SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pro hypertune - Complete rebuild with SKF ball bearings
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- In this video I will disassemble the SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pro and rebuild it using high quality SKF ball bearings and SKF high quality, low temperature ball bearing grease. It is the final step in modifying and adjusting the mount to push it to the limit in terms of performance and guiding. Don’t forget to check out my previous videos on how to adjust the backlash on the mount and how to install the Rowan belt modification.
Ball bearings needed for this exercise:
4 x 689 2RS
6 x 6006 2RSR
2 x 30205
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My equipment
SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pro (belt mod)
SkyWatcher EvoStar 80ED Pro (0,85x FF/FR)
SkyWatcher EvoGuide 50ED
ZWO ASI294MM Pro
ZWO ASI120MM Mini
ZWO EAF Automatic Focuser
ZWO EFW Electronic Filter Wheel, 7 position 36mm
ZWO LRGB broadband and SHO narrowband filters
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This is a very good description of the hypertuning process. I have done a hypertuning myself and can suggest a few things.
1. Getting what’s called a lens spanner is very useful, particularly in removing the worm drive and retightening it. It turns out the tightness of this is fairly important to minimise what I call “wobble” - looseness of the RA and DEC axes even when the clutches are locked.
2. I used some nice grease called Super Lube, multi-purpose synthetic grease. This behaves well at low temperatures. A lot of greases are actually designed to work at high temperatures.
3. I don’t think it is necessary to replace the coned ball bearings since they completely come apart and can be thoroughly cleaned. They don’t support any significant weight and are very robust.
4. The most important ball bearings to replace are the small ones on each end of the worm drive shaft. They rotate much more than the large bearings and also are under a lot of radial force in order to keep the worm gear engaged. They seem to be the ones that are most easily damaged. I used 689 2RS ceramic hybrid ball bearings.
5. The big ball bearings on the main shafts (I used 6006 2RS1) typically stay in good shape and unless they are leaking, it might not even be necessary to replace them either. There are six of them in total and they are tricky to remove and reinsert. So you can save a lot of cost (and time and effort) by just replacing the four small worm drive ball bearings.
6. I used WD40 to degrease the big brass gear and the worm gear. It is important to remove all debris from these surfaces. I would also inspect them both carefully for any damage.
7. My method for adjusting for backlash is to push the worm carrier with fingers as hard as possible against the big brass gear. Then tighten the three big hex head screws to hold the worm carrier in place. And then finally tight the little grub screws. You can then make some very minor adjustments with the two grub screws on each side (you need to loosen the position bolts slightly in order to allow the worm carrier to slide). The idea of the two adjustment screws is you screw in one and screw out the opposite one, thereby displacing the worm carrier. This has the effect of changing the pressure of the worm gear against the main gear. Remember to tighten the three big screws at the end.
8. With the clutches locked, check if there is any "wobble" by trying to shake the axes in RA and DEC. Wobble is caused by the worm drive sliding back and worth a bit. I find this is the final adjustment and you can only sense wobble when everything is reassembled and you can get a good grip on the mount. If there is wobble, the worm carrier retaining screws can be tightened very slightly using a lens spanner even when the whole mount has been reassembled (they are under the little round black rubber covers). But be very careful not to overtighten.
A very well put together and delivered video.
Thank you.
You made it very easy for me to hypertune my mount.
Thank you so much for watching!
I would like to thank the author of this video (I am speaking generically because it was a list of videos that led me to this result) for his work and for having helped me to greatly improve my HEQ5 setup. Previously it drove with about 3.0" RMS and could barely capture anything. Combined with the terrible seeing here and the brightness of the city (Bortle 8), I kept trying for 6 years and almost gave up astrophotography. Well, I tried to make a last effort and cleaned and lubricated the HEQ5, installed Rowan's belt kit and changed the Hypertune's bearings. In the last few days I had open skies and was able to test the results. The HEQ5 is incredibly accurate, averaging 0.4" RMS and easily holding 0.3" RMS if you have a good guiding star (the seeing here is still very bad). Yesterday I managed to reach 0.28" RMS with a wind of about 5 to 10 km / h capturing the nebula of the lagoon (Messier 8). I am very happy and will continue strong and steady in search of new catches. If you also have the same problems I have, believe that they can be solved.
