The rest of the mount re-assembly went well. It was a little finicky getting the screws in that hold the stepper motors in place, but once they were in it was easy to take up the belt tension and get them tightened down. I also took the opportunity to add an external screw terminal strip on the mount's face plate so that I can attach 12 VDC main power in a more secure way than the simply DC jack which has been notorious for loosing connection or simply pulling out. With everything re-assembled I was a little worried whether or not the mount would work smoothly. After adjusting the worm-to-helical gear meshing, I hooked power up and tried it out. Wow, it moves so smooth and buttery...and it purrs like a kitten! Excellent. I think it was a most productive exercise, putting in the belt conversion and giving the mount a tune-up.
Fortunately the rain held off Sunday afternoon and I was able to get the mount onto the pier. Oh yeah. Comments are closed.
|
AuthorJim is an aerospace engineer living and working in Ottawa, Canada. He is also an amateur astronomer. Archives
November 2014
Categories |