Steve Bedair's
Telescope Site
Longview , Texas
Created  2-2003
 Meade LXD55 / Autostar Controlled Mount
Celestron C-11


Meade LXD55 powered C-11 fork mount

     Ever since Meade announced the arrival of the new LXD55 equatorial mount Autostar controlled telescopes
   I was curious to see if the LXD55 motors could work to power a homemade Alt / Az  mount.  Well after a lot
   of looking I finally found a set of the LXD55 motor assemblies and started to work on a large fork mount for
   my newly acquired Celestron C-11 ota.  And yes the LXD55 motors work beautifully !! The motors are noticeably
   louder than the smaller Meade DS motors. The LXD motors provide a ton of torque and tracking is super smooth.
   From the first night out a perfect 100 % of the targets were placed in the FOV of the C-11  at 100x.
   The C-11 mount uses 200 tooth aluminum worm gears that I built myself ( shown here ).  Large sealed ball
   bearings are used on both the Alt & Az axis and an internal rechargeable 12 volt battery supplies power to the
   mount. The mount is no lightweight but it's solid as a rock and a perfect home for the C-11.
   I've included some pictures along with descriptions of the building process below.
   Thanks for looking,   Steve
 
 


The control panel from a LXD55 mount provides all the electronic connections.
And a trademark of all my mounts is the clock on the right. It also displays
the date and temperature ( the clock can be illuminated with the red button above )
 
 

Update 3-2003


No more wires to tangle

This is a view of the inside of the forks. I replaced the coiled motor wire from the control panel
to the Alt motor. Now the wiring is routed through the center of the Az shaft and uses a "slip ring"
connection provided by a 1/4" stereo headphone connection. The forks can now spin indefinitely
without any wires to tangle. Even though the LXD55 motors have 8 wire connectors only 4 wires
are needed. The 1/4" stereo headphone connector provides a 3 wire connection and for the 4th wire
needed I used the aluminum mount itself for the ground wire ( -12 vdc ).
Thanks go out to Christopher Erickson for providing the motor wiring info.




 
 
 

Meade LXD 55 Motor  info Alt / Az Bearing Supports Building Pictures
Forks / Base		 Building Pictures
Electric's / Motors		 More Building Pictures Misc Home

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This information is provided for personal use only.
I cannot be responsible for any joy this may bring.
 Copyright 2001-2002-2003  Steve Bedair