Original Black HEQ5 - What to do?

[russ.will]

So, I bought a 200p F5 ( not pretty, but works perfectly) an Evostar 120, HEQ5 (Original) with pier adaptor, a couple of Hyperion's, a QHY6, A an Altair guide camera, 2x SW straight through finders, a bunch of average Plossls and a pile of filters (some Baader and some generic) for £300 collected off FB Marketplace.

I've owned some or all of that in a previous life, but had retreated from forums in general and therefore upgraditis, to a ES 8" dob and a case of Morpheus EPs. They live in France where the skies are proper dark, but I only get to visit them five weeks a year. You divide that by cloud and full moons...

I miss my old ES AR127L and Exos 2 GOTO mount. A 5" frac and GOTO that just works were very usable for quickie sessions between the clouds and given that I'm up at 5:30am most days, gave me more viewing than anything with slabs of glass that needed an hour+ on the lawn first. 

So, as I'm into this pile of stuff for pennies, I'd like to hold on to the Evostar 120, possibly the Hyperion's too, but I'm looking at this original black HEQ5 and pondering. I mean a well fettled HEQ5 Pro is realistically all you need for observation, but this ain't a Pro and not even a Syntrek. It has the bones of a solid mount, but prehistoric internals and the cost of the Pro upgrade seems a lot, seeing as people then spend money on converting to belts, etc.

However, this is a hobby (spending money even if it doesn't make total sense is allowed) and I like tinkering and tuning, so is there a route, however labour intensive that is worth pursuing?

I'm also wondering if there's a Raspberry Pi angle as I have them as music streamers, 3D printer/webcam servers, etc.

Throw it out there!

Russ

[Lucas1807]

Hey I've just purchased same mount as yours. Have you managed to connect it to any sort of tracker pc etc as I'm looking at hooking mine upto asiair but don't know if it will work and there's not really much online about them. Thanks Luke