastien



--
Brian 



Brian Valente



--
Brian 



Brian Valente



--
Brian 



Brian Valente
Re: 1100GTO case

M Hambrick
 

Hi Todd

Have you watched Tony's (a.k.a Harley Davidson) YouTube video showing the Ridgid toolboxes ? I copied the link below. I am using the same cases for my 1100, and I have lined mine with high density closed cell foam. I needed four cases to hold all of the 1100 components; the Dec axis with saddle plate attached sits in the wheeled case. The RA axis sits in the 22-inch box, and the counterweight shaft and counterweights sit in two of the narrow boxes. All will stack on top of the wheeled box. There is room in the Dec axis case for the GTOCP4, Keypad, and cables.

The Ridgid cases are pretty tough, but I would not recommend them for airline travel. If you are looking for cases suitable for airline travel you probably want to go with a Pelican case, or if they are still in business get some custom cases from Company 7. Their cases look really good but expensive.

You can find the 1.8 density closed cell polyethylene foam on Amazon or eBay. 

I hope this helps.

Mike

ASTRO PHYSICS 1100GTO mount - cases I use for transport - YouTube
Re: Spikes in DEC #guiding #Guiding

Sébastien Doré
 

Hi Brian,

encoder mounts like the Mach 2 require some basic correct setup, and i'm not sure yours is there

Just re-reading your comment above and  I'm not sure I clearly understand what you mean by "basic correct setup". Are suggesting I should refine some settings within the imaging/guiding softwares ? Or are you saying I should look into the mechanical aspect of the OTA, OAG, camera, etc. ?

I just saw Howard and Roland also replied, so I will follow-up with them as well. 

I must add I am not just blown away by the mount's performance which, as you pointed out, is very good at < 0.5", but also by AP's ***** (five stars) customer service. A flawless customer experience...

Sebastien

De : main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> de la part de Brian Valente <bvalente@...>
Envoyé : 3 mai 2021 03:00
À : main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io>
Objet : Re: [ap-gto] Spikes in DEC #guiding #guiding
 
HI Sebastian

I suggest you take this up with AP in their forums

encoder mounts like the Mach 2 require some basic correct setup, and i'm not sure yours is there (i'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with the mount at all: you are guiding < 0.50")

 looking at a typical run, your DEC is odd for the following reasons: 
- those excursions are not the result of any PHD type of correction
- all your corrections are in one direction both RA and DEC, and corrections exhibit a clumping 

this is dec showing the large instantaneous jumps and guiding in only one direction 
image.png

image.png

I suggest you do a guiding assistant run for a few minutes to measure polar misalignment. it could be something is terribly off on polar align, but based on what you're saying i don't know. 



On Sun, May 2, 2021 at 10:29 PM Seb@stro <sebastiendore1@...> wrote:
Hi Brian,

Thanks for your reply.  Logs here: https://openphdguiding.org/logs/dl/PHD2_logs_BqZp.zip

I should probably have added that my imaging scale is 1.04"/px. So it's probably impacting a bit, maybe not much... But to be honest my concern was also about the working order the mount.  

But don't get me wrong, I'm coming from a low budget asian mount and got the Mach2 about 2 months ago. It performs WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY better, no question there. So there's the fact that I'm not very familiar with AP mounts limits regarding tracking and guiding yet. Had a handful of clear nights only. And I know my system is the challenging kind (mirrors, long FL, reducer backfocus, etc.)... So I just thought I'd ask for educated guess here.

Might also be PA as you pointed out. But I thought I did well since I polar aligned with RAPAS at the beginning of my session and refined with PHD2 polar drift align afterward. When I ran the Guiding assistant, I recall it was saying it was around 2-3 arcmin from the NCP... Do you think it's reasonable for my imaging scale (1"/px) ?

Sebastien

De : main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> de la part de Brian Valente <bvalente@...>
Envoyé : 3 mai 2021 00:48
À : main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io>
Objet : Re: [ap-gto] Spikes in DEC #guiding #guiding
 
Hi  Sebastien

Please upload your guidelogs for this https://openphdguiding.org/getting-help/ 


Screen caps aren't enough information, but a quick glance looks like you have pretty bad polar alignment which would dramatically impact your DEC guiding

guidelogs would tell more


I wonder how much of an issue guiding is here - your overall rms is 0.49" and your image scale is 1.7"/pix, i'm guessing even if you addressed this you may not see a difference in your images


Brian
 

On Sun, May 2, 2021 at 9:44 PM Seb@stro <sebastiendore1@...> wrote:
Hello all, 

I'm having some spikes in my DEC guiding at times tonight. The worst ones seem to occur at periodic interval around 20-25 seconds but not all the time. Like about a dozen times in 400s periods. RMS values are good but DEC is about 40% bigger than RA because of these excursions. 

Conditions are fairly good now. No wind at all. Balance was quite accurate (as far as my eye can tell) in both RA and DEC. PA error reported by PHD2 is below 5 arc-min. I have a NUC on top of OTA, so no cable snag possible. Seeing is fair at 3.5-4".

My setup:
-EdgeHD 800 reduced to 1400mm FL
-Guide cam pixel scale : 1.7"/px
-Guiding through OAG at 3-4 seconds interval

Imaging M106 which is about 2hrs past meridian at the time of writing this.

That said, I'm not that familiar with guiding at such focal length... Any thoughts on what might be causing this ?

Sebastien



--
Brian 



Brian Valente



--
Brian 



Brian Valente
Re: Spikes in DEC #Guiding

Roland Christen
 

This indicates a severe unbalance in Dec which puts a lot of pressure on the gear teeth and causes high friction.

