Building a GOTO Mount

I have a home-made light box (in an ancient wooden burglar alarm battery box) and use pre-coated boards (usually). I use a 1200 dpi laser to print the masters on laser film and design them in Eagle. I develop with dilute caustic soda (half the strength recommended by most online sources) and etch in ferric chloride because I like the smell*

Neil

*perhaps as a vegetarian this is the only time I get the smell of 'blood' (= smell of iron) in my nostrils and it appeals to my inner carnivore!

Still waiting for the proper wall plugs, so will try again ...

"a nice small project box with five coloured PUSH BOTTOMS - I found out why they were cheap on eBay - the bodies have a tendency to melt during soldering!"

OK, so a bit childish but at 80, I'm allowed to be!! ... so there

rgds

Bill

How hot is way hot? I use 350-360, I wnt up to 380 for a bit when I go a temperature controlled iron and its great for solder tags etc. but I found it too aggressive for PCB work. Best thing about the TCS Antex iron is that although nominally it's the same temperature and bits as my old CS 15W iron, it at 50W it can pump extra heat in quickly.

Gearbox - just to turn the worms, I'm having to live with my Skywatcher EQ3 for now, although I have been musing about ways of making a more robust mount next year. I want to see what difference guiding makes first, plus as I don't do narrowband I can't imagine myself wanting to do subs longer than about five minutes even in dark skies.

A mini-lathe headstock and spindle fitted with taper rollers would make an excellent starting point for a mount. Easy to fit a DEC ararngement to the flange and a nice solid casting for the body.

In Weller terms 8 or maybe even 9 Neil. I always used 6's. 6's are 310C, 8's 425C, 9's 480C. I'd say 8's were used most often but there is a need to be very quick. I had to check these temperatures on the web and notice that RS mention that 7 or 8 is most appropriate for lead free.

Going on a variable temperature iron I bought at work when my weller went phut these higher temperatures do need the attention to detail Weller put into their tips. 7's are 370C. I think the numbers need two zero's sticking on the end to find degrees F. They are one of the few things that have been around for donkeys years and never changed.

Me - well I always wished I had bought another Weller at work as the tip needed very frequent cleaning and just didn't wet as well.

John

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Edited By Ajohnw on 25/06/2016 13:29:42

I think the correct reply is 'LOL!'

Neil

Some pics of the controller box.

Now to focus on feature bloat seeing as a clear night to try it out is unlikely before 2017...

Neil