John wrote:
I didn't really notice much backlash, though when setting oscillators I try to approach (slowly) from one direction until it's "good enough" and then stop, to avoid that problem.
The hot tip is not to just "sneak[] up on the sweet spot and then walk[] away," as Dana put it.
Anytime you have an adjustment with some hysteresis (classic example is setting a d'Arsonville movement to zero), you want to sneak up to the perfect setting and then run the adjuster *back* the way you came just a touch, to leave the adjusted part on its own without any mechanical connection to the adjustor mechanism. Such contact is almost always the culprit if the adjustment drifts after you set it.
This takes some "feel" for the motion of the adjuster mechanism, but it is well worth investing the time to learn it by repeated trials of the adjuster before you leave it alone.
Dana is spot on with his advice to tap the board (or whatever mechanically supports the adjusted part) to make sure it doesn't drift. If it does, you either failed to pull the adjuster out of contact with the moving adjusting part, or the adjusted part just can't hold its setting. In either case, better to know that now than after you button the instrument back up.
Best regards, Charles _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
