Update: I finally finished cleaning up my design files and released all of them (part design, solidworks drawings, BoMs, PCB boards and so on) here: github.com/alanzjl/AlkaidMount About the cost: I got mine HarmonicDrive CSF-17 pair for ~400 usd used from eBay. Aluminum sheets were cheap - about $60 in total. Screws ~40. I used the university machine shop so it’s free. Electronics about 100 in total (but I got enough components to make me about 10 boards:). Motor & planetary gearboxes ~100. So the total cost was about $700, very nice deal compared to a commercial RainBow HD mount that’s $3k+. I had a beginner EQ mount (HEQ-5 pro) which I got for $1.6k (during Covid) and I 100% prefer my own mount.
Correct. But after using one of those expensive mounts for about 3 years, your resell value is probably higher than a diy one. The increased pricings lately will also give a higher return when you sell it. Also think about the brake safety and other features that might help you to prevent costly damage to your scope
@robin That’s a funny argument. It’s like the inverse of the “just think of all the taxes you’ll save” by taking a job with less pay. Of course it won’t be worth as much-it didn’t cost as much and doesn’t come with a pedegree. Such is the nature of diy.
@@brandonhicks7549 i bet investing in a known brand will cost you less compared to building something yourself. Prices of branded items will probably outperform inflation. Chances are that you will sell your branded astro gear after some years of use and receive more than you paid for. Like real estate. Sometimes going cheap costs more than a good but more expensive purchase.
I completely agree, in the country where I live there are no manufacturers so you have to import, the government charges a 60% fee on top of the value of the imported product and also on the cost of shipping, making it almost impossible to buy an EQ5 for example. I recently became interested in producing a handmade one and I'm researching the subject, I've seen that it's possible to produce one buying local material and importing some parts like stepper motors, pulleys, bearings as well as electronic components making it much more advantageous to manufacture it myself.
I'm utterly blown away by your project, and your generosity in releasing the files/design. Thanks for your kind service to the community. I hope your new mount performs well for you for years to come :)
I built an equatorial mount at school as a metalwork project. It wasn't as good as this. But I was only 14 with ambitions advanced beyond abilities. And the project began a few months before Jim, Frank and Bill enjoyed the best Christmas ever cooped up in a small tent sized can beaming grainy low resolution pictures back to us excited kids. My mount was based on the German type and had no drive. I just liked the idea of being able to view without constantly moving two axes. It bore the same relation to a professionally manufactured mount as the live TV of Neil and Buzz doing their thing does to 4K video.
Excellent work and congratulations on building such a fabulous mount. Thanks for sharing and I watched it with a smile on my face and in awe of your talent.
Gearbox in stepper motor has large backlash and low teeth quality - this will kill all benefits of harmonic gear (almost zero backlash and smooth periodic) and converts this mount to HEQ5 or worse, with jumps in guiding error graphs in PHD2... ZWO AM5 has MXL belt-pulley gear between stepper motor and harmonic reducer. Second design flaw I see - very weak ALT polar adjustment.
I liked the montage. Suitable for a small astrograph. But to make all the parts, a vice, a hacksaw for metal, a file and an electric drill are enough. The polar axis tilt assembly axis can be replaced with a simple bolt.
Simply incredible. I have always wanted to go this route and DIY a mount to be alongside my CEM40, but unfortunately I have limited access to proper machining tools. If you do choose to release plans, it would be incredibly helpful as there are not many resources on doing something like this. The closest project I can think of is the OpenAstroTech designs, and those have a relatively small load capacity compared to your design due to them being mostly 3D printed. I look forward to seeing your other projects!
Awesome. Things like this makes me wish i was Rich. Looks like so much fun designing and building. Wouldnt be achieveable for me to get all the equipment in my lifetime but i am very tempted to get me a lathe at least and try build something with that :D
I totally understand that sentiment, being incredibly poor myself. But I will say it's not impossible if you have the determination. I've built up a modest but decent workshop over the years by trading work, fixing junk machines, or finding good deals. I don't have most of the stuff he used, but I think I could build this with what I have. It would just be a lot more work for me. It's doable though.
