arowana
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 2900
Loc: Pleasant View,Tennessee
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While I was doing the Fan Mod on my CPC 1100, I decided to go ahead and fork mount my dew controller while I had everything broke down.
I have always been annoyed by the mounting of my dew controller and wanted it out of the way.
So I decided to install it in the fork arm.
Very easy install. Only took about an hour to complete.
The only extra parts I had to buy were 4 new RCA jacks and a Type M 12v DC connector for power.
Drill a few holes...Measure twice,drill once....
and some solder and everything is working like a champ.
Here are a few pics of the process.
CS's
Joey
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CPC 1100
Earthwin Binoviewer with Dielectric P/F Switch
Matched Pair of 24 Pan's
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arowana
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 2900
Loc: Pleasant View,Tennessee
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Dew Controller.
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CPC 1100
Earthwin Binoviewer with Dielectric P/F Switch
Matched Pair of 24 Pan's
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arowana
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 2900
Loc: Pleasant View,Tennessee
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Dew controller guts. 
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CPC 1100
Earthwin Binoviewer with Dielectric P/F Switch
Matched Pair of 24 Pan's
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arowana
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 2900
Loc: Pleasant View,Tennessee
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Fork arm cover.
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CPC 1100
Earthwin Binoviewer with Dielectric P/F Switch
Matched Pair of 24 Pan's
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arowana
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 2900
Loc: Pleasant View,Tennessee
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Fork Arm guts.
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CPC 1100
Earthwin Binoviewer with Dielectric P/F Switch
Matched Pair of 24 Pan's
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arowana
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 2900
Loc: Pleasant View,Tennessee
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Here is the dew contoller board mounted in the fork arm.
I drilled holes for the LED's,the power adjust knobs,4 holes for the new RCA jacks and a hole for the new power plug. Soldered the power plug and run wires to the dew controller. Run new RCA plugs from the controller to the new face mount plugs.
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CPC 1100
Earthwin Binoviewer with Dielectric P/F Switch
Matched Pair of 24 Pan's
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arowana
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 2900
Loc: Pleasant View,Tennessee
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And here is the front of the fork arm.
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CPC 1100
Earthwin Binoviewer with Dielectric P/F Switch
Matched Pair of 24 Pan's
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arowana
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 2900
Loc: Pleasant View,Tennessee
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Powered up and heating like a champ.
CS's
Joey
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CPC 1100
Earthwin Binoviewer with Dielectric P/F Switch
Matched Pair of 24 Pan's
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jetsfan122
member
Reged: 07/17/09
Posts: 62
Loc: Long Island,New York
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Great job ! That is sweet looking !
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_____________________________
Vinny
_____________________________
Celestron CPC 800
Orion EON 80mm ED APO
Celestron eyepiece kit ( ugh )
Baader Hyperions 8mm,13mm,21mm
Televue Nagler 11mm
Explore Scientific 82 degree ( 18mm )
Agena Astro 38mm
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b1gred
Enginerd
Reged: 04/01/04
Posts: 15715
Loc: Castle Rock, CO 6677' MSL
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Nicely done!
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"Dark Skies & Great Viewing"
RandyR / W0RDR
GPS 9.25 XLT/Sky Align /FeatherTouch
TV85 w/FeatherTouch
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Digital Don
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 1287
Loc: Manteno
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Nicely done! Actually that's a pretty slick idea.
How did you attach the circuit board to the cover?
Don
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arowana
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 2900
Loc: Pleasant View,Tennessee
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Quote:
Nicely done! Actually that's a pretty slick idea.
How did you attach the circuit board to the cover?
Don
The power adjust knobs have a nut and washer on them.
So I used those to attach the left side to the fork arm cover when I drilled the holes for the knobs.
The right side.. I used two small pieces of 1/4 solid plastic tube. I super glued the plastic tubes to the fork arm cover, and threaded the other end so I could use the existing screw holes in the circuit board.
CS's
Joey
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CPC 1100
Earthwin Binoviewer with Dielectric P/F Switch
Matched Pair of 24 Pan's
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mclewis1
Thread Killer
Reged: 02/25/06
Posts: 3960
Loc: New Brunswick, Canada
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Joey,
Very slick. A smart use of the free space in the arm and a very clean installation.
