Upgraded New Solar Mount

The new saddle for my new SolarQuest mount arrived this morning...  finally (USPS shipping is horrendous)...  so I spent a little time upgrading the mount this morning.  I did a bit of work upgrading it yesterday too but I had been waiting for this new saddle to arrive for quite a while and I finally got that done this morning.

In the photo, below, you can see the original saddle that came already installed on the SolarQuest mount.  I've had some bad experiences with this type of saddle...  the cast aluminum tends to crack and break eventually, the single bolt damages dovetail bars, and the single bolt isn't a secure as it should be...  so I wanted to replace it with a better one to keep my telescopes as secure as possible.

In this next photo, you can see the new replacement saddle.  It is a much heavier duty saddle and it is actually a large clamp to hold the telescope rather than just a single bolt holding the telescope in place.  Replacing this saddle was easy when the new saddle finally arrived in the mail.  (I'll save my rant about the ineptitude of the USPS and my frustrations another time.)

The SolarQuest mount came with two other things I didn't like.  First, the solar sensor did not come with a dust cap.  The condition of this solar sensor is important so it seems like a good idea to protect it with a dust cap.  I simply put my digital calipers on it to measure it and then ordered the appropriately sized cap online. 

The other thing I did not like was the power jack on the mount.  The stock power jack is an odd size of 5.5mm x 2.0mm.  The center pin was only 2.0mm in diameter which made for a loose fit when using the standard power cable designed for use with a 2.1mm center pin.  I searched online for an adapter cable but couldn't find one so I ordered a 5.5mm x 2.1mm jack.  I soldered the wiring from the mount to the new jack yesterday.  Now my power cables fit snugly!

This next photo shows the new power jack installed on the mount.  It has a slightly larger diameter than the original power jack so I had to drill a slightly larger hole in the plastic plate of the mount.  Soldering the wiring went well even though I rarely do any soldering.  I soldered the wires to the new jack and then used heat shrink tubing to protect these connections.

This next photo shows the dust cap that I purchased online to protect the solar sensor when I'm not using the mount.  Now I just need to remember to remove the cap before powering up the mount so it can find the sun!

I'm looking forward to spending more time using this little mount again...  if the sun ever comes out again!