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Post by johnno on Nov 26, 2013 13:48:56 GMT
A short review of my iOptron MiniTower Pro. It comes in 2 pieces, tripod and flight case with mount and all the necessary attachments inside which makes it very portable, case in one hand and tripod over the shoulder. setting up: takes me no more than fifteen minutes and that's with everything fitted and ready to go. camera's and leads, scope on and balanced and everything plugged in and up and running. tools I use for setting up, compass, this mount as to be facing south I don't know why but that's what it says in the manual doesn't matter if you're in the northern or southern hemisphere. also I use a illuminated spirit level if i'm setting up in the dark. First I get the tripod level. Place the level on top of tripod and adjust legs, next there are 3 adjustable locating pegs and I adjust them by placing the level on top of them and I have about 10cm of thread showing so I can fine tune it. Then I bolt on the mount with the centre bolt which is attached to the spreader, at this stage I leave it loose as I have to fit and balance the scope. With the scope fitted with all the ancillary components fitted [if your only using one scope] I slide out the counterbalance / secondary scope shaft and fit the counter balance weight. This stage was shown to me by Doctor.D Paul on how to balance a AL-Az mount by dropping one leg .[ This mount can also do EQ with a wedge fitted and you have to change the settings in the hand controller to EQ ] so the mount is at a angle and you do you normal balancing. Once balanced level the mount again and now you do your fine tuning. Seems a ball ache but its pretty easy.
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Post by johnno on Nov 26, 2013 14:08:07 GMT
Once level, tighten the centre bolt. Forgot to add while i'm setting up I normally switch it on so the GPS gets a lock, this is when it changes from ON to OK, top right of HC .The scope as to be in park position [ vertical] before you start your alignment routine. and now your ready to go. What I like, portability , rock steady, being able to fit two scopes or one scope and camera on secondary shaft or what ever you like. capacity 43lbs in total
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Post by johnno on Nov 26, 2013 14:13:27 GMT
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Post by johnno on Nov 26, 2013 14:17:30 GMT
Hand controller seems a bit sluggish, but it has some nice features, display, 130,000 objects, and a red LED light on the back of it and it comes with 2 yrs warranty and I've heard iOptron support is excellent.
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Post by Dragon Man on Nov 26, 2013 15:26:41 GMT
Thanks John, good write up mate.
So I take it that the mount is designed so you don't have to use Counterweights? You mention counterweights in the last section of your first post, but the third photo in your third post show no counterweights attached opposite to the scopes.
Can you use the mount without counterweights?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2013 16:08:51 GMT
Excellent write up John! Thanks for this! It is a very odd looking mount. But by the sounds of it its very versitile and has loads of different options that a standard mount doesnt have. But for that price it better be good! Its cool how it has GPS on it. A few random questions for you... Where did you purchase it? Can i ask what your opinion is in regards to GOTO accuracy and also how well it tracks objects? How easy the hand controller is to use compared to other GOTO's you may have used? How much extra does the wedge cost to make it a EQ mount? How easy is it to correct any mis-alignment caused by a poor / rushed initial alignment? Sorry im just nosey
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Post by johnno on Nov 26, 2013 16:46:36 GMT
I was testing it out for the first time there, Ken they advise you to use the weights and balance it, they reckon it will have better goto and tracking, and it will not put any strain on the motors, but my gear is fairly light. I look at it at a different way. The bearings are tapered rollers and are huge on this, the altitude bearing is right in the middle of the casing and the secondary shaft runs through it and the azimuth at the bottom where the clutch lock is and if they are adjusted right at the factory I can't see any problems with it. I've checked to make sure that there's no play in them. Just like on a cars wheel bearing the amount of load they have to carry. What I always do is make sure the scope is balanced is if its points up or down it will stay in that position and I've found it tracks pretty dam good
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Post by johnno on Nov 26, 2013 17:19:13 GMT
Chris, it is a funny looking mount, and either love it or hate it, I love it, but like all products you can have one that will give you years of trouble free operation or you could of bought a right pig. GPS is great, no need to punch anything into hand controller, Time & date and coordinates are all done for you. just switch on and wait for the OK and away you go. Goto I found to be excellent and some people have had problems with it. hand controller is pretty easy to use, there's quite a lot of info displayed. Alignment is 1 or 2 stars in AZ mode or up to 3 in EQ mode. just pick a star goto it and then use arrow keys to sync on target and do the same for the second one. and that's it, if its not quite central in the EP [ that's where my illuminator comes in ] when you go to your first dso or what ever you want to look at, you just sync on target again and hopefully you will be spot on for the rest of night. The GPS knows what position your scope is pointing that's why its important to get the levelling spot on. Even if you knock your mount while your looking at a dso you just use ''sync to'' command. If you look at my other post in SGL, all I did to observe the sun was to select sun in the menu, goto target command, and sync to and it was almost spot on for over 90 minutes and that was with no alignments. hope I've covered everything.. john hc img041.bmp (872.55 KB)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2013 18:38:30 GMT
Sounds very impressive John! Thanks for the info.
