Motorizing the DEC of my TG-SP II

On clearing the cabinet yesterday night, I found something interesting, it's just a small gear which was left idle from day one. I guess that it comes with my LXD55 as a spare part, and what makes it so interesting is that it fits the slow motion control knob of my TG-SP II perfectly!

Then I pulled out the motors which I had on hand. The Nexstar motor is a little bit too big, and the encoder is not going to be useful. Another DC geared motor which I bought for an autoguiding project is too big as well. So, I went for the smallest one which sits inside the NGF-CM and it's about perfect! It sneaks into a corner without adding any weight and it does not protrude outside and thus it is very elegant. The pinion is too small for that bigger gear but I found it managed to drive it without major problem.



This is a wrong picture showing the RA rather than the DEC, but still it sounds like a promising project since the RA and DEC is basically identical for the TG-SP II.

Somehow I think that I will give up the autoguiding project since I lacked the proper skill to mount the motors perfectly. It could be done, but I guess it's less than ideal as autoguiding is concerned. And I guess that I ain't going to do very long focal length and that renders autoguiding an overkill.

BTW, if any one is interesting to pick up my autoguiding project, I can sell the parts to you and that includes two DC geared motor (5 RPM) with inline shaft couplings, a circuit board which can take ST4 guiding signal and to control the motors, a ST4 compatible socket so that you can plug your guiding camera to it, and finally, a prototype motor mounting board.