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Vixen GP mount OnStep project

Alan White

By Alan White
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Alan White

Alan White

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Posted (edited)

As a place holder as much as anything, I have set the wheels running on an OnStep solution for my venerable Vixen GP mount.
I posted about this before and I was encouraged greatly by @LuckieEddie, who is a member of my Astro club CPAC.

The reality is Ed is the 'brains' on this venture as he has done this before and is a real engineer,
not one who thinks they are like me, so he is holding my hand and driving my venture as I honestly at present have no clue.

So here is the mount pre OnStep, presently all manual and a very nice mount, but if you can have tracking, why not go all modern and have the lot.

gP2024.thumb.jpg.6577c0901ec6d1e2decc0dbbc43e2a4c.jpg

Edited by Alan White
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Vroobel

Vroobel

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I've already made the OnStep mod on my EQ5 and one for my friend's Vixen GP. Both work smooth and silent. We use made from scratch controllers inside a 3D printed housings. 🙂

 

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Alan White

Alan White

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The Terrans kits are interesting, but they are a kit and that feels too easy.
The build option is the one being taken, to learn as much as I can with Ed's help of course.

The deed is done, orders placed for Nema motors and lots of goodies, now sit and wait for the postie over the coming weeks.
Oddly one of the suppliers is just a few miles up the road from me, everything else is via China of course.

Excited in having the wait, it feels like days gone by, when it was mail order.

 

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Ratlet

Ratlet

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1 hour ago, Alan White said:

The Terrans kits are interesting, but they are a kit and that feels too easy.
The build option is the one being taken, to learn as much as I can with Ed's help of course.

The deed is done, orders placed for Nema motors and lots of goodies, now sit and wait for the postie over the coming weeks.
Oddly one of the suppliers is just a few miles up the road from me, everything else is via China of course.

Excited in having the wait, it feels like days gone by, when it was mail order.

 

I like your style.  I've sunk about 6 months into building my autofocusser.  The journey is as much part of the plan as the destination.

I'll be following this as I'm currently in early planning stages of building a harmonic drive version of the azgti, which should hopefully have a 6-7kg payload.

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Alan White

Alan White

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The bits have started arriving, more to come yet, but very much feels like Christmas (and just like that season, yes I am paying for it too!)

Nema 17 motors and brackets, set of looking at making brackets to fit to the mount, fortunate in that Ed has done this already, so just a try with cardboard templates first and then make in metal (that will be fun to do).

IMG_9927.thumb.jpeg.bb5739f59174cd934544d5d9b8b11209.jpeg
 

IMG_9932.thumb.jpeg.aa3874c33c7849291ea270a79ff37afd.jpeg

 

IMG_9931.thumb.jpeg.c44b02cee3590f9aba8cde08825c4f0f.jpeg

Also some pulleys, connectors and the first electronics bit, fun, fun fun...

IMG_9877.thumb.jpeg.cd32cb9c89c04cd381ce8358a88bd98f.jpeg

IMG_9895.thumb.jpeg.e532c2a0bf4ada67cfd1e5c2b1913a1a.jpeg

Edited by Alan White
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Ratlet

Ratlet

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If you need a bracket 3D printed, let me know.

Just a heads up that some of the fysetc boards don't come with heatsinks for the stepper drivers.  Depending on the current your motors draw you might need them.

Following with great interest.

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bosun21

bosun21

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Coming along nicely Alan. I was far too lazy to undertake this upgrade and opted for the full SW go to upgrade kit. If I were to be in the same situation again I would probably follow the Onstep upgrade as you are doing. I will be following with interest. 

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Alan White

Alan White

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14 hours ago, bosun21 said:

Coming along nicely Alan. I was far too lazy to undertake this upgrade and opted for the full SW go to upgrade kit. If I were to be in the same situation again I would probably follow the Onstep upgrade as you are doing. I will be following with interest. 

Thank you

I nearly did the SW kit, but I wanted the belt drive, functionality and ability to set up the software etc, even though I will need help in doing so.

Most of the real work here is already done before by others, but in my case I will be eternally grateful to Ed for his help and skill set, thanks @LuckieEddie 😀

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Alan White

Alan White

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Something I have discovered is that GX12 plug and sockets are too small for many of my cables to fit through the fixed aperture.
Solved by going up to GX16 (which Ed said I needed anyway).
You live and learn.

My 10A PSU now fitted with a GX16 outlet plug and the method I will use going forwards as a solid connection.

IMG_9965.thumb.jpeg.bcbf40543e6a35475602bbd0a6c45712.jpeg
 

I have been distracted from this by work on my 10” Dob, which has been awaiting a fan on a slow boat from the East, now all complete, so no more excuses.
 

Edited by Alan White
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Ratlet

Ratlet

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The gx12 connectors are ridiculously cheap but feel very solid, are easy to install and just make a job feel proper pro.  Strangely addictive.  I order a heap of 3 and 4 pin ones and I'm tempted to order more.

The nice thing is just because you have (say) 5 pins, you don't need to use all 5.  So you could have lot of power connectors in and out, all with a unique connector.

They're also very satisfying to solder.  

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Vroobel

Vroobel

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The GX16 isn't small, that's true. Once you started, you will install them everywhere (at least the 12V power). Remember to keep one standard regarding powering the pins. I have 4 setups, 2 mounts, a Jackery 500, laptops chargers - these and a few more devices are powered from 12V using 2-pin GX16s. A home made OnStep controller drives RA and Dec motors through 4- and 5-pin ones (one pin isn't used). Oh, I forgot about my EQ fork mount - it's full of different GX16s... 🙂

 

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Alan White

Alan White

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Now I have settled on the GX16 2pin units, I have set my standard pins to Pin 1 - and Pin 2 +. It’s marked on my power pack as a reminder.

I cut off a cigarette plug from a Lynx lead I have and fitted a GX16 already. 
The Lynx lead surprised being mains voltage insulation colours of blue and brown.

 

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