Does anyone use one of the SARCNET rotators? I purchased one of their new Mk2 systems and I’m curious to see what others have done to mount the rotator to a tripod. The nice people at SARCNET emailed me some details on what they recommend but just about everything on their list is discontinued product.
Prepare an Extra Heavy Duty Speaker Tripod. Try Jaycar CW2860 or Altronics C0524. Remove the speaker bracket.
Attach a 6mm shaft-hub to the top of the tripod using a (1-inch) 25mm irrigation-pipe (plastic) threaded plug, 3mm cheese-head bolts, flat washers, spring washers and nuts. Fix with self-tapping screws to the tripod. Replace the grub screws on the shaft hub with cheese-head bolts or cap screws to obtain additional torque.
Attach the rotator's AZ motor shaft to the tripod and tighten the hub screws.
Round the sharp edges of a lift arm made from 500x30x30x3mm aluminium angle.
Make a counterweight from a 101x51x25mm diecast aluminium box: Altronics H045, or similar. Filled with lead.
Attach the counterweight to one end of the lift arm with self-tapping metal screws.
Attach the Arrow antenna to the lift arm using Velcro. This is for quick release of the antenna and hand-held operation, if required.
Attach a 6mm shaft-hub to the lift arm close to the balance point. Ours was 140mm from the antenna end. A slight front-heavy balance offset will reduce backlash.
Attach the lift arm to the rotator's EL motor shaft using the 6mm shaft-hub and tighten the hub screws.
What you'll find when you go to look for the tripods they recommended is:
1. They're from companies located in Australia 2. They've been discontinued
I own a Manfrotto camera tripod and a tripod from a Celestron telescope. I figure between those, I'll be able to fabricate something.
