EQ Mount - FINALLY FINISHED!!!!

[ballaratdragons]

I have been flat out at it all day, but I am pleased to say . . .

IT'S FINISHED!!!!!

I started at about 10:00 am this morning and just finished at 9:43pm tonight!
I am exhausted.

After I have a sit down, a cold drink and a bit of a rest (mind more than body) I am going back out, plug it in and give it its first run.

I am pleased with how everything fit together perfectly and the paint, brass and chrome all look terrific together. I will take a daytime shot tomorrow.
I placed the whole unit on concrete footings to make it stable in the soft ground (that took 4 hours alone) and it doesn't move a whisker! The whole unit is so heavy it is very hard to move it on purpose!!!

Another 20 minutes and I'm off to test it at tracking.

Anyway, here are the pics.

Pic 1: Start of assembly and the digging out.
Pic 2: The footings in.
Pic 3: Completed - Lot's of Brass and Chrome.
Pic 4: The whole completed unit.

[Astroman]

Very nice, that should be in a museum of fine art. looks great.

This was my 700th post

[asimov]

Wow! It came up nice mate! Well done..terrific job!! :)

[gaa_ian]

A work of Ken ... onya mate :thumbsup:

[paulee]

Impressive! Would love to make 1. Hey, is it possibel to retrofit a EQ mount tripod (or fork tripod) with a motor drive option to an 8" F6 Dob? as they start at $295 odd + motor drive kit... has anyone done it/recommend it ??

[ballaratdragons]

Well, it tracks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!! :cool:

A few bugs to iron out but it works. Yippeeeee!!!!! :2thumbs:

Paulee, you can stick a dob on an EQ. That's what this one is for. I tested it tonight with my sons 8" but it was put together for my 12" Dob to go on. One of the members in here (Ving) has just stuck his 8" Dob on an EQ mount. Unless you know a lot about machining and welding etc, just buy the EQ mount and motorise it, or buy a motorised one. I didn't build the one above, I restored and altered it.

[asimov]

Yippeeeee! How well does it track Ken? Good enough to hold a planet in the FOV for.....how long do you reckon?

[ballaratdragons]

That's one of the bugs Asitracker. I have to get the speeds down pat. I had it going too fast, too slow and everywhere near, but not spot on yet.

No Planets visible to test on coz of the cloud but I managed to keep Orion Neb in the FOV for about 4 minutes using a 9mm EP. And I haven't even done a polar alignment yet! Not bad considering an object only lasts about 15 seconds without tracking at 9mm.

[asimov]

Beauty mate. Sounds like you'll get it tracking nice eventually. Look out!! here comes another imager! :)

[ballaratdragons]

No imaging for a while yet. The bugs are minor, but one is a biggy.
I'll have to change motors which will mean new mounting plates as well and maybe the whole housing :sad:

[johnno]

Great Job Ken,
Looks VERY impressive,Enjoy.
Regards.
John

[ballaratdragons]

Ta Johnno, it does look shiny doesn't it! I'll have to polish it every weekend to keep the shine :lol:

[asimov]

What, so the speed of the motor is not quite right? What kind of motor is it?

[ballaratdragons]

Sorry for the confusion AsiJohn. The motors 'speed' isn't a problem.
The motor speed is controlled by the 'Stepper' program in the lappy. I can make it go any speed I want. I can even adjust it by .0001 of a second if I want. I just have to work out the exact speed.

The problem with the motor is that it is a 50 step motor. It really needs a 200 step motor. Being a 50 step motor is making the image in the EP vibrate. A 200 step motor should smooth this out.

[asimov]

Ah yes, I fully understand now....I've got a few steppers in my shed of course lol!

You got one organized?....if not tell me what U need & I'll see what I have. BTW I thought they usually rate steppers degrees per step? For example, I have a 1.8 deg per step motor sitting here in front of me. I guess your talking 50 steps per revolution?

[davidpretorius]

well done Ken, i am really keen to drop in and marvel at this in march. top stuff!!!

