Hi Bojan did you finish this mod ?
If so how did it go ?
Yes, it was done almost 3 years ago, and it works without problems. http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...6+modification
In the meantime I replaced the 200s/rev motors and home-made 1/4 gearbox (shown in that thread) with new high-torque steppers (400s/rev)
The driving electronics is based on Pololu stepper motor drivers (mounted on PCB), and SoundStepper application for windows, coupled with CdC and/or EQAlign software.
Hi I can get the 47 tooth and 12 tooth drilled out by cnc and the 2 belts from a company in the UK .
For each kit would work to be about £52.00 plus freight to Australia but to get them at that price ready to fit to the EQ6 we would have to buy 10 complete kits as if they have to do 1kit it would be £230.00 .
They also said it would be 4-5 weeks before they would be ready.
Can I see how many people want to upgrade there EQ6 to the belt instead of the grrrrrrrrrr gears that wake the neighbours up and keep the dogs barking every time you slew to a new target.
For the 10kits delivered to Australia would come in under the $1000 so no GST import tax is added or VAT leaving the uk.
Spent some time on the lathe, and machined up a 60t gear and pinion (same as your combo's) to fit today. I gotta say, the most annoying thing was to actually take apart the EQ6.
I simply ordered the gears locally here in Brissy, took me about 2 hours to do all the mods, many thanks for the photo's and the gear/belt info you supplied at the start of the thread, it helped me map out what I was going to do.
Couple of points that I should I'd share, it may help anyone who's willing to take on the mod.
Pic 1: There are a lot of pieces.
Pic 2: And you'll have to cut/mill/grind/file (whichever method you prefer) the gear holes to accept the larger gear sizes. I then had the parts re-powder coated which cost me $65 (for 3 pieces).
Pic 3: Then when you insert the gears into the various parts, make sure you put the belt in with the gear...
Pic 4: You will also want to 'square off' the gear hold in this piece with a square file.
Pic 5: You can easily see the belt in the housing poking through, and you will need a good pair of circlip pliers for worm adjustment later on.
Pic 6: Final assembly shows the belts nicely on the mount.
Pic 7: then just for looks, I used the laser cutter at work and redid a smokey perspex cover that was see through instead of the manufacturer's plate.
Worm adjustment and plate adjustment is done via the work gear circlips and grub screws on each plate. I followed this walkthrough on how to do it, and it was a good start, however it took me probably about 30 minutes to actually work it out once I got the hang of what it was. http://www.astro-baby.com/EQ6%20rebu...0alignment.htm
End result, pure bliss, no noisy gear crap from the eq6! it's super quite, just waiting for a clear sky to go hunting again.
Impressive! The reduced backlash will be very welcome too. I'm keen to do this as well, but I was thinking of waiting until Dave from the UK puts together his kit that doesn't require any case mods... I'm not very mechanically oriented.
from what I've read, staying away from the nominal ratio is a good thing as it gets you away from harmonics. Just about every person who's done the mod or thread I've read up on about it, has mentioned it. For me as I'm totally automated, using EQMod to do the ratio's is just a few clicks of a mouse button, as my handset simply collects shelf time.
@ David, I did readup on the hypertune, and I did redo the bearings with topend apec9 bearings, the same I use in my hockey skates. The standard bearings, honestly aren't that bad. I regreased all the roller bearings with a marine grease (as they use these greases a lot with aluminium and brass). In terms of the shim tuning, I think that's a bit over the top, all it takes it patience and time to properly mesh the worm gears etc.
Harmonics are not the problem - if they are (in case something is really not concentric) they can de flatten-out by PE compensation.
The main source of the PE is the worm... and the teeth of the gear (which is removed by this mod).
To reduce this problem, you have to do some lapping of worm and worm gears with diamond paste.
Half the battle is just setting up the mount (regardless if you have belts or gears). I have a lot of friends who own eq6's, and at some stage all have had to redo the adjustments on them. No arguments on the lottery, historically the QC has not been the best.
from what I've read, staying away from the nominal ratio is a good thing as it gets you away from harmonics. Just about every person who's done the mod or thread I've read up on about it, has mentioned it. For me as I'm totally automated, using EQMod to do the ratio's is just a few clicks of a mouse button, as my handset simply collects shelf time.
@ David, I did readup on the hypertune, and I did redo the bearings with topend apec9 bearings, the same I use in my hockey skates. The standard bearings, honestly aren't that bad. I regreased all the roller bearings with a marine grease (as they use these greases a lot with aluminium and brass). In terms of the shim tuning, I think that's a bit over the top, all it takes it patience and time to properly mesh the worm gears etc.
Hi Mark - just wondering which ABEC9 skate bearings you went with?
hi,
can anyone advise how much grease you apply on the ring gear and worm on each axis?
I think I applied a bit too much on my neq6pro and I haven't been able to remove the play entirely. Guiding is impossible as a correction sends it off progressively and the star is lost.
I used the superlube ptfe grease.
Moving the ota by hand doesn't show up much play, although trying a bit harder gives a "spongy" feel rather than a hard stop.
So I've stripped it again, cleaned and soaked the ring gear in wd40 to remove the thin black layer thats deposited on each tooth of the ring gear at the worm contact area. I presume this is the old grease.
Harmonics are not the problem - if they are (in case something is really not concentric) they can de flatten-out by PE compensation.
The main source of the PE is the worm... and the teeth of the gear (which is removed by this mod).
To reduce this problem, you have to do some lapping of worm and worm gears with diamond paste.
Bojan
How does one go about lapping the worm gear. Do you put some diamond paste on the worm then re-assemble everything and drive it externally??
Stephen
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