Thank you very much for going to the trouble of making this video. You've saved me a lot of head scratching and stress. There are a couple of things I noticed: like in your kit, the replacement screws are Philips cross-head, not Allen screws, so you you'll need the correct screwdriver ready while you're holding the focus plate, while trying to keep the little rubber grommets in place and offering it up to the scope - with all 3 hands fully utilised. I found that some tape on the bottom plate would hold the (new) screws in place and stopped the grommets falling off. I also have the Hitech USB focuser and I noticed that when I press the IN button, the focus tube moves out, and it moves in when I press the OUT button. Almost as if the motor should be on the other side. Though in the sheet of instructions that comes with the focuser (and as you installed, too) the motor is shown as installed here. Hmmm, On the fitting, I found that it was only necessary to unscrew the grub on the single-speed knob by about half a turn, then the knob slides off. That stops it coming completely out of the knob. And when replacing the fast/slow knob, I waited until I had the bottom plate fully in place before tightening the small grub screw to align it all. Finally, I didn't insert the focuser rod all the way into the motor housing, or the bottom plate holes wouldn't quite line up with the bottom of the focuser.
Useful vid! A few points: - don't tighten the dual speed focus knobs onto the focuser axle... otherwise the motor will spend most of its energy turning the knobs esp. the small one that geared 10:1. My motor works much better without this being done up - if you find the motor spindle slipping on the coupling make sure the coupling (which is 2 parts, one screwed into the other) is tight and pressing hard on the rubber O ring inside. The O ring is the only contact point between the motor and the coupling... there is no grub screw - with the motor fitted you will no longer use the barrel lock bolt to hold the barrel in place (obviously)... so the barrel is only held in place by friction so pay attention to tightening the centre grub screw under the bracket plate as this pushes the focuser axle onto the barrel
The stepped, aluminium connector on the motor shaft is in two parts. It simply unscrews apart. Allowing the first part to go further into the pinion housing to reach the grub screw through the hole. Dismantling the connector exposes the rubber O-ring inside. Which allows easy removal and re-fitting of the connector to the motor shaft.
Many thanks for your video it really helped me alot and i wouldnt of attempted to fit the focuser without your video.i had drill another hole in the plate to fit my equinox ed80 pro other than that it works spot on,i only wish the speed was slightly faster,
nice one this helped me out a lot today! one thing tho the way the bracket is on it covers up the hole for the focus lock off screw (the big one with the rubber end)
There's another one opposite to it with a grub screw without function. Take it out and fit the bolt in. Although I doubt you need it because the motor gears have more friction than the knobs.
Many thanks. Could you expand on the last section regarding the HitecAstro and running the focuser motor remotely? I'm trying to set up a 4SE to run outside whilst I sit in my shed (maintaining some body heat). Obviously viewing would have to be via a camera (Neximage 5 in my case). I can run the mount via an extension lead from the PC com port, the camera via a usb extension lead, but am currently stuck for a low budget remote focus solution. Is there likely to be any signal loss or voltage drop on this focus motor over 7 metres or so?
You can remotely control the motor using the HitecAstro DC Focus box via a USB cable... it's ASCOM compliant so will work with most astro software that support focusers... thought this box is only needed if you want to use filters and adjust the focus for each one automatically. Otherwise a very long RJ10 cable for the handbox will work.
This is mounted the wrong way round. The new curved bracket should be fitted so that one of the two middle holes (the one outermost from the centre) lines up with the focus locking knob hole. You can now fit the assembly back on to the OTA and retain the focus lock function. And for god sake, stop smacking your lips at the start of every sentence, it drives me mental!
