AstroEQ for EQ mounts

[TCWORLD]

With much smaller motors than those and the same gears, my mount easily achieves 800X sidereal rate. But I have a small 120mm refractor.With the larger motors like those I imagine you will be able to get fairly decent speeds with a larger scope. Personally I wouldn't want to have a 15kg telescope flying around at anything higher than 100X just out of fear of the damage it could do when the scope inevitably hits the mount or your head.

[Robp]

Thanks TCWORLD.

Would something like this:

http://www.zappautomation.co.uk/en/nema-17-stepper-motors/373-sy42sth47-1684a-high-torque-hybrid-stepper-motors.html

or this:

http://www.zappautomation.co.uk/en/nema-17-stepper-motors/370-sy42sth33-1334a-high-torque-hybrid-stepper-motors.html

be more appropriate for a 200p?

I assume smaller scopes will still be ok with a more powerful motor?

I've popped off a few emails to local fabricators see if any are willing to knock me up a few brackets. Also looking at the possibility of purchasing a couple of plain L brackets and making my own.

[TCWORLD]

The first of those two won't do, its current rating is too high. The second one is only about twice as powerful as the one from proto-pic, and is also a lot larger (over 4cm cube). There was another motor I posted earlier in this thread that is almost twice as powerful again but is also smaller (the same face size as the proto-pic one, but about 15mm longer - it would fit in the bracket I posted the design for) - link at the end of this post as well. 

The simplest thing to try first is with the telescope and everything on the mount, attach a 30cm ruler to one of the axes of the mount and then hang a 100g weight off it 25cm from the centre of the worm gear. If it drops with ease then the motor from proto-pic will be powerful enough (you can repeat for the other axis). If it isn't, try a 300g weight at the same distance, if that moves it with ease, then this motor will do (http://www.omc-stepperonline.com/nema-14-high-torque-stepper-15a-40ncm567ozin-14hs201504s-p-59.html).

By 'moves with ease' I mean drops instantly the moment the weight is put on the ruler.

[TCWORLD]

Make sure the ruler is horizontal when you put the weight on it also.

[Quatermass]

Guiding question from tonight's on going guiding test.. I am having no luck and some luck.

The ra graph is always fine even when altering the settings about but the dec graph is giving me much grief. I hate guiding always have its such a pain to get right. But my question is this when the dec graph is dropping like a stone then slowly creeping up like its an old man riding his bike up a slope then when he gets to the top drops off again and then starts his slow climb up again what does this mean is going on?

My guess here is that its a matter of balance on the scopes weights or something of that nature and nothing to do with astroeq which with the latest firmware updates is I think fine.

The pattern of dropping then creeping up a slope to drop again is the only issue I am having but I need to understand why the graph is doing this? Believe me I have looked at every setting and experimenting with them all but this issue of the dec graph dropping creeping up then dropping continues to plague me any suggestions?

[tigger]

The first of those two won't do, its current rating is too high. The second one is only about twice as powerful as the one from proto-pic, and is also a lot larger (over 4cm cube). There was another motor I posted earlier in this thread that is almost twice as powerful again but is also smaller (the same face size as the proto-pic one, but about 15mm longer - it would fit in the bracket I posted the design for) - link at the end of this post as well. 

The simplest thing to try first is with the telescope and everything on the mount, attach a 30cm ruler to one of the axes of the mount and then hang a 100g weight off it 25cm from the centre of the worm gear. If it drops with ease then the motor from proto-pic will be powerful enough (you can repeat for the other axis). If it isn't, try a 300g weight at the same distance, if that moves it with ease, then this motor will do (http://www.omc-stepperonline.com/nema-14-high-torque-stepper-15a-40ncm567ozin-14hs201504s-p-59.html).

By 'moves with ease' I mean drops instantly the moment the weight is put on the ruler.

Thank you for answering all our questions.My inclination is to use as big a motor as possible-just in case.What is the range of voltage and amps supported by astroeq and would it prefer high volts/low amps or low volts/high amps for the same torque.I apologize if this does not make sense but I don't really know how these motors work.

