Many people feel that Strain wave gear mounts (Harmonic drive mounts) are more dangerous to collision with telescopes and tripods than worm gear mounts. The large force of the strain wave gear makes counterweight unnecessary and unbalanced, but it can also be a disadvantage for the same reason. Therefore, RST mount has the following safety features.
- Motor load monitoring
If the load of the motor becomes abnormal during tracking or GOTO, a warning message is displayed on the hand controller and an alarm sounds. At the same time, the motor is cut off to prevent damage to the equipment. This is possible because the motor on the mount has an encoder and we use a PID controller. - Motor temperature monitoring
If for some reason a load is applied to the motor for a long time, the temperature of the motor will increase. Therefore, monitoring motor temperature may reveal other problems that motor load monitoring alone cannot detect. The RST mount detects this with a temperature sensor attached to the motor and displays a warning message on the hand controller and sounds an alarm. At the same time, the motor is cut off to prevent damage. - Tracking, Slew Altitude Limit
In order to prevent the collision of telescopes and tripods, tracking and slew altitude are limited. The factory default setting is for the mount to stop tracking at an altitude of 0 and the meridian. This setting also prevents the cable from pulling out. The setting can be changed by the user.
