Mounting: Drives. Ever onwards:

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Thursday: I have been dreaming of push-pull worm adjusters. Some good ideas too, as I tried lots of different layouts. OCD? Probably. Unfortunately my creativity did not extend to reality. The flange bearing housings were much too bulky to allow a straight shot at the motor housings with screws, studs or springs. Which meant considerable extension with metal profiles would be needed.

I'm now thinking more towards small cams to push the motors gently in and out relative to the wormwheels. It need not be as sophisticated as a snail cam or ellipse since the movement required is very small. An offset center pin in a circular metal object will provide fine motion simply by rotation with a spanner or hex key. Once satisfied with the depthing and mesh the clamping screws can be tightened.

I spent a couple of hours playing with C-Du-C. Doing Goto slews between Polaris and assorted planets down near the horizon. Then slewing back to Polaris to see if it could find it again without syncing on the planet. Cartes-Du-Ciel remains reliable while Stellarium Scope now refuses to open. I did get a Scope label on the eastern horizon but I could not 'mark' the map as a target for any Gotos.

Parking with AWR's IH2 handset [paddle] is now behaving itself properly. Which saves me pressing the handset button for several minutes on end. It just needed a proper calibration [Sync] before it would accept parking coordinates. I chose horizontal, pointing east, weights down, for maximum headroom in the dome and when climbing the ladder up to the dome.

I have been dreaming about worm adjustment again. If I trap an offset center, circular 'cam' in a suitable slot it can push and pull the worm and motor assembly relative to the wormwheel. If one end of the motor housing is made into a sturdy pivot then the cam becomes less sensitive. Which is a good thing since it allows finer adjustment. The slot need only be long [oval] enough to allow the cam to turn without binding.

Friday: Still refining the balance and slews but without the laptop. Managed my first Flip after deliberately driving just past the meridian. The handset beeps and warns of the potential mechanical conflict. I repeatedly re-parked the OTA automatically. This all helps to familiarize myself with the handset and OTA movements while it is light enough to see all that goes on. Not to mention avoidance of time wasting when those precious clear sky moments do come along.

OTA clearance from the top ring of the octagon is very even but only about 3" from the star diagonal as it sweeps past the straight sections. Gotos have to be watched carefully because there is always a random element in the routes taken. Sometimes these will sweep over my computer desk/shelf. I may lower the shelf to avoid any chance of contact. So close does the star diagonal pass over. It would certainly collide with anything resting on the surface.

There is always the worry of the OTA hitting my very large pier. I would certainly not trust a remote setup without constant and very clear monitoring from several angles with HD security cameras. Not going to happen. My cable to the Dec drive likes to wrap itself around the mounting so would need very careful monitoring too. Remote working is probably much safer with short OTAs on fork mountings.

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