Thank you so much!
that's a lot of improvement, thanks for the comment..
Not sure if any one has said anything but the proper name for cone bearing is Tapered Roller Bearing
@@krieg_kal4025 Thank you!
Great explanation of the hypertuning process !
Thank you so much!
Thanks for a useful and thorough video!
Thank you so much for watching!
Very thoroughly done Martin, this will be running a charm now.
Thank you, yes a quick test yesterday gave me 0,27 :)
@@frosthastrophotography awesome 👍
@@frosthastrophotography do you know what RMS you had before?
@@andysPARK It depends on target, but around 1.
@@frosthastrophotography gosh, that's a very nice improvement then.
thanks for this Martin i am looking at doing this to my new heq5 very soon 👍 you have a new subscriber clear skies 🔭
Thank you so much!
Hej Mårten! En jättebra video! Bytte lager nu i helgen, inspirerad av dig. Har gjort bältesmodifieringen sedan tidigare men får säga att det var värt pysslet att byta lager också! Clear skies!
Ragnar
Tusen tack! Ja, det är definitivt värt besväret.
Good job sir! 👍
Thank you so much!
Nice Tutorial, Very Thorough with the steps!
Thank you so much!
To make it easier to install the bearings, put them in your freezer overnight (still in the sealed packaging). This will cause them to shrink a few fractions of a millimetre and then smoothly slide into the housing.
Thank you for that tip!
@@frosthastrophotography One other handy hint which I'd forgotten - you can use the old bearings as a 'drift' when you're using gentle taps from a hammer to seat the new ones into place. Better than a piece of wood, as you're using steel-on-steel contact.
BTW - have completed this upgrade tonight after watching your video a couple of times. A straight-forward process, so long as you take your time, do not rush and check your work as you go.
Thanks for the very informative guide. Although I'm not sure if the spin test is a good indicator of the mount's performance. I had my mount spinning like yours and was seeing a lot of backlash in DEC even though I was pretty sure the worm gear was well meshed. After tightening up the DEC axis it didn't spin freely any more but my backlash was gone. I think it might be important to have it somewhat tight so the axis isn't able to wobble around during tracking.
Thank you! You are correct, there is need for balance and I did adjust mine many times off camera.
Oh thanks. Good to know.
Astro seems to be a good community.
I just bought a HEQ5 Pro and it is quite stiff on DEC and RA..I got it prefitted with the rowan mod. It moves but is no where near as free as yours at the end of this video. I am ordering the bearings now and will do the same. Tried the mount for the first time last night and tracking was between 1.23 and .9. not good enough..My AZ-EQ6 is about 0.5
Hi! That will help a lot, that was what was needed for me in order to get it to move as shown in the video.
Increíble vídeo. You have a new suscriptor 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
Thank you so much!
I would like to do this to loosen things up in my HEQ5 Pro to make balancing easier. However I already get 0.30" - 0.60" in PHD2 after doing the rowen mod and knowing my luck I'll get worse guiding if did a hypertune.
Then I would suggest that you don't do it at this point. Save it for a rainy period when you don't have anything to do :) Thank you for watching!
amazing this wasnt done at the factory...i guess there is no more pride in making quality products...just mass production
Thank you so much for watching! Yes, should have been installed from factory.
One of my motors the screw thread stripped out, only 2 left. Its seems fine but wondering if you have a tutorial on replacing the motors - mine doesn't have belts but I assume its done the same way on mine too
I don't have a tutorial just for that but check out my video on installing the rowan belt mod. In that I do remove the motors.
Good Video. HEQ5 Pro Imaging max payload is 11kg, After the hypertune, would it be able to take 11 kg payload ? I have this mount with belt mod done by myself. I am buying the William Optics FL:T132 which is 9kg wt, and after adding all other items etc, it comes to 11.372, rounded off to 12Kg. That is the Payload, If not, then I am contemplating replacing the present steppers, with higher rating steppers, will see how to do it once I open the mount, and during Monsoons when skies will be overcast for days together. r
Thank you! I haven't tried anything heavier than my equipment, but my guess would be yes.