360 divide 50 = 7.2 degree per step stepper.

i would have thought the gearing smooths it out. ie you would just need a larger ratio reduction for the 7.2 degree compared to a 1.8 degree. I seem to remember bert mentioning the ratio? Do you know what reduction it is. Ideally i ithinik you are meant to step while tracking at around 15 times a second, so you just need to reduce the motor down to get to that rate???

It is always a balancing act between the time needed to slew to a new target and smoothness of tracking an object

[ving]

that looks great ken!!!
congrats :D

now you have tracking all you have to do is construct rotating rings :P

[33South]

Fine piece of engineering, sounds like its going to be a little beauty of an EQ.

[rochler]

Pleasing to see a real custom job... it's not just a mount - it's a statement! Looks nice & heavy-duty too, just the ticket for those windy paddocks.

Good luck with it, can't wait to see some pics later.... :prey2:

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks for the comments all!

Asi, I will check on what can be done with the motor and then let you know if I need another. Thanks mate!!!

Here are the daytime shots of the finished mount. I have placed them next to the pics of how it looked when Bert gave it to me. As you can see, if was worth restoring!

[davidpretorius]

very nice.

how many wires come out of the stepper motor. i have 6 odd 7.5 degree with a reductioin of 100 from memory at my joint.

They are a unipolar 4 wire stepper motor. Biploar stepper motors will generally have 5 or 6 etc

Man that mount is impressive

[ballaratdragons]

Ta Davo!
It has 4 wires to the motor.

Impressive? Impressively heavy!! :lol: Feel free to check it out in March :)

[RB]

Well done Ken, beautiful job.
The black paint job looks awesome too.
You picked the perfect colour for your mount.

:thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

:clap::clap::clap: That looks fantastic Ken! You've done yourself proud with the work you've put into getting it up and running. Excellent!!


And thanks again to Bert for helping convert another dobber to the dark side :rofl:

[33South]

Before and after WOW some effort man.

The picture on the right reminds of a time-machine I tried to build a while back :rofl: (http://misc.php/?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=1&forumid=6#)

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks Paul. It feels good having it finished!


EQ, Tracking, Red-Led Guidescope! Good grief, what's next?

Dobber? Oh yeah, I remember those old days :lol:

[RB]

Yes Rod-33South-Taylor....... :lol:

[ballaratdragons]

Haha! It felt like it took ages to decide on a colour! And simple old Gloss Black wins again.

The saying for the week: If at first you don't succeed, . . paint it Black! :)

[davidpretorius]

between asispares and myself we should be able to help you out with smaller step 4 wire stepper motors!

[ballaratdragons]

Here is a pic of it in use last night! It has Jake and Harry's 8" reflector on it.

Geez that Eyepiece was awfully high up :lol:

[ving]

dang it.... you put the pic in while i was replying! :P

wavelandscott is selling stella seats i think... they'd be a prefect hight ken :)

[ballaratdragons]

Ta guys. Bert has an idea about reducing the power with 'resisters' or something electronic like that. The motor is on it's lowest setting and it still thumps around. We'll see how that goes first.

I got a cool step ladder that I made thanks. It works goodly ;)

[ving]

gunna make some rotating rings ken? ;)

[ballaratdragons]

Rings are being sorted at the moment Vingo. Will explain later! I don't think they will rotate though.

[Striker]

Great stuff Kenny Koala.....You should be proud of yourself.

BTW how's the computer skateboard arrangement going....good improvisation...lol

[Robert_T]

Hey Ken, knew you shoukld ave gone with the yellow, you'll stub your toe on this one.:lol:

Seriously though, well done - looks a serious piece of star tracking software - you tried the Toucam out on the 8inch yet?

cheers,

[asimov]

My steppers are all 5 & 6 wire jobs. Not much good to you Ken probably.
BTW my EQ mounts tracking 'jumps' along at 1.8 deg/step. (coupled to an appropriate reduction arrangement of course)..it would be a lot better half or micro stepped, but then I'd need to build another controller etc.

[fringe_dweller]

TRAITOR!! hehe seriously Ken, looks the biz - well done

[Orion]

Excellent Ken Excellent.

