Skywatcher HEQ5 Rowan Belt Modification
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ธ.ค. 2018
- In this video I'm going to show you how to fit the belt modification to the Skywatcher HEQ5. The modification kit is the Rowan belt kit and is relatively easy to do. Some of you may be aware of the graunchy noise associated with SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pros when they slew. This is caused by the spur gears used within the gearbox.
Gears also contain backlash, which can hinder accuracy, tracking performance and guidance. This backlash, if too excessive, can mean you won't get the most out of your mount as you should do. So we're going to fix that.
A company called Rowan Astronomy creates a custom belt modification kit to change out the gears for timing belts, thus eliminating the horrible graunchy noise and reducing/removing the backlash associated with gearings.
Get the belt kit from First Light Optics bit.ly/2DMW6EZ
Contact:
astrofarsography@gmail.com
www.astrofarsography.wordpress.com
/ astrofarsography
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Current equipment:
Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro Belt Modded
Skywatcher Evostar 80ED Refractor
Skywatcher Explorer 150P-DS Reflector
Altair Astro Starwave 50mm Guide Scope
ToupTek ToupCam GCMOS Guide Camera
Bahtinov Masks
Astro-Modded Naked Sensor Canon 450D
Canon 760D
SkyTech CLS-CCD Clip-In Filter
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Links & Music
Rowan Astronomy HEQ5 Pro Belt Modification:
www.rowanastronomy.com/product...
Music:
Artist: Mike Leite
Song: A.L.O.N.E.
/ mikeleite
===================================== - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I would like to thank you for this video. I have just gotten started in Astrophotography, and im just now working with a Star Adventurer Pro, with an Ha modded T3i and camera lenses. Once i get the hang of everything and get some successful images under my belt, i plan to get the HEQ5. Im disabled, so weight matters and the HEQ5 is as big as i am going to go. I saw Astrobiscuits video with the fellow that upgrades and tunes mounts, and i decided that when i get the HEQ5, i will definitely do the belt mod. But i cant afford to ship it across the Pond, so i need to do it myself.
Your video was very clear and straightforward, and i have no doubts about doing the mod myself. Thank you very much.
Thanks for taking the time to compile this great video; and for sharing. I'll order my upgrade this week. Clear skies. Charlie
That looks like a very nice upgrade and very clear video! I just ordered a new HEQ5 pro and the belt mod, so hopefully I can get it all up and running by the end of the week with the help of your video and the instructions. Love the sound of the new mod!
Great instructions!
These gears can actually be adjusted very easily. The first gear has the wormwheel attached and drives the axis, it can not be moved. The middle gear is attached to the faceplate, the third gear is attached to the electric motor itself. The faceplate is screwed down with the bolts that have washers. Loosen those and push the plate over till the third gear and middle gear are tight (but not too tight, use a THIN piece of paper between the gears to get it perfect). Now loosen the bolts without washers and slide the gear with the motor nice and tight against the middle gear. Some lithium grease and done. Might have to repeat a few years later.
A shame this is not mentioned in the manual. It is basically engineered from the factory to do this adjustment before even using the mount...
Cheers for that. My Belt Mod is arriving tomorrow. Looing forward to seeing the results it makes to my mount and guiding. 👍
I got my heq5 mount yesterday, haven't had chance to try it out yet. This video is fascinating but I couldn't ever imagine having the courage to try something like this!
Great video 👍...just bought a 2nd hand HEQ5 mount and on first turning it on , got the disconcerting gear noise . Relatively normal by accounts but you’ve certainly encouraged me to do the belt mod..cheers 👍
Ahh, the finished mod is sweet music to my ears!
Thanks for this great video. I bought an HEQ5 Pro Mount seconhand a month or so ago and the guy who sold it to me said it was suffering some issues with backlash and it was pretty noisy. I tracked down more info about the issue and how to reslove it and and came across your video. It inspired me to do the mod myself and FLO obliged by supplying the kit pretty quickly given the supply issues around the world right now especially as I am in Perth Australia. The kit is installed and I am now building up the rest of the supporting items (Rasberry Pi, guide camera, off axis gudier etc) so I can get going on some long exposure deep sky imaging! Thanks and I hope all is well for you as I hear from friends you are back in lockdown in the UK.
That is a great learning video. loved it. Explained every step clearly, and what ever you were doing was visible in the video. Today, 13 Mar 2021, my Rowan Belt Mod Kit arrives, Waiting for the door bell to ring. And I get down to doing the mod. Ordered the Lynx Astro FDTI EQDiR USB adapter for the HEQ5 Pro. So no Hand Controller, and no Laptop.
Wonderful, absolutely wonderful. I had a stock HEQ5 I couldn’t get to cooperate because an oscillation in RA every 13 seconds or so. I finally sat through this video one day and I ordered the belt mod kit right after. The process went much smoother with this video at hand. Thank you so much! I love the result
Hiw is your guiding now?
Did it fix the oscillation?
Awesome. Electronic focus and this mod, it my next priority. Thank you!
