Hi Frank, Friction drives can slip, but depending on the design and the materials used, they may not slip. Mesu Mounts are a good example of a design that seems to work well - my understanding is that

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I'm in the process of constructing a 30" dobsonian telescope with friction drive on azimuth (5" friction wheel against a 30" disc) and altitude (large side bearings (54") on two horizontal shafts (1.4

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Maxime, Thank you. Alvaro

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On the Files section of the group (on the online version) you have a folder named "AAAA SiTech URLs - Latest Current software" with a file containing all the links you will need. Last Sitech is http:/

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See the previous post. -Jesse

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Hello all, Do you know what is the latest version of SiTechexe and will it be possible to provide a link to its location? Thank you. Alvaro

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Hi Markus, It is better to have a bit of slack rather than too tight. I presume you do not have one of the newer mounts that have the cables going through the axis. My own experience is from 2008 to t

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Hi All, I'm about to start trying to manage cables on this setup. Does anyone have any advice on best practices, how much slack to leave, pinch points to watch out for, etc. Like, If I make it ship-sh

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That is, indeed, the behavior I expected, but it does not seem to be what I'm observing. For example, I synced to Segin (epsilon cass) a few minutes ago. At my latitude, azimuth should be about 331 de

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Hi Mark, v3.9 is a servoI firmware version I think. I think you are using a fairly recent version because of one of your prior posts. In the numbers tab, the alt and az are the actual altitude and azi

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In my version of SiTechExe (v3.9) "azimuth" is given both in the numbers tab and in the controller information window. However, it doesn't seem to be user configurable, either directly or by syncing t

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Bill, Here is a build blog of my recent project: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/743577-rebuilding-my-50-cent-20-inch-string-telescope/#entry10704656 Should help you visualize and understand the pa

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Hi Bill, As Bill G mentioned, Sidereal technologies sells cog belts and pulleys. Also you can get almost anyhting mechanical from McMaster-Carr at https://www.mcmaster.com/ Running SiTech at 12 volts

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I meant to ad that I run my SiTech on 18vDC (battery) and have had no power problems. On twelve volts (Battery) the voltage would drop below the minimum the controller needs from time to time (because

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OK Don, thanks again. I understand what you're saying. So you would recommend running this at 24v with the motors I do have as opposed to 12v, is that correct? Also, I'm clueless where to find these g

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The shaft encoders are for manual drag/track, the motor encoders are ignored. The motor encoders are for slew/track, the shaft encoders are ignored. It's one or the other. The servo's are not slipping

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So do I understand this correctly? If I have encoders on the Alt and Az axes (in addition to the encoders on the Pittman motors) then I could just drag the scope anywhere and those Alt/Az encoders wou

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I don't see any reason why you can't clutch them. On the other hand you will lose your sync with the sky. I used this system with a GEM C-14 and moved all over the sky (with a script) as many as 50+ t

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Thanks Jim. Can you clutch these things? I jump all over the sky so I’d like to just grab and point then let the tracking kick in.

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Wow thank you Don. It’s going to take me a few weeks to digest this LOL. I’m sure there will be follow up questions but I am impressed with your knowledge 😁

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