Rixavatar

I haven't had a moment to get into mine yet, but I'm wondering if there is anti-cord wrap setting that tells the mount to take the long way around past 360 degrees to avoid cordwrap.

Yep, Derek explained it better! One thing to also note to remember is that there are TWO dampener knobs for each axis, one opposing the other, that need to be adjusted evenly and it doesn't take much tightening. I do mine with just the tips of my thumb and forefinger for each and its plenty.

Derek may have a better way of explaining, but I'll give it a go... Think of the relationship between the rotating part of the axis and the stationary mount body. If you place a piece of blue painters tape at the gap between those two parts and draw a reference line on two pieces of tape across that gap, you will see that the "backlash" is the free movement in either direction before the teeth of the worm gear contact the ring gear. This back and forth "free play" is the backlash and is seen at the worm gear's mesh and at the free movement of the center shaft rotation. With the instructions, you are minimizing this without placing constant pressure of the worm gear against the ring gear, which causes binding and could eventually cause gear damage, or overload a goto motor. You can never really eliminate backlash, so its all about minimizing it (the degree of precision needed to eliminate it would be cost prohibitive, I suspect). So, imagine that the backlash gives you 1mm of free "float" the axis can move in either direction before the gear teeth of the worm contacts either side of the mating ring gear teeth. The dampener applies pressure to the center shaft (the shaft the entire Alt or Az axis rotates on) so that this movement isn't allowed to simply "flop" around, but is dampened under the tension of the dampener pressing against the shaft. This smoothens out the motion felt the knob and prevents unwanted movement within that 1mm of backlash (the 1mm is purely for illustration purposes. You want to use Rowan's instructions for backlash setting as per the manual). Hopefully that makes sense! ~Rix Derek is free to smack me if I got any of that wrong!

The adjustments I described in my last post were a big part of it for me, but not necessarily the first things to try. The first things to look at and try first in my opinion would be: 1.) Your tripod. Rowan confirmed, for instance, that a Berlebach Uni was giving them about 2 seconds of damping time, whereas a Planet reduced that to 1 2.) Tripod levers and bolts are tight 3.) Tripod surface (grass is better than concrete which is better than a wood deck, etc) 4.) Balance the OTA on the Alt axis (this one will always cause wiggles for me as it will cause a stutter at the slow motion controls if too far out of balance) 5.) Backlash adjustment (as per the manual) and use of the dampener knobs 6.) Sliding the counterweights inward to half way along the bar or closer (but not at the sacrifice of becoming tippy!) Rowan may suggest other things to check too, depending on any one person's unique use case, but these are the things that made a difference for me. It was everything in aggregate that got me down to 1 second of damping time with mt 35lbs of Meade SCT, but the weight and moment arm of other scopes like refractors will likely change things. Everyone's situation can be different, but those items alone reduced my "wiggles" damping time from 3 seconds to 2. The thrust bearing adjustment took me the rest of the way to 1 second. I suppose the steps above apply to any mount/scope conbination. ~Rix

It simply came down to two adjustments. The owner's manual discusses the adjustment of backlash and this was one component of it. Also understanding how the dampener knob plays with backlash as well, as its not just for feel, but prevents any free play (which you must have, because pressure of the worm gear against the ring gear will cause wear and binding) from being able to bounce around undamped. You have to have some play, and those dampener knobs take out most of the unavoidable effects of that. It makes me curious if the goto upgrade will have any backlash compensation, though. In my case, which I suspect is an anomoly, was that the thrust bearing adjustment for each axis was not quite tight enough, so each axis was wobbling a tiny bit, basically. It's why the position of the counterweights were changing the oscillaition at the eyepiece, because the farther out the weights were, the more leverage they have. Now that the preload is right, it doesn't matter where the counterweights are in relation to any "wiggles" because the axis is always held firmly. It's actually straight forward, but as its not in the manual, Rowan might prefer I refer anyone who feels they need to do this to them for instruction, rather than posting it here. I'll ask them how they feel about that. The thing is bullt like a tank and it would be pretty darned hard to hurt the mount, but you might reduce performance if its not done right. With both of those done up, none of the earlier things I tried with tripods, weights, etc even seem to matter anymore. The mount is consistent and doesn't seem to care, which is a good thing! Also, with the Planet legs on their farthest out position (I have the three position spreader version), the stability is great and the stance is wider, so I can actually get away without using counterweights at all if I was just worried about tipping and not exacting encoder accuracy). ~Rix

