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AstroEQ for EQ mounts

Oily

By Oily
in DIY Astronomer

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Quatermass

Quatermass

Posted
Posted

Cost is always going to be a motivating factor for EQ5 owners but depends on how far you wanted to go with the conversion of your mount.

I think for myself saving to get an HEQ5 mount makes sense as the 200p is at max wieght carrying capacity at the moment, but the good news is if I get an HEQ5 I can still carry on using AstroEQ. And if you get the dual axis kit you also get the battery pack motors and handset. If the price of the motors matched the price of the dual axis kit it would be tempting for sure.

Cool 3d printer set up. :grin:

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TCWORLD

TCWORLD

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The idea is that those brackets would be a simple drop in replacement for the skywatcher ones, but would allow a standard NEMA14 motor to be fitted. If there is interest I need to do a few minor tweaks to the design (add space for RJ11 connectors) and some final checks of dimensions.

Work has recommenced on the AstroEQ website now I'm free from exams, so hopefully that will be useful. I will be adding a page of Tutorials and FAQs, so if anyone has some suggestions for that (or even if you want to contribute a tutorial of your own), that would be greatly appreciated.

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Quatermass

Quatermass

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Well I am so impressed with the guiding I am getting tonight I have been imaging m82 and my graph has been amazingly flat for ages. I think if you have some tutorials on your webpage tom that would be great. We could happily contribute to them and give some practical tips on getting it all going. If you get those motors sorted out I think most of us would be interested but bear in mind were not all good with electrics and enginering but most certainly like Doug and others would be interested in further developments.

post-8732-0-75552900-1390701120_thumb.jp

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TCWORLD

TCWORLD

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Well, I've finished modifying my motor bracket designs. They are essentially drop in replacements for the skywatcher ones with the same RJ11 plugs - no engineering no-how required (apart from the use of a screwdriver when attaching them to the mount ;)).

A quick costing, it seems that if I were to make 10 pairs of brackets, a whole kit (2x motors, 2x brackets, 4x pulleys, 2x belts, 2x connectors, nuts&bolts, postage) would be around £110.

That would work out to be a total upgrade cost of an EQ5 mount to AstroEQ being ~£200 (including PSU/cables/AstroEQ).

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Dave_D

Dave_D

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i'm totally smitten with astrotortilla now. only reason i switch on the synscan handset is to plug the laptop into it. takes about 90 seconds for it to plate solve but it's a really slow laptop but i can live with it for bang-on positioning.

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Donaldkebab

Donaldkebab

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Help please! I am using a cg4 mount and my dec is out by some way whilst slewing. The RA seems to ok. I haven't tested outside because of the lovely Welsh weather. Could anyone help me with the config settings please? Gear ratios etc.I believe the mount and motors are the same as an eq3. Thanks

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TCWORLD

TCWORLD

Posted
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Sounds reasonable to me Tom. How much would those motors increase the slew speed, and I assume DEC backlash would no longer be a problem? :)

Well, on my mount I get 800x sidereal. The NEMA14 motors are more powerful, so the same should be possible - for a moderately sized scope it should be fine, though not sure about the 200P as that is huge - if balanced it should be fine.

Backlash will be all but gone - there may be a small amount still from the mount itself (worm gear/screw) and a little bit from the belt if it stretches slightly, but far far far less than the dual-axis motors have.

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Donaldkebab

Donaldkebab

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I assumed it was something optical given that the stars in the centre look pretty much perfect even after 10 minutes. I'm glad that little saga is over, good that guiding works properly.

Motor step angle: 7.5 for both

Gear ratio: 120 for both ( have also tried 132)

Worm ratio: 130 ra 65 dec

Motor driver DRV8825

Microstepping disabled

Thanks

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Quatermass

Quatermass

Posted
Posted

Help please! I am using a cg4 mount and my dec is out by some way whilst slewing. The RA seems to ok. I haven't tested outside because of the lovely Welsh weather. Could anyone help me with the config settings please? Gear ratios etc.I believe the mount and motors are the same as an eq3. Thanks

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Have you got a 200p on your CG4 mount? If you have you may will be pushing the limits for weight capacity, my EQ5 is maxed out but I can still get good results. Have you got a polar scope as well? also are you testing it out with the weights and scope on the mount?

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Robp

Robp

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I've found a place that 3D prints stuff and uploaded the motor bracket designs to see what's what.

They end up being quite expensive though - £43.62 for the pair (inc. p&p). If there were 10 people interested that would come down to £32 a pair (inc. p&p). 
Once you factor in the cost of motors and pulleys and belts and the nuts/bolts, I'm not sure it is any cheaper than buying a dual axis kit - at least the motors/gearing would be much better though.

That does seem pretty expensive, isn't 3D printed stuff brittle?

Do you have a copy of the bracket plans to hand? a friend of mine knows the director of a metal Fabrication company. He said he would have a look, just need some plans :grin:

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TCWORLD

TCWORLD

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The designs can be downloaded here:

http://www.railways-in-miniature.co.uk/FileDump/Brackets.zip

They are drawn in Google Sketchup which isn't really a proper CAD program but its all I have. If the brackets were to be made in metal, they could be simplified slightly.

For example in each there are three holes which have a captive nut in one side, for metal this could be removed and the holes simply threaded.

Furthermore, as metal is quite a lot stronger, the brackets could be made thinner in places if it is easier to manufacture.

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TCWORLD

TCWORLD

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Has anyone got the motor circuit board for an HEQ5 (non-goto). If they wouldn't mind lending to me. I've had several people who have HEQ5 mounts who want AstroEQ and I think it is time that I created a version of the AstroEQ PCB that is a drop in replacement for the HEQ5 PCB. Trouble is I don't have any dimensions to work off.

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