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Thalestris24

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Everything posted by Thalestris24

  1. Thanks but I don't know of any and I only have a few (very busy!) weeks to sort it out. If I have to I'll take the items with me and deal with them later though I still have the same problem of finding someone who wants them and can collect. It will all work out, I suppose. Louise
  2. Thanks though I'm not on Facebook. I'll google them! Louise
  3. It's a thought though they probably wouldn't want to travel all the way to Glasgow... Who would?
  4. Cheers. Well I'm moving to sheltered housing so it's the beginning of the end for me! On the plus side, at least I'll never have to move again. At least, not so long as I'm alive...
  5. Yeah, I just updated my sig to reflect what I want to dispose of . The thing is I'm moving into sheltered accommodation and I really need to get rid of stuff within the next month, if possible. I could take it with me but the heq5 pro is heavy and it's going to be in the way. If I could find a new home for that at last, along with the 80mm apo, that would be good. The 150pds and 130pds I could just dump, really. The 150pds is basically ok afaik but the 130pds always had a problem with the focuser alignment. It might be fixable but I couldn't be bothered with it at the time and moved over to refractors! Louise
  6. Hi all, hope everyone is well I've not done any astro for a few years and now I'm moving. So I need to dispose of my kit and wanted to hear from anyone as to how best to do that. I'm happy to sell it at a very competitive price but it would have to be collected from Glasgow City. In the past the moderators have stopped me selling too cheap or putting things on the board without prices so thought I'd post here to see if there would be any interest? Louise
  7. I'm thinking a belt tensioner not needed. When I did the heq5 belt mod I recall needing a couple of goes to get the belt tension right. After that I never needed to adjust it again. For a star tracker with no significant load, even less need? Louise
  8. Have attached pdfs for heq5 and neq6 Rowan belt kits - in case of interest. Both have the worm drives, of course - illustrated better in the neq6 pdf. Louise HEQ5-Belt-Kit.pdf NEQ6-Belt-Kit.pdf
  9. The noise might be linked to the driver hardware - similar to some 3D printers. Still, looking good! Louise
  10. A belt drive would be interesting! My heq5pro was excellent with its belt drive mod! Of course, with proper eq mounts you're into dual axis motors anyway, really - a whole different ball game! Louise
  11. Very altruistic of you! Maybe you could offer a 'deluxe' version too? I've not done any calculations but wondering whether it could be possible to simplify it with a direct drive rather than gearing? If it's just a camera and lens you wouldn't need the torque that you'd presumably get from gearing? Just thinking out loud... Louise
  12. Oh ok. 50 Euro seems a bit low - especially if you cost your own time spent on it! Not to mention current levels of inflation... It's all relative, I suppose Louise
  13. Oh ok. Though 0.9 deg steppers aren't especially (more) expensive, at least not here in the UK NEMA17 Stepper Motors - Ooznest | Kits, Parts & Supplies You can get 128 step controllers for not a huge amount e.g. New DC 12-50V 4A Stepper Motor Driver 128 Microstep 2-phase Controller | eBay or DM542 Stepper Motor Driver Controller DC 24-50V Nema 23 / 17 CNC 4.2a DM 542 NEW | eBay It may be worth it as that's where all the magic is! Anyway, good luck with the project Louise
  14. Hi Vlaiv Just doing a quick catchup on your development Was wondering why you were limiting your design above to 32 microsteps when 128 microsteps are possible and with a 0.9deg/turn motor? I'm sure there must be a good reason! Is it to do with holding current or precision? (I'm no expert on microstepping!) Louise
  15. You have to buy them from jeulin: Radial Slot Tokens (jeulin.com) Good luck!
  16. My Ender 3 Pro v1 is still going strong! Just over 3 years old now. I had an issue a while ago when the filament was having problems feeding into the extruder. I couldn't figure it out - thought there must be a blockage or something. It turned out that the filament was snagging around the vertical lead screw... I couldn't see the problem from the front. Not sure how it happened - probably because I'd been keeping the filament reel in a zip-lock bag and sat on the bed. When I returned the spool to its holder, I must have got it snagged. As soon as I re-routed the filament the problem was solved. I still use the brass nozzles with PLA but they do tend to gum up after a while, so I just put a new one on. I do use a teflon insert in the hot end. Occasionally the hot-end inlet nut comes loose. I also noticed a problem with the x-gantry becoming loose - apparently on the right-hand side. However, the fix was to undo the top section, lift the x-gantry off, and tighten the two allen-key bolts which fasten it to the stepper-motor end. I use a metal feeler gauge (0.15) for levelling - nice and precise! Louise ps my hair has mostly turned white now - nothing to do with 3D printing, just old age!
