Tahir Saban's
TL Systems EzCBP Kit

My primary objective was traveling and that's probably the primary reason why I selected the EzCBP. I think Tedd Laflour did a very good design, it is easy to addapt the plattform to a range of lattitudes. I live at 48N but wanted to revisit Namibia at 23S for example.

I made several changes to the standard TL Systems EzCBP Kit not because I thought I can do better but because I needed a smaller, lighter plattform. Tedd Laflour send me some wireing plans for the drive control unit so that it could also track in the southern hemisphere.

Another change I did was to add a reset handle. This proved to be a very nice add-on feature for resetting the plattform. I have a lightweight 12" scope (15kgs all up weight) so lifting the scope is no problem for me.

The kit comes with all material and instructions (there is room for improvement here) but the wooden parts which must be procured seperately in a local store. I used 18mm Baltic Birch as wood material. I cut the parts with a router. Since I made several changes it took me a little longer to complete the kit. I needed arround 25 hours including the design drawings. The plattform worked very good down in Namibia and I am satisfied with its stability. It can be taken appart and stored in a bag very easily and no tools are required for assembly.

Below are some photos of my finished kit.

Note the turn buckle for lattitude adjustments in this north facing view. The upper side of the plattform doubles as the ground board of the Dobson

The reset handle was designed for the northern hemisphere. It was more difficult to reset the plattform in the south since the operation is reversed and one must push the plattform up-hill back. I have added some mechanical stoppers to prevent the scope to fall down at the end of a tracking session or reset operation.

Another change I made was to place the motor into a housing that was carefully carved out from the wood. This allowed a very stiff mounting and the motor doesn't move a mm when loaded with the scope. The original metal sheet to which the motor was attached proved not to be solid enough in my case (especially in the 23S configuration) and was the cause of reduced stability of the whole plattform. I plan to add a housing for the back of the motor to prevent dew and dirt to setle on the drive and apply some finish to the wood.

Please note that the plattform has a single wheel instead of a south sector! This may look strange at first but is a genious idea. I made some calculations and found that this simple solution is quite accurate for visual observations if the tracking duration is kept at one hour or less. It also improves stability because it is in practice difficult to accurately make the north and sout sectors (with 4 contact points). My plattform tracks for about a hour but has higher stability than if it would track for say 90 minutes. For me the stability was more importaint than tracking duration, especially because with a plattform I tend to use higher magnification.

I add a small wooden part to lift the upper part of the plattform for the 23 deg south configuration (and I would need a different one for each lattitude other than 48N which is the default setting). This is actually not necessary for tracking accuracy because the upper part does not need to be level (please note however that the lower part must be level!) but the design of my Dobson requires a level upper part since I don't have full wheels on the altitude axis.

Tahir Saban, Baden Austria. e-mail tv204@yahoo.com

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