Hi Gavin, I'm not sure if you got what I meant by "moving the OTA rings closer together". (1) The idea is that by reducing the spacing "between" the rings, you might be able to slide the OTA more forw

Gavin, An after thought. Rather than drilling the two rearward holes for the back ring, right away, can you get one or two Vice Grips or C-Clamps to fix the rear OTA ring to the plate temporarily, and

Hi Konstantin, Actually, "mercury switches" are almost impossible to find, at least in Canada, because of the ban on mercury due to it's toxicity. Perhaps some "ball bearing" based level sensor has re

Hi Gavin, Glad it helped. Regards, Joe

Hi Ken, I know it is almost a sacrilege to suggest this, but there is probably a good chance of using a Gemini controller with the AP mount - one, if not THE, finest mounts ever made. Since the Gemini

Chris, Off the top of my head, you could use some logic circuitry, like a 4 input NAND gate to tristate the outputs of a camera, when all are grounded. Maybe a single DIP package circuit inside a smal

I wonder if something like a small piece of the Rubylith red cellophane laptop screen cover, we use to preserve night vision, would work equally well on the pad display in bright sunshine. If so, a sn

... Who was that masked man next to his white scope "Silver" :-) Joe

Rick, ... Think about a "proximity sensor" - like StarTreky force fields. If you could measure the change in capacitance of a fibre coated metal pier, as an object like the OTA approaches, you can use

Hi Rick, I've had a chance to sleep on the idea and I think I have a practical and do-able solution (relying on my past 40 years of computer systems and hardware design). Think about how "Touch Sensit

Hi Mark, I wonder if you can accomplish your "pressure switched" relay mount control by sending a voltage level to the auto guider port pins, instead of trying to reverse the phases of the servo motor

Sorry Roland, Thanks for the catch. Didn't check the specs, but the idea is still correct. Just watch the circuit implementation. Joe

Mark, Just one question though. How will you figure out, automatically, which axis caused the collision with the pier? You can't reverse both motors, since if the RA caused the hit, for example, rever

Mark, I was thinking of scenarios where you could put the OTA into an unintended collision, "while" in the process of backing up. Lets say the scope had no DEC motion, and the scope was approaching th

Congrats on getting your AP1200 - it's almost as good as winning a lottery ! Actually, better: the thrill of lottery money blows away in no time - the thrill of having an AP mount ... is forever. Bett

Or ... Ray, As the years wear on, and you can no longer carry all that luggage to a dark site, and very soon, not even find one, within the cost of gas, squeezed out of your life savings - it will be

Hi Dean, One last shot - measure the voltage AT the end of the AP power cable. The power supply may be fine, but the AP cable or connector may be marginal, at the control panel. Unplug it from there,

Hi Rick, Have you implemented "dead man safety switches" in software yet? I wonder if a background program could check for a ping from your home PC, to see if things are still under control. or to sen

Roland, I wonder if a "test exchange" system could be implemented. When really stumped, in a pinch, it would be nice to get a known working controller and/or keypad, and cables, on a 7 day debug loan

Yes, Roland, I agree. We should do as much as we possibly can to examine symptoms, and try to fathom what is going on. However, my suggestion was a last ditch approach, before giving up and shipping e