Check your Dec balance by sending the mount to Park1 or 4 or 5 and loosening all 4 clutch knobs fully. You must be well balanced in Dec, especially if your load is heavy. With clutches loose, feel the weight as you move the scope back and forth.

Roland


-----Original Message-----
From: Seb@stro <sebastiendore1@...>
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io>
Sent: Mon, May 3, 2021 12:59 am
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Spikes in DEC #guiding #guiding

I seem to have some very consistant spikes (about 3" in magnitude) every 130 seconds now. I have monitored for about 20 minutes long and they are very predictable... Note that I have reduced exposure time to 2.0s, just to see if I would see more spikes when sampling faster.



--
Roland Christen
Astro-Physics
1100GTO case

midmoastro
 

I searched through some older threads but thought I would make this one more specific, and updated, as the last one was several years old.
I would like to purchase two separate travel cases for the 1100 RA/DEC. Is anyone using Pelican cases, or similar, for transportation of their 1100? I would love to see some pictures if possible. Sturdy foam is necessary too. I think four cases will cover my needs with the third for CW shaft and weights and the fourth for the keypad, GTOCP4, and accessories but I would really like to see what others are using.

By the way, when I received my mount several weeks ago I had two days of clear skies. Despite that, I patiently waited and practiced set up and tear down. Then clouds moved in over the next several days so I got the CP4 connected to WiFi, tested connection via USB, connected with SkySafari, etc. Later I got APCC downloaded and set up on my Windows 10 VM on my Mac so that was working. Finally this past weekend I got outside and used RAPAS to polar align, then I checked it with SharpCap polar align as I still need to adjust the RAPAS. Fired up APCC, PHD2, and ran some calibration and I was ready. I got 90 minutes of data on M81 and M82 and tracking was beautiful. Everything worked great. Thanks to all at Astro-Physics, the mount is beautiful and working great. The weight of each piece is very manageable for me and set up and tear down is really quick. 
Todd
Re: AP1200 GTO chatter

Don Anderson
 

Mike
Dale provided a good explanation to your questions. I would add though that the different sounds you hear running the mount in the reverse direction is the result of the gears pulling on the back side of the gear teeth. The two sides of the gear teeth can have slightly different surface finishes from each other which can generate different sounds depending on which side the load is putting pressure on. This can become more apparent as the gears wear in with use. This is especially true for the RA axis which is normally running in one direction only.
In any case don't worry about it. It is simply your gear trains personality!
Regards

Don Anderson


On Monday, May 3, 2021, 10:26:02 a.m. MDT, Mike C <mike@...> wrote:


I finally removed my DEC gearbox on my AP1200. I haven't done the RA yet. The mount has been getting a bit louder with each passing Winter and started really talking this last WInter on the first slews of the evening. I removed all the old grease and got the worm and wheel quite shiny. I applied the new grease from the AP kit.

Afterwards, inside at least, the DEC operation is quieter than I remember in a long time. 

Questions -

1) I marked the spur gears with pencil but the pencil marks were lost on the plastic gear when cleaning.  So.. I hope that original orientation isn't that important? I dont mind running PemPro once I work the RA axis. Do I need to worry about spur gear orientation if I plan on using Pempro?

2) After cleaning , the worm/wheel surfaces still had a somewhat tacky feel to the surface though it looked quite shiny and clean throughout. Normal? Is this when you reach for mineral spirits? Why is it so important to remove mineral spirits with denatured alchohol after?

3) After re-assembly. Moving in one direction sounds realllly nice. The other direction sounds slightly more chirpy unless I put a slight load on the axis when moving it, which quiets it. Is it typical to end up with a different personality to the directions like that?

cheers
Mike in Alaska

Re: AP1200 GTO chatter

Dale Ghent
 

1. You'll need to run PEMPro for a new curve anyway, even if your spur gears stayed in the same orientation. When you do work like this, you're essentially committing to that as a step in the process; you cannot really avoid it (unless you run with PEC = off of course, and you ought to until you can generate a new curve)

2. Tacky is fine in my experience. The mineral spirits are used to dissolve grease that is caked on and hardened or just cannot be wiped out of a deep groove. The follow-up with alcohol is to remove any residue from the heavier mineral spirits so that it in turn doesn't affect the new grease you put down afterwards.

3. Not in my experience. Make sure you've tightened the worm evenly on both sides. You don't need to crank down hard on the screws either. Turn both by the same amount. This is where a sense of feel comes into play so it's kind of hard to describe how to do it over email... but whatever you do, be sure do it evenly. I'm willing to bet that this difference you notice might be because of an uneven tightening.

On May 3, 2021, at 12:25, Mike C <mike@...> wrote:

I finally removed my DEC gearbox on my AP1200. I haven't done the RA yet. The mount has been getting a bit louder with each passing Winter and started really talking this last WInter on the first slews of the evening. I removed all the old grease and got the worm and wheel quite shiny. I applied the new grease from the AP kit.

Afterwards, inside at least, the DEC operation is quieter than I remember in a long time.

Questions -

1) I marked the spur gears with pencil but the pencil marks were lost on the plastic gear when cleaning. So.. I hope that original orientation isn't that important? I dont mind running PemPro once I work the RA axis. Do I need to worry about spur gear orientation if I plan on using Pempro?

2) After cleaning , the worm/wheel surfaces still had a somewhat tacky feel to the surface though it looked quite shiny and clean throughout. Normal? Is this when you reach for mineral spirits? Why is it so important to remove mineral spirits with denatured alchohol after?

3) After re-assembly. Moving in one direction sounds realllly nice. The other direction sounds slightly more chirpy unless I put a slight load on the axis when moving it, which quiets it. Is it typical to end up with a different personality to the directions like that?

cheers
Mike in Alaska
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