Congratulations and enjoy ;)

[avandonk]

The stepper controller Ken has will run any stepping motor just neeeds four leads to access the two coils as the controller reverses the polarity. The motor he has has too much grunt (7.5 deg/step). The coil resistance is only about two ohm, a resistor in series with each coil will stop the vibration as it is currently being overdriven for the torque needed to adequately drive the mount. Otherwise plan B change motor to 1.8 deg per step.

His gear ratio is 150X240 = 36,000
One rev of the stepper is 48 steps so in 24 hrs 36,000X48 steps
should run at 20 steps a sec for Solar, a bit less for stars.

Bert

[davidpretorius]

yes i do remember discussing this with your fine self bert. your 36,000 was easily in the smooth category!

as you say, power down!

[Dave47tuc]

Nice work Ken. ;)

Looking foward to a look in March. :)

Hope you and the boy's enjoy it as i know you all will. :)

[ballaratdragons]

Your welcome to come play with it Dave!

The boys helped today to iron out some of the bugs. They were jumping about going 'Woo Hoo' when they saw it running!!! :lol:

It is still running in the backyard as we speak! I am letting it track a full 360 degrees to help bed the worms and gears in.

The pooter is in the boys room Tony, and the skateboard is being ridden again. I just use the lappy now! :)

[ballaratdragons]

9:50pm and it is still out there churning over, bedding in.

It seems funny walking out the back and hear this thing buzzing away! But the good thing is that it is still running! It has done over 180 degrees of arc, on a stinkin hot day, in a black metal case, and yet the motor has stayed cool all day!!!!! Bonus!

[rumples riot]

Looks great Ken, something very productive to renovate something. Congrats on your hard work.

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks Paul!
When I first saw it at Berts place I had an instant 'third eye' vision of it finished and running. I just followed the photographs from that vision :lol:

[rumples riot]

Well your 3rd eye had a great vision.

[ballaratdragons]

Oh, I forgot to mention! During the fix-up today of the bugs in the system I also constructed and fitted a fine tune RA adjuster.

The RA was locked into place so that when an object was located but slightly off centre I had to twist the whole scope and easily lose the object again. Bit like a dob (oops, too far, back a bit, oops too far the other way now!). I fixed this by placing a couple of brackets and threaded some holes and added a knob, and now have ultra-fine RA adjustment!!!

Should make centreing easier :thumbsup:

[cahullian]

way to go Ken now you have the best of both worlds

[ballaratdragons]

Instead of lugging out the big scopes every time, here is Harry having fun spying on the hills in the distance with the Guidescope!

We had fun constructing a quick mount for it (a block of pine) and mounting it (Ocky strap). Hey it works good!! So good I am going to use it tonight just for the heck of it!!!

The scope gives very good views! (TV aerial on a house 5k away LOL)

Simplicity brings fun! :)

p.s. Look at that beautiful clear sky. Hope it stays :prey:

[davidpretorius]

Mate, you would have to thank your lucky stars, and your chest must jut out with pride that the boys are taking such an interest and the mount finished result can not be assigned a $$$ value.

I bet mum sneaks a few peaks at her boys (one big one & and two growing ones) working together. I spose that is what families are all about!

[ballaratdragons]

Davo, it is great Mate! We have all been involved in this project in one way or another.

Even my daughter (who pretends to be 'not interested') got a bit involved and was excited with the final result!!!

Example: Here are the boys stripping paint without one complaint!

[avandonk]

I just got back from getting 4X30C=$1.20 resistors and stopped in at the Pub. I hope you realize Ken those resistors cost big heaps. OK it is not down to you , I am weak. Will send the power attennuator for your stepper motor tomorrow.

Bert

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks Bert!

Resistors - $1.20
Pub - $20
Finished product - Priceless! :thumbsup:

[avandonk]

Resistors - $1.20
Pub - $?
Finished product - Legless

Bert

I can still type!

[ballaratdragons]

LOL!!!

As long as you can solder the right coloured wires together! :lol:

[stringscope]

Congratulations Ken. Looks fantastic.

Cheers,

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks Ian. Feels fantastic using it too!