Thanks for the walk through, I’ve just finished my mod👍🏼
Great video, just got the kit, and wanted to see how easy it was to fit.
I have my heq5 pro belt moded for some years and with proper adjustment of the worm gears and a very good polar alignment i can get under 1'' of guiding with my rc 8'' So yeah this mod is amazing
thank you, I've just ordered this kit, and the pinion puller !, you made it look easy so am looking for to the same as you and PHD2 working better :) Mike
Great video and I should have watched this more closely before I went on to install my newly arrived mod kit. I didn't remember the order of the screws that secure the motor when I took them down. I put them back randomly and they don't fit right. Some screws are now permanently loose. That tells you how cheap the material of the mount is made of.
Very informative and very well explained, thank you for the video 👍🏼👍🏼
Great video I plan to do the same to my mount. Good tip for the future should you do any sort of job like this with circuit boards etc. Take photos of all the steps before removing anything that way you know how the wires went in and where etc...
Folks, this is a really clear video about how to do this useful upgrade. BobUK.
I'm noticing guiding issues/back lash with my EQM-35 Pro mount and hate those external cables to connect the motors,. Thinking about replacing it with the HEQ5 Pro mount and doing the belt mod. Thanks for the walk through. I also learned a couple of new words. Never heard a set screw called a Grub screw and the word nipping... lol
Thanks so much - this video was really helpful!
Excellent tutorial
Super informative video. Did this improve your guiding performance, if so what was your typical RMS before and after modification?
Every time I work on my mount with Allen keys I perform a series of controlled 'pre drops' every time I select a new Allen key. I find this saves me the time and hassle of accidental Allen key drops where they could end up anywhere.
Great vid. I just invested in a second hand HEQ5 pro and want to do this upgrade. Curious as to what size pinion extractor I need. There's a 3 or 4mm option...
Ruzeen, guess what I am searching today?? Belt mods yes indeedy! Thanks for making the video. It looks fairly easy to do except for the wire harness threading etc. Seems to be only one place that offers the kit? I'm hoping for less backlash and
better PHD2 results.
Great video! I need to do this mod.
Hey thanks! This was the first video I'd recorded for this channel and the original was an hour long! So this is it even more trimmed down ha.
I went ages without doing this mod because of the price point (namely that I couldn't afford it) but I'm so glad I had. I've had like a couple hours under the sky since doing this mod and it already feels like it's made a huge improvement.
So will you be doing this mod soon? Did the video help you realise that it isn't actually that difficult etc? Looking for feedback! :D
How well did this upgrade work at tracking/slewing?
Hi. Are the stock heq5 motors stepper motors? Or DC?
Thinking about buying a new HEQ5 instead of the EQ6-R after seeing your video. I want a lighter mount and won't need the higher payload capacity of the EQ6-R. However, I'm wondering if the manufacturer is going to take all these belt drive conversions to heart and come out with an improved belt-drive HEQ5. Has anyone heard anything along those lines? If a new model had the same price, I'd jump right in. Otherwise, adding the conversion kit starts to bring the price of a HEQ5 close to a EQ6-R.
Cool, but how did you remove those power cables? I am trying it for 4 hours now and no turtorial actually showed it. So far I am more damaging the thing than getting it lose.
Great video it helped alot thank you. Did you find your RA belt was a little tighter then the Dec belt at all?
Thanks mate. Glad it helped! Hmmmmm if I remember correctly one belt definitely felt tighter than the other. Might've been RA since I did that last
@@AstroFarsography cheers bud, clear skies
Another great video. What do you think about the backlash in the worm gears themselves. Are they adjustable on your mount. I know on my CGX there is an actual adjustment for the drive block against the worm gear.
Many thanks Louis. My first video I believe!
I can't really remember about the gear backlash. I believe you could mesh some of the gears tighter together but then oh begun running the risk of binding. Though, really. I never checked and I can't remember 😅
@@AstroFarsography I've read that you can balance the mount so it is slightly heavy on the weight end so you never get backlash.
Hi! I enjoy your videos so much and I want to get a HEQ5 too. I heard from a lot of people that they bought their mounts used, but I don't know where to look for used astronomy gear. Do you know where I can find used gear? Thx so much and keep up the great work!
Hey there. In the United Kingdom there's several Facebook groups dedicated to second hand astronomy gear. Also there's Astrobuyandsell (search for the UK version) and there's classified adverts on Stargazers Lounge as well :)
Also thanks so much for the support that you enjoy my videos :D
@@AstroFarsography Thank you so much for your reply :) There is only one problem, I am not from the UK :( Do you know if it is possible to buy gear from these websites and than ship it to mainland Europe? Thx so much again :)
Why does backlash matter if your tracking an object and not changing direction ?
