[KNRO]

Back in 2007 in the Kuwait Science Club, I worked as volunteer on upgrading the control system of an ailing observatory (2 50 cm scopes on an equatorial fork mount) and developed a closed loop control system via a custom PCB and NI 6509 that sits between the existing telescope control system and a PC. This worked quite well until we had a few electrical issues in the primary control cabin and the telescope stopped working. The club's electrician couldn't diagnose the issue and no one cared to follow up The observatory was built by a defunct company and there is absolutely no documentation, so everything had to be reversed engineered.

Unfortunately, there was no interest to invest in refurbishing or fixing the observatory which requires a complete overhaul electrically, mechanically, and optically. At any rate, since the old control system is pretty complex and beyond me (numerous relays and timers and tons of wires with no documentation), I thought it might be better to work backward and try to control the two motors controlling the telescope's axis (RA = Right Ascension, DEC = Declination). If the motor leads are identified, I thought it would be relatively easy to build/buy a solid-state control board and get rid of the old control cabin. But when I opened the cover of the declination axis motor shaft to investigate the motor, I was at a loss.

Back in 2007, I installed an 8 bit absolute optical encoder on the declination shaft, but I didn't alter any of the motor wiring.

I did a bit of reading and even bought a book on motors, and while it was pretty useful, it emphasized heavily on the theory and math and left little for practical understanding of AC/DC motors and drivers. Therefore, it would be great if anyone can help me identify the components of the systems and the leads if possible. I _think_ it's composed of a brake (translated French words on it for fail-safe brake) and a motor (I think AC but I'm not sure). I put a '????' on the wires/components which I have no idea what function they serve.

The following are photos I snapped today of the scope dec axis:







Any help is highly appreciated!

[mike_Kilroy]

little i can see it looks like the ??? motors may be kollmorgen pmi pankace motors - i could give you full info on them if u list the label info on them - even the thing u call a brake - it may be the motor and the front thing a precision gearhead? cant reallly tell cuz the pix are so big they wont fit on my computer screen. it too causes the text u wrote to not fit - looks like i would need a monitor about 3 foot across to read it all. sorry.