Optec Pyxis 3" Rotator

Optec Pyxis 3" Rotator

The Pyxis 3-inch has a full 3 inches of clear aperture and is designed to hold large instrument packages without flexure or wobble. A 6-inch bronze worm gear and stainless worm rotate the center tube with a resolution of 0.01875 degree per step from the stepper motor. The operating software is very similar to the smaller Pyxis so that existing third party software is compatible. De-rotation of the field for long exposure images with alt-azimuth mounted telescope and rotation of the guide chip for SBIG camera to a suitable bright guide star are the two primary uses of this instrument. Power requirements and other operating conditions are similar to the 2-inch Pyxis model.

This model is large and heavy and is intended for larger telescopes on observatory caliber mountings. The 2.4-inch thickness warrants telescopes that can accommodate this increase in the back-focus distance. It uses the same telescope mounts and camera side adapters as the TCF-S3 - Optec's new 3-inch temperature compensating focuser. Any telescope mount or camera side adapter has to be ordered separately.

 Like the 2-inch Pyxis model, the unit can only be controlled by a PC computer running the Optec PYXIS.exe control software or third party compatible software. Manual control is not possible. A flat wire serial cable is available for connection to a standard RS-232 interface COM port at 19.2K baud. Standard lengths and custom lengths up to 100 feet are possible. Cables and COM port adapters need to be ordered separately. A 15 VDC regulated power supply is included with a right angle 2.5mm power jack. Stepping up to 15 volts DC provides about 20% more torque without sacrificing speed

Specification:

Total Gear Reduction 960 : 1 Number of Steps for One Rotation 46080 Degrees for One Step 0.0078125º (0.46875 arc minutes) Load Capacity 20 pounds maximum MOTOR Type Bipolar Stepper Voltage 12 VDC Steps for One Rotation 48 Coil Resistance 40 ohms high torque motor with neodymium magnets MICROCONTROLLER Type PIC16F87 EPROM 4K x 14 RAM 368 x 8 I/O Lines 16 EEPROM 256 x 8 Operating Temperature -40° to +80° C POWER REQUIREMENTS Voltage 11.7 to 12.3 volts DC Current 400 ma for high torque motor running Fuse protection 0.8 amp, PTC reset able SIZE & WEIGHT Size 6.5 inches wide x 7.45 inches height and 2.4 inches thick without adapters Clear Aperture 3.00 inches Weight 4.5 pounds without adapters INCLUDED ITEMS Adapters optional Power Supply 12 VDC regulated power supply with 6' cords Tools Various hex keys Software CD disk with Pyxis control software and manual