As quick follow up on my AZ100... To recap, with my Meade 10" LX850 f8 OTA on the AZ100 and Planet tripod, I was getting about 3 seconds of damping time when focusing or touch the OTA. After several attempts to resolve this by swapping the tripod out with a T-Pod, using VSPs, trying a different 10" OTA, cement and grass, various amounts and configurations of counterweight and checking everything for tightness, I reached out to Rowan to get their advice as my experience wasn't matching what others were reporting. The best I was able to reduce the damping time to was 2 seconds and Rowan confirmed that that wasn't what I should be seeing, so this was an anomoly to solve. Starting with a quick shout out to Derek at Rowan for amazing customer service in working through things, I can now report that damping times are down to 1 second and the oscillations greatly decreased in amplitude, making fine planetary focusing easy! I still have yet to try the spiked feet to see if they will improve things even further as they are on order, but it's meeting my expectations. Considering this is a 35lb OTA setup with eyepieces (weighed to confirm) and two counterweights, I'd say that's pretty good! Other's experiences with similar OTA weights I would guess are similar, but of course one person's opinion of "rock solid" may differ from another based on experience or expectations. To me, my goal is 1 second or less, which is why I tend to try to overmount my scopes. When I got the 10" f8 for the AZ100, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't overloading it for /my/ expectations of rock solid. 3 seconds was a bit much. So, Derek helped me through the process of exploring possibilities, testing and reporting results which lead to making some adjustments (this mount is incredibly user serviceable, so credit is due to the designer!). It's pretty clear to me that its designed to be a lifetime instrument. After years of experience with mass produced mounts that eventually failed me from the effects of cost saving "short cuts" (just my experience and opinion, your mileage may vary!), having gone through this, its clear to me with the AZ100, there are no such cost saving shortcuts. I was definitely impressed. TLDR; Derek with Rowan had the patience and customer service to help me work the damping time down to 1 second, which is quite nice in use, especially considering the weight of this OTA! I would wholeheartedly recommend the AZ100, and Rowan as a company, as not just a solid choice (pun intended) for a mount, but also a long term investment in astro gear. Now I look forward to my GoTo upgrade when it finally arrives! Thanks again to everyone who helped with suggestions towards getting things to where they are now. Clear skies! ~Rix One parting note: Pic below while enjoying Jupiter. I have the weights all the way inward while testing stability, but it now doesn't matter where they are. The mount doesn't care.

Nice setup! I may need to do this once I get things sorted. What's the length of the short handle? I could use this!

I have the spikes on order, but they are not here yet. However, with these feet installed, the DM6 and G11 with everything from a TSA-120 to a C11 were always rock solid. I've tested the AZ100 now with both a T-Pod 110 and the Planet. Rowan did some testing as well on their end using similar load but with a Uni tripod and got the same damping times (2 seconds) but the Planet is a more substantial tripod, so it should be better. After I try things with the recommended adjustments, I'll know more. I mostly need to know what the proper expectations should be for stability using this 35lb fully setup OTA.

Good idea, I'll try that. I'm hoping the adjustments Rowan had me do today will take care of it. Brief testing from my workshop looks promising, but I need to check it under the stars before I declare victory.

It's the only scope I have at the moment, but the tripod was testing with my previous DM6 mount and it was perfect, as was a G11 before that. Rowan has been helping me with the issue and we might have found the issue. I'll know more after testing it tonight. Fingers crossed!