I've just got an heq5 pro. I'll familiarise myself with it stock and take measurements. Then likely will do this hypertune early on to prevent too much grinding on the gears with the dirty grease.
I wonder if the manufacturing process didn't debur the parts. And that use does, leaving metal shards in the grease of moving surfaces -what do you think?
Thank you for watching! I'm not sure why I found the metal shards in there, probaably because of contaminated grease and not faulty bearings.
hello, I discover your channel so thank you for this tutorial.
Could you give us the SKF references of the three types of bearing and a site where to buy them?
The smaller ones I could not find as SKF. The other you can just search for using the part numbers in the description.
Thanks for a great video. Looks to really make a difference. Thinking if doing this to my HEQ5 at some stage.
What is the bar with what looks like nuts wrapped in masking tape on the underside of the focuser opposite the EAF?
Thank you so much! It's counterweights to balance the scope since I have stuff stickning out on the left side. I have a separate video on this.
@@frosthastrophotography That makes good sense. My scope (same as yours) was very off balance with the EAF, so I turned it to point down. But your idea makes more sense.
I've just found the video you mention.
Please, can you tell me the exact measurements of the bearings, thank you very much.
Thank for your videos.
689 2RS = Inner diameter 9 mm, Outer diameter 17 mm, width = 5 mm
6006 2RSR = Inner diameter 30 mm, Outer diameter 55 mm, width = 13 mm
30205 = Inner diameter 25 mm, Outer diameter 52 mm, total width = 16,25 mm, width inner track = 15 mm, width outer track 13 mm.
@@frosthastrophotography Thank you very much!!!
@@Kikegamero_ No problem, good luck with the modifications!
Of the three types of SKF bearings, I could not find SKF 689 2RS any where.
The smaller ones are not SKF, sorry for the confusion. I could not find them at SKF either.
Thank you for the video. Question tho. When u were spinning the dec it looked like the bar for the counterweight is bent? does it affect your mounts tracking?
Thank you! I did notice that, and I do believe it's not the bar itself, but the locking mechanism that cause that. I have not seen any issues with tracking due to that.
I made the same surgery on old Celestron AVX, which I got for 400 bucks. Guiding improved from 2-2.5” to 0.5-0.7” RMS for 25 Lb load. What about improvement in your guiding accuracy and capacity?
Yes, it runs very good, about the same as yours.
Great video. I have an Orion Sirius EQ-G which is essentially the same as the HEQ5. I really should take the time to do a bearing upgrade (last year I installed the Rowan Belts). What type of guiding performance gains did you realize from the new bearings?
Thank you! I will do a follow up soon, did the modification late last season. I did do a short test and got 0.30 RMS, but under optimal conditions.
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@@frosthastrophotography That's awesome. My guiding tends to be between 0.6 and 0.7 RMS. We have terrible seeing here in the northeast US but when it cooperates I do see the 0.5s on long runs. The thing that bugs me the most is often the spontaneous spikes and I wonder if that's dirt in the worm gear or bearings. Those spikes ruin subs!
@@psuaero100 With my current rig and image scale I get good results up to 1 RMS so it's forgiving.
@@frosthastrophotography Same here... I'm shooting 550mm with a 294MM so my image scale is 1.72. Very forgiving for me also. It's still nice to see low numbers and no spikes!
have you got the full name of the grease you used please ,brilliant video i think im going to do mine even though its only 2 months old ,a lot of tight spots .
Thank you!
SKF LGLT 2 Low temperature, extremely high speed grease
@@frosthastrophotography thank you im struggling to find the small 689 2RS bearings of any branded quality ....
@@ninjageezer6802 I also had some problems finding SKF, I just chose ZEN instead. So the small ball bearings are not SKF in my case.
Vad kostade kullagrena ungefär samt vart beställde du ifrån?
Mkt bra video i övrigt!
Tackar! Det var en av onlinebutikerna som hade alla tre typer på lager, kullager.se, kullager.com eller kullagergrossisten. Gick på ca 900 kr.
@@frosthastrophotography Har precis fått min HEQ 5 Pro som jag köpte beg i ett paket med en mindre refraktor. Har kollat på din video ett par gånger och tänkte ge mig på en hypertune då den är lite trög i rörelsen och om jag ändå skall öppna upp och lägga på nytt fett så kan jag passa på att byta lagrena.