[tigger]

I'm building my parts list from the information in this thread:

2 x Motors

http://proto-pic.co.uk/stepper-motor-bipolar-200-steps-rev-35x36mm-2-7v-1000ma/

2 x 40T (5mm bore)

http://www.beltingonline.com/40-tooth-mxl-pulley-al40mxl025f-5178

2 x 15T (5mm bore)

http://www.beltingonline.com/15-tooth-mxl-pulley-al15mxl025fb-5168

2 x belts (1 x 61Tooth, 1 x 63Tooth)

http://www.beltingonline.com/mxl-pitch-rubber-timing-belts-4580

Then I just have to worry about mounting and connecting to the astroEQ

I think I'm going to have to make the mounting bracket out of wood or get one made up as I don't do metal fabrication

Anyone have anything to add or change?

Is there a way of locking the pulleys onto the shafts or is that not needed?

Think I might have to split this off into its own thread

The spindles on my EQ5 are 6mm so my 40T gear needs a 6mm hole not 5mm .Would'nt want you to order the wrong hole!!

[TCWORLD]

Thanks for correcting me on that, my callipers are broken, so I was going from memory. :S

The motors should be <12V rated and <1.5A per phase rated (<1.25A is preferable). Higher current/low voltage motors tend to be better at high speed - also, the lower the motor inductance the better.

[Quatermass]

Tonight I am a very happy chap...after the latest firmware update for astroeq I went out again to test the guiding. The last couple of times my dec graph kept going suddenly down then creeping back up again and it was doing my head in so tonight I double checked every single aspect of my rig, Balance of the weights the postion of the scope and most importantly my polar alignment which I thought was spot on. Turns out it was way off so I used eqmods polar aligment tool to do this and tryed again. Forgetting to tighten my ra bolts on the gear of course it all went horribly wrong again but once I realized what I had done and tightend that up the results were fanastic.

Im now getting the flattest graph in dec and ra that I have ever seen and able to knock out full 5 min subs, thats with my big 200p on the mount not a ed80 which should give even better results so I am over the moon about this.

Here is a screen grab of my settings for those of you with the 200p and webcam set up for guiding like mine..

I will post some more up later but for now I am saying.. in your face guiding boo ya QM has you sussed ya hoooo. Thank you Tom for your hard work and patience in getting this sorted for us all.

Hows that for a flat graph!

and a screen grab of a full 5 min sub nice round stars yepeeeee

[mr jambon]

Great results QM. Looks like you have mastered it

[Quatermass]

Im still out here freezing my buns off and testing it out to make sure its not a freaky run of good luck and have had consistent good flat graphs all evening so I think I can now say with a good degree of confidence that guiding with astroeq works great. I think my main issue was obtaining a good balance on the scope weights and making sure my polar alignment was spot on using eqmods polar alignment tool to get that right. I'm now getting full 5 minute subs with nice round stars and believe me that is fantastic for this set up as I am already pushing it to its limits on the eq5 mount. No doubt Toms updates on the firmware have ironed out the niggles we had to start off with but I am very happy with what I can do now. As soon as Mr Blobby goes away at the end of this month Im looking forward to doing some more images with guiding fully active. To be honest I normally only use short subs of about 55 to 80 seconds any way so being able to jump to 5 min subs is going to be brilliant.

Feeling slightly mad sitting out here in my fishing thermals but its what I love doing and there is nothing more exciting then watching the phd graph for hours on end in the freezing cold is there? I mean that is one very flat graph I think its the best i have ever got it so chuffed.

[Robp]

Excellent work Quatermass.

I to was out tonight imaging Jupiter and freezing myself, but in the end its all worth it.

Going to start purchasing my motor kit soon, hopefully Tom will have a spare AstroEQ unit hanging around for me to purchase once I'm done

Also thanks Tigger, hadn't checked the shaft diameter myself. Nice catch.

[Quatermass]

Here is a screen grab of my last full 5 min sub I made sure to keep them coming to see if it was all ok and with the nice smooth graph the sub came out very well. I can not normally go past 2 min subs with out getting wonky stars but tonight has really been good and Im glad the dec graph issue was sorted. It was all down to getting the scope correctly polar aligned with eqmod polar scope align tool.

Its a good idea to test this all out on a moon lit night you dont want to be doing all that when its a good night for imaging and I have spent over 3 weeks testing this all out along with Doug testing his set up so I can now safely say its sorted and guiding with astroeq works a treat for me.

