less ‘building the proto-type’, more destroying the original. or at least that is what it felt like. anyway, a real dash this bit to try and get things ready pre-departure for holiday. given the kit I am taking, didn’t think the workstation would go down well with my travel companion.
anyway. here is the construction of the prototype. the aim was just to get two motors attached to the altitude and azimuth axes in order to test out the electronics. you can see that the azimuth is not even a worm wheel just a toy wheel. in the end it will be worm wheel, but the supplier wasn’t ready and I wanted to try things out before forking out for some (surprisingly expensive) wormwheels. as for the azimuth, this is a wormwheel but not the one I shall end up using. it’s ok (40 tooth, single gear) but there’s no set screw to attach the wormwheel to the stainless steel shaft. so going to have to superglue it. hmm. not ideal. but it will do for the prototype.
the other major fixings are to hold the steppers in place. in time the stepper motors will sit tidily (and hidden) within the mount. but for the time being they will just sit on top and be ‘battened down’!
so, some pictures.
First, a support to hold the mount on the table. In due course, I shall fit a tripod adapter, but for the time being I want this to sit on a table top – easier to work with – and in any event I want this to be able to sit on a table or a tripod in the end. (Oh, in time I think I’ll drop this down to just three to get a ‘tripod effect’.)
Second, a ‘dum waiter’ effect for the top of the mount. This little needle roller cage works really well. just needed to find a way of holding it in the middle. these little screws are from an old electronics breadboard kit but anything will do just to hold them down. (In time, I shall probably use some little plastic domed feet.)
Third, the azimuth stepper….
Fourth, the altitude stepper…
The next two posts show how it ended up looking.
Ben
post a comment...
you must be logged in to post a comment.