galactique How does data get to/from the various devices which move about on the the mount, down to to to your Anker USB hub?
I have hubs all over the place :-).
I use an unpowered hub on the dovetail of each of my OTAs. That is where things like EAF and filter wheels and camera are connected to. This way, I only need to remove a single USB cable (and a single power cable) when I take the OTA off the mount.
That hub then plugs into a powered hub on my dual saddle plate. The main OTA and guide scope are mounted separately with their own dovetails on this dual saddle plate. The high torque of the RST-135 allows me to use a dual saddle plate without having to worry about third axis balance when I swap to different OTA and different guide scopes. The main OTA's hub, guide camera and mount plus into the hub on this plate.
That waterproof ABS box in the previous posting sits at the base of a William Optics Mortar tri-pier, and a single USB cable feeds the USB hub on the dual saddle plate.
The hub inside the ABS box is used just for isolating any backpower from the other USB hubs. The other USB hubs are just cheap run of the mill USB 3 hubs. That hub in the ABS box is the only really critical one. The rest just needs to work at low temperatures. And not that low either -- I am a wimp and don't go out in the snow when it is below -5ºC :-)
You can see the dual saddle plate is this old picture:
I have standardized on ARCA dovetails for my guide scopes. That is what is on the left. The fatter black rectangular box is the 12 volt distribution. The long thin black box is a USB hub. And the right side is the dovetail for the main OTA.
I have since swapped out the Vixen dovetail for a much more stable Losmandy style dovetail from Prima Luce (unfortunately red color, but like ZWO, they don't use more professional colors).
Guys like Olli will recognize the mount underneath the plate from the crummy altitude adjustment bolt, ha ha.
That 10mm thick plate is fabricated by a web machine shop up in Seattle. They really focus on front panels for electronics equipment, which is how I came across them originally. But they will make you any shape or size that you want, using their CAD tools which runs mercifully on macos.
Chen