Just curious, but why are there apparent diffraction spikes on the Andromeda galaxy photo? They seem irregularly placed and shouldn't exist on images taken with refractors, no? Nice build for sure, though I would have used the platen when sanding those edges.
That is fantasic work JZ. My father has a lathe and milling machine but whether we could make this or not I am unsure, I would absolutely love to though it looks amazing. Thank you for sharing your work and clear skies to you
If the price was really good I'd probably build one too. Really enjoy astronomy but the hobby is extremely expensive and I have all the creative ability of a turtle.
@@BariumCobaltNitrog3n There is no schematic and the details are very loose. "Sheets, Screws, Electronics" What sized sheets, what sized screws, what electronics.
@@Kyle_Hubbard He shows a close-up of everything. The 1/4" sheets cost $60, look that up on eBay. I found 80-90 matches for the price. Machine screws in 10-24 or 1/4-20 are about $0.18 each. I can't believe you could assemble all these things but are unable to figure out what they are. How do you even feed yourself.
Read the description and his comment for a wealth of information. It's flabbergasting how many spoon-fed babies there are requesting every single detail without doing any research on their own. "Screws are $40? Well what kind of screws, where do I get them, is there free shipping on screws? Can you just make me one?" Or "Refractors don't have lines, did you add them in photoshop?" And I know it seems baffling but did you know that DIY stands for Do It YOURSELF? It's not DIFM.
Comme tout le monde, ont ne peut être que admiratif devant le travail accompli. De la conception jusqu'à la finalité sous les étoiles. Et pour un coût défiant toute concurrence... Et merci pour la musique, surtout Jean Michel Jarre 👍 Clear sky🌌
Wow, amazing stuff man. Can I ask did you consider using direct drive motors or are there more technical challenges associated with those? I want to be able to build my own mount one day instead of paying thousands of $$ too, thanks for inspiration.
The 3d printed covers are a nice touch. From the thumbnail, I didn't notice they weren't also aluminum! If I might ask, what filament is that? (I saw the brief note that it was provided/sponsored)
As a senior robotics engineer and designer, however a very new amateur astronomer, I wondered how long it would take for harmonic drives to really enter the mainstream. I bought a Losmandy G11 and immediately afterward saw the Ipotron. I almost returned the G11 knowing the capabilities this tech has. This will be the new norm in the near future. Sharing your knowledge freely, for the benefit of others is a very noble thing. Well done.
Really impressive by your creation ! Love the DIY touch and it look very nice ! Do you have any idea of the precision ? or you don't mind like you have a camera which guide the all sytem ?
If I could, I would. My brothers are into machining, I may challenge them to make a mount someday. It's not me though, I enjoy helping bringing people into the hobby before they craft things like this. Well done!
Thanks a lot! Unfortunately I haven’t done much analysis yet. Currently the longest single shot exposure I’ve done with it was 8min with 2s PHD2 guiding correction interval. Results from this setting were good and consistent:)
@@craftedbyjz totally impressed by your handy work :) Found your channel since I'll be modding a D5300 soon. What kind of results did you get from yours? Happy with it or something you would've done different?
Does the use of a planetary gear reduction negate the advantages of zero backlash of the harmonic drive? Do you have any results on the tracking performance?
bot at all this fancy, I built my EQ3 mount's driver, but with ST4, multiple speeds, backlash etc, around an ESP32, keeping the factory motors on my ancient mount.
As an engineer, programmer and network security professional... I was like WTFFFF? What is up with this set of skills?!? And then I saw MIT and it all made sense LOL. Awesome work man!