I tried the tripod at all three spread angles and the widest and middle position (I have the 3 position spreader) tested the best. In the last test tried (as in the pic) they are at the widest to try with the riser pier. Oddly enough, this combination improved things to 2 seconds. No riser and middle position with the weights set to the outside of the bar gives the worst at 3 seconds of damping time. The center bolt engages with 4.5 turns of the knob worth of thread and I'm using the newest center adapter that extends downward past the base. I also tested it with the T-Pod which has an extra two threads worth of bolt and it was no better. All knobs and bolts are very tight (I'm a big guy, so no worry of them being remotely loose. I've set the tripod on cement as shown and in the grass with no change in oscillations. I've tried one weight, two weights, no weights and the best performance comes from two weights set fully inward on the counterweight bar. So far, the way its set in the pic has given the best performance. One thing I've noted is that AZ axis slow motion control is nice with the scope installed, but is binding a bit when the scope is removed. Rowan suspects I may need to do some adjustments, but they wanted to rule out everything else first, which makes sense. It's why I'm posting here, to see if there is anything else anyone can think of trying. I'm happy to try any ideas anyone has! Rick

Well, based on that, I wonder what's going on. Here is a pic of my setup while I was trying various configurations (riser, no riser, weights inward, weights out, no weights, with and without VSPs, etc). Rowan is working with me to figure out why I'm seeing oscillations at the eyepiece and they've been great with helping thus far, but the best I've managed is about 2 seconds of image wiggle damping time when touching the focuser to focus, or tapping lightly (like you would tap on your cell phone screen) on it or the diagonal. The wind will get things to moving too if it picks up at all. I've tried my Planet and my T-Pod, everything is tight, backlash is adjusted nicely, etc. I'm a long ways from the rock solid behavior you're describing and I'd sure like to get somewhere even close to that. On the upside, the slow motion controls are incredible and the motions are very smooth, whether the friction is set to light or heavy. Better than my DM6 I'd say in terms of motions and that's saying a lot. The mount seems amazing otherwise, which is why I keep thinking it could just be something I'm doing wrong, though I didn't see this with my DM6. I guess I'm hoping that maybe someone might have some ideas. ~R

So, with this setup, you don't experience any image wiggles when focusing? I have received a Meade 10" ACF f8 OTA with the exact same setup as above, and when focusing, the image oscillates during focusing and for 2 to 3 seconds after focusing. This is with our without counterweight bar and 2 weights installed. I'm trying to properly set my expectations and determine if there is something wrong somehow with my setup. Thanks! Rix

This is good to hear! The Meade 10" f8 is about 5lbs heavier, but also a touch smaller, so I'm hoping it would compare favorably. I have both extension sizes as well for use with refractors, but I suspect I will want to delete those from the setup if I can, to lower the center of gravity and reduce the potential for flexing, if that's even a concern with this mount. Going from a TSA-120 to a C11 or Meade 10" f8 is a big step in weight, but also a reduction in moment arm. Mostly, I don't want to sacrifice stability at the eyepiece because focus wiggles are a bit of a nit for me. Some people can deal with them, but when damping reaches even 1 second for me, I notice it. The responses here so far have been great! I really appreciate it.

So I've been watching this thread and I'm hoping to get some guidance. I want to combine an AZ100 (single scope on the left with counterweights on the right) with Planet tripod to use with either a Meade 10" ACF f8 (33lb OTA bare) or C11 Edge (28lb OTA bare). I don't like to see the image wiggling at the eyepiece when focusing or when the wind blows (its one thing I appreciate about a CPC or LX200 fork setup but my luck with reliability on those is what drove me to the AZ100 now that the motor drive is coming). Before deciding on an OTA, I was hoping to make sure I have my expectations appropriately set. So, what can I expect at the eyepiece in terms of stability, focus wiggles and damping time? I see a lot of comments about "rock solid", but I suppose its different to everyone. For me, "rock solid" is what an LX200 or CPC delivers. How does the AZ100 + Planet + counterweights compare? Thanks in advance! R