too many wires

[Lisa Kaminski]

How do you deal with all the wires?  i.e. it's easy to accidentally (during slewing) to have a longer cable get caught on a knob.  I am interested in finding out how all of you deal with this isse (especially if you are working in the house and everything is "automated" outside).  Any helpful tips or organization will help.

[Trevor Woodrow]

Velcro strips. I bind the wires together, and if need be, bind the whole bundle to a tripod leg.

[Marc Basti]

I use these a lot, once you figure a good path for your wire, put these on (peel and stick) and it holds every thing in place.
http://marcbasti.com/wire/

[Marc Basti]

Mark, I couldn't find a link either, easier to take the pic lol. Got them at Home Dep. and also seen them at Radio Shack. Marc

[Lisa Kaminski]

I just found this at office max andI thought it was a good solution:
http://www.amazon.com/MASTER-00200-Self-Adjusting-Organizer-Manager...

[Russ Ruggles]

Interesting. For the price, one can't help but give that a try. Looks like you could stick that just about anywhere to make it work. Maybe even switch the self adhesive for velcro...

Good find Lisa.

[Lisa Kaminski]

I might see if I can find somehting like this and attach with velcro. Good idea.

[Greg Marshall]

I put all the cables into a plastic sleeve, then attach them to the mount with velcro strips. The one that is most subject to strain is attached to the mount by passing a cable tie through a hole in the velcro strip. That way, if something does catch, it will pull loose at this point rather than break something.

As for remote operation, the most important thing is that I have an IR-sensitive camera pointed at the mount and the whole observatory is illuminated in IR light, so I can see what's going on without disturbing exposures (as long as I'm not capturing IR data!).

[Russ Ruggles]

Yes, this it definitely an issue. I image from both the front (Hyperstar) and back of my scope and I have to use different methods for each. The Velcro strips you get with most computer gear works great. Like Greg says- it will "break-away" as long as you don't secure it too tight. You can try those short bungee cords too. Just make one wrap abound the cables and hook both ends to the OTA lifting handle or on the mount.

Mine's a fork mount rig on a wedge so it's a little easier to manage cables that it was with my EQ mount but it's an on going concern no the less. I have gone out and checked on thing only to discover one cable got hung up.

[Lisa Kaminski]

Yeah, this was what I was more worried about. Previously I had a CGEM mount and my CCD camera wire used to get easily caught on the alt/az knobs at the base of the mount. You want to give the cable some slack, but too much and at the wrong angle it can get caught on the knob. I now have a CGE (not the pro) so I am hoping I will have less knobs that could potentially snag the cables. I like the velcro idea. I used this to situate my focuser box and GPS. I will do the same for the wires.

[Greg Marshall]

Here's a picture that should make my description more clear. This is from my wide field rig, but the idea is the same. The black cable tie passes through a nylon post attached to the mount. When pulled hard, the plastic tie will deform and let the cable go. Note that letting the cable "hang" a bit at this point helps to minimize the slack needed to reach all possible positions.

[Lisa Kaminski]

glad you added a picture, from your original post, I didn't envision this. :)

[Clas Gripenberg]

Lisa, a very good issue. Wasn’t aware of the Velcro strips until this discussion. Went to the local hard ware store, found them and bought 20 strips. Now I’m finally going to get some order on my wires. Regards, Clas