The hand controller does look very detailed and a much bigger screen than most ive seen.
It sounds like you understand the alignment routine very well. The problems you mention are prob from people not doing it right.
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Post by johnno on Nov 27, 2013 10:36:04 GMT
Sounds very impressive John! Thanks for the info. The hand controller does look very detailed and a much bigger screen than most i've seen. It sounds like you understand the alignment routine very well. The problems you mention are prob from people not doing it right. if you go on the yahoo group a lot of people have been complaining about the accuracy of the goto especially in the northern hemisphere, but I can't really comment as I've only had it a short time, but when I've used it I've found it to be spot on. Even though the mount has its own bubble level I use my own and what I do slacken off the AZ clutch and rotate the mount round in a full circle and adjusting the 3 levelling pegs till the bubble is in the same place in any position. you could have the level bang in the middle in one position and think that's spot on, but when you rotate the mount say 90 deg it could be out over the next one I would think the same principle can be applied to a EQ mount
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Post by Dragon Man on Nov 27, 2013 12:22:38 GMT
Yep, EQ's can be a pain in the butt to level too. I get really fussy with mine. It's worth the effort. I check the base (tripod) several times in all directions, then I pop the mount on top, push down on it, and leave it for a day to settle. Then take the mount back off and check the base for level again. It is usually OK. Then I put the mount back on top and leave it there (until camps come along and I move it again ) I don't think I will take it to camp next March. I'm fed up re-doing it each time
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Post by johnno on Nov 27, 2013 13:26:18 GMT
Ken take a dob with you
Its about time someone invented a self levelling platform would be much easier
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Post by Dragon Man on Nov 27, 2013 14:21:12 GMT
Ken take a dob with you Its about time someone invented a self levelling platform would be much easier I do John. I usually take a heap of my gear and also the clubs gear, so others can use it all. Next time I'll use that other gear and leave my Mount at home
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Post by johnno on Dec 2, 2013 12:29:41 GMT
Thought I'd do my first little mod to the mount. What this mount lacks is a accessories tray, fed up of forgetting where I've left stuff lying around. So this morning went out and got 1mtr 12mm threaded rod [ only needed 10cm ] couple of wing nuts and extender nuts and a 33cm non stick pizza tray It doesn't make the mount any more steadier as the mount is rock solid as it is
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Post by davy on Dec 2, 2013 12:38:31 GMT
And it quite handy if the mrs brings you out pizza and a cup if tea.lol
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Post by johnno on Dec 2, 2013 12:42:50 GMT
And it quite handy if the mrs brings you out pizza and a cup if tea.lol That's what I thought too
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Post by Dragon Man on Dec 2, 2013 13:15:39 GMT
Excellent John with Mushrooms
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2016 17:36:34 GMT
Hi
I bought an Ioptron pro Mount this summer, and am starting to use it. Thanks for the tips
on leveling the scope. I have some questions.
1). How do you balance the scope with the weights? I slide the scope along the mount axis to keep it
balanced along the declination direction. But the I am not sure how to use the weights for balancing.
I have a 13 lb 102 mm Explore Scientific scope on one end of the steel bar, so I figured the 10 lb weight sticks
out on the other side of the steel bar at about the same disyance from the center of the scope. is this
right?
2). is there a place to buy the EQ bar (with instructions) so I can use the ioptron as an EQ mount?
3). Is it ok to manually align scope to object of interest without stressing out any gear-driven
mechanism?
4). Is it possible to autoguide this scope with an autoguide camera?
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Post by davy on Aug 28, 2016 20:42:26 GMT
Hi,I had a look on utube and there are a few sketchy videos, Mounting the scope horizontally on most mounts you would release the clutch mechanism and then move the scope dovetail along the mount puck till you found a balance point,this should be done with your camera fitted, if you find the camera end of scope dipping downwards weight would be added to the other end of the scope on either the dovetail or on the scope itself,, weight training ankle/wrist weights is popular. From what I see on the video the metal rod holding weights looks like a counter balance to compensate a heavy OTA,the rod is not motor driven.
Haven't a clue if it has dual encoders like the skywatcher I have,I can release the clutches and move my scope for quickness.
I cheat at times on set up procdure,( alignment) but it's usually just on the moon, I select moon on handset and slew,, now the scope will be nowhere near the moon,release clutches and manually line up on moon,, this will allow a short amount of tracking... not advisable ,better just practicing till you can align properly and faster. Hope the advice helps till johnno gives more comprehensive help..Davy
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