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6. Balancing the MiniTrack Quattro NS on the East hemisphere (applies only for Northern Hemisphere configuration).
The built-in timer pushes the
photo setup to track the night
sky. If the setup’s centre of
mass is slightly off to the west
side of the hemisphere, the
generated moment-arm helps
the timer to track the objects -
this is good. However, the
opposite, i.e. if the setup is
more off-balanced to the east
side the timer might have
difficulties to push and track
conveniently. For this reason
the built-in spring system acts
as a counterweight and gives an extra help to the timer by adding additional
push force.
6.1. Tensioning the spring.
For setups that are slightly off-balance use the first positions. You can feel that the spring is not under a lot of tension. Use
the spring at its highest tension only for heavy setups and strong imbalance. The image below shows how to choose the
spring’s position.
Please avoid unnecessary spring tension as this might alter the timer’s clock tracking rate!
6.2. Pointing East. When the
weight of the camera setup
tends to rotate the ball-head
in an anti-clockwise direction,
the spring should be
tensioned to one of the
numbered teeth, based on
how strong the imbalance is.
By tensioning the spring in
position 5 (worst case
scenario) a weight of up to
4kg can be balanced – i.e.
pointing to the zenith
with the camera body
towards the east in respect to the ball-head.
6.3. Pointing South. The spring can be completely disengaged (position “0”) or let it work at idle (position”1”).
6.4. Pointing West. When aiming towards the west, especially if there is a strong imbalance, it could happen that the timer
“accelerates” because of the load in favour of the movement, for which the “R” tooth has been added. This allows you to
compensate this imbalance by braking the rotation motion (last figure on the right – top).
How to determine if the timer is not able to push the setup?
Listen to the timer ticking without any load. Compare that sound to when the setup is assembled. Is there a huge sound
difference? – i.e. the timer is not as loud as it should be – then the spring tension must be adjusted.
The ticking tempo should be around 135 bpm. Adjust the spring position to the “+” sign side to accelerate tempo or to
the “-“ sign to slower the tempo.
Note: Several apps are available to count tempo. We suggest using one to better determine the exact tempo.
