INSTRUCTION MANUAL MiniDob Mount
Congratulations on your purchase of the MiniDob Mount. This is a unique and versatile mount! Nothing like this mount has ever been offered in the marketplace before! • Instant Astronomical Tracking • Single Arm Alt-Azimuth Mount • DC Servo Motor Assembly • Dual Encoder Design for Manual Operation • Terrestrial Stored Positions to GOTO • Cruise and Image for Terrestrial Positions • Lightweight and Portable • Simple and Easy to Use This mount is truly fun to use with its multi-function operation.
MOUNT AND TELESCOPE ASSEMBLY Mount Setup locking knob Figure 1 Figure 2 1.Place the mount on a flat surface. For astronomical usage, place a bubble leveler on the base and adjust the 2 adjustable feet to level the base (Figure 1). 2.Loosen the locking knob on the mounting platform. Slide the dove tail bar on the telescope tube into the slot of the mounting platform and tighten the locking knob.
Powering The Mount The MiniDob mount can be powered from the internal batteries or an external DC power supply (Figure 4). The battery compartment is located on the fork arm and holds eight (8) AA alkaline batteries (to be supplied by user). battery cell Figure 4 The external DC power requirement is 12-Volts DC Nominal and it should be able to supply at least 500mA of DC current. The cord plug should be 2.1mm I.D. x 5.5mm O.D. x 12mm, female and positive center.
FOR ASTRONOMICAL USE Normal Operation clutch knob Figure 5 Figure 7 Figure 6 1.The base of the mount should be leveled properly. 2.Loosen the azimuth clutch knob and point the telescope tube to true North. 3.Loosen the altitude clutch knob and level the telescope tube. 4.After completing the step above, the telescope is now in its proper “Power-On” position. Always place the telescope in this position prior to turning the power on. 5.Turn on the power.
tracking that object automatically. 7.User can also use the buttons on control panel to move the mount. Following these guides to use the buttons to slew the mount: • • The four direction buttons are used to slew the mount horizontally and vertically. User can use the other 5 buttons to choose from 5 slewing speeds. Speed 1 is the slowest and Speed 5 is the fastest. • • • Speed 1 and Speed 2 are for centering an object in the eyepiece of the telescope.
• Press both buttons “2/b” and “3/c” simultaneously, and the MiniDob will know the local latitude. Tips: When rotating the altitude axis with motor, use the same UP/DOWN key to end adjusting scale reading to 0 degree or your local latitude, this will help eliminate the influence of mechanical backlash. For example, if UP key is the last button that you used to set the scale to 0 degree, you should also use UP key as the last button for setting the scale reading to your local latitude.
FOR TERRESTRIAL (LAND) USE General Opertion 1.The MiniDob mount always activates the celestial object tracking function after power is turned on. For terrestrial application, user should press buttons “1/a” and “2/b” simultaneously to turn off the tracking function. 2.User can loosen the clutches to rotate the mount manually, or use the buttons on the control panel to slew the mount. 3.The MiniDob mount can store 6 preset positions and retrieve these positions when required.
will slew to and stop at the pre-stored position one by one from “a” to “f”. When the mount stops, it will send a signal to trigger the attached camera to take a picture. The MiniDob will stop at the last position for about 3 minutes before it re-starts the cruising again. 5.By default, when the MiniDob stops at a pre-stored position, the active time of the shutter triggering signal is 3 seconds. User can press button a~f and button DOWN to change the time to 1~6 and 7 seconds during the cruising.
• Look through the viewfinder window of the camera or look at the life view LCD display of the camera. As shown in the following figure, remember the object at the corner of the view finder, then rotate (Manually or automatically with motor drive) the azimuth and altitude axes of the MiniDob mount to move the center of the view finder onto that object. Press buttons “SET/5” and “1/a” to save the position. The MiniDob will double the movement to get the full field of view.
triggering signal is 3 seconds. User can press button a~f and button DOWN to change the time to 1~6 and 7 seconds during the cruising. The proper time depends on how long the camera takes to finish the exposure measurement and auto-focus functions. 9.Press buttons “DOWN” and “RIGHT” to suspend the operation. 10.The FOV setting, lowest altitude and highest altitude setting are saved in the MiniDob mount even after the power is turned off.