Very nice video, i was thinking about buying this HEQ5 Pro or go for the EQ6R Pro with the belts on it, first the money is the problem, second the weight, a realy like the HEQ5 Pro but i think a save some more for the EQ6R Pro, men i hate that weight, thats wy i like refractors, yea i sleep over it, i see tomorrow what i wil do
Oke i did buy the HEQ5 Pro, and after two months of testing it, i am so happy that i did that, a very good choice, what a nice mount
Surprised, given that the shaft on the first large gear has a flat, that one of the grub screws did not engage with that flat as per normal machinery practise!
Like like like 😉🤗
It looks like you could adjust the position of the gears to get them closer together(not too close) and get rid of some of the backlash ? What do you think ?? Good video !! I'm looking at mounts and will be buying one soon. I'm leaning toward the HEQ5 but it is on back-order at Adorama and B&H. They list it for $1025 with free shipping. Everyone else is more expensive.
I watched another video and the gears were moved closer together to reduce backlash. Do you have any thoughts on this compared to the belt modification ???
I just ordered mine from B&H too. Hope it will be in stock in 7-14 days as advertised. did you pay boo?
@@hughmongus1233 Amazon had a "Like New" HEQ5 Pro for $908 in its original packaging(their regular price is $1150) and I went for it. Could be a mistake but we shall see. It should get here today. Astroshed has a series of 5 videos on setting up the HEQ5. They are very good ! One talks about adjusting the gears to reduce backlash. They also talk about balancing the mount so you don't get backlash.
@@montygiavelli8125 Cancel it, B&H just shipped mine out today. 1025$ total . not a used unpredictable one.
@@hughmongus1233 I got mine from amazon but they didn't ship the tripod so I had to send it back. When I get back from a trip next week I will order it from B&H, they notified my that they had one ready to ship. I would order it now, but I don't want it to come when I'm gone. I ordered a quick release plate to attach my DSLR to the mount -
Manfrotto Quick Release Plate with Special Adapter (200PL). Other people have been using it and it has a 1/4 to 3/8 adapter so I can screw in my tripod ballhead.
@@montygiavelli8125 LOL . I read amazon reviews that people ordered 12" dobs but either did not get the base or did not get the tube. One guy got 2 tubes and no base! WTF???
I dint think the home position matters, as the HEQ5 treats the power on position as the home position.
Just one thought... The HEQ5 Rowan Belt mod is so simple, so why don't Sky Watcher just build the mount with belts instead of sloppy Chinesium gears, or at least provide a factory fitted option for a few dollars extra?
Hi, I am planning to mod my HEQ5-PRO. Just curious to know if you're still using the mount and how's it behaving with PHD2?
Hey there. I don't have any charts to show you at this time, but after belt modifying I was getting 10-15 minute exposures quite readily with PHD
@@AstroFarsography awesome man. I think i'll go ahead with it any way. Overall the reviews are good.
and the cogs on backwards
super hop. hop..
you need precision made case hardened steel cogs so they don't wear out those poor little belts are pulling in excess of 40 ld bad idea
brass is soft it wears out very fast come on if they were made of steel then they would not wear for about 20 years and adjustment and oil works wonders grease is okay but all weather grease
mini cam chain would have been better
you are taking dark frames in the background! I can hear your DLSR!
Haha! Yeah, there's a DSLR in the background. What I was trying to do was a time lapse really but it was too loud so I stopped the camera during the video :p
@@AstroFarsography wellm thanks to your vid I just ordered the mod kit, guess it's a good idea to use the lockdown time at home
I've just fitted my kit but there is no difference in noise. I wasn't getting the grinding noise like you were as I removed any backlash when I first bought the mount by adjusting the gears.
Hopefully it will show an improvement when guiding, otherwise a pointless upgrade and loss of €200 😔.
waste of time the belt stretches and rots in the cold it makes it worse stick to the cogs wow your an engineer you should know that
I'm a mechanic, not an engineer. Slight nuanced difference regarding material knowledge and construction. Though I would've thought in the cold the rubber belt would either shrink or become stiffer. Either would affect it but I guess my cold weather isn't extreme enough to cause issues
@@AstroFarsography no they stretch do said belts you have a 40 pound load on a little rubber belt when before you had solid brass! but like I said brass is not good for bearing or cogs anything with contact rubs and wears out you could so with some case hardened cogs made of steel they will last longer ,you don't see a car gear box made of brass for that reason :) well its up to you just didn't want you to be spending X amounts on things you don't need to do but hey if it floats your boat who cares :)
@@NETTY436 I understood your initial comment as the belts stretch in the cold. Yeah, hang a weight off them or a tensioned load they'll begin to stretch. I suppose the logic is that they don't turn all that fast relatively speaking, nor for prolonged periods at high speed so the brass wear wouldn't be as bad. But yeah, a gearbox made from brass would be a bad idea! I noticed improvements to my mounts backlash and the noise improved a lot, so for me the upgrade was worth it :)
@@AstroFarsography yeah completely i just like making people think outside the bubble :P but never the less you have a fantastic rig there m8 all the best and clear sky's :)
Assuming this is accurate, why not just remove a couple screws and slap a new belt on everything few months and enjoy the better performance of the belt system? Still seems very much worthwhile to me.
nuanced