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Orion TrueTrack motor on EQ-5 mount


george7378

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Hey everyone,

It's been a while and I'm thinking of getting a new setup, based around an EQ5 mount. I'm also hoping to motorise the RA axis, and of course the natural choice would be this motor.

I did however come across the Orion TrueTrack motor which is way cheaper, looks to be almost the same and claims to fit the Sky-Watcher EQ5 perfectly.

Can anyone confirm if the TrueTrack motor does fit the EQ5 out of the box? How is the quality?

Thanks for the help :)

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1 hour ago, george7378 said:

Hey everyone,

It's been a while and I'm thinking of getting a new setup, based around an EQ5 mount. I'm also hoping to motorise the RA axis, and of course the natural choice would be this motor.

I did however come across the Orion TrueTrack motor which is way cheaper, looks to be almost the same and claims to fit the Sky-Watcher EQ5 perfectly.

Can anyone confirm if the TrueTrack motor does fit the EQ5 out of the box? How is the quality?

Thanks for the help :)

Orion usually source their equipment from Synta, this one looks similar to the Skywatcher equivalent. The Orion Skyview Pro Mount is an Skywatcher EQ5 under the Orion brand name, so the RA should fit. You could probably fit it to all Vixen SP mount clones.

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4 hours ago, Cornelius Varley said:

Orion usually source their equipment from Synta, this one looks similar to the Skywatcher equivalent. The Orion Skyview Pro Mount is an Skywatcher EQ5 under the Orion brand name, so the RA should fit. You could probably fit it to all Vixen SP mount clones.

Yep, the True Track motor / motors will fit onto an EQ5 and the Vixen SP / GP mounts. The only difference between the Orion True Track and the Skywatcher ones is that the housing of the RA motor of the Orion ones is curved to match the shape of the plastic RA motor cover on Orions version of the EQ5. It fits fine on either the EQ5 or the Vixen mounts mentioned though.

Synta, the manufacturer who makes Skywatcher stuff, also makes stuff for Orion and a number of other brands so the quality is the same.

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Hey again! A little update on this, as the drive came today and I've just finished fitting it to the mount.

It looks like a decent piece of kit, but it actually doesn't quite fit the SkyWatcher EQ5 out of the box without a bit of 'MacGyvering'. If you screw motor directly onto the mount, the gears won't actually mesh together. In order to get everything to line up, I had to put a metal spacer between the mount and the motor. One of the spanners that came with my telescope works OK. I also had to move the motor's gear out along the shaft to line it up with the one on the RA shaft.

Haven't tried it yet (no batteries!) but it feels solid and planted. I'll be on the lookout for a better spacer, as this one doesn't let me reattach the plastic case over the motor. Ideally I'd have a strip of metal with a hole in the middle, so that the long screw attaching the motor to the mount would pass through and distribute the force more evenly. The spanner is wedged on one side of the screw, so the screw is trying to pivot the motor over the top side of the spanner. We'll see what turns up 😆

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A couple of thick washers on either side of the motor frame resting on that "ledge" on the mounting platform might do the trick insead of the spanner I guess ?

Moving the gear along the axle to match that of the mount is normal and I had to do that when I fitted the Skywatcher dual drive set to my Vixen GP.

 

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