But don't those look awfully like orange LEDs? 
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Mark
C11, C6, APM/TMB115, and AT80ED - Tandem mount CGE and CG-5A, WO EZ-Touch and AT Voyager
25x100s and 8x56s, T-Mount Light, Mark 1 eyeballs - Modded 350D, DSI-P, SPC900, Mallincam
Just because you can doesn't necessarily mean that you should
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rboe
Reged: 03/16/02
Posts: 45409
Loc: Phx, AZ
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Full Marks! 
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Ron
NS11GPS
Pronto
16" dob
15X70 Obies
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arowana
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 2900
Loc: Pleasant View,Tennessee
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Quote:
But don't those look awfully like orange LEDs?
There yellow. 
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CPC 1100
Earthwin Binoviewer with Dielectric P/F Switch
Matched Pair of 24 Pan's
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arowana
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 2900
Loc: Pleasant View,Tennessee
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Thanks to everyone.
CS's
Joey
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CPC 1100
Earthwin Binoviewer with Dielectric P/F Switch
Matched Pair of 24 Pan's
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NGC007
super member
Reged: 06/02/05
Posts: 114
Loc: England
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Nice work. Now why can't Celestron do this as standard. After all, I've never heard of an SCT that doesn't need dew control. Think I'll ask them.
Clem
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CPC 1100.
Ethos 17
Earthwin Power/Filter Slide
Giant Moonlite Focuser
Canon 10 x 42L image stabilised binoculars
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arowana
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 2900
Loc: Pleasant View,Tennessee
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Not sure about Celestron, but I have recieved some feed back
from other CN'ers on my mod.
And so far, the only negative I have recieved is by those who use more than one scope set-up and only have one dew heater controller. If the controller is mounted inside the CPC, then they cant transfer it to another set-up.
Which makes perfectly good sence.
I have only one set-up and it's the only one I want. So it works out great for me or anyone else who only uses one scope.
But you are right. If Celestron sell's the scope with a built in Dew Controller, then those who have a seperate controller can use it with all there other set-up's.
CS's
Joey
Edited by arowana (10/29/09 05:24 PM)
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b1gred
Enginerd
Reged: 04/01/04
Posts: 15715
Loc: Castle Rock, CO 6677' MSL
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It'd be a cool option, but there IS a subset of users who live and use their scopes where dew just isn't an issue. They'd run the price of the scope up for that device which would, at least for some of us, be a useless feature.
Like I said it is a VERY cool adaptation, but let's not suggest be added to production...
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"Dark Skies & Great Viewing"
RandyR / W0RDR
GPS 9.25 XLT/Sky Align /FeatherTouch
TV85 w/FeatherTouch
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mclewis1
Thread Killer
Reged: 02/25/06
Posts: 3960
Loc: New Brunswick, Canada
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Folks, When you start to suggest that Celestron should add some neat new feature ask yourself one question: Would anyone not buy a Celestron scope because it didn't have the feature? (apologies for the double negative).
Dew shields, extra eyepieces, right angle finders, and integrated dew strip controllers are all great features but they all have one downside ... they add cost without adding sales. Sure Celestron could charge more (a new "deluxe scope" for example) but it's not likely that they will sell many more scopes. The other reality is that each new product costs the company in overhead so while adding cost can be covered by increasing the sales price unless the overall sales numbers go up too the net result to the company could be a loss.
I'm sure the product marketing managers at Celestron have a list of features they want as long as their arms but if they can't prove to the bean counters that sales will go up or down with or without said features they remain in the box. Anyone can add value (and therefore cost) to a scope but the real trick is to reduce the cost ... that's generally where the real innovation resides.
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Mark
C11, C6, APM/TMB115, and AT80ED - Tandem mount CGE and CG-5A, WO EZ-Touch and AT Voyager
25x100s and 8x56s, T-Mount Light, Mark 1 eyeballs - Modded 350D, DSI-P, SPC900, Mallincam
Just because you can doesn't necessarily mean that you should
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