Belt mod for heq5 pro

[KimRichardson]

Hi guys,
I am interested to know if anyone has done the Rowan belt mod to their heq5 pro and is it worth it? My mount is fairly new (purchased July this year). I have done a little bit of research and concluded its worth it to help get rid of backlash, i am a newbie so would rather ask someone who has done it to make sure I'm not throwing money away for little results.
Thanks,
kim.:)

[Astronut07]

Gday Kim

I just completed my belt mod a few weeks ago on 4 year old mount
From my latest use I can confirm that the mod is worth the effort

I followed this tutorial & had no issues

https://youtu.be/hq44UFdOSV0

Good luck if you choose to undertake mod

Cheers
Ben

[raymo]

Well worth doing, but in your case, as a newbie, I would wait until further down the track, when you can decide whether the tracking and guiding of
the standard mount is good enough for your particular needs. It does however make the slewing of the mount much quieter, if that becomes an issue for you.
raymo

[Startrek]

Before you belt mod a brand new mount you should check to see if your backlash is related to a loose worm gear in dec or ra
It could be worth adjusting this before you plunge more money into a Rowan belt mod
There are many sites which show you how to adjust this including a good site on Astrobaby.Com

A well “tuned” brand new HEQ5 should track well and guide under an arc sec when loaded to 65% of max payload provided the rig is balanced correctly
There are a lot of things you can do before heading down the Rowan Belt mod path , particularly knowing it’s a brand new mount

I hope others can chime in too

My 2 cents ......

[KimRichardson]

Hi,
Thanks for that i will check it out :)
Kim.

[KimRichardson]

Hi Raymo,
That was also another issue i read about relating to the heq5- the noise! It is noisy i don't find it bothers me though. Saying that, it is my first mount so i would not know the difference anyway :)
Thanks for your reply.
Kim

[KimRichardson]

Thank you for the info :)

[RyanJones]

Do it Kim. It’s absolutely worth it. Martin is correct that further gains can be had from tuning the RA and Dec worms but relatively speaking the belt mod is cheap and makes a hell of a difference. From time to time you may need to adjust your worms for fine tuning and temp can change that but once the belt is done it is done.

Cheers

Ryan

[KimRichardson]

Hi Ryan,
Definitely thinking its a good move after the replies iv received. I'm just watching a vid now of how its done.
Thanks,
kim.

[vin_ap]

I've had a HEQ5Pro for over 2 years and was considering the Rowen belt mod, but after checking the characteristics of my mount I decided not to go ahead at this point. Few things to consider:

1. The Skywatcher warranty is void once the mod is done, luckily I had to claim warranty on the mount recently which got replaced with no issues.

2. Sound of the mount is only a problem when slewing, when using for astrophotography I probably slew 3 times a night, If you are a visual observer then its annoying.

3. Backlash, how much is it and what is it limiting you to do ? I can do 60sec subs repeatedly without guiding on my setup, with PHD2 its 5mins or greater.

Rowen belt mod makes slewing quieter, accurate but how much more than what it is now ? What is the current limitation, that it will make better ?

Personally my opinion, unless your setup is close to the limits of the mounts payload capacity go for a Rowen belt mod, other than noise reduction it is a warranty voiding exercise.

This was my thought process when I was considering one more recently. :)

[RyanJones]

Warranty is a fair issue Caleb.

I've got an 8" f/4 newt on mine guiding at 0.5 - 0.6 but not all of that is due to the belt mod. With that weight the belt mod did make a significant difference though.

Cheers

[Startrek]

Many folk, me included, state their guiding error ( arc sec error ) as a measure of guiding performance when they image
Your mounts performance when being controlled by your guiding software has so many variables but generally can be attributed to either mechanical deficiencies or atmospheric / optical quality.
Most sites mention that your guiding performance should generally reach the magical “1 arc second target or below” . However they fail to mention at what image scale and therefore focal ratio / focal length your imaging set up is configured to.
My previous HEQ5 mount which I recently sold to Paul ( South Coast ) was guiding on average at 1.20 to 1.40 arc sec error total rms between 2 sites ( Sydney Bortle 8 skies and South Coast Bortle 3 skies )
I very rarely had this mount down to 1 arc sec total error or below ( carrying a 6” f6 newt with Canon 600D DSLR plus misc gear therefore total
Payload of 9kg ) but I could easily push 5 minute dithered subs ( obviously at my dark site ) year after year with perfect round stars every time
So the moral to my story is don’t get too hung up with guiding numbers and for that matter guiding graphs as my old HEQ5 was a real workhorse and performed extremely well for me ( untuned and untouched ) for the first 3 years of my Astrophotography journey
Cheers
Martin

[KimRichardson]

Hi Martin,
I see what you are saying with guiding error. I have the WO GT81, WO 50mm slide based guide scope with ASI120mm mini, a filter drawer, zwo auto focuser,ASI1600mm pro run with the ASI air pro and i live in bortle 2 skies and image from my block. From what iv used I find the mount working fine so far and I don't mind the noise. I'm still very new to this hobby and have seen so many people talking about the upgrade of the mount and was very curious of the reasons. Thank you so much for your information, it really does help as a beginner :)
Kim.

[xa-coupe]

I've gone ahead and got a belt kit and will use it on my new to me second mount (another NEq6 Pro) as it's out of warranty. I didn't get the tools with the kit (an oversight on my behalf) but do I really need them?


My newer mount can regularly get .4-.7 guided completely stock, so I won't need to touch that for some time, and even though I've not got to use the 'new' one in anger (thanks clouds) I want to try the mod out.