Vet du om det är samma lager till den äldre varianten av HEQ 5 Pro som hade en logga som var guldig och svart. Verkar vara samma mount i övrigt så jag antar att det är mer av en estetisk upgradering?
@@MartinKPettersson Hej, jag är inte helt säker men troligen är det så. Lycka till!
@@frosthastrophotography öppnade upp min idag för att testa och det var samma kullager i den ifall någon annan skulle fråga.
Mina var dessutom i mkt bra skick och kände inga ojämnheter eller annat konstigt så jag gör bara rent och smörjer upp det igen.
Vad använde du för att få bort allt gammalt fett?
Would you be able to confirm the dimensions of the 689 bearing? I can't seem to be able to find it. I could find an alternative if I knew the dimensions.
Hi!
Inner diameter = 9 mm
Outer diameter = 17 mm
Witdh = 5 mm
at 5:00, the thing he screw off, I simply cannot screw off anymore. any tips?
Hi, thank you for watching! It should come off, are you holding the back part and engaged the clitch.
@@frosthastrophotography Hi yeah. I think one of the screws inside is stuck, and that the socket is bigger than the others, so i cant get it to grip correctly. Im not too tool-oriented so i dont really know what to do about this
@@kasperknudsen3168 Might have been damaged then? You would maybe need some screw removal tool then, because I think a bigger allen key won't fit and the normal will just make it worse?
Hello. I'm wondering if the 689 2rs must be 2rs. I have zz but don't have 2rs. Is it ok to use 689 zz?
Hi! 2RS stands for "dual side rubber seal" and I'm no expert on ball bearings but that sounds like something you would want.
Where did you get SKF LGLT 2/0.2 grease? I can't find it in the US.
Hello! I got it online here in Sweden. www.kullagret.com/product/skf-lglt-2-kullager-fett-lagtemp?referer=google-shopping&country=SE&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkruVBhCHARIsACVIiOyXqK1mWlktfGjIo9m5L2V-MBE_NPRq7kgftCjzZ2fooaKF7mXgVqMaAhu9EALw_wcB
You don't need to dismantle the mount to get rid of stiction.
Thank you for watching! I wanted to replace the bearings and for that you unfortunately need to.
@@frosthastrophotography How old was your mount when you did the procedure?
@@hael8680 It is 6 months old.
@@frosthastrophotography Amazing the amount of grit in the meshing. I'll have to do mine but I'll have to even replace the grease in the bearing housings. I frequently image at -20°C in the winter and the grease I those bearings gets quite stiff at that temperature. Great video!
I'm struggling to find the 6006 2RSR bearing, I do however find a 6006 2RS. Are they the same?
Hi! I would say yes, the suffix 2RS for example mean that it is watertight on both sides. Others can mean different tolerances, speeds or temperatures, but all those are not that important inside the mount.
@@frosthastrophotography Thank you for the reply and the great tutorial. Didn't realise how stiff my HEQ5 was until I saw you spinning yours at the end 😅
@@janval22 Good luck with the hypertune.
@@frosthastrophotography Takk :)
So what happened to guiding RMS before and after hypertune?
Hi! I will revisit this subject when weather permits, but in short, I was able to get down to about 0.30 RMS efter hypertune in optimal conditions and targets.
@@frosthastrophotography Thanks.
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All that trouble replacing bearings and not packing them properly before installation 🧐
Bearing are ready and sealed from the factory.
My Dec axis is very hard to spin by hand. If I spin it by spinning gears however, it doesn’t seem to to have much resistance.
Any ideas? It’s although the clutch is always partially active, but I don’t know if that’s possible.
You can try and loosen the locking ring on the other side a bit and also check the saddle, try removing that to see if it's less stiff. If that doesn't help, you can try cleaning and apply new grease. Final thing is to replace the bearings.
@@frosthastrophotography I got it a bit better by loosening the part securing the conical bearings. So I guess it wasn’t the clutch. It’s probably does need cleaned and re greased. Maybe new bearings. I saw some bits of metal floating loose.
@@gy9326 Yeah, bits of metal is not a good sign.