Hi Chris,
Yes the Rowan belt mod kit has a nylon idler wheel which helps keep belt tension and angle around the toothed wheels. Not very complicated , just lipped nylon back side Tension idler on the metal shaft vacated by one of the transfer gears. No bearing.
I have also done a mod on an old fork mount and added a new stepper motor however was able to use direct drive for the 360 tooth RA and the old tangent arm for the DEC. I have considered a belt and different drivers as guiding is too jerky. I am not an engineer but maybe an Idler would help any belt drive mechanism and share out the load while maintaining the belt angle without undue tension. You can also adjust the tension with the idler if your other points are fixed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisV
Ray
Been interesting to read this even though I don't have Skywatcher mount. But I've got a celestron CGEM and have replaced similar bearings on mine as one was a bit dodgy. It greatly improved the mount
I've also modded the mount with a stepper- pulleys- belts. So what piqued my interest was the mention of an idler in the Rowan mod? Is this a tension idler?
Chris
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