Whoah - 10Micron made two direct drive mounts!

[perfrej]

It appears the Italians have made their own super efficient direct drive motors and put them into two large AzAlt fork mounts. My wife and I were in Venice last week and stopped by north of Milan on the way over to our remote observatory. 10Micron people were very nice and showed us their clean factory during our brief stop. We also got to play with their new mount series with direct drive motors that they made themselves. I don't have much details to spill, but apparently they are extremely efficient, as evident by the size of the power supply in the lower left corner of this viseo: http://www.10micron.eu/en/new-az5000-dds-demo-video/

Probably a bit above my price range

It is, anyway, interesting that the same control system as used in their normal mounts is now powering the massive direct drive motors. The thing zooms around at 40°/s so we had to stand clear. Power feed is 48V with low single digit amps.

 

/per

[buzz]

Not sure on the color.

I think this really a cover for the Italian military - for surface to air missiles!

[perfrej]

Could be... Look out when 40°/s send the secondary mirror towards the enemy!

 

/p

[Tim]

and I thought 10°a second was fast!

[Alien 13]

I do have some reservations about direct drive I have seen a few aircraft radar heads using similar technology under test that have been subject to a software glitch causing them to rip themselves from the mountings and bounce around the floor.

Alan 

[perfrej]

Many professional observatories use direct drive technology. What is needed is a brake system that can mechanically stop it from moving freely. SkyVision has that, ASA does not. I think direct drive is mature enough at this point.

 

/per

[perfrej]

11 hours ago, Tim said:

and I thought 10°a second was fast!

Well, the GM1000HPS does 15 degrees per second, the GM2000HPS 20... So this thing is twice as fast as their current fastest model, and according to what I heard it can do 50 as well.

 

/per

[Tim]

I set mine to 10°/sec max, else it moves quicker than I do!

[perfrej]

I recently chose 14 as a good middle speed for model building. Works vey well, and since I am not present in body, faster would have worked too

 

/per

[NickK]

Looks like a licenced plane wave design..

[perfrej]

Yes, those forks look pretty much the same, don't they. I don't think they licensed anything in that design,though. Even the motors are made right there along with a derotator/focuser and the rest of the details.

 

/p

[ChrisLX200]

10 hours ago, perfrej said:

I recently chose 14 as a good middle speed for model building. Works vey well, and since I am not present in body, faster would have worked too

 

/per

I followed your lead and use 14deg/sec, 20 is fun for swatting moths and shaking the dust off though. Apart from that I can't see the utility in these ultra fast slewing speeds for normal use, I guess it's a case of 'because they can..." :-)

ChrisH