RE: New Declination Drive Motors

[Tom Droege <tdroege2@earthlink.net>]

Mike and all,

Part of the present problem is that the software is not right.  The QBasic 
software does not do the right thing.  Somewhere the present software turns 
off the motors between a Declination move and the application of the 
clamp.  This is just a bug.  When I get ROB set up I will find this.  With 
the new Stamp code, it is possible to keep the current applied.  Still, the 
motor does not have enough torque for an unbalanced telescope, or one with 
stuff hanging on it that resists movement.

ROB is actually running now, this is why I got around to working on the 
Dec. motor.

Tom Droege

At 12:26 PM 1/26/02 -0500, you wrote:
>This is good news.  I've been trying to move the dec drive to a particular
>position but have problems calibrating it, even when I go back to the limit
>before moving to the desired position.  More torque on the drive would help
>a lot.  I doubt we would move in declination very often but when we do I'd
>like to know where it's actually pointing.
>
>Mike G.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-tass@listserv.wwa.com [mailto:owner-tass@listserv.wwa.com]On
>Behalf Of Tom Droege
>Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2002 11:52 AM
>To: tass@listserv.wwa.com
>Subject: New Declination Drive Motors
>
>
>I have decided to go to Declination drive motors with a higher gear
>ratio.  This will reduce the chance that the mount moves in declination
>when the power is off.  The planned change is to go from a 37.5 to one gear
>ratio to a 300 to 1 ratio.  This will change the calibration from 15 steps
>per degree to 120 steps per degree.  Since we can go at about 100 steps per
>second, this will reduce the slew rate possible to of order 1 degree per
>second.  The holding torque will increase by a factor of 64.
>
>If no one objects strongly, I will order new motors and send them out when
>you are ready to make the change.  It should be an easy change to make.
>
>Slowly I am getting around to the little buggy things that need fixing.
>
>Tom Droege