On Sat, Feb 8, 2020 at 01:34 PM, Robert Hoskin wrote:

I would think that selling DIY PMC8 kits for refurbing select mounts from other mfrs, could be a good idea, down the road.

Hi Bob,

I can say a couple things about that, as I had the same view when I started this project 6 years ago. After numerous discussions with Scott Roberts over the years, as far as the business model that Explore Scientific has pursued in the past and our plans into the future, I can say that we have no plans to create any type of DIY kit to sell for people to retrofit other manufacturer's mounts. Being a small company, there currently is not a large enough market to sell DIY kits for the astronomical community.

We will help those who wish to use their purchased systems for their own DIY projects though, and encourage this work. Our future business plan does not support the DIY market and are geared toward selling complete systems.

The CGE PMC-Eight mount was an experiment to see what was involved with designing a retrofit drive system. We have it in service and the initial measurement of the native PE is very good at around 3 arcseconds RMS. 

Thanks
 
Jerry Hubbell
Vice President of Engineering
Explore Scientific, LLC.
jrh at explorescientific.com
www.explorescientificusa.com
1010 S. 48th Street
Springdale, AR 72762
1-866-252-3811

Author: Scientific Astrophotography: How Amateurs Can Generate and Use Professional Imaging Data
             Remote Observatories for Amateur Astronomers: Using High-Powered Telescopes From Home


Mark Slade Remote Observatory (MSRO) IAU MPC W54 Equipment
Wilderness, VA
Mounts: ES PMC-Eight G11 + Telescope Drive Master (TDM)
Scopes: ES 165 FPL-53 ED APO CF, ES 102 FCD100 ED APO CF
Cameras:  QHY174M-GPS + FW, QHY163C
Misc: 3-inch 0.7x Focal Reducer Field Flattener, Filters: Luminance,
Red, V-band Photometric, Diffuser, 200 lpmm Spectral Grating
Software: MaxIm DL 6, Cartes du Ciel, Astrometrica, AstroImageJ, AutoStakkert!