Help with telescope motor drive.

Can any one help..

I picked up a refractor telescope for my son " made by edu-science
" ( a well know brand ;-) ) and it has a motor drive with a plug in
hand control, and this has no markings or manufacture details on it.
when i plug in the hand control the telescope continuously turns
around in a clockwise direction.

I am quite happy to take the unity apart and try and fix it, but i was
looking to see if i can get any idea of how these controls work.

are hand controls interchangeable? this one has just the basic left/
right up down, 3 speed buttons.

looking at the PCB's there seems to be more that just a power driver
to turn the motors which i measured at around 4v, which makes me think
other handhelds should be compatible maybe.

i assume the motors are driven by a +4v and -4v to turn, so is it
worth just cutting my losses and making a little power driver to turn
it slowly.

any advice would be welcome - it'll be good to get this up and running
for my son, and give me some ideas for something bigger
maybe..........


thanks

On Tue, 14 Aug 2007 09:30:17 -0000, lynnm wrote:

Hi, er Lynn, is it?

Can any one help..

I picked up a refractor telescope for my son " made by edu-science
" ( a well know brand ;-) ) and it has a motor drive with a plug in
hand control, and this has no markings or manufacture details on it.
when i plug in the hand control the telescope continuously turns
around in a clockwise direction.

If it is moving quite fast then it sounds like it is faulty. If it is
moving very slowly, so slow you can hardly see it move, then it is
probably working as designed.

I am quite happy to take the unity apart and try and fix it, but i was
looking to see if i can get any idea of how these controls work.

are hand controls interchangeable? this one has just the basic left/
right up down, 3 speed buttons.

generally they are not.

looking at the PCB's there seems to be more that just a power driver
to turn the motors which i measured at around 4v, which makes me think
other handhelds should be compatible maybe.

i assume the motors are driven by a +4v and -4v to turn, so is it
worth just cutting my losses and making a little power driver to turn
it slowly.

any advice would be welcome - it'll be good to get this up and running
for my son, and give me some ideas for something bigger
maybe..........


thanks

I think you should probably return it for a refund and invest in
something a little bigger

Take a look he

http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/firstscope.htm

for some good advice on your first telescope.

- Mike

Thanks for the inut - it seems that the controller is no good then as
the speed is pretty fast id' say about 20 sec for a 360 turn. i have
desoldered the wire to that motor to see if i could get the controller
to rasie the telescope, but no joy.

i'll see if i can make a variable voltage controller wired direct to
the motors.

thanks again


Mike