Dark Frame Optics

[GazAstro]

https://www.backyardastro.org/community/mounts/heq5/#post-5460

[Astrodad]

Got to use the mount this weekend. Only got 1.5 hours on the orion nebula but was very pleased with it. was using a 6" RC set up s quite a bit of weight on there.

Bit hard to see but a total error of 0.56

[GazAstro]

So jealous ? 

[GazAstro]

Any more news ?

[Skipper Billy]

I am with @KevS on this one. I don't have the technical background that he does to explain the why, what and how but my simple brain tells me that the ceramic bearings that I use in the miniature gas turbines (jet engines) in some of my model aircraft are required to go from ambient temperature to many hundreds of degrees in a very short time and idle at 40000rpm and run flat out at 180000 rpm whilst having very low axial load are going to be a very different beast to bearings that turn once in a night with almost no temp. change but support a heavy weight.

My simple brain also tells me that grease is a lubricant and anti corrosion substance not a dampener.

I stripped and rebuilt my HEQ5 and my EQ6-GT 4 - 5 years ago and replaced the bearings with FAG/SKF (reasonable quality) cleaned out all the gunk and reassembled them with the lightest smear of a PTFE based grease. Some time spent adjusting them at the temperature they would be used at yielded a total RMS of <0.5" on both mounts under reasonable seeing and often ~0.3" total RMS with really good seeing (and good guiding!)

I don't hold with this 'hypertuned' stuff - it's either correctly adjusted or it isn't.

The only way to see any further improvement above better bearings and proper adjustment is to start replacing the internal moving parts with more accurately cut and machined parts - in which case its probably cheaper and certainly easier to buy a more accurate mount.

I am just putting this out there to encourage more people to take their mounts apart and significantly improve them for not much money. No special tools are required, the info is on the net, it's not rocket science - its just a very simple gearbox. The satisfaction of doing the work yourself and seeing a dramatic and measurable improvement is immense!!

There are also people willing to assist if you get stuck - just take photos of each step so you know how it goes back together!

 

 

[GazAstro]

I can see both sides of this, as someone who has stripped / cleaned / replaced bearings and rebuilt a seized AVX mount successfully but is having a nightmare getting a new HEQ5 to perform satisfactorily I can well see the benefit of letting someone else do it for me.

Yes it's a lot of money for what you get ' StellarDrive-SPX™ High Precision worm-gears for RA and DEC axis ' and some new bearings but for some that's money well spent.

I must have wasted at least 5 sessions plus 3 lots of 90 - 120 mins on the floor in the extension stripping, tweaking, adjusting.

I haven't quite given up yet but mine might end up at Darkframe too the way things are going ? ? 

 

 

[GazAstro]

Also, you get free Red Badgers ? 

[Astrodad]

I was happy to let someone else do it. I don't have the technical knowledge or wish to strip something apart and try and put it all back together. Now I have a mount that is performing constantly between 0.40 - 0.68 every time I switch it on.

[GazAstro]

And the free Red Badgers .

I'm with you but I see both sides of it.

I've spent ages on mine ...

I've wasted probably 5 nights and countless hours tweaking it. Returned it for exchange once and the replacement was also iffy , I suspect they were rushed out with poor quality control to catch up with the Covid backlog.

There was no point rejecting the replacement as no stock for 30 -40 days.

[Astrodad]

Posted by: @GazAstro

And the free Red Badgers .

I'm with you but I see both sides of it.

I've spent ages on mine ...

I've wasted probably 5 nights and countless hours tweaking it. Returned it for exchange once and the replacement was also iffy , I suspect they were rushed out with poor quality control to catch up with the Covid backlog.

There was no point rejecting the replacement as no stock for 30 -40 days.

The free red badgers are the best!