Alignment

[DougLongwill]

In my day to day set up of my telescoping post I often question why I am able to extend the post and allow it to be out of alignment. Even with the witness marks I always have to eyeball my set up to make sure that the monitor/battery/top stage are all in the same plane. Am I the only operator that would appreciate post extension that maintained the allignment of all components?

[xddj]

Doug,

 

I guess that depends on the equipment that you`r flying. I have an EFP rig, and the sled is perfectly align thanks to a hole along telescopic post which is engage by a screw placed in a clamp in the gimbal-section post.

 

I don`t know if you could understand the above, but when I be back from Dennmark on Friday I can put a photo for you if you like.

 

Cheers!

Marcin

[Thomas English]

this is something that troubles me too. Are there any tricks to making sure your sled is aligned? Can carbon fibre be easily marked a la ultra sled?

 

I tend to use the straights from the top and compare them to the straights at the bottom. But ive been playing with the idea of mounting a laser on the top and seeing were it lands... or even the sight off an air rifle....

 

there must be some cool tricks......................?

[Christopher TJ McGuire SOC]

Thom,

 

Howard has an amusing story about his laser alignment method!

 

Best Chris :)

[joe mcnally]

Hi Thomas

the 'Mickey' from Baer Bel is great for aligning the sled compoments

http://www.baer-bel.de/deutsch/deutsch.html

We are suppliers for this item in the UK or email Markus at Baer Bel direct

Cheers

Joe

[Thomas English]

The Mickey is cool and seems to work well. Do you balance that with the camera on or off because it puts the sled into mass alignment rather than physically aligned.

 

So if my monitor is one sided in weight, heavy Follow focus motors are mounted on one front side or even if a camera such as the 535 is used with acessories (seems very weirdly weighted). The mickey gives you an alignment of balance but not alignment of lines. So if you ten move the (lob sided) camera around the topstage it would imediately fall out of mass alignment , its lack of alignment will start mixing the X and Y .

 

Is the best method to use the mickey on an empty sled (with as little on as possible) play around so your happy and then start adding toys ? I guese its another tool

 

They are pretty cheap are they not ? Yeah put me down for one

 

Thanks

 

Thomas

[joe mcnally]

Hi Thomas

you are right.

I was thinking of using the Mickey combined with the Baer Bel sled we have with the titanium post that has the slot to keep most things aligned, base with batteries and topstage. Then when you add a monitor and support arm you can use the Mickey to bring the masses of the monitor into alignment as you add items you repeat the procedure. I am not an expert on dynamic balance but for most practical purposes ie flat spin and stop the Mickey gets one into a good working situation very quickly.

I also have the Ultra that does not have a slot in the post just small inaccurate marks. However and again for all practical purposes I have a quick glance top to bottom and if all the components are in reasonable alignment then the sled will spin flat all day.

One thing to remember is that i started many years ago with a Mod 111 sled so now most modern sleds dynamics look like witchcraft to me.

Cheers

Joe