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ASA direct drive mount - rumours.

ollypenrice

By ollypenrice
in Discussions - Mounts

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George

George

Posted
Posted
I wonder how the built in laser works for polar alignment? The polar axis from my back garden is pretty much straight through the flight path into Gatwick.

Mike

Pity the people who live near military airfields, I'm sure a big tube with lasers emitted from it might make someone trigger happy ;):evil6:

I can read the headlines now "Astronomer blasted by RAF missiles" ;)

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NickH

NickH

Posted
Posted
Caveat emptor. I think that is all Olly was saying. I'll stay with my 1200, it will doubtless last until I drop dead.

just a another old fogie...

Not old fogie at all...as someone in the market for a new mount in the not too distant future, the AP's are high on my shopping list too..but for 5K Euros ish, the DD systems look promising

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David Pavlich

David Pavlich

Posted
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Direct drive technology is here to stay. The fun will be getting it to the masses and have it perform when it's plugged in. As with all low volume, mechanical things, the first round of purchasers become the company's extended beta testers whether they like it or not. Comes with the territory. How many times have your heard it said, "I'm not buying one of those things until they are out for a while"?

Eventually, I think you'll see a lot of mount producers working on direct drive technology. The break-through? I would say a DD mount that has an 80lb capacity in the price range of an MI250 or Tak EM400. When that mount hits the market, look out!!

David

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RobH

RobH

Posted
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Yes, that will be the one!

I reckon, like Dennis though, that I'll be sticking to my AP1200 until I drop dead as it does everything I want from a mount...PE, what little there is, has no bearing on anything as I autoguide anyway, and the guiding has been perfect as far as I've tested it, which is up to 30 minutes, so change for changes sake doesn't seem logical.

If I was in the market for a new mount though, I would be looking very seriously at a DD.

Cheers

Rob

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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'You don't understand or like the direct drive concept but seem to think that means it's unworkable, even though direct drive has been the preferred mount system of professionals for decades.'

Marmite, please get off my back! What I asked was a QUESTION. I actually WOULD like to know how they work. I KNOW that they work on professional mounts. I was asking a perfectly simple question, HOW do they work. I DO NOT KNOW and was asking for someone to explain, NOT stating rhetorically that THEY DO NOT WORK. I have an electrical enginneer staying at the moment and he does not know how they work either. We would both LIKE TO KNOW.

Please forgive the capitals but since you put your own spin onto everything I say it does seem to be necesary.

For what it's worth I use two EQ6 mounts and consider them great value, but no one in their right mind would fail to wish for something better. I was looking at ASA because (please read this at least twice) I LIKE the direct drive concept. Equally, having spoken to someone with direct experience of ASA, and being more or less in my right mind (I claim no more!) I would not buy an ASA without challenging them over the debacle at the Observatoire d'Haute Provence. (A bunch of clowns who discovered the first exoplanet.)

My observation about electric motors being good for observing from Pulsars was supposed to be something known as a joke. I thought it was quite funny but them I'm easily pleased!

Olly

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Marmite

Marmite

Posted
Posted
What I don't get is the mount has software issues and some mounts work and others don't ;) how can that be? Software either works or it doesn't, the only thing that could throw the software is if different components were used from mount to mount, then obviously the software would have to accommodate different hardware.

Maybe the pre-production models were overly expensive and the production models had cheaper electrical.....something doesn't add up.

Now there's an insightful post.

One of the reasons for my earlier comments is related to the substance of George's question, namely that we are hearing statements to the effect that ASA's mounts are inherently "faulty", while elsewhere there are ASA mount users happily using their ASA mounts.

What gives?

It seems that I have yet to see any "ASA mounts don't work!!!!" posts from anybody with an ASA mount. I've seen plenty from owners of certain other very expensive mounts.

If you read through the messages on the ASA Yahoo! Group you will sometimes see complaints about ASA's occasionally rather tardy responses to customers and potential customers, and you will see people wondering "What is this socket for?" or "How do I adjust PID?".

What you won't read anywhere there are ASA mount owners complaining because their ASA mounts don't work properly, or at all. You only see such thing expressed on other sites, usually by people reporting something they allegedly heard from a friend, or some random stranger on a website.

If there were any show-stopping bugs in the ASA mounts, everyone with an ASA mount would be complaining. But they aren't.

These mounts are new and unfamiliar to most people. Things like PID controls are novel concepts for the most part. How many non-ASA mount owners have kit with straight-thru cabling support and integrated laser PA systems? Not many. How many amateur astronomers have direct drive mounts? Even fewer. The familiarity isn't there yet. But those owners do appear to be highly satisfied with their mounts and putting them to very good use, judging by the images being published.

When ASA mount owners start complaining that their mounts "don't work", then I will concede that ASA's direct drive mounts aren't up to snuff, but it still doesn't mean that the likes of Astelco and almost every professional astronomer out there is silly for using direct drive. It would simply mean that ASA's particular implementation of the technology was lacking. As can be seen by reading the opinions of ASA's customers, it's only ASA's support which appears to have issues, not their product for the most part.

And here it is, the bit you've all been waiting for: I am in no way affiliated with ASA, Astelco, or any other manufacturer or seller of direct drive mounts or astronomical products of any kind.

Now below I'm going to post some smilies in the hope that the more uptight of you guys will realise that you can debate without assuming your opponent is angry or sarcastic or out to get you.

:D:) :D:) :) :p;)

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skybadger

skybadger

Posted
Posted

Hi all

Its been an interesting thread ..

Harmonic motors work because of that squeezable ring, an off-by-one difference between two gears that gives you a great gear reduction and thus a very stiff system. However they are still expensive motors. Look up harmonic drives and then look at the prices. Often they are ceramic or piezo driven but not always. Similarly, the pointing of these motors is not a given. Somewhere you need an indexer intehr to monitor pointing and close the feeback loop. The Renman encoders are capable of sub-arcsecond pointing and thus can provide you the zero PE you want, at about £1500 per device last time I asked. I know someone has altready put them on their own mount and reported happiness.

As for the piezo motor principle in general , that's mostly what drives the 'ultrasonic' or 'wave' camera focusers.

I look forward to the harmonic motors and the fine encoders becoming chaep enough for everyone to fit them. We can retro-fit to all our mounts and then everyone will be happy. The controllers themselves won't be anything special.

penny added.

Mike

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