Mains powered motor focuser

[JamesF]

Having converted my 127 Mak to have a motor-driven focuser I decided it would be useful to be able to power it from the mains when the opportunity arose. So, a rummage for some bits and it's done.

Normally the unit is powered by a PP3 battery. I cut a hole in a convenient part of the box and put in a power connector, reconnected the battery supply (actually, I replaced the PP3 connector because it meant I had more wire to play with) via the power connector, shrink-wrapped all the joins and Robert is now my mother's brother.

Here's how it looked before I started, with the back removed and the circuit board extracted:

At the top left of the circuit board there was plenty of space for the back of the socket, so I cut a hole next to it in the side of the box:

I also had to cut part of the rear flange on the socket off so it was narrow enough to fit in the side:

Originally I was planning to unsolder the old battery connector from the circuit board but there's a huge blob of glue over the solder points, so I trimmed the wires short and soldered the new wires onto them instead. Here's everything soldered up:

Power socket fixed into the box, and all reassembled:

Just tested it on both battery and a 9V wall-wart and it works perfectly.

James

[pritc]

Nice Mod!!

I did the same mod to my focuser module, before I upgraded to a HitecAstro DC focus controller.

Ran mine from a 240v/DC multi volt adaptor, set to 9v.

Worked a treat,no more PP3 batteries...

Wayne