Just finishing up this project. The Argo Navis will be here in a couple of days so I can test it out. I recently bought a StarLapse to do DLSR astro work. It was taking me way too much time to find the fuzzies I wanted to image so I started thinking of a way to get some DSC's on the rig. You can buy the DEC axis for the StarLapse making it into a GM-8 for all intents and purposes. But that is another 700 bucks. Losmandy makes an encoder set for GM-8 so I picked up one of those and used half of it to put an encoder on the RA axis. Found an encoder wheel that would fit the shaft the camera dovetail clamp fits on. Essentially the Dec axis on the StarLapse. Wasn't planning on putting any kind of cover on it at first but while putting the parts together found out I had to come up with something to replace the spacer that I had to remove to get the encoder wheel on the shaft. The arms will flex enough so you can't tighten it down enough to handle the load. A few hours of searching through catalogs of enclosures and I came up with one that fits perfectly. Its a 2x2x1 inch hammond enclosure. Had to drill 3/8 hole straight through the center and cut a slot for the cable. Attached the base of that with auto trim tape to the underside of the top arm of the camera mount The reader is attached to that piece with some more trim tape. There is no mechanical stress on these parts I didn't want to drill any holes in my mount so I decided to try this instead. I decided to go with a black box instead of natural aluminum and taking the old one off was a major effort so I think the trim tape will be just fine. Once you have those parts installed you slip the rest of the enclosure over the base you have attached. The 4 screws are accessed via the holes in the dovetail clamp. Be sure and get the center hole exactly in the center not a lot of wiggle room. If you deviate very much you won't be able to get the screws in. I looked for a 3x3x1 enclosure but came up empty and I didn't want to go bigger. Its the height that is hard to find. Has to be 1 inch to take up the function of the spacer I removed. Reattach the lower arm and you are done.
Came out looking decent too which is unusual for me
You might notice that overrun on the cut for the cable. I'll get another box and let my nephew redo it. The little box is 6 bucks so it no big loss. I'll post up with the results of the testing when the Argo arrives.
Griz