The work was Rad and the Build was cathartic to watch… Although, The noise/sounds starting at 1:25 through 4:45 were painful..At best😶…. had to turn the sound completely off during that entire part. It really Was truly a Bad pick, astonishingly even....Aside from that Distraction(to be kind) the Rest was Excellent🤙🏻.. Thanks for files..The ol, DIY Cnc will have to do… Super Rad!..
Wow! Great video and building this new Harmonic Drive mount.. I liked.. I am new in your RU-vid canal. One questions the Harmonic Drive Motor are Swiss made or from China? I can imagine, when are Swiss made are too much expensive but better with Swiss made encoders as from China, are not so great and full quality the same that the company RST-Raimbow used for she mount. Your mount are one new concept and great. I hope you can more building. Greetings from Switzerland.
Great video buddy, I was thinking for a long time whether to buy one for $$$ or can i make a reliable, precise one, finally I came through this video, and its so kind of you that, you have made plans, methods available to public and thus encouraging such enthusiasts to build one for themselves! Appreciate it!
A genius!! How did you get the software and compatibility for the drives to talk with the handbox! what handbox did you use? amazing and congratulations!!
What are you controlling the motors with ? Are you auto guiding ? How did you get the guide s/w to talk to your controllers ? I built an arduino controlled mount , stepper driven , But I don’t know how to get phd2 to talk to it . So for now I just run it open loop - tracking only . No guiding
Fantastic job! A year ago I was about to design a harmonic drive mount myself but life got in the way and the project has been on the back burner. This video just renewed my interest. Thank you!
Oh man, I just finished making an AllSky camera with a RPi 4, and you go show me this. Not fair. Seriously, what emulation do you use? As in the computer talks to the mount via what protocols?
First of all, fantastic job! I hate to sound negative, but when I see a DIY video, I have the impression that the project is something I could possibly achieve if I buy suggested parts and can use the tools I probably already have. Then... I see your opening shot of a complete machine shop! I'd say that along with the machining and your building the electronics from scratch, your video seems more like a pro shop making a working prototype than a DIY project. I'm afraid that even if you supplied detailed plans, all I could do is ask for a price quote if you were selling it. Still I'm pleased to see someone build their own. Maybe a local company can pick up your project and commercialize it. Best of luck.
I agree. Excellent work, but not really DIY when you have an entire machine shop at your disposal. That said, I think if you had a modest amount of tools, like a small woodshop, you could likely do this at home with some extra work and determination. You could make the housings out of wood even, but aluminum is easy to work. To do accurate layouts in the material would be time consuming and probably a bit sloppy, but useable. He shared everything for free, so the PCBs could be outsourced for relatively cheap, either to a PCB company, or somebody with a small cnc that could mill the boards. Alternatively, if you knew anybody with a Cricut, you could have them cut the masks and etch the boards at home also. I'm a bit obsessive though and have developed a borderline unhealthy desire to do even the most unlikely projects at home, strictly due to habit of being too broke for anything but pure DIY. But I do think it's possible. I've done things approaching this in my little garage guitar shop.
I thought the same thing. Wow.. how is this going to work... Opening shot is industrial sized band saw. Cut to CAD driven CnC machine... Should be DIH Do It Himself. Just saying. Very impressive skills though. No taking that away.
@@jeffb.7951 thank you! I'm thinking most of these commenters have never heard of a makerspace. I live by one of the very large ones in DFW and we have everything needed to make this except we have a CNC plasma instead of a waterjet. That would require more material cleanup, but it's all very doable. I'm curious about the materials cost though. I didn't see a detailed BOM (just a general one), so I'll have to figure out the costs. This might make a great group project at my makerspace. I'm sure there are others there interested in astronomy too! 🤔
How did you assemble your harmonic drive gear and how did you connect the harmonic drive gear to the shaft of the stepper motor? I ruined one of my harmonic drive gears because I could not find instructions anywhere as to how to assemble it properly and then connect it properly to the stepper motor shaft. Thank you in advance.
