Roy,

No stupid questions.  :-)   I use the terms 'locks', 'clutches' and 'brakes' interchangeably.  Perhaps I shouldn't.  

Those silver levers on the side of the side of your mount axes are what I'm referring to.  Your motors (on each axis) turn a worm gear via the belt-and-pulleys.  The worm gear meshes with a large, cylindrical ring gear.  It is *always* meshed, and that ring will not move, unless the motor drives it.  That's just how worm drives go. 

So. When you go to balance your scope, you loosen the locks/brakes/clutches, and magically, the axes move freely despite that, so you can balance (if they don't move freely, that's a separate problem).  So you balance your scope, line up your marks, then tighten the locks/brakes/clutches, and just like that, you can no longer move the axis around without the motor driving it - what happened? 

Friction happened.  What those levers do is engage the outer shell of the mount axis, with the ring gear that is inside.  Locks/brakes/clutches tightened, and the axis is mechanically linked to the ring gear and can be driven only by the motor. Locks/brakes/clutches loosened, and the axis is disengaged from the ring gear and can move freely around it.  Sounds more complicated than it is - there are very few moving parts in there. 

Anyway... really, for Explorestars use, about the only time I would think that you'd want those locks/brakes/clutches disengaged, is to balance your scope during setup.  Other than that, let the motors drive the scope.  Probably 'clutch' is the better term to use.

Does that help?

- Bob

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