George

We do seem to both have similar todo lists! mine is never ending as well.

I like the idea of a belt drive but I want to make it easily reversible....and it looks like you´ve done your homework on that! I think I will just copy your design so let me know when you are going to start and I will purchase the same set up. That way we can compare notes....and generally commiserate each other when we destroy the mounts ;-D

Well the beauty of this mod its non destructive and all the parts will fit without altering the mount.......hmmmm I really want to do this mod but with the dark season nearly upon us I don't want the mount out of action ......damn I should have done this over summer

I may just buy the parts and wait for a extended cloudy period.......

BTW Neil did you add the code for the LDR?......better take this to the relevant thread.

Roger, in the yahoo EQ6 group I think there's people who have done the belt mod to HEQ5's or maybe google

Did you find anything George? I was just having a look at belt drives or conrad gears to try to improve the pec a bit.

Hi Neil, have a look at the info below, although I asked many times on the Yahoo EQ6 group info was very sketchy at best and eventually I got a email of the guy who started this thread on ICE.

I did some pricing and part number matching which is also listed below, the actual mod is on my never ending todo list it adds up to be a fairly cheap mod £31 per axis for parts (not inc reboring gears if you don't have a lathe). What Im planning todo is RA only to begin with and see how it turns out, if your accurately polar aligned you'd only need RA doing in anycase.

You are aiming for a 4:1 gear ratio, EQmod supports this ratio so your slews and goto's are unaffected with the mod

See this thread EQ6 belt drive mod - IceInSpace

Ive priced up the parts and part numbers as below.

HPC Gears Products - Pulleys and Belts

http://www.hpcgears.com/newpdf/timing_pulleys_2.5mod.pdf

Part number 15T 2.5-8 (15 teeth this replaces gear on the stepper) £8.43

Part number 60T 2.5-8 (60 teeth this replaces gear on worm) £13.03

Part number T 2.5/200 timing belt £9.61

The pulleys need to be drilled to fit. 5mm for the motor and 12mm for the worm.

HPC gears will rebore these for you for a small charge .........this needs to be done on a lathe for high accuracy.

We have a new Staffi cross....that takes care of security, not trained him to put fires out yet .....wonder if they will do an episode covering the subject on the dog whisperer

I'm pretty much biased as my pier is concrete, its cheap,easily fabricated, easy to maintain and most important vibration free.

The most important thing is with concrete is measure, measure, measure before pouring, you have to get everything right first time. With steel you can pretty much undo any mistakes

So for a permanent pier concrete is a no brainer.

You can trawl thru my build pictures here .

You want to be careful using creosote, I've heard out gassing can ruin optics/coatings.

Anyone done the belt drive mod on the EQ6? I know there's been a few done as posted on the Yahoo EQ6 users group but the info is very sketchy and Ive yet to find a howto and parts list on the subject.

Im gobsmacked with the machining that's been involved creating that:eek:

Do you have your very own CnC?

A parts list and schematic would be handy looks an interesting project, I doubt whether the USB would power the motor as the USB power is only 5v....worth a try tho if it would do away with the battery.