HEQ5 Strip down guide

[Astro_Baby]

I'd like any HEQ5 owners opinions on THIS - especially if you have ever rebuilt the mount.

Its the mark 1 version of my strip the HEQ5 to bitz guide as the only other one out there I could find was ozastros one which is good but lacks piccys - me I like pictures of things cos otherwsie I get confuzzled.

I haven't written the worm alignnment element yet as I want to test out something for getting the gears aligned more simply. If anyone has any tips on that then extra great.

There are probably typos and errors galore at the moment - I wanted to get the overall shape of the thing sorted out first which is why there aren't any links to it yet from the AAS technical page.

Mel

[lulu57]

Have absolutely nothing intelligent to say (as per), but the thread title grabbed my attention - sounds like a Club for Gentlemen.

[Starflyer]

:laughing3:

Hi Mel,

Looks good to me, very clear pics and good explanations, but I have no experience of stripping these mounts myself.

You mention that the gears showed signs of swarf, did you attempt to clean them up or just leave the burrs on them?

Cheers,

Ian

[George]

Nicely put together Mel, I'm sure that will be very handy for the HEQ5 owners

Now then about my lawn more engine.....when can you do a service? :laughing2: :laughing2:

[Beyond_Vision]

Fantastic Mel thats going to be a really handy guide. I need to adjust the RA worm engagement on my HEQ5 as there is too much play in the RA axis. When will you be able to complete that section?

Regards

Kevin

[beamish]

I think this reads really well and will become a big hit with 5 owners, well done Mel. I've only ever stripped my 5 twice and worm adjustment isn't an altogether easy job, especially the RA adjustment.

I found it a delicate, balancing between meshing the drive gear, manouvering the whole worm casing (with the 3x cap bolts), tightening then loosening until I'm happy AND delicate tuning of the 2x set screws.

Too much and the worm will bind, too loose and there's alot of slop. Sorry I can't be more specific Mel

Karlo

[Astro_Baby]

Worm meshing is a real swine - the DEC axis is easy enough the RA is a nightmare. I am going to try this procedure in a day or so.

1/ Loosen off the set screws.

2/ Loosen the cap head screws but not too loose.

3/ Drive the mount on its own motors and use them to align the screws - I think there will be enough torque in them to force the worm gear to the right position.

4/ Tighten set screws

5/ Tighten cap head bolts.

I'll let you know.

The swarf problem was more iron filings in everything, you could feel the grittiness in the lube that was inside. Also some parts - especially the worms and tapered bearings had practically no lube on them at all. Think they had just put an oil can near them.

My RA drive had a huge piece of flaked off metal pressed into the gears - the metal flake had broken away from the worm carrier - you can see the bit of the carrier that it came away from.

I need to go through all the procedures one more time and make sure its all accurate, kick out any typos and optimise the pages for search engines. Another couple of days work really to tidy it all up.

My eldest son helped me out a lot by fething and carrying and keeping me supplied with tea and also helping take the pictures at times. It was son and mum time really for us both.

You were right beamish - wasn't as hard as I had imagined but it took ages - to take it to bits and get all the pics was 8 hours slog.

ps George - lanwmowers are easy.

[Beyond_Vision]

Thanks Mel I can see a lot of effort has gone into this

Regards

Kevin

[Astro_Baby]

Blood sweat and tears LOL - I have to say this is the toughest guide I have done.

The polar alignment and collimation guides were easy by comparison - with this one its the sheer weight of pictures thats slowed it all down plus the takedown procedure was so slow - mostly because I kept stopping to natter with my son and have another cup of tea. I tend to work at snails pace normally and chatter a lot Weeeellllll its all about the jourmey rather than the arrival isn't it

BeyondVision - the standard procedure ( if there is one ) for adjusting the worm mesh is to loosen off the cap screws on top of the worm carrier just until they hold.

Then loosen the set screws.

Loosen the upper set screw - thats the one where the worm carrier has a curve in its shape ( refer to my guide ).

Now grab the axis and try to move it - if it moves tighten the lower set screw until the movemt is gone.

Now tighten sequentially the cap headed bolts.

Sounds easy doesnt it ? Dont be fooled - you will need to check the worm gear can roitate by taking the motor cover off and manually turning the gears - do they stick ? If yes then the worm engagement isnt correct. Loosen off all the screws and start again.

If they turn check if theres too much play in the xis - if so - loosen it all off and start again.

I have been close about a dozen times but always theres either too much play or the gears wont turn the whole way round - ie the mount wont go 360' without a gear crunch or motor stall.

