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CPC800 Cordwrap

Gilps

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Gilps

Gilps

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Am I right in thinking that to turn on the cordwrap prevention facility, I go in to the menu and turn cordwrap off? That seems a little odd but it's what the manual implies.

Also, I'm looking for a definitive answer as to where the point is that the scope won't slew past when preventing cordwrap. Someone suggested that it was North. I thought it was 180 degrees from the position where the scope was powered on. I'm trying to figure out where to position the battery to best prevent the power leads wrapping round. The scope's lead is a good length but the lead on the Kendrick dew controller is a bit shorter than ideal and we have had a couple of incidents that could have potentially been damaging.

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brantuk

brantuk

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By default cordwrap is "off" when you choose alt/az mode, and "on" when you choose wedge mode. So you need to switch it "on" explicitly when in alt/az mode. It stops it wrapping more than 360 degrees. It rarely gets near 360 as you choose different objects cos it just decides to go the other way round before getting there.

I put my power pack directly underneath the mount and leave a good length of loose cable (that rarely gets taken up). :)

(Edit - it starts from the "switch on" position or from where you turn cordwrap "on").

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Gilps

Gilps

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Thanks that helps. I need to turn it on then to get it to work.

I can't really get the powerpack underneath as it's so heavy that it would bend the centre piece, and will only just fit too. I site it in front of the scope between two of the legs which is part of the problem. The Kendrick lead is quite short and will allow the scope to slew 180 degrees around either way from the battery, but not much further. I'm trying to site the battery 180 degrees round from the point that it won't slew past.

I usually set the scope up with the house behind me, the scope pointing out midway between full left and right swing, the battery directly in front, and then switch on. We have had a couple of instances where the scope has swung round behind then kept going which is when I quickly press a button to cancel it. This makes sense though as by the sounds of it I've had the cordwrap set wrong.

Today I have used some of the cable tidy stuff to keep both the power leads together. It's the kind of thing that looks like a tube or a spiral ring binder, and I'm hoping that as it is smooth and round that it may help prevent the cables getting snagged on the mount or the battery.

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

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With the cables I tend to leave a loop thats enough for a complete rev + a bit and then fix the cable to a tripod leg... the other thing I have done in the past is fix the cable to the carrying handle as this tends to keep them away from the base of the scope...

Billy...

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brianb

brianb

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By default cordwrap is "off" when you choose alt/az mode, and "on" when you choose wedge mode.

Depends on the version of your firmware. Mine sets cordwrap on though it's in altaz mode, and believe me it does wrap the cord ... needs to be turned off if it's not going to go the long way round on every seek after about the first 5 seeks, and reel the power cord in ...

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brantuk

brantuk

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Yes - apologies mate - everything I said was true but for my older version only :)

You could test it all out using just the long power chord plugged into the base, then hook in the Kendrick after you're sure of what your software is doing with the wrap feature.

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Gilps

Gilps

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I've made some progress on this one now.

Our handset firmware is the latest rev - 4.18

When I powered on the scope the cordwrap was turned off. I carried out the alignment as usual. I sent the scope to various points and it would have quite happily wound the cable around and around.

Then I returned the scope to it's usual starting point and went in to the menu. When I turned on cordwrap I was asked to "point in opposite direction to no-cross line". I did this and it worked fine. I set the no cross-line to be between Orion and Jupiter and the scope would'nt cross the line when switching between Sirius and Jupiter. What was interesting was that it would let me manually cross the line using the buttons. I slewed around, past Orion, over the no-cross line and pointed it in the general direction of Jupiter. When I told it to goto Jupiter, it seemed to work out that it was over the line and slewed back all the way round 360 degrees and lined up on Jupiter, even though it was in already very close to the target.

The scope was already aligned before I turned the cordwrap on and I didn't want to mess about doing it again, so I didn't get around to checking out where the no-cross line is by default, but I will check this out next time we power on and align. I suspect that it is opposite to the point that the scope is at when powered on.

In summary, with firmware rev 4.18, to use the cordwrap facility to prevent endless rotation, it needs to be turned on. The no-cross line is in the opposite direction to where the scope is pointing when turned on.

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