Ok so I'm looking at making my own equatorial mount, and I'm in the brainstorming stage. I'm not especially worried about go-to, only tracking, and I want this to be a long term investment, so I would like it to be able to hold a good amount of weight (probably around 50kg equipment min (100kg including weights)) and be able to track smoothly.
I'll just ramble off a bunch of questions I have, and if anyone can provide any extra info or links it will be greatly appreciated
- What's better/smoother, stepper motors, or servo motors?
- If I'm correct, the RA axis motor (directly driven) will need to turn at about 0.0007RPM to track objects, is it best to use gears, a DC drive/speed controller (potentiometer and IC's), or a combination of both to reduce the speed of the motor?
- I've noticed that a lot of equatorial mounts use a worm gear system. Is there any advantage or reason for this?
- About how much torque should I be looking at to easily move this amount of weight?
- What material is best to construct the mount out of?
- Are there any instructions around for building a mount an using a manufacturers go-to/tracking system (eg Losmandy Gemini)?
- Is it worth building a large mount myself, or am I better of waiting until I can easily afford to buy a mount such as one from Mathis Instruments?
Thanks in advance!