Interesting Modification

jeallen01

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FWIW, & TBH, the 1990'ish NEC (actually Jaeger) H-H mount/motor that came with the original NEC 5000 system had nylon gears - it got used a lot between 1991 & 1998'ish , but when I opened in it around 2001/2002 to "give it a service" before I fitted it to the scaffolding pole down the garden, the only thing that really needed doing was to clear out and replace as much of the very old grease as I could, and there was very little backlash either before or after that.

So, I'm now wondering if metal gears are the "answer" (especially given that I had to adjust out the backlash on the Superior Dark Motor under the TD110 after only a few month's use - and will probably have to do that again in the future!)?
 

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Nowt wrong with Nylon Gears, but I thought greasing them was verboten?
 

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FWIW, & TBH, the 1990'ish NEC (actually Jaeger) H-H mount/motor that came with the original NEC 5000 system had nylon gears - it got used a lot between 1991 & 1998'ish , but when I opened in it around 2001/2002 to "give it a service" before I fitted it to the scaffolding pole down the garden, the only thing that really needed doing was to clear out and replace as much of the very old grease as I could, and there was very little backlash either before or after that.

So, I'm now wondering if metal gears are the "answer" (especially given that I had to adjust out the backlash on the Superior Dark Motor under the TD110 after only a few month's use - and will probably have to do that again in the future!)?

I spent months learning about zero backlash devices many moons back, for deep water robotics and other applications where any play would make the product useless. Not just pointing accuracy but harsh environment, fluid loss, temperature stability etc. To get the cost down to under $20 with just a single adjustment (that might have simply come undone) isn’t bad going.

Perhaps the Allen bolt requires locktite rather than grease around it ?
 

jeallen01

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Nowt wrong with Nylon Gears, but I thought greasing them was verboten?
Well, the gearbox of the NEC/Jaeger motor was well-filled with grease when I opened it (but there were probably also metal gears in there as well)!
 

jeallen01

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.....perhaps the Allen bolt requires locktite rather than grease around it ?
Well, as you know, I used some thick grease (actually Girling rubber grease) over the top of the adjustment Allen Bolt in the Superior Dark Motor, and so we will see what happens after a few months.

PS: I could have used medium strength thread-lock, and maybe the next time I will.
 

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I’ll pull some of the data from the old pc over the half term. The gear teeth are cut using calculations that include seven point contact around a central point, eliminating the gaps that would normally be filled with lubricant
 

jeallen01

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Somehow I rather doubt that non-lubricated metal-to-metal contact between gears would be a "good idea" unless the manufacturer uses hard & self-lubricating (i.e. with the parts impregnated with lubricant) materials, especially in a high-torque application - which seems rather unlikely in any low-cost device like a consumer-market DiSEqC motor.
 

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The cogs make connect in such a way there is minimal contact between the faces, but the load is spread over a relatively large enough area so that there is no rise in temperature, little chance of wear. The element protection is achieved by the cogs themselves, the only seal is at the end of each shaft of the differential.
 

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