EQ6 - RA Clutch problem...

[Aramcheck]

Had a daytime practice session today with the DLSR + scope to try to get a better feel for how the Synscan controls relate to the camera image... When balancing the RA I think I must have undone the RA Clutch too much as now when I lock it, the RA axis is still prone to movement, for example when adjusting the DEC.

Have I completely messed up the mount? Any ideas on how I can rectify this, or anywhere that does repairs?

The mount is a Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 GT Pro where the RA Clutch consists of a threaded bolt that goes into a ring just above the polar scope eyepiece & rotates to lock/unlock the axis.

I'm feel such a numpty & am kicking myself! Any help much appreciated!

Many Thanks
Ivor

[geeklee]

Hi Ivor.  I have the same mount but I don't think I've even really loosened up the RA clutch a lot.  Do you mean you've kept loosening, then undoing the bolt, moving it back to the bottom left of that picture, screwing it into new hole, then loosening again - and kept doing that?  Sorry, just trying to get a feel for what might have happened.

I know when I first got mine, after I loosened the RA clutch by moving towards to the top right of that picture, the tightening wasn't enough going back the way, so I unscrewed the bolt and moved it round to the right and tightened it a little bit more (towards bottom left)

Edited December 15, 2019 by geeklee

[Skipper Billy]

+1 - just unscrew the knob and replace it one hole to the left. Keep going until you can lock the clutch. Then leave it alone !! The movement between the arms should be enough to lock and unlock the clutch.

 

[david_taurus83]

It's a solid mount. When the clutches are tightened its excellent at tracking. What I have found though, is if you really tighten it out in the cold and later bring the mount inside, once it warms up to room temperature its extremely tight to undo the clutches. Now I just undo them slightly inside after a session so they dont become too stiff.

[Aramcheck]

@Skipper Billy & @geeklee - Thanks for the replies. Normally that's what I do & I haven't had any problems before, but this time I slackened it of too much when balancing. Subsequently the clutch locks tight, but it isn't the same kind of smooth resistance when rotating the knob, and when locked tight, the RA axis can still rotate easily, so the locking mechanism isn't now working properly.

 

[Aramcheck]

4 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

It's a solid mount. When the clutches are tightened its excellent at tracking. What I have found though, is if you really tighten it out in the cold and later bring the mount inside, once it warms up to room temperature its extremely tight to undo the clutches. Now I just undo them slightly inside after a session so they dont become too stiff.

I now keep our gear under the house in a storage area, as it helps avoid condensation issues when bringing kit back into the warm. A good tip though if having to bring the mount inside!

[geeklee]

27 minutes ago, Aramcheck said:

@Skipper Billy & @geeklee - Thanks for the replies. Normally that's what I do & I haven't had any problems before, but this time I slackened it of too much when balancing. Subsequently the clutch locks tight, but it isn't the same kind of smooth resistance when rotating the knob, and when locked tight, the RA axis can still rotate easily, so the locking mechanism isn't now working properly.

 

Just to cancel out something else... I'll apologise in advance as I'm sure this isn't the case but I've got mixed up on my DEC before and loosened it then thought I was tightening it and loosened it to the max thinking it was locked (as the clutch was "locked") but DEC moved easily as I'd obviously gone in the wrong direction.  This isn't what's happened here is it, but with RA?  I just see in the picture the bolt looks all the way over the right, but IIRC the locking direction is to the left then moving the bolt along the right and going left again.

Edited December 15, 2019 by geeklee

[Aramcheck]

48 minutes ago, geeklee said:

This isn't what's happened here is it, but with RA?  I just see in the picture the bolt looks all the way over the right, but IIRC the locking direction is to the left then moving the bolt along the right and going left again.

Genius! That's it... I'd managed to lock the RA in the completely open position. To make matters worse I'd only been looking earlier at the manual & thought "we'll they've got that picture labelled the wrong way round"...

It reminds me of when we had our EQ-2 scope & I learnt the hard way that the slo-mo DEC control only has a finite movement - took me a night or two to figure that out.

Thanks again @geeklee - much appreciated!

Cheers
Ivor

[geeklee]

1 hour ago, Aramcheck said:

Genius! That's it... I'd managed to lock the RA in the completely open position. To make matters worse I'd only been looking earlier at the manual & thought "we'll they've got that picture labelled the wrong way round"...

😁 Awesome, I'm glad that's all it was!