HEQ5 Pro slight movements

[04Stefan07]

After mounting my telescope and making sure everything is securely tightened down there seems to be a bit of play in the mount itself. Both latches (if that's what they are) are tight as well.

Has anyone else got this problem or know how I can reduce it? It isn't drastic but it's enough to move a centred object in the eyepiece off to the side.

[Atmos]

You kight need to play a bit with the worm placement. I’m not at home at the moment to check my HEQ5 but this may work.

http://www.astro-baby.com/EQ6%20rebuild%20guide/EQ6%20worm%20alignment.htm

[04Stefan07]

Cool thanks.

[doppler]

And here's a link to the heq5 guide, section 5. The EQ6 looks pretty similar though.
http://www.astro-baby.com/heq5-rebuild/heq5-m1.htm

[brisen]

It might not be the case here but worth checking as I had this issue with an EQ 6 and couldn't work out why I had slight movement in the mount until a friend mentioned the alignment peg. If this is slightly loose or isn't square to the end of the azimuth knobs it causes slight movement in the mount head.

I had all the knobs tight and the centre rod tightened down and couldn't understand why I was still getting slight movement. Pulled the mount down and adjusted the peg and it works fine.

Brian

[pjphilli]

I have noticed that the Azimuth knobs tend to work loose so I have put lock nuts on these.

[04Stefan07]

Is this a worthy upgrade?

http://www.rowanastronomy.com/productsa1.htm

It’s around $150 shipped.

[Slawomir]

Hi Stefan,

I bought the very same mod for my previously owned HEQ5. It made the mount noticeably quieter and I feel it guided a bit better, but the difference in guiding wasn't dramatic for sure.

Here is a PE graph I managed to create for the mount after I installed the belts: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment_browse.php?a=170518

[vlazg]

You could check the grub screws that connect the saddle, on my azeq6 they became a bit loose.

[RobF]

Hi Stefan

Play in either axis is usually too much play left in the end caps for your worm, or the worm and gear aren't meshed tightly.

Its pretty difficult to take out all the play however - you risk getting binding at some point in a 360 degree turn if you do things up too tight.

Other option if you're using EQMOD might be to put some backlash correction in place to "take up the slack".

I learned more about my gears, worms and adjustment installing a belt mod than I ever could have reading and playing about. You have to take the plunge and strip it all down and see how it goes back together to really understand what inputs are available to tweak things, and of course also accept the risk once you start messing under the covers.


Is the play there when you have nothing on the mount?

[Atmos]

+1 :thumbsup:

[04Stefan07]

Yep there is play when there is nothing on the mount and when everything is setup as well.

[jenchris]

Backlash can be removed to the point it is less than about 10 arc mins without any difficulty - then when you set up you make sure there is always a slight bias so the gears are always driving - in RA that's a bias to the east (called East Heavy) in Dec, a bias to the camera is probably easiest to achieve.