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Balancing the EQ6-R

Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 7:18 pm
by Larry 1969
Sorry for the barrage of questions but I've been reading and watching videos so I will be ready when all of my gear arrives and I have another question regarding balance.
Some of the videos show intentionally making the rig a bit heavier on the weight side and on the rear of the scope to take out gear lash. I understand that but my mount is belt driven.
Should I bias the balance like the videos show or get it right on?

Thanks!

Larry

Re: Balancing the EQ6-R

Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 9:51 pm
by yobbo89
I believe the eq6-r is not spring loaded on the worm gear to the worm wheel, this is where meshing / gear lash occurs, You can choose what side of the mount head you would like to offset the weight based on what part of the sky you usually start tracking from, one side usually tracks a little better then other doing so, you can also use a neutral balance, doing so evens out tracking accuracy/error on both sides, depending on the desighn of the mount and tolerance of the machining evening the balances can introduce rocking oscillation and may give you poor guiding results.

I find that marking the counterweight bar with tape and shifting the weight once the mount does a meridian flip gives the best results.

I run my mount one side heavy and just leave it, superb tracking on one side and average on the other, an even balance gives me rocking oscillation for my setup so I don't use this method.

When I talk about what side of mount to keep loaded/heavy, there is only One side that should be offset with weight
which is the side the mount is tracking from. change the weights to make the scope side heavy or the counter weight bar side heavy based on the flip.

Re: Balancing the EQ6-R

Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 10:32 pm
by Larry 1969
Thanks yobbo! I plan to start out unguided taking maybe 1 min exposures. I would like to add an OAG later but can't until I upgrade my DSLR.

Larry

Re: Balancing the EQ6-R

Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 12:08 am
by Gordon
Just looking at the specs it appears the EQ6-R is belt driven so in theory that should help. Even so it's always a good idea to go just a tad heavy on one side as yobbo suggested.

Re: Balancing the EQ6-R

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 7:56 am
by Benjamin
Just saw this so sorry for the late addition. My EQ6-R has a bit of backlash which changes with weather a bit - hot and the gears expand a fraction, cold and they lossen up a bit. Easy to adjust using Astrobaby’s guide to the EQ6. I had mine over tightened a bit and this cause some very sticky spots with big sudden jumps in guiding. Loosening them off a bit caused an initial period of uncorrected guiding then very smooth sailing. The slightly weighted counter weight side wasn’t so great with the tight gears but fine with the right tension and acceptable backlash. Just my recent experience with it anyway :-)