Posts Made By: Chuck Evans

My CI-700 mount displays precisely the same behavior. The dedicated Celestron power supply produces over 15 volts and runs the motors without stalling at 20x. A 13.8 volt regulated power supply also provides enough juice to run the motors at 20x. However, my deep-cycle Marine battery (rated at 31 amps and fully charged to approximately 12.8 volts) is insufficient to prevent stalling at 20x. I even went to the length to replace one of the motors (at $105.00 from Celestron) and the stalling continued at 20x with less than approximately 13.5 volts. I believe that the motors lack the torque to run at 20x without these elevated levels of voltage. At least in my situation, adjusting the worms in an attempt to minimize friction only resulted in unacceptable lags when changing slewing directions. While I regard the CI-700 as a very good mount for the money, and with relatively low periodic error, it has some rough edges, one of which you've touched upon. BTW, if you leave your car engine running, and therefore utilize the 13.7 volts produced by your alternator, I imagine you'll be able to use 20x through your cigarette lighter without stalling issues. Chuck

I used my new AP/Baader-Zeiss Type V with my TEC 140 last week at the Texas Star Party. Using the dedicated Baader diagonal with 1.25x corrector, I was able to come to focus with in-focus to spare with 24 mm panoptics and 7.5 mm TAK LE's. I don't know, however, whether the TEC 140 has enough in-focus to accomodate these or other eyepieces without the 1.25x corrector. Chuck Evans