Urgent pier height help

[Anthonyexmouth]

First proper fit of the mount. 

[adyj1]

Well, I think we can safely say it isn't going to fall over ? 

Looking good 

[Anthonyexmouth]

Just now, adyj1 said:

Well, I think we can safely say it isn't going to fall over ? 

Looking good 

i'm thinking its gotta be at least 10% more stable than the tripod. 

next plan is to make a cage around the lower studs and make knockouts for power distribution (240v,12v and usb power sockets), plate mounted usb hub and cat6 faceplate. that will enclose the bottom section and seal it, then i'll drill a 40mm hole in the center of the plate and mount a 12v case fan, that will draw air up through the conduit and into the space when the cover is on, this will run all the time the mount and scope are covered. 

[Anthonyexmouth]

Preliminary cable routing, looks like it might be clear tonight for what might be my last post alignment for a while, fingers crossed. 

[adyj1]

2 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

i'm thinking its gotta be at least 10% more stable than the tripod. 

next plan is to make a cage around the lower studs and make knockouts for power distribution (240v,12v and usb power sockets), plate mounted usb hub and cat6 faceplate. that will enclose the bottom section and seal it, then i'll drill a 40mm hole in the center of the plate and mount a 12v case fan, that will draw air up through the conduit and into the space when the cover is on, this will run all the time the mount and scope are covered. 

I've stayed in hotel rooms that haven't been that well equipped ? 

[Anthonyexmouth]

The other addition will be a thick walled 95mm pipe between the pier plate and mount adapter. This will stiffen it up like a pier extension. 

Can anyone see any issues I might have here or ways I can improve it before I go any further?

[Astrokev]

Good to see it coming together

Looking at the design of the studding, I can't help wonder why you chose to have a separate plate between the pier and the mount adapter. I think you could have embedded the studding from the adapter straight into the concrete, without the need to have a plate and 4 extra lengths of studding. This is basically the design I used for mine. I bent the conduit in the pier through 90' to bring the opening to the side of the pier instead of on the top.

I realise this is a bit late to suggest this now (!). I'm just curious why you chose to do it this way?  I'm sure your design will work fine, it just seems a lot of extra effort!

Edited February 17, 2019 by Astrokev

[Anthonyexmouth]

1 minute ago, Astrokev said:

Good to see it coming together

Looking at the design of the studding, I can't help wonder why you chose to have a separate plate between the pier and the mount adapter. I think you could have embedded the studding from the adapter straight into the concrete, without the need to have a plate and 4 extra lengths of studding. This is basically the design I used for mine. I bent the conduit in the pier through 90' to bring the opening to the side of the pier instead of on the top.

I realise this is a bit late to suggest this now (!). I'm just curious why you chose to do it this way?  I'm sure your design will work fine, it just seems a lot of extra effort!

future proofing really, i thought if i have a base with 4* 16mm studs and a sacrificial plate that can then be swapped if i ever change mounts. if i had done the studs to the mount adapter directly then id have been stuck with that.

[Gina]

Yes, that was good thinking.

[Anthonyexmouth]

11 minutes ago, Astrokev said:

Good to see it coming together

Looking at the design of the studding, I can't help wonder why you chose to have a separate plate between the pier and the mount adapter. I think you could have embedded the studding from the adapter straight into the concrete, without the need to have a plate and 4 extra lengths of studding. This is basically the design I used for mine. I bent the conduit in the pier through 90' to bring the opening to the side of the pier instead of on the top.

I realise this is a bit late to suggest this now (!). I'm just curious why you chose to do it this way?  I'm sure your design will work fine, it just seems a lot of extra effort!

looking at yours, the only difference to mine is i have raised the adapter above the plate for a bit more height. not totally decided on height yet but when i do i'll cut a length of pipe to clamp between the mount and bottom plate for extra stiffness so im not relying on the 3 16mm threaded rods

[Astrokev]

8 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

future proofing really, i thought if i have a base with 4* 16mm studs and a sacrificial plate that can then be swapped if i ever change mounts. if i had done the studs to the mount adapter directly then id have been stuck with that.

Yep, that's fair I s'pose ?

[Astrokev]

17 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

looking at yours, the only difference to mine is i have raised the adapter above the plate for a bit more height. not totally decided on height yet but when i do i'll cut a length of pipe to clamp between the mount and bottom plate for extra stiffness so im not relying on the 3 16mm threaded rods

Yes, that's a good idea. The 3 adapter rods being fixed to the bottom plate with only a single nut on each side is, theoretically at least, a potential point of flex. In practice it may be fine, but if it were me, I would add something to stiffen this up as you suggest.

For my pier I designed the height so that the adapter plate was as close as possible to the top of the pier. The factors affecting the pier height were the desired height of the eyepiece, and the height of the walls to ensure the roof would close without fouling the scope. The only reason there's a gap is to access the bolt holding the mount to the adapter plate, to help with azimuth adjustment. In the unlikely event that I upgrade my mount, I can simply either replace the plate or drill extra holes in it to fit the requirements of any new adapter or mount head. That's the theory anyway ?

Edited February 17, 2019 by Astrokev

[Anthonyexmouth]

plan is to upgrade to a eq6-r or maybe a cem60 fairly soon so having the 300mm diameter concrete gives me a nice base to have a fairly good range of heights with varied custom pipe lengths. 

[Anthonyexmouth]

Finally got around to cutting the pipe to go between the plate and the mount. just waiting for the wind to stop so i can go and fit it. this should substantially stiffen the setup, not that it really need it. next project is a steel square box to go under the plate to house all the connections. this will be usb power outlets, 240v socket, network and various 12v sockets and an 8v one .

[Anthonyexmouth]

For those interested, started to mock up the lower power/data distribution panels. Here's the 5v usb power panel. Might add another but think 4x 2.1amp outlets should be enough. When finalized the sides will probably be 10mm acrylic

[Xplode]

In my opinion it's a pretty big engineering fail to make such a sturdy concrete pier and have long extensions of threaded rod, it can create unwanted vibrations when guiding and during windy conditions.
The pier is nice thou and smart with the through pier cabling, also the "camouflage" is a good idea  

Edited April 21, 2019 by Xplode

[Anthonyexmouth]

25 minutes ago, Xplode said:

In my opinion it's a pretty big engineering fail to make such a sturdy concrete pier and have long extensions of threaded rod, it can create unwanted vibrations when guiding and during windy conditions.
The pier is nice thou and smart with the through pier cabling, also the "camouflage" is a good idea  

If you look back a few posts you'll see that there is a 4mm steel tube that's going between the mount and the plate. 

[Astrokev]

1 hour ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

If you look back a few posts you'll see that there is a 4mm steel tube that's going between the mount and the plate. 

How d'you plan to attach the steel tube to the plate?

[Anthonyexmouth]

1 hour ago, Astrokev said:

How d'you plan to attach the steel tube to the plate?

it will be clamped between them using the stainless bolts. 

[Anthonyexmouth]

Wow, £1 spent on spiral cable management makes a huge difference

 

Next step will be custom usb cables to get rid of the coils at the bottom. 

[Gina]

Yep. I use spiral warp all over the place and not just for astro gear.

[Davey-T]

7 minutes ago, Gina said:

spiral warp

Thought that was a long haired pop group 

Dave

[Gina]

KO KO KO os Mi Lysdexic.  😁

Edited May 15, 2019 by Gina