Modifying an EQ6 mount

[Matthew.Blake]

Hi guys,

I've just aquired a second hand EQ6 mount and would like to get hold of a circuit diagram for the main board and hand control box so I can consider modifying it myself. Does anyone know where I can get this? Also, does anyone know if the limitation of 16x on the motors is arbitrary or physical?

Ta,

Matt

[rikyuu]

hi Matt,

sounds like a good mount:)! I did study the controller and handset a bit, althought others probably know more about it as various people have done mods to it. The hand controller has a micro in it to generate serial data signals to the mount for controlling direction etc. It's easy to follow the tracks on the PCB if it's simply a case of replacing the buttons with relays to be controlled by a laptop or something. The actual controller in the mount is a bit more complicated, decoding the serial data from the handset and generating various pulse trains to the stepper motors depending direction, speed etc. I toyed with the idea of using an 'off the shelf' stepper motor IC to generate the correct signals to the motors in order to bypass the existing controller ie, by using relays to switch from the exisiting controller outputs to the new controller or something like that, just for greater slew speed.

There are several kits out there too which I've read about briefly, I'm sure someone will be along with some links and suggestions.

Good luck

Cheers

[astromerlin]

Hi, See this post in the diy section Project: autoguiding an EQ6 using stuff around the home

I'm quite eager to talk about modding the EQ6 as I have one of the non-goto mounts which I have converted to a sort of goto.

Cheers

[Starjumper]

If you are looking to control the mount via your computer or laptop then you may want to look at joining the EQMOD group on yahoo.com.

The group has a great deal of information about modding mounts to run direct from computers, I use EQMOD for my HEQ5 Pro and think it is very very good.

Here is the link..tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/EQMOD

You will have to join up to get all the info

Hope that helps.

John

[Matthew.Blake]

Hi,

I'm not interested in running it from a computer at the moment, just "enhancing" the handset.

I've also found a little bit of play when the axes are locked if I try and move them by hand, though when used for observing its as solid as Helm's Deep, is this something I can improve by replacing the worm gears etc... or is it not worth worrying about unless I'm intent on walking into my scope whilst observing?

Matt

[rikyuu]

hi,

the play is nothing to worry about, it's due to how tight the worm gear meshes against the large axis gear (not sure of the correct name). It can be tightened by loosening the 4 large allen bolts and then there are 2 end screws, but then you can end up with it being too tight (a fraction of a mm makes a big difference) and the motors may stuggle to rotate. or it won't be smooth. Normally with a motorised mount, it should be slightly out of balance with the scope on there, parcicularly in RA, so there is slightly more weight against the direction of rotation to keep the gears meshed and ensure smooth rotation.

[daz]

Mathew

Look on the interweb for Rajiva EQ6 upgrades. There are related handset projects and links on there.

[astromerlin]

Hi Matt, I thought this txt file might help for modding the handcontroller.

Cheers

eq6-serial.txt

[Astro_Baby]

Theres some links for stripping/rebuiling the EQ6 here.

http://www.adur-astronomical.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-lc1.htm

The looseness is down to either wqorm gear engagement OR worm end float adjustement. The links will explian that.