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New Mount
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Frost David
Roland,
From time to time we’ve had messages pop up here with people wanting a smaller portable mount from AP. Something that would carry maybe 30-35 lbs and be super portable and lightweight. I’m wondering if you’ve ever considered, or if its even feasible to make a small direct drive mount this size, or would it be WAY too expensive for the size and capacity? Apparently ASA got out of the business of these small mounts a while back, and Planewave makes their L mounts, but they’re huge in size and weight. There isn’t anything like this out there that I’m aware of. People are readily handing over $3500-5500 for small harmonic mounts so I think the market might support it…just wondering if these could be built for a reasonable amount with higher end incremental encoders to keep the cost down and still track really well for smaller loads and wider FOV’s? David
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Bill Long
There was really good discussion about an AP400 refresh with an RA encoder. I'd be all over that.
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> on behalf of Frost David <frosty5@...>
Sent: Friday, January 7, 2022 8:39 PM To: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> Subject: [ap-gto] New Mount Roland,
From time to time we’ve had messages pop up here with people wanting a smaller portable mount from AP. Something that would carry maybe 30-35 lbs and be super portable and lightweight. I’m wondering if you’ve ever considered, or if its even feasible to make a small direct drive mount this size, or would it be WAY too expensive for the size and capacity? Apparently ASA got out of the business of these small mounts a while back, and Planewave makes their L mounts, but they’re huge in size and weight. There isn’t anything like this out there that I’m aware of. People are readily handing over $3500-5500 for small harmonic mounts so I think the market might support it…just wondering if these could be built for a reasonable amount with higher end incremental encoders to keep the cost down and still track really well for smaller loads and wider FOV’s? David
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Roland Christen
Direct drive mounts require hundreds of watts to power the magnets. For a portable mount this means having to power the mount from a very large battery at high voltage. Reason is that in a direct drive mount there is no gearing to multiply the torque. It's ok for a stationary mount since you can plug it into a wall socket and draw as many amps as you need to produce the holding torque. For portable use, this presents a problem.
Right now, super portable and light weight would be harmonic drive mounts.
Roland
-----Original Message-----
From: Frost David <frosty5@...> To: main@ap-gto.groups.io Sent: Fri, Jan 7, 2022 10:39 pm Subject: [ap-gto] New Mount Roland,
From time to time we’ve had messages pop up here with people wanting a smaller portable mount from AP. Something that would carry maybe 30-35 lbs and be super portable and lightweight. I’m wondering if you’ve ever considered, or if its even feasible to make a small direct drive mount this size, or would it be WAY too expensive for the size and capacity? Apparently ASA got out of the business of these small mounts a while back, and Planewave makes their L mounts, but they’re huge in size and weight. There isn’t anything like this out there that I’m aware of. People are readily handing over $3500-5500 for small harmonic mounts so I think the market might support it…just wondering if these could be built for a reasonable amount with higher end incremental encoders to keep the cost down and still track really well for smaller loads and wider FOV’s? David -- Roland Christen Astro-Physics
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