Quote:
Originally Posted by Lost In Space
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! |
Hello Blake,
A word to the wise the design of these mounts is not trivial - the devil is in the (considerable ) detail.
Of course one can put together something that sought of works but when one looks to using things like servo mechanisms to slew loads of the order of 100KG one needs to have a very good understanding of the feedback systems that control the servo motors.
The use of direct drive (torque motors) is nothing new having designed the stable platforms (controlled via the ships inertial platform) on naval vessels. The use of torque motors? Way to go!!
Jeremy.