hypertune AZ-EQ6-GT

[ThaiAndy (Andy)]

Hi everyone

Sorry that this is my first post but I'm having issues with my mount - does anyone know if anybody is doing hyper tunes as a business in Australia, specifically (for me) for the AZ-EQ6-GT?

Many thanks in advance for any help, otherwise I'll have to ship it to the UK or US.

Andy

[casstony]

What problems are you having Andy and is it out of warranty?

[ThaiAndy (Andy)]

Hi Tony, thanks for the quick reply

I'm pretty sure I'm out of warranty (had it about 4 years, I'd say).

I'm not getting a smooth PEC curve - it has a spike, so I think dirty grease / bad bearing or similar.

I get a lot of backlash, which I'm told isn't normal.

And I'm jealous of the smooth and perfect results obtained by those who have had them hyper tuned, truth be told. The ceramic bearings are clearly much better and cleaning out all the cheap grease just seems the right thing to do.

So, I'm really looking to buy Australian before shipping it off, if I can.

Cheers
Andy

[casstony]

Backlash between the worm and ring gear is easily adjusted if that's where it's from?

There might be someone in OZ who'll strip and regrease the mount but I don't think there are any hypertuners.

[ThaiAndy (Andy)]

Tony

I don't know enough about the workings to know where its coming from or how to fix it - do you have any links or pointers on how to check and fix backlash between the worm and ring gear, if that's what it is?

Appreciate your input

Thanks
Andy

[casstony]

With the clutches engaged, if you can wiggle the RA axis or Dec axis when holding the CW shaft or diagonal then you have backlash between the worm gears and ring gears.

This guide for the EQ6 (AZEQ6 is similar) shows how to adjust the clearance between the worm gears and ring gear (section 5). There are 4 bolts to loosen, then adjust 2 grub screws to move the worm closer to or farther from the shaft, then re-tighten the 4 bolts - very important not to overtighten the worm clearance and cause binding, but you can adjust the clearance such that a tiny gap is left which fills with grease when the motor turns, effectively leaving no backlash, assuming the ring gear/shaft is perfectly round.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160503...own%20Home.htm

[ThaiAndy (Andy)]

Thank you very much Tony! This is certainly something for me to review and check over the weekend as I'd not heard of the tip before - much appreciated.

Longer term, i'm still wanting to change out the bearings and give everything a good "scrub" / upgrade of grease and everything else that constitutes a hypertune, though, and I'm sure that's beyond my capabilities, so if anyone does know of someone performing these services in Australia, I'd be most interested.

Cheers
Andy

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Hey Andy,

You might also want to check out DJScotty's excellent Az-Eq6 strip-down guide linked in this thread.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ht=Azeq6+strip

Whilst you're may not want to strip down your mount yourself it's an excellent resource in helping us Az-Eq6 owners understand our mounts better and might help you decide which way to proceed.

Cheers,
Pete

[ThaiAndy (Andy)]

Pete, thank you so much - its exactly the kind of guide that I've been looking for.

I shall print it, digest it over 18 hours as Scott suggests, and perhaps try to do the hypertune (at least clean up) myself! Looking at the pictures of his wormgear and his comment about how he assumes that the greasy mess is what's causing his mount to jump around, gives me some hope that this is what's causing my issues too.

What I didn't see here is how to exchange the worm bearings for ceramic bearings - I'm keen to do that as it seems to be the main selling point of those offering a hypertune. Pushing my luck now, but does anyone know what model bearing would be required and where I might get them?

Cheers
Andy

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

Hi Andy,

In the past I sent my AZEQ6 to the US for Hypertune service that included replacing bearings with ceramic ones. While it was somehow reassuring that grease, bearings etc have been looked at, cleaned and adjusted, I did not notice a significant difference in my mount's performance before and after Hyper-tuning. I was already getting pretty good performance from my mount before the service (for a mass produced mount) and was hoping that perhaps hyper tuning will take it to another level, but it did not. I'm quite confident though that hyper-tuning will help with longevity of the mount. So I would not personally recommend upgrading the bearings. Replacing stock grease with quality lubricant is a great idea for sure

[ThaiAndy (Andy)]

Thanks for the advice, Suavi, although I'm surprised the hypertune didn't give you a step change that others have experienced. I can only think that you got extra lucky with your mount straight from the factory.

I noticed that Scott's Az-Eq6 strip-down guide also stopped short of replacing the worm bearings and he mentioned that removing the worm gear looked like it was too complicated for him, so a good strip down, cleanup and re-lube may be all I need, taking particular care to realign the worm gear with the main drive using the adjustment screws, now that I know they exist. I have a gut feel that my worm gear is not snug with the main drive right now and that that's the cause of the backlash, and I suspect grit in the grease is causing the blip I get on the PEC curve.

Cross fingers for me as I'm no mechanical genius - I need to find some time to do it all without interuption.

Cheers
Andy

[Atmos (Colin)]

I am the forth owner of my EQ6. After I'd had it for a while I started noticing some random jumps in the guide graph, wasn't quite as smooth. Best thing I ever did was stripy it down and regrease it.
Performance wise it did nothing but remove some of the random periodic bumps that had developed (still guided well regardless) but the biggest benefit was seeing the innards of the mount and understanding what and where everything is inside. I am not the most mechanically minded person out there, I gave myself a good afternoon to deal with it and just took my time.

I would suggest regreasing it yourself and seeing if that improves things. Use that as an excuse to look inside it Most of all, just take your time. Some bits come and easy, others don't. This is machining tolerances.

[casstony]

I find it helps to lay the parts out in order and take a photo at each disassembly step so I don't get lost at reassembly time.