zbirding community

Steve, after carefully aligning my camera and seriously tightening the screw to hold it in place, I've been mystified how the camera gets out of alignment.  I think I figured out the reason behind that problem; there is a slight bit of 'play' in the swing arm of the adaptor. Sometimes my tripod may be slightly tilted left or right and that is enough allow the swing arm to position itself a little to the left or right of center.  Measuring at the end of the arm, there is approximately 3/32" play.  I took the entire thing apart exposing the ball bearing inside which pops into one of eight holes which are the stopping points for the swing arm.  The ball bearing has a screw underneath it and I was hoping to tighten that a bit and move the ball bearing up slightly so it would 'land' in the hole tighter.  Unfortunately, I was not able to even turn that screw.  Maybe it was spot welded or something.  Anyway, I am definitely looking for a solution.  As it is, just turning the scope 90 degrees may allow the swing arm to reposition itself just enough to destroy the alignment.  Any ideas?  I've not really used it enough that I would think it is worn out.

Hi ingeniouis,

The camera I use (Sony N1)  is very forgiving as to alignment so I have not seen the problem. What I would recommend is to put a bit of felt or some other resilient material under the ball bearings, on top of the screws. You will probably have to experiment as to thickness. The screws are, as far as I know, supposed to turn but maybe they were tightened down too tightly at the factory or locktighted to prevent just the problem you are having.

And I will have my folks at the factory take a look into it as well.

S. Ingraham

I don't think I can put anything on top of the ball bearing.  There is only one ball bearing and under that is the one screw which appears to be some type of adjustment which would allow for easier/harder rotation of the swing arm.  Other than that one screw, I'm confident there is no easy fix short of replacement.  I can take it apart again and snap some photos of it if you are interested in that.  A text description would be that the rotating arm sits atop a fixed plate.  On the rotating part, there are eight holes (more like slots) which accept the ball bearing.  The ball bearing is attached to the stationary plate.  When you rotate the arm, the hole that was being used pushed the ball bearing down and the the bearing rolls across a flat surface until the next hole.  That is how the whole thing works really.  So my problem is that once the ball bearing has seated itself in the hole, there is still too much play in it because it is not really locked in very well.  Raising the ball bearing, which appears to be a function of the screw under it, might solve the problem but since I can't turn it, I don't know if that is a fix or not.  There must also be a spring under the ball bearing so that it can be forced up and down, in and out of the holes in the rotating arm.  Maybe the spring is broken or weakened.  The only way to replace that piece is through that immovable screw unfortunately.

I'm basically at a loss here  I use the T1 (as I recall) and I guess it is not as forgiving as the N1 when it comes to alignment.  I find that I get better pictures if I align all three axises perfectly.  Very frustrating to do all that and then have the arm reposition itself left or right of center and throw that careful aligment off.

What kind of warranty did I get with this?  I bought it from you at the Titusville Birding and Wildlife festival in November of 2004 and you might recall I didn't use it for a year because I didn't know about taking the bracket off and flipping it around.  You showed me that at the next festival.  So I've only really been using it from around Nov 2005 to now.

I will attempt to take mine apart tomorrow morning and report back.

S. Ingraham

Steven, have you learned anything that might help me after taking your DCA apart?

 

Jim

Hi Jim,

The screw can be tightened, but it does not help much, especially if the grove the ball runs in is at all worn. If it continues to give you trouble, you can send it in for replacement, as per my email to you.

The tolerances on the ball run are much tighter in practice than they look to be in theory, if you know what I mean. It is something we have taken back to the factory for corrective action.

S. Ingraham

Thanks Steven.  I checked my email but there is nothing there from you.  Can you resend please.

Jim

?

I sent a message a few weeks ago now through the messaging system on the site here. Maybe it did not go through. I will try again right now in Outlook.

S. Ingraham

Steve,

How do I go about getting the improved model of the adaptor?  Mine is causing me fits.

 

Thanks.

 

Jim

Steve,

Still trying resolve the adaptor problem.  I don't recall getting an email from you on this and I'm getting desperate for a replacement or upgraded model.  Could you please help?  Getting to be that time of year down here to start digiscoping and it is very difficult to do with the current adaptor issue.  After a bunch of attempts, I got one decent shot of a Limpkin I will be posting to my gallery here at zbirding.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Jim

I will check on the availability of the new design today.

S. Ingraham

Steve, any word yet?  Festival starts tomorrow.  Would be nice to swap my adaptor for the new model.  This time next week, it will be exactly one year since I first posted about this problem.  Can I expect any resolution or should I just give up on all this?  I'm very frustrated.  Just because I don't post in the forum every day doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it.  I was hoping that an occassional reminder type post would be all that was necessary.  What do I need to do to expedite the replacement?

 

Jim