Simcoe Skies Astronomy
PICfocus Electronic Focuser
Mounting the Motor
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I have upgraded the PICFOCUS project to use with a JMI crayford focuser. Mounting was pretty simple, as can be seen in the images to the left. An aluminum plate was hot-glued to the focuser body, and then the motor was hot-glued to this plate. This has been stable and reliable, and is non-invasive (glue can be pried off). The motor was retained from the earlier PICfocus, and is an old 5.25" floppy drive stepper. |
(click to enlarge) |
The clutch mechanism is shown here - there are two gears, the inner one (glued to the focuser knob, with a glued retaining nut on the back) and an outer one (that interfaces to the worm gear) that's free-spinning when the center thumbscrew is loosened. When the thumbscrew is tightened into the retaining nut, the inner gear (and focusing knob) moves in tandem with the outer gear. This provides a quick and easy release for manual focusing via the focuser knob on the OTHER side of the drawtube. |