It will help in setting those parameters approximately. Accuracy requires a more uncompromising approach, unfortunately.
What the Feickert system lacks is a way to develop your own curves and measure accordingly. Bastardizing it with the Vinyl Solution gets quite close to being accurate and is quite flexible. We'd never have spotted that the Morch's on and off positions put the pivot point in a slightly different place without the Feickert guage.
Well, something like the polaris asks you to align and measure pivot to spindle by eye - effectively to guess - and then make measurements that must be accurate to less than a mm. The vinyl solution's approach is to take multiple measurements of each parameter and average them out excluding any that are obviously, wildly different, but you still have to guess that initial P to S distance, and ensuring everything is properly aligned is a pain and not especially precise.Hmmm. How does it work that's its so accurate?
EDIT: actually, thinking about the Polaris protractor. I'm not entirely sure what the arrow is for, maybe there is something I haven't considered - happy to be enlightened.
I think Joel kind of answered this. It's to do with pivot-spindle distance. If the arrow is pointing exactly at the pivot point and either hole A or C is over the spindle then there is a right angled triangle with A (or C), the pivot and the intersection of the line A-C and the arrow line as it's corners. As A and C are equidistant from the arrow line the two triangles (A at spindle or C at spindle) will be the same - assuming the arrow is pointing at exactly the same point in both cases! It doesn't measure pivot-spindle as such but it includes it the process.
At least that's the way I understand it.
I should add that this is assuming the spindle to pivot distance is correct(ish)
Not sure what the implications of that are; but they are different things.
just another spacedeck point while we are here:
are the fixed foot and the front foot actually in the same position relative to the circumference of the platter? ie if the base didn't have the cut off bit at the front where the label is would both feet look like they were equally under the base?
I suspect the implications aren't anything to lose sleep overEDIT: thinking about it assuming we get alignment 1mm too short spindle to pivot will cause fractionally (and it really will be miniscule) more tracking error either side of the null points. 1mm too long and you will get fractionally less. The difference is not going to be noticeable. But if you are going to err, erring on the slightly too long might be the thing.
I don't know as mine has two arms, so effectively only the front foot is fixed. I'd guess that if I only had the one armpod it would be, so would the fixing point for the single armpod as the back left foot bolts to the same hole as the second armpod and looks to be in the same place as the hole for the first one. Don't fancy tipping it upside down to look though.
I think Jack means this:
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I think the magnitude of error is greater than a mm if you do not know the exact P-S distance and if your gauge is not aligned exactly with the pivot (see the arrow on the polaris...). This is a variable that the feickert system takes care of.Put simply the cantilever will only align on both grids if alignment and overhang are correct.