Part for Scope?

[gethen]

A while back we had a minor accident with my telescope--my son was carring the tripod and mount in and tripped. Oh well. Anyway, one of the cables for the RA or Dec got twisted. It still works, but not as well. I guess I can get a replacement from Orion, but does anyone know anything about another kind of control, other than the cables? I seem to recall seeing something about some larger wheel type controls that allowed better fine control, but I don't know where I saw it, or if I just dreamed it. In any case, whatever I get will have to fit my scope. Any thoughts?

[JohnW]

A while back we had a minor accident with my telescope--my son was carring the tripod and mount in and tripped. Oh well. Anyway, one of the cables for the RA or Dec got twisted. It still works, but not as well. I guess I can get a replacement from Orion, but does anyone know anything about another kind of control, other than the cables? I seem to recall seeing something about some larger wheel type controls that allowed better fine control, but I don't know where I saw it, or if I just dreamed it. In any case, whatever I get will have to fit my scope. Any thoughts?
Yikes. That could have been a lot worse. At least the scope wasn't attached.

Orion sells slow-motion knobs to fit their mounts - I'm not sure how well they work, but they should be less fragile than cables. Based on my experience with Chinese GEMs, fine-control problems are more likely the result of slop in the gears than whether you are using knobs or cables.

[gethen]

Thanks, JohnW. I agree that the slop is more likely to be in the gears than the controller, unless, of course, the controller is bent at a weird angle. I've just been thinking that since the controller needs to be replaced, I might find the large knobs more to my liking.
I'll check out the ones at Orion. I looked there before, but must have missed them.