  17. Ahh busy, busy, busy! No worries - take care and all the best! Louise
  18. Any news / progress on the star tracker, Vlaiv? Louise
  19. Looks like I'll be able to continue with the Fusion 360 after all It says the personal license has a limitation of '10 documents' which seemed a bit restrictive. But when I asked, they clarified and explained it just means you can only have 10 designs open at a time. Since I mostly only work on one or two things at a time, that's not a problem. It's just coming up to 3 years since I first bought a 3D printer and started with the Education Fusion 360 License - both items just to make the Lowspec spectrometer! I've found having a 3D printer so useful for other things, especially as I'm a compulsive tinkerer! Louise
  20. I wish I could print so precisely! All the gear ratios and cycloidal drives are beyond me! Looking forward to seeing the finished article though! Louise
  21. Yeah a Rowan belt setup is quite good - works great on my HEQ5 Pro But I was thinking of something different which I'm now not sure if it could easily be done - it was just a thought that flitted across my mind. I'm probably overcomplicating things! I have one of these focus rails that I bought a few years ago. As you can see, they don't come cheap but probably much cheaper if you just buy individual generic components. The magic is in the usb controller and software which allows a high precision of control (microstepping). But... It's a linear rail and I'm not sure if it would easily translate into a worm gear type setup. You can get less precise, but very similar, parts as spares for 3D printers e.g. Lead Screw on Ebay. However, thinking about it, being linear they can't easily be used in the same way as a normal gear ratio rotating system - unfortunately. They could maybe be used for a precision 'barn door' type setup. When I first started in astronomy, I did consider making a barn door thingy but decided an equatorial mount would be an awful lot better - once I could afford one! But then I didn't know about precision lead screws and stuff. There's always more than one way to crack a nut! Louise
  22. With ziplock plastic bags it's simple as you can see the beads and if they've darkened! In practice, small amounts of moisture in filament aren't critical. I have some black pla filament which I've had on the printer for quite a few months and it's still ok. I will put it in a bag for a few days soon though! Louise
  23. Oh ok, I was thinking more in terms of generic parts that could be made use of. As I've never looked, I accept you're probably right! At the same time I intuitively feel someone must have made a star tracker from scratch before somewhere.... There are some projects on Thingiverse but, yeah, all also seem to use printed gears. However, presumably the aim is to control the tracker at a sidereal rate so that could be controlled by an Arduino-type processor, stepper motor and the control pulses adjusted for whatever the worm/gear/stepper motor combo allows? I'm just thinking out loud - I've probably missed something obvious! I'm so out of touch with astro things these days! I do have a motorised rail which I use for a microscope and which allows microsteps in the micrometer range. Louise
  24. Cool project, Vlaiv! Might metal gears be better and more rugged? I'd have thought the Star Adventurer, or similar, gears would be easily obtainable? (Though I admit I've no idea really.) Then you'd just need to make the housing/add a motor etc.? Re: Filament absorbing moisture. If you get some large ziplock plastic bags (47 x 33 cm) you can store/dry filament by including a few handfuls of silica beads in a small porous/mesh bag. I find I can quickly and easily dry the beads for re-use in my microwave oven . How are you finding FreeCAD? My educational Fusion 360 is about to expire so I might switch to FreeCAD. I'm not sure what I might lose by using the hobbyist Fusion 360 instead - especially with things like threads and custom threads. I suspect it's not easy to create T2 threads in FreeCAD but I'll have a look. Cheers Louise
  25. Ah - that would explain it! I find I have to put in my own custom values in order to get T2 threads to work on my Ender 3 Pro v1. I'll compare my values to yours! Thanks Louise
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