In my eqmod setting I found I could reduce the pulse guide setting down to 30 each and still get a nice flat graph but kept the dec backlash up to max.

this is clean screen grab of the last 5 min sub I took before calling it a night I have not processed it at all so you can see for yourself it works.

[TCWORLD]

Going to start purchasing my motor kit soon, hopefully Tom will have a spare AstroEQ unit hanging around for me to purchase once I'm done

I have 20 more PCBs on order, hopefully they will arrive by the end of this week (they are somewhere in the post between China and here). I currently have a backlog of 10 people! I envisage a lot of soldering in my near future .

[JamesF]

I have 20 more PCBs on order, hopefully they will arrive by the end of this week (they are somewhere in the post between China and here). I currently have a backlog of 10 people! I envisage a lot of soldering in my near future .

Excellent news.  I should get on with ordering the rest of the bits so I can fix up my old EQ3-2.

James

[Quatermass]

I have 20 more PCBs on order, hopefully they will arrive by the end of this week (they are somewhere in the post between China and here). I currently have a backlog of 10 people! I envisage a lot of soldering in my near future .

Yes but just think of all those happy astronomers out there Tom

[tigger]

re the gears I notice this kit.http://www.beltingonline.com/eq5-telescope-belt-mod-drive-kit-12097 The 60T gear will only half fit on the spindle but assuming it will work will a 4:1  reduction increase tracking accuracy by a significant amount?  Or should I stay with 40:15 ratio.  I think I had better get my order for Astroeq in, then there would be only 9 shiny Astroeqs sitting on the shelf  

Philip

[TCWORLD]

While I am impressed that they have started selling kits for HEQ5 and EQ6 mounts, I don't think that kit will work for an EQ5. For one the large pulleys have a 9mm bore according to that description, and secondly the belts are the wrong length for an EQ5. I don't think it is any cheaper that getting the bits individually either.

If they are doing that, and I can find a supplier who will make motor brackets, I might ask them if they would start selling kits for the EQ5 containing the required parts. That would be cool.

[Robp]

Interesting find, although the bore of the 15T is stated as 5mm whereas you have measured it at 6mm.

The picture shows a HEQ5, is there a difference with this and the EQ5 with regards to spindle diameter and space for bigger pulleys?

[TCWORLD]

The small pulley goes on the motor - which has a 5mm shaft. The large pulley goes on the worm gear which has a 6mm (EQ5), 9mm (HEQ5) or 12mm (EQ6) shaft.

[Robp]

While I am impressed that they have started selling kits for HEQ5 and EQ6 mounts, I don't think that kit will work for an EQ5. For one the large pulleys have a 9mm bore according to that description, and secondly the belts are the wrong length for an EQ5. I don't think it is any cheaper that getting the bits individually either.

If they are doing that, and I can find a supplier who will make motor brackets, I might ask them if they would start selling kits for the EQ5 containing the required parts. That would be cool.

I am in contact with a metal fabricator that may be willing to make me some brackets. I will let you know if this goes through and how much the cost would be per set.

It would be great to have a complete package of motors and AstroEQ

[Quatermass]

I am in contact with a metal fabricator that may be willing to make me some brackets. I will let you know if this goes through and how much the cost would be per set.

It would be great to have a complete package of motors and AstroEQ

It sure would

[Quatermass]

This is from the guiding session last night its a total of 5 five minute subs 2 three minute subs and 1 two minute sub. If you find your dec graph going up and down like I did check your balance and make sure your polar alignment is spot on this cured my dec graph going all over the place. The centre star is HIP4427 the middle star in Cassiopeia

[Astropedro]

Well it finally came this morning!...blumming post in Spain is Soooooo sloooooow!

 So.......My PC in my "Astro Room" is windows XP and Im damned if I can work out how to install the drivers from https://github.com/TCWORLD/AstroEQ/tree/master/Downloads

Windows fails to install it from initial USB plug in so where do I go from here guys?  Ive found the driver file on github but when I click on the file it is just a notepad doc.  Is ths right or am I missing something?

Pete

[Astropedro]

Never mind.  Figured out the manual install....I think!