Meade Magellan I arrived today

[togo54]

It took all of 45 minutes to hook this unit up to my X-Class (AKA GSO) dob. Extended weather forecast says 10 days of rain. Bummer :(

[[1ponders]]

Excellent Tom. How about some piccies.:camera:

[togo54]

Paul
Really not much to post in the way of pics except for the finished project. The azimuth encoder installed like it was made for this dob and the altitude encoder required the drilling of one hole. Pretty simple. I'll post a couple pics tomorrow.

[[1ponders]]

Thanks Tom. I was thinking more for your fellow dobbers here who may be thinking along the same lines. Helps to see what you getting yourself in for. :thumbsup:

[ving]

cool tom, let us know what its like :)
might look into one for my starfinder mount :)

[Robert_T]

I usually plan on around 1 day rain/cloud for every $100 spent (not sure if that works though with the current exchange rate) :lol:

cheers,

[togo54]

hmmmm....$169 USD including shipping for the Magellan. Weatherman must be wrong. Gonna be clear skies in 2 days. :) I won't hold my breath tho. :)

[Starkler]

I beleive those Magellan units were on sale to US customers only .

[togo54]

OK. Here's a couple pics. As I said, the az encoder mounted like it was made for the scope. No need for pics of that. The alt encoder required the drilling of one hole (thru the back of the clamp). Meade dobs didn't use springs for tension so it had short allen head bolts in the alt bearing and the alt encoder was designed to clamp to the alt upright support. Just a matter of drilling a hole thru the backside part of the clamp and using a long screw to affix it to the upright. Hope this makes sense. :)

[togo54]

My next project is to velcro a 9.6vdc rechargeable nicad battery pack to the back of the magellan hand box. From my reading, a simple 9v battery doesn't give very many hours of usage.

[ving]

very cool tom :) I want to save up for one of these :)

[[1ponders]]

So that's how they work. Thanks Tom

[RAJAH235]

Tom, did you have any trouble with the central encoder shaft, re; length?
After I put 'Ebony Star' on my Meade, the shaft was 'just' long enough to get 2~3 turns into the bottom plate.
Do you use a 12 volt battery for anything at all, heating/red leds etc? If so, then why not make a 'fixed, 8.5 volt, regulated' supply for the control box? Only need 5 or 6 components. Keep it small & there's just enough room inside the box. I simply soldered the components, point to point. (no pcb or veroboard), & put the socket on the opposite side.
see pics......
HTH. :D L.

[togo54]

RAJAH235
Sorry for the delayed reply. I have yet to install Ebony Star but when I do I'll probably have the same situation with the encoder shaft. A 12v gel cell battery may be a future option but for now I'm just using resources/stuff that I already have laying around.

[RAJAH235]

Tom, np. fwiw, I used some 'clear nail lacquer', (cheaper than brand name), as a thread 'LOCTITE' substitute on the small grub screws & shaft thread.
HAPPY NEW YEAR from all us 'up here', on the right side, to all of you, 'down there', on the wrong side. :P :poke:
Regards, L. :D