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Old 01-04-2019, 08:53 AM
xelasnave's Avatar
xelasnave
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xelasnave is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Tabulam
Posts: 16,866
Attaching a focuser moter.

First I thank Jeremy for his thread on how he approached fitting a focuser as it gave me the idea of using a old scope ring to provide a mounting base.

I wanted to avoid drilling anything and make the unit easily detachable.
My solution, very similar to Jeremys approach used a tube ring from an old broken 80mm scope.
Instead of placing the ring on the new 80mm I fitted it to the heq5 mount.
The ring needed to be "packed" to fit and at first I used a slice of cheap yoga mat and although that worked the motor did wobble which gave it a cushioned base...however I decided to pack the ring with four small wood blocks and topped them with glued on cardboard to get a nice fit..I should have been more precise in cutting my blocks but the little stack of glue and cardboard meant that when tightened it fitted very nicely.
The ring holds a small piece of ply wood and the motor bracket is screwed on to that.
I glued the top of a milk bottle top (cut off the sides) to the primary drive (the unit that allows direct connection that came with the kit) to keep the belt on ... I thought of doing similar to the focuser knob on the scope but I dont want to alter it really and think the one guide disk is sufficient.
I made the belt from mouse mat type material and found even a hair tie lopped in a figure 8 works..the belt is no big deal I have made many some with glued on teeth but a single strip butt glued works well.
But horrors assembled for a final test the motor was not always responding to a button push...it was one faulty switch but luckly I had another control box as I bought two motor kits..one for 80 mm and one for the eight inch...I also have the unit that allows you to control from the lap top but I may not even bother with that..at least until I can work out how to instal a flip type focuser set up...and before I do that will check out what those other focuser options are in Sharpcap.

Gave everything a spray with black paint to make it look better by covering the ply and a consistent colour scheme.
And perhaps another motivator to have belt drive rather than direct drive was not to have the motor sticking out such that it could be knocked in the dark.

I hope this may help others have trouble attaching a cheap focuser motor.
Alex
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