Thread: Modding a G11
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Old 05-07-2015, 10:41 AM
garymck (Gary)
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garymck is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Geelong
Posts: 822
Modding a G11

Hi,

I thought I'd post a couple of mods I have done to my G11.

It was originally a G11 G1 that I purchased second (third?) hand through IIS.
It has an Ovision worm fitted. After purchase, I found after a lot of testing that the shaft on the dec motor was bent and would need replacing. I had a look at the price of new motors and decided I would check other options. I was also en couraged to do this because I really really really hated the G1, and having tried a G2 was of similar opinion.

I ended up finding this site:
http://www.astroeq.co.uk/tutorials.php
Purchased the controller for around $200

went to:http://www.omc-stepperonline.com/
and bought some Nema17 steppers and some couplers

Made some brackets to mount the motors, tuned some parameters and now have a fully EQMod compatible mount that slews at 900x has the motor directly connected to the worm - so no transfer gear / gearbox noise.

Works beautifully for less than the cost of a single replacement Losmandy motor!

The next irritation was the RA axis hitting the motors - couldn't even get to the meridian. Looked at Losmandy extender at $480 from Bintel ughh!

Got 3 pieces of 12mm mdf, glued them together, sanded them round on a disc sander, bought 4 stainless cap screws, cut them to length, drilled holes with bench drill, primed and painted, assembled. Result I can now image anywhere without motors hitting. Cost $6 for the cap screws - already had the mdf, glue and paint.

Pics below.

Hope this might help others on a budget....

cheers
Gary

PS anyone know what a G1 drive/hand controller etc is worth to sell?
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