RA and Dec Drive motors

[Lismore Bloke]

I think I may have asked this question somewhere at some time, but I'm having another go. I am thinking of redoing the ratty home made GEM my 10" sits on. It's too good a scope to just sit there. It's not convenient for visual use or accurate enough for photography. Long term project as I have funded 2 weddings in the last 4 months!
Question:
Is it feasible for a commercial motor set (eg Meade 493 + Autostar - if available) or EQ5 dual axis drives to be mated to a basic mounting consisting of a pair of shafts running in pillow block ball bearings, or something similar. Allowing that some lathe or engineering work may be needed. Feasible, or a fool's errand??
I would be grateful for any ideas. Thanks for looking, Paul.

[AndrewJ]

Gday Paul

Many people retrofit mounts with Meade motors and the 497 handsets,
so its not a fools errand.
Check out the Yahoo Roboscope group for more technical info
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/RoboScope/
I'm not sure how easy it is to use the EQ5/6 systems, but,
the Meade system is very flexible and can be tuned to suit many different
geartrain arrangements and mount setups.

Andrew

[Lismore Bloke]

Thanks Andrew, that's an interesting site. A lot of people seem to have problem finding the motors though ... might be a mission.