This project was inspired by Steve Bedair and Christopher Erickson's websites. As well as the amazing efforts of Dick Seymour and his patches for the autostar. If you're interested in why I'd even try to convert a CG5 to a GOTO mount, here's some background information. The main point is this project does not require access to a metal machine shop, with patience the whole project can be accomplished with a power drill (I used a drill press).

This conversion made use of a 36" long 1½" aluminum angle stock and two ¼" shaft extenders. The angle bracket came from a local hardware store and the shaft extenders came from a local electronic hobby shop. The shop sells mail order, the part I used was S150 from this page. They're not a perfect fit, the CG5 worm shafts are 6mm, so there's .35mm slop in the shaft extenders. So far I haven't noticed a problem as long as the motors are held firmly in place.

I did not have access to a metal lathe but I did have a drill press. I turned the shaft extenders on the drill press and ground them down to the basic outline of the original Meade worm shafts. I then drilled and tapped a 4-40 hole centered in the shaft (I didn't have a 2.5mm tap).

For the mounting brackets I took a combination of Christopher Erickson's mount design and some others that reused the Meade DS motor mounting threads. Both RA and Dec brackets are the same except for portions of the Dec bracket were removed to allow for more clearance while slewing. The angle stock was cut to roughly 6½" length then cut to allow part of the bracket to be bent. The bracket was held in place on the CG5 and marked for the mounting bolt and the position of the worm shaft. The hole for the mounting bolt was drilled then extended to allow for adjustment of the motor-to-gear distance. A notch was cut out for the worm shaft and excess material was removed to shorten the bracket.

The original Meade worm gear motor mounting threads were cut off the housings. They were centered over the CG5 worm shaft position marked on the new bracket and attached with flat head screws

I used some of the leftover angle stock to make a bracket to hold the DS port connector panel. I'm very happy with the way the project turned out. The mount slews very smoothly and appears to be very accurate so far. I've had no signs of the "runaway" DS motor problem, so I consider myself lucky.

My future plans are to adapt the DS motors to drive an EQ6 mount. For now I'm just having fun with my new GOTO mount