Moonlite High Res Stepper Motor + Hitech Mount Hub Pro

[Stephen]

Could anyone who uses both of these just confirm / deny for me that the Mount Hub can drive the High Res motor correctly?

Thanks in advance

[Herrman]

Hi Stephen,

May I ask; did you ever find an answer to this question? I hope to purchase a motorised moonlite in the not too distant future, and it would be a bonus if I could adjust it using my mount hub pro.

Regards, Herrman

[Stephen]

I didn't get a direct answer, so I went ahead and bought the kit anyways ...

Works like a charm

[Herrman]

Hi Stephen,

That's what I like; a man who's prepared to take a risk!

Seriously, many thanks for the update, it's good to know the Moonlite and the Mount Hub will work together.

All the best, Herrman

[Stephen]

No problem.

The only thing that isn't supplied with either piece of kit is a standard serial cable, if you can't fish one out of a box of bits then there's plenty for very little on eBay.

[Takahashi]

Ah... if I'd seen this thread back in July, I'd have said "Yes Stephen, they do work together... rather well in fact!"

Puzzled though, that you didn't get a serial cable with the Moonlite. That may have been a mess-up at their end, you normally do get one. At least it wasn't some super-specialised cable.

Is your Moonlite one of the newer models with a focuser clutch dial/ring? I wish mine had one... I'm currently trying to find a safe way to disengage the focuser gears so I can rapidly slide the barrel to roughly the right position for a given purpose, then re-engage. Right now, I sometimes have to run the motor at "high-speed" (about a millimetre per second...) for the full barrel length when changing from using a powermate + dSLR to diagonal + eyepiece, and it's a very, very tedious thing to have to do.

[Stephen]

Ah... if I'd seen this thread back in July, I'd have said "Yes Stephen, they do work together... rather well in fact!"

Puzzled though, that you didn't get a serial cable with the Moonlite. That may have been a mess-up at their end, you normally do get one. At least it wasn't some super-specialised cable.

Is your Moonlite one of the newer models with a focuser clutch dial/ring? I wish mine had one... I'm currently trying to find a safe way to disengage the focuser gears so I can rapidly slide the barrel to roughly the right position for a given purpose, then re-engage. Right now, I sometimes have to run the motor at "high-speed" (about a millimetre per second...) for the full barrel length when changing from using a powermate + dSLR to diagonal + eyepiece, and it's a very, very tedious thing to have to do.

I guess it was a mistake at their end then, but as I said it's far from the ends of the Earth!

Yes mine does have the clutch ring, and I must say it's a very nice piece of work. Holds rock steady when it's engaged, and once you release it (by holding the main focuser knob steady and unscrewing the clutch) the focuser operates just as you would expect.

Mercifully I guess I don't actually have to disengage it that much as I pretty much given up visual now. It stays more or less focused where the Atik likes it, and requires just a small motorised adjustment each night