Counterweight system for 3D printed Astro Tracker

thingiverse

https://youtu.be/30XSXxy0oks Based on Astro Tracker with Planetary Gearbox (thing:4317212) it uses dual ball bearings to stabilize the huge weight. The system removes the need of using a ball mount and uses counterweights to balance the equipment weight, removing the stress from the tracking gears. This is a big chunk of plastic because is designed to reduce vibrations and hold securely your imaging equipment, so is better to use high infill values and high strength materials. The equipment I have to mount on this tracker and to balance is an 600 mm lens and dslr camera which weights 2.7Kg. The counterweight is in fact a recipient filled with cement where I added some steel parts (screws and steel balls from bearings) about 500 grams. After cement cured I glued the lid in place with polyurethane glue and the final weight was about 3.1 kg. A bit heavy! I reckon that without adding steel to the concrete the weight should be around 2.8 Kg. Printing list: - 1 x HeadCollar_XXX.stl (100%infill, 0.15 layer height) - 1 x Z-bracket.stl (100%infill, 0.15 layer height) - 1 x U-bracket.stl (100%infill, 0.15 layer height) - 1 x HeadShaft.stl (100%infill, 0.1 layer height) - 1 x HeadTransmissionPlate.stl (100%infill, 0.1 layer height) - 1 x Knob.stl (50%infill, 0.15 layer height) - 1 x Knob2.stl (50%infill, 0.15 layer height) - 1 x TripodKnob.stl (100%infill, 0.15 layer height) - 4 x shim (100%infill, 0.1 layer height) - 1 x weight80mm.stl (100%infill, 0.2 layer height) - 1 x weightLid.stl (100%infill, 0.2 layer height) - 1 x HeadCap.stl (100%infill, 0.15 layer height) Hardware used: - 1 x 80mm M8 screw - 1 x 400mm M8 threaded rod (ex: M8 rod from an old 3D printer) - 7 x M8 nuts - 7 x M8 shims - 4 x 25mm M4 screws - 4 x M4 shims - 4 x 20 mm M4 screws - 2 x ball bearings 6806 ZZ or 61806 2RS - The screw of the tripod mount is from a Camera Hot Shoe Mount to 1/4"-20 Tripod Screw Adapter Flash Shoe. The collar part contains the tripod mount (which should be capable of holding the entire weight) with 4 popular options of mounting plates.