PlaneWave L-350 User manual
L-350
MECHANICAL INSTALLATION GUIDE
2
L-350 MECHANICAL INSTALLATION GUIDE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOPIC PAGE(S)
TABLE OF CONTENTS 2
SYSTEM DIAGRAMS 3-5
INTRODUCTION 6
RANGE OF MOTION 7
UNPACKING 8-13
PREPARING FOR INSTALLATION 14-17
MOUNTING DRIVE-BASE TO PIER 18
INSTALLING EQ WEDGE 19
ATTACHING DRIVE-BASE TO EQ WEDGE 20
INSTALLING FORK-ARM 21
MOUNTING THE SADDLE 22
PREPARING THE OTA 23
PREPARING SADDLE FOR OTA 24
POSITIONING THE OTA 25
SECURING THE OTA 26
INSTALLING OPTIONAL 2ND SADDLE 27
BALANCING ALTITUDE/DEC 28
BALANCING AZIMUTH/RA 29
POWER/COM CABLING FOR THE MOUNT 30
CABLE ROUTING FOR ACCESSORIES & INSTRUMENTS 31
3
SYSTEM DIAGRAMS 1
SIDE-VIEW (OUTSIDE OF FORK-ARM)
4
L-350 MECHANICAL INSTALLATION GUIDE
SYSTEM DIAGRAMS 2
SIDE-VIEW (INSIDE OF FORK-ARM)
5
SYSTEM DIAGRAMS 3
REAR AND OVERHEAD VIEWS
6
L-350 MECHANICAL INSTALLATION GUIDE
INTRODUCTION
Direct-drive motion systems oer a number of
advantages over the more traditional systems
used in astronomy:
1) Direct-drive systems do not use gears:
Traditional, gear-based motion systems can
only move as precisely as their gears are cut.
Surface imperfections in gears inevitably result
in periodic tracking-errors.
Gears require lubrication, and consequently re-
quire routine cleaning and relubrication. This
is exacerbated in dusty environments, where
lubrication rapidly contaminates.
2) Without gears, there is no PE:
Direct-drive systems are eectively free of pe-
riodic error.
To be completely accurate, there is a small
amount of periodic error in the motion of
each of the individual bearings in the system.
However, due the number of bearings in each
assembly, there is negligible eect to motion
of the total system. Additionally, each axis is
equipped with high-resolution encoders read-
ing at 8Mhz, that are more than capable of de-
tecting miniscule deviations from the proper
tracking-rate.
3) Lower hysteresis:
Mechanical hysteresis (the dierence between
where something was, when measured, and
where it is now) is greatly reduced in a system
that does not use gears. Remember all of that
advice about how to properly balance by being
out of balance, to keep gears engaged? None
of that applies to direct-drive, and tracking is
equally good on both sides of the meridian.
Total hysteresis of the L-Series mount is further
reduced by the use of high-resolution encoders
(18.8M counts/axis, 0.069 arc-second/count).
These on-axis encoders allow the control-elec-
tronics to know precisely where the mount is
pointed, more than 100 times per second. No
auto-guider provides that volume of feedback.
4) Faster response:
Not only are the L-Series drives capable of far
greater rates of speed, their response-times
are also much faster. Consider all of the sourc-
es of backlash in a traditional system (plane-
tary-gears, elasticity in belts, and the worm/
worm-gear interface itself), and know they are
not present with direct-drive. As soon as an
L-series motor moves, your telescope moves.
7
RANGE OF MOTION
L-350 mounts oer +/- 350 degrees of rota-
tion in the Azimuth/RA axis, measured from
the “No Wrap” position. The proper “No Wrap”
position is found by aligning the related marks
on the drive-base section of the mount (due
the +/- 350 degree motion, these marks only
line up at the correct position).
The Altitude/DEC axis has a xed limit at the
zenith (Alt-Az) or pole (EQ). The lower limit is
located 45 degrees below the horizon when in
Alt-Az conguration, and 45-degrees below
the celestial equator when in mounted on an
equatorial wedge.
8
L-350 MECHANICAL INSTALLATION GUIDE
UNPACKING
Safely unpacking your L-350 mount will require
at least 2 people capable of comfortably lifting
60 pounds or more, if you prefer to leave the
unit fully assembled. One person can unpack
the L-350 by removing the fork-arm from the
base motor and moving them separately.
When using a crane/fork-lift or 2(+) people
for unpacking and lifting:
- All steps relating to disassembly of the mount
should be skipped. The L-series mounts are
capable of being lifted while fully-assembled
(refer to “lifting points” section of this manual,
below).
- Proceed to the “Remove the Drive-Base” seg-
ment of this section, below, and uncouple the
mount from the crate. The mount will then be
ready for lifting.
Required tools/supplies:
- Drill/driver, for removal of crate’s wood-
screws
- SAE Hex-Key Set
Opening the crate:
- Begin by nding the “front” panel of the
crate, which will be marked, by removing the
wood-screws attaching it to the bottom, top,
and side panels.
- Remove the front-panel.
- Next, remove the woodscrews that attach the
remaining 3 wall-panels to the bottom.
- Finally, slide the side/top panels (still assem-
bled) o of the bottom of the crate.
9
Removing the fork-arm:
To simplify packaging, your mount has been
shipped with the drive-base and fork attached.
While it is possible to lift the system in this as-
sembled state with a fork-lift, crane or multi-
ple people, we highly recommend that the two
assemblies are separated if only one person is
lifting..
1) Begin by detaching the cables within the
main cavity of the fork arm. These will include
all of the cables plugged into the main elec-
tronics panel (USB, encoder signal cable, and
base-motor power), shown in the top-right
photograph.
2) The power cable should also be detached
from the power input panel, shown in the mid-
dle-right photograph.
3) The cables that have been detached should
now be carefully fed into the base-motor’s
passthrough, so that the will not be caught or
pulled when the fork-arm is removed from the
base-motor.
10
L350 MECHANICAL INSTALLATION GUIDE
4) Before removing any of the bolts securing
the fork-arm to the base-motor: A) be sure that
the Azimuth/RA locking knob is engaged, and
B) it is helpful to make a reference mark for
later realignment of the two assemblies. Both
are shown in the top-right image.
5) Now the bolts holding the fork-arm to the
base-motor can be removed. There are a to-
tal of 6, at evenly spaced intervals, around the
upper perimeter of the base-motor. For refer-
ence, 4 of the 6 are shown in the highlighted
part of the drawing to the middle-right.
Be careful not to bump or jostle the mount
while these bolts are removed. The fork-arm is
still being held in place by two shoulder-bolts,
but can be knocked over if one is careless.
6) Before lifting the fork-arm, it is recommend-
ed that you place something on the ground,
nearby, onto which the fork can be set without
being scratched. This could be a tarp, old blan-
ket, sheet of cardboard, or even the front-pan-
el of your crate.
7) See “lifting points” under the Installation
chapter.
8) Stand on the fork-arm side of the mount,
and slide the fork-arm laterally so that fork-
tine moves closer to the base-motor’s center
of rotation. This is shown in the image to the
bottom-right.
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