garymck
05-07-2015, 10:41 AM
Hi,
I thought I'd post a couple of mods I have done to my G11.
It was originally a G11 G1 that I purchased second (third?) hand through IIS.
It has an Ovision worm fitted. After purchase, I found after a lot of testing that the shaft on the dec motor was bent and would need replacing. I had a look at the price of new motors and decided I would check other options. I was also en couraged to do this because I really really really hated the G1, and having tried a G2 was of similar opinion.
I ended up finding this site:
http://www.astroeq.co.uk/tutorials.php
Purchased the controller for around $200
went to:http://www.omc-stepperonline.com/
and bought some Nema17 steppers and some couplers
Made some brackets to mount the motors, tuned some parameters and now have a fully EQMod compatible mount that slews at 900x has the motor directly connected to the worm - so no transfer gear / gearbox noise.
Works beautifully for less than the cost of a single replacement Losmandy motor!
The next irritation was the RA axis hitting the motors - couldn't even get to the meridian. Looked at Losmandy extender at $480 from Bintel ughh!
Got 3 pieces of 12mm mdf, glued them together, sanded them round on a disc sander, bought 4 stainless cap screws, cut them to length, drilled holes with bench drill, primed and painted, assembled. Result I can now image anywhere without motors hitting. Cost $6 for the cap screws - already had the mdf, glue and paint.
Pics below.
Hope this might help others on a budget....
cheers
Gary
PS anyone know what a G1 drive/hand controller etc is worth to sell?
I thought I'd post a couple of mods I have done to my G11.
It was originally a G11 G1 that I purchased second (third?) hand through IIS.
It has an Ovision worm fitted. After purchase, I found after a lot of testing that the shaft on the dec motor was bent and would need replacing. I had a look at the price of new motors and decided I would check other options. I was also en couraged to do this because I really really really hated the G1, and having tried a G2 was of similar opinion.
I ended up finding this site:
http://www.astroeq.co.uk/tutorials.php
Purchased the controller for around $200
went to:http://www.omc-stepperonline.com/
and bought some Nema17 steppers and some couplers
Made some brackets to mount the motors, tuned some parameters and now have a fully EQMod compatible mount that slews at 900x has the motor directly connected to the worm - so no transfer gear / gearbox noise.
Works beautifully for less than the cost of a single replacement Losmandy motor!
The next irritation was the RA axis hitting the motors - couldn't even get to the meridian. Looked at Losmandy extender at $480 from Bintel ughh!
Got 3 pieces of 12mm mdf, glued them together, sanded them round on a disc sander, bought 4 stainless cap screws, cut them to length, drilled holes with bench drill, primed and painted, assembled. Result I can now image anywhere without motors hitting. Cost $6 for the cap screws - already had the mdf, glue and paint.
Pics below.
Hope this might help others on a budget....
cheers
Gary
PS anyone know what a G1 drive/hand controller etc is worth to sell?