Thnks for the instruction. MY cge pro was also not working anymore,turned out it has the same failure like yours. it looks that the graphite get very warm and melts his housing. after i grind it a little it was working. i was lucky i had a tork tool,from wiha,the number you need is T2. now all back in place and adjust it,see how it goes. greetings kajouman astrobin for my photos.
Sorry I never responded to this. Glad you got it working. I managed to scratch my encoder and couldn't repair it well enough to position accurately, so I need to replace it. Been working on building a new house for the past couple of years now, so haven't had much time for astronomy! Hopefully soon though.
I've debated it myself, but just don't have time for a project at the moment. I need to get back with Ametek/Pittman though and see if I can just get a replacement encoder wheel.
@@lordbeowulf1885 did you ever figure out the clicking? Mine also does it like yours when it is trying to move to the unweighted direction. Odd. I thought it was in the tiny gears but they were fine.
@@HermieDaddy Yeah, it's just stiction in the axis that allows the worm to release from meshing with the pinion gear, probably to the point where it starts to push the other way, and then the weight causes it to "fall" until it is back on the other side of the worm. You can see it at the end of this video th-cam.com/video/Qg394MOpPaM/w-d-xo.html. Increasing the imbalance should eliminate it by keeping the worm engaged on the load side all the time. Re-greasing the mount axes might help too, but I'm not ready to attempt that! Of course this problem can easily cause major guiding problems since if the RA is driving away from the loading, the RA will stop and then fall, stop and then fall regularly.
Hi Joe, I run the observatory remotely, so wasn't normally there to see the behavior, but when I tested onsite I'd see some jerkiness and other oddities that now make sense in terms of intermittent brush contact. The main failure mode for me would be just a completely failed slew that would require me to re-home and re-align. It was rather frustrating since it would always home fine but then just not hit certain targets. Seemed like it was often related to location which had me looking for cables that would fail when flexed a certain way! Beo
I've been too busy for astrophotography lately, but the motor works fine. Unfortunately the scratch on the encoder is still causing targeting and tracking problems. My plan is to try swapping the RA and DEC axes in the hopes that the encoder problem won't bother me as much in DEC.
@@lordbeowulf1885 I wonder if these used ones are the same ? If the brushes are worn, you could still use the encoder from them, $22 for two: ebay.us/dyTwAA
@@TheRainHarvester Nope, Pittman makes a ton of motors on this platform with different windings and gear ratios. The ones for Celestron had custom windings for a custom voltage. That's probably why the brushes melt the housing. They're running at too low a voltage so pulling more current through them and heating them more.
@@lordbeowulf1885 ah interesting. Does it have to move quickly for some reason? Seems like just using a slower/higher gear motor would work as long as the encoder ticks per rev is the same. But who knows what their software does as far as safety checks/pwm/pid etc. Yeah, probably easier to just fix their motor! Lol
Thnks for the instruction.
MY cge pro was also not working anymore,turned out it has the same failure like yours.
it looks that the graphite get very warm and melts his housing. after i grind it a little it was working.
i was lucky i had a tork tool,from wiha,the number you need is T2.
now all back in place and adjust it,see how it goes. greetings kajouman astrobin for my photos.
Sorry I never responded to this. Glad you got it working. I managed to scratch my encoder and couldn't repair it well enough to position accurately, so I need to replace it. Been working on building a new house for the past couple of years now, so haven't had much time for astronomy! Hopefully soon though.
I think you convinced me to convert to steppers and Onstep.
I've debated it myself, but just don't have time for a project at the moment. I need to get back with Ametek/Pittman though and see if I can just get a replacement encoder wheel.
@@lordbeowulf1885 did you ever figure out the clicking? Mine also does it like yours when it is trying to move to the unweighted direction. Odd. I thought it was in the tiny gears but they were fine.
@@HermieDaddy Yeah, it's just stiction in the axis that allows the worm to release from meshing with the pinion gear, probably to the point where it starts to push the other way, and then the weight causes it to "fall" until it is back on the other side of the worm. You can see it at the end of this video th-cam.com/video/Qg394MOpPaM/w-d-xo.html. Increasing the imbalance should eliminate it by keeping the worm engaged on the load side all the time. Re-greasing the mount axes might help too, but I'm not ready to attempt that! Of course this problem can easily cause major guiding problems since if the RA is driving away from the loading, the RA will stop and then fall, stop and then fall regularly.
I enjoyed following your repair - nice work. I'd like to find a few of those locking jewelers tweezers. They look like good helping hands.
Thanks. I found some on Amazon that I bought for use at work, but they weren't as good as the ones I had. Less metal and sharper edges.
Beo
Were you having the surging/ jerky slews before failure? I am trying to pin down the source in my CGE pro. Thanks
Hi Joe,
I run the observatory remotely, so wasn't normally there to see the behavior, but when I tested onsite I'd see some jerkiness and other oddities that now make sense in terms of intermittent brush contact. The main failure mode for me would be just a completely failed slew that would require me to re-home and re-align. It was rather frustrating since it would always home fine but then just not hit certain targets. Seemed like it was often related to location which had me looking for cables that would fail when flexed a certain way!
Beo
Is the motor still working? I have a couple of pittmans like that. Weird that they melt under load.
I've been too busy for astrophotography lately, but the motor works fine. Unfortunately the scratch on the encoder is still causing targeting and tracking problems. My plan is to try swapping the RA and DEC axes in the hopes that the encoder problem won't bother me as much in DEC.
@@lordbeowulf1885 I wonder if these used ones are the same ? If the brushes are worn, you could still use the encoder from them,
$22 for two:
ebay.us/dyTwAA
@@TheRainHarvester Nope, Pittman makes a ton of motors on this platform with different windings and gear ratios. The ones for Celestron had custom windings for a custom voltage. That's probably why the brushes melt the housing. They're running at too low a voltage so pulling more current through them and heating them more.
@@lordbeowulf1885 ah interesting. Does it have to move quickly for some reason? Seems like just using a slower/higher gear motor would work as long as the encoder ticks per rev is the same. But who knows what their software does as far as safety checks/pwm/pid etc. Yeah, probably easier to just fix their motor! Lol