Giro Ercole Mini - The Panda

[StarryEyed]

Just received a new Giro Ercole Mini. It's taken on a new appearance. One word comes to mind and that's Panda. I spoke to TS and they said it's how the supplier provides them. It doesn't effect the performance but the white bearing in the middle just seems odd. They showed me another the same.

[Stu]

That does look quite different, I wonder why they do that?

Anyway, sure it will work just as well, they are excellent little mounts with surprisingly good load capacity. What are you going to use on it?

[John]

Interesting. Is the white stuff PTFE I wonder ?

 

[Alan White]

23 minutes ago, John said:

Interesting. Is the white stuff PTFE I wonder ?

My thought as well John, or it might be a nylon or delrin perhaps.
Must be as the bearing surface.
I wonder of the capacity has been increased?

[StarryEyed]

TS said they needed to update the images on the website they didn't mention any change in the specs. Though they refer to this as the current version.

I personally don't know if the previous version used a different material and this is just a colour change. I wanted it to be black. Its the same thing as a tak green finder with a tak blue focuser.

Calling it a Panda is an attempt to bond with it!

Edited August 24, 2019 by StarryEyed

[StarryEyed]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

What are you going to use on it?

TAK FC100DF. Which it handles very well.

Edited August 24, 2019 by StarryEyed

[Stu]

2 hours ago, StarryEyed said:

TAK FC100DF. Which it handles very well.

Perfect for that! 👍👍

[StarryEyed]

Sadly I sent it back. The supplied balance bar would not screw into the other side. Callipers measured the hole at 19.9 with the bar at 20..05. This side the hole was not reamed through and not anodised the other side had been. Without a counter balance this affected the tensioning of the azm axis leaving the azm axis loose lifting the head cause it to rise up out of the base a little. As a whole like this it rattles.   It seemed a great solution but down to the finishing, tolerances and appearance this is not what I expected. 

[Stu]

4 minutes ago, StarryEyed said:

Sadly I sent it back. The supplied balance bar would not screw into the other side. Callipers measured the hole at 19.9 with the bar at 20..05. This side the hole was not reamed through and not anodised the other side had been. Without a counter balance this affected the tensioning of the azm axis leaving the azm axis loose lifting the head cause it to rise up out of the base a little. As a whole like this it rattles.   It seemed a great solution but down to the finishing, tolerances and appearance this is not what I expected. 

That's disappointing. All of the ones of various types ie Mini Giro, Giro-WR, Giro II and Ercole have been fine. I wonder if they have tried to cost cut it too much?

[johninderby]

Makes you wonder if they are having some of the parts made elsewhere instead of all in house? 🤔

[StarryEyed]

I wonder who owns the design. My FC100DF with a two inch eyepiece and diagonal would have been great with a counter weight which was my intention. If there are issues with the supplier/manafacture not the dealer who have been great to deal with, I hope they get these fixed it's clearly a well thought out head.

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, StarryEyed said:

I wonder who owns the design. My FC100DF with a two inch eyepiece and diagonal would have been great with a counter weight which was my intention. If there are issues with the supplier/manafacture not the dealer who have been great to deal with, I hope they get these fixed it's clearly a well thought out head.

It is ideal for the DF, perhaps you just got a bad example? Worth trying again?

[StarryEyed]

I passed on an AZ GTI the week before which was great for travel but not stiff enough for me at higher powers. I might just let the dust settle.

[John]

I wonder if the manufacturer has changed here ?

Tele Optik were the original manufacturer. I've owned 4 of their mounts, a Giro III and 3 Ercoles and all were finished to a very high standard with precise machining.

 

[StarryEyed]

I assume it's not changed. Things do go wrong sometimes. For what its worth the alt axis shaft and end bearing inner bore were within 0.02mm of each other on my calipers. However  19.86mm is too small for a 20.1 extension bar. A simple fix for a CNC lathe to open it up to accept the bar. It didn't look finished so I think it just got forgotten about and slipped through. Frustrating and disappointing but that's all.