At the moment kmine will do about 270' no problem but that last bit is being a pain. Its a case of endless trial and error really until its right. Lord knows how the factory assemble them but I have an idea.

I suspect at the factory they plug into the worm gear on the opposite side to the motor gears and run it with lots of torque to force the worm gears out to the right distance - much as I am proposing in my earlier post.

I cant believe down on the SYnta production line they have people doing this endlessly trying to align the bworm engagement - it makes collimation look as easy as pie by comparison.

[FLO]

Very nicely done Mel, you're an asset to the forum

[Mick.G.]

I have got to say, that is an excellent guide!

Will come in handy, as I'm considering an eq5.

Well done.

Mick.G.

[Psychobilly]

Superb Mel

Billy...

[Robd]

Nice one Mel. A very easy to follow guide , as they say " a picture is worth a thousand words" definitely so in this case.

I need to do this to my mount over the summer, your guide should be very useful although mine is the HEQ5 Pro I would guess that they will be very similar.

Rob

[beamer3.6m]

Having an HEQ5 that guide is fantastic.

I would be scared to do it though if I am honest.

[PhillyDee]

Very nicely done Mel, you're an asset to the forum

An asset to the hobby and all astronomers everywhere . . . .

[Astro_Baby]

Nah - none of thjose things - just a rank amateur really with a weird bent for writing guides on stuff.

I used to do it for other hobbies I have had - mostly shooting but other stuff as well.

Thanks for the encouragement though to hack on at it and get it finsihe=d and of course happy to take onboard suggestions anyone has.

Robd the HEQ5 is identical as far as I know to the HEQ5 Pro - the only difference being the motors, hand controllers, main board etc. The mecahical aspects of the mount are the same as far as I know.

Its worth noting though and I'll write that into the guide.

Mines a standard HEQ5 upgraded to GoTo so the same as the Pro version I think.

[lulu57]

You certainly are jolly clever indeed, Astrobaby.

You can hold a screw driver without gouging bits out of your hand: that's good enough for me.

[adamsp123]

Mel,

Excellent, where were you when I used Haynes guides for car maintenance?? Your photos and text are excellent. (No mention of special tools a la Haynes = expensive tool or blunt/bent screwdriver.)

Well done

Pete

[Psychobilly]

I used to do it for other hobbies I have had - mostly shooting but other stuff as well.

You still got any of those.... i know a few people who cant hit a barn dooor with a blunderbus from point blank range and I am struggling to explain the finer points of clay pigeon shooting to them...

Billy....

[Astro_Baby]

Lu - my brother used to make balsa wood planes - he used to say if when you got to the end it looked like a plane you were doing really well - if your thumb still looked like a thumb you were a genius

I quite like messing about with tools and mechanical stuff - I find it soothing but if truth be told I prefer to cook at least then I have some idea of what its supposed to look like LOL

Sorry Billy - when I packed in shooting after the handgun ban everything I had went west. I have had a divorce since then and about 5 changes of address so anything that was 'baggage' was dumped.

[Astro_Baby]

Okies - the guide is now complete and as far as I can tell perfecto - the finished thing is HERE I have added some links to it for other strip down guides that may be useful to people as well.

So anyone who has been waiting for a guide for the HEQ5 can start merrily taking theirs to bits and the very best of luck to brave souls who do this

[Beyond_Vision]

Thanks Mel the guide looks great. I will have to have a go at the RA worm adjustment wish me luck

Regards

Kevin

[Astro_Baby]

BV - its a complete swine to do - I have redone mine about 2 dozen times - its finally there. The revised procedure in the guide should get you there. The real trick is to go VERY slowly when you retighten the cap headed bolts on the worm carrier - just tighten them each a teensy liddle bit and work round them in a clockwise motion apply just a tiny bit of extra pressure each time.

Phew - anyway thats another guide done with unless anyone wants to loan me me an EQ6 to take to bits

[Ben Ritchie]

Mel, looks great - i've already had to take my problematic HEQ5 to pieces before now but I wish i'd had this as a reference. Always regretted not taking pictures of mine...

[Beyond_Vision]

I carried out the Dec and RA worm gear adjustment this afternoon and everything looks fine now. I was contemplating sending it away to be rectified until I saw your procedure so you have saved my a heck of a lot of trouble.

The only thing I would add is a check with the mount powered to take each axis all the way through it's travel to make sure the gears don't bind. I thought I had got the backlash to a minimum and the gears seemed to turn by hand but when driven to a point much further around it began to bind.

I also found that my power socket on the control panel was faulty and soon rectified that with my soldering iron.

Thanks a lot Mel :thumbright:

Regards

Kevin