AstroEQ for EQ mounts

[The_PSY3NTIST]

Had a kind of white noise sound to go with it

[Javert]

Actually, just noticed there's a bit of slack in the RA gears so it might be that. That's another thing I'll need to read up on (although I'm sure Quatermass has done a YouTube video about it)

[The_PSY3NTIST]

Good to hear you got it all working anyway

[TCWORLD]

I don't actually set the current to anything in particular as I have found they all seem to come set to an approximately decent value. If the motors are sticking, up the current a bit. As long as the motors don't get overly hot it should be fine (think hot shower as your upper temperature limit - unscientific, I know).

[Quatermass]

Its worth taking any slack out of your worm gear and yes I did make a video on it :-)

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[Javert]

Actually I'm not sure it was slackness in the gears. There was not play in the knob when turning it i.e. as soon as I turned the handle the gear rotated. Anyway, I've taken the motor off and had a mess with the RA gears but I may have tightened it a bit much as it makes a bit of a grinding noise now when rotating. Either that or it just needs a bit of oil.

At least they move when I want them to, so now it's time (whenever I get any) to have a read up on CDC and EQMod. When just trialling moving the mount via EWQMod, if I'd had the scope attached it would probably have been almost upside down and the Dec motor catching on the RA adjustment knob. Guess something wasn't set up right.

Suppose if I start by setting my Home position, it should be quite easy   from then on.

[Oily]

With regards to the RA motor issue Javert,you weren't tryng to slew the the mount with the weights on/scope off were you?

[Javert]

With regards to the RA motor issue Javert,you weren't tryng to slew the the mount with the weights on/scope off were you?

No, I've watched your video so know not to do that.

Have just been watching some of Chris' EQMod YouTube videos so hopefully things will make a bit more sense when I next give it a try.

[Oily]

Ah Ok,like I said,If you need a hand then you're always welcome to pop up and show you the ropes etc.

[Javert]

Thanks Oily. I'm hoping to actually get outside with it this weekend.

[Gonzo]

This AstroEQ is getting some momentum

[Quatermass]

Sure is just goes to show how much eq5 owners needed this kind of solution, and I love mine to bits just wish I had moved my observatory further back cursed tree has been a right pain this evening.

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[frogdr1ver]

Ive just got hold of an astroeq and wondering whats the correct way t wire the stepper motors? I have an original HEQ5 non-goto so the astroeq will be wired direct to the motors. I noticed one motor has 6 wires and the other has 4 so wondering which ones to use?

[astromerlin]

Ive just got hold of an astroeq and wondering whats the correct way t wire the stepper motors? I have an original HEQ5 non-goto so the astroeq will be wired direct to the motors. I noticed one motor has 6 wires and the other has 4 so wondering which ones to use?

Hi, Connection of the 6 wire motor can be made by finding the center tap wires, each phase of the 6 wire stepper is a coil with a wire attached to the middle of the coil. if you have a multimeter test the resistance on the wires, a high resistance means you have the ends of the coil, a low resistance means you are holding one of the center tap wires. Once found, ignore the CT wires and connect the other four wires to the driver unit.

DO NOT, connect/disconnect stepper wires whilst power is applied to the driver unit as the driver will be toast quicker than you can say "Doh".

[frogdr1ver]

Thanks for that, next question im going to wire it to some rj11 sockets that Tom gave me with the astroeq what order do they get soldered so that they match the socket on the astro eq?

[astromerlin]

Thanks for that, next question im going to wire it to some rj11 sockets that Tom gave me with the astroeq what order do they get soldered so that they match the socket on the astro eq?

I've included a screen grab of part of the circuit showing the connection to the rj sockets which might help.

[frogdr1ver]

Once again a big thank you, ive been having a google to get a circuit diagram so i can work out which wire is which (e.g colour or location on the pcb) but not had any joy, can you shed any light on that?

[astromerlin]

Once again a big thank you, ive been having a google to get a circuit diagram so i can work out which wire is which (e.g colour or location on the pcb) but not had any joy, can you shed any light on that?

No I can't help there, I built mine for the eq6 with non synta motors, perhaps one of the other guys with an eq5 might be able to help there. Generally if your stepper has the wires coming out of the motor in a row the connections are 'A1, Ct, A2, B1, Ct, B2'

[TCWORLD]

The best way is to use a multimeter to measure resistances.

For the four wire motor you will find two pairs of wires which have a low resistance. There will be an infinite resistance if two wires don't belong to the same coil. Once you have found the pairs then connect one pair to the centre two pins (3 and 4) of the connector, and the other pair to the next row out (pins 2 and 6). As long as one coil goes to 3&4 and the other goes to 2&5, there are no other limits on connecting the wires.

For the 6 wire motor you need to find the centre tap as mentioned earlier. You can simply ignore the centre taps leaving you with four wires. Connect these up in the same way as the four wire motor.

[The_PSY3NTIST]

Can you use stellarium instead of cdc? I'm sure I've seen somewhere that you can. Any ideas? If so how does it compare to cdc?

[TCWORLD]

Sure you can. Any program that works with an ASCOM telescope will work with EQMOD and hence AstroEQ.  

[chrisshillito]

Sure you can. Any program that works with an ASCOM telescope will work with EQMOD and hence AstroEQ.

True, but the problem with Stellarium is it doesn't support ASCOM itself!. To do that you need to run a separately developed and distributed application called stellariumscope.

Chris.

Chris.

[The_PSY3NTIST]

That's great thanks for the info I can't seem to get on with cdc plus I'm a seasoned user of stellarium and I love it. I'll investigate tomorrow

Thanks again

[Quatermass]

Been there and tried stelliruim but CDC is better with your set up and once you get used to it is dead easy to use. Try it but I did and went back to CDC just saying :-)

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[The_PSY3NTIST]

Ok QM. Following behind in your foot steps again lol. I'll give it a whirl for nothing and see what it throws up loving the Astro eq though! Got my steel box section for my pier at the weekend so hopefully will get it all set up over the next couple of week then I can get the PA nailed down must be a dream not to have to mess about every session with that