Orion 7832 User Manual

Orion TrueTrack Dual-Axis DC Motor Drive System

#7832

Thank you for your purchase of an Orion TrueTrack motor drive system. The TrueTrack allows convenient

hands-free sidereal tracking of the night sky for SkyView Pro mounted telescopes. The motor drive sys­tem also features a push button hand controller that can move the telescope along the right ascension
(R.A.) and declination (Dec.) axes at speeds of 2x, 4x and 8x the sidereal rate. This provides an easy way
to center objects in the eyepiece.

The Dual-Axis motor drive system is also necessary for doing long-exposure astrophotography. The elec­tronic hand controller allows positional corrections to be made to both the R.A. and Dec. axes of the
mount during an astrophotographic exposure.

Attaching the R.A. Motor

R.A. motor

cover

Phillips-head

screw

Figure 1. The R.A. motor cover.

Drive

Remove the telescope tube, counterweight, and counter­weight shaft from the mount before attaching the motor
drives.

1. Remove the R.A. motor cover from the mount by loosening
the Phillips head screw on the bottom of the cover (Figure

1). Slide the cover off the mount.

2. The R.A. motor assembly is identified by its silver colored
cylindrical body (Figure 2). It will be attached to the mount
by a socket-head cap screw that goes through the hole in
the rear of the equatorial mount, just above the rear lati­tude adjustment L-bolt (Figure 3). Attach the 4mm
socket-head cap screw to the end of a 4mm hex key and
push it up through the hole in the rear of the equatorial
mount. Hold the R.A. drive in your hand so that its threaded
hole meets up with the screw as it comes out the other end
of the hole. Thread the screw into the threaded hole of the
R.A. motor assembly until secure, but do not overtighten.

Parts List

1 R.A. motor assembly

1 Dec. motor assembly

2 Manual clutch assemblies (brass gears)

1 Hand controller

1 Battery pack

1 4mm Socket-head cap screw

1 5mm Socket-head cap screw

2 Velcro strips (1 “hook” strip, 1 “loop” strip)

Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975

Modular
jack

Brass gear

Threaded hole

Figure 2. The R.A. motor assembly.

Customer Support [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]

Corporate Offices [phone]

89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076

IN 197 Rev. B 02/09

R.A. worm gear
shaft

Brass gear of R.A.
motor assembly

Figure 3. The motor is attached to the front of the mount by a

sockethead cap screw pushed up through the hole in the rear of the
mount.

This attachment process is tricky, and it may take you sev­eral tries before you get it right.

3. Remove the R.A. slow-motion control knob from the R.A.
worm gear shaft if it is on the side of the mount that the
motor assembly’s brass gear is on, and attach it to the
opposite end of the worm gear shaft.

4. Slide the open end of the manual clutch assembly (Figure

4) onto the worm gear shaft. Rotate the manual clutch

Brass gear

Thumbwheel

Setscrew

Open end

Hole

Figure 5. The assembled R.A. motor drive.

the manual clutch assembly. Failure to do so may result
in damage to the motor.

Attaching the Dec. Motor
Drive

Before attaching the Dec. motor drive, the telescope tube must
be removed from the mount.

1. The Dec. motor assembly is identified by its black, cylindri­cal body (Figure 6). It is attached to the equatorial mount
with the 5mm socket-head cap screw that goes through
the hole in the flange at the top of the equatorial mount
(Figure 7). The motor assembly should be attached so that
it is oriented as shown in Figure 8. Hold the motor assem­bly so that its threaded hole lines up with the hole in the

Figure 4. The manual clutch assembly.

assembly so that the setscrew will press against the flat in
the R.A. worm gear shaft. Secure the manual clutch
assembly by tightening the setscrew with a 2mm hex key.

5. Make certain that the teeth of the motor assembly gear
mesh with the teeth of the manual clutch assembly gear.
Also, make certain the gears are not too tightly pressed
together. You can adjust the way the gears mesh by tight­ening or loosening the socket-head cap screw that is used
to attach the R.A. motor assembly to the mount. If the
gears are not meshed correctly or are too tightly pressed
together, then the drive will not track properly, or at all.

When finished, the assembled R.A. drive should resemble
Figure 5. You can now replace the R.A. motor cover and secure
it with the Phillips head screw.

Please note that if you wish to use the slow-motion con­trol knob to move the telescope in R.A. with the R.A. motor
drive attached, you must first loosen the thumbwheel on

2

Modular
jack

Brass gear

Threaded hole

Figure 6. The Dec. motor assembly.

top of the mount. Thread the screw with a 5mm hex key
through the mount and into the motor assembly. Thread
the screw into the motor assembly until it is secure, but do
not overtighten.

2. Remove the Dec. slow-motion control knob if it is on the
end of the Dec. worm gear shaft closest to the Dec. motor