Assembly and User Instructions for the Mounting Kit for ZWO ASIAIR and EAF Belt Drive for the Askar FRA 400 Telescope

This article explains how to assemble the kit on the Askar FRA 400 telescope. The below instructions mention various fasteners. They are all supplied with the kit and are mentioned here for reference purposes if you should need a replacement.

We start by removing the guide scope clamp from the focuser body. The two original screws are too short for the current version of the mounting plate. The clamp will be placed on the kit in the front so that the guide scope takes less space. We will use other screws for this.

The placement of the kit is asymmetrical on the telescope. To accommodate this, we move the handle from the center holes to the ones on the left.

Next, we mount the EAF holder base on the focuser body.

It is mounted in the hole where the clamp used to sit, but with different screws: 2x M4 8 mm thread, 13 mm total height, round head, DIN 912.

After this, we mount the EAF holder frame on the holder base.

2x M3 8 mm total height, flat-head screws, DIN 7991, are used for this.

We will place the EAF here later.

Now, we move to mounting of the guide scope plate. This plate has five rows of holes which can be used to place the clamp which we removed before. You might want to start with the first row on the right which will place the clamp all the way in the front.

The plate is mounted on the rings with 2x M6 6 mm thread height, button head screws, DIN 7380.

For the clamp we will use the supplied 2x M4 10 mm thread height, button head screws, DIN 7380.

The clamp will be mounted with two M4 DIN 934 nuts placed on the back of the plate. The nuts sit in countersinks. The countersinks are made slightly smaller than the nuts to make sure that they do not fall out. You can use one of the M4 screws to press the nuts into the plate or use a screw to pull the nut to sink into the plate.

The plate is mounted with 2x M6 6 mm thread height, button head screws, DIN 7380 on the rings of the telescope.

Now we mount the clamp of the plate.

ZWO ASIAIR is mounted on the other side of the telescope. The mounting parts are the accessory plate and the L-shaped brace.

The plate will be mounted on the rings with 2x M6 6 mm thread height, button head screws, DIN 7380. The 4x M4 8 mm total height flat-head screws, DIN 7991, are used to mount the brace on the plate and ASIAIR on the brace.

When mounted on the brace, ASIAIR can be placed in various positions. You can also mount ASIAIR Mini (currently not shown on pictures) if you omit the brace and mount ASIAIR Mini in the middle of the plate in vertical or horizontal orientation. 

Once you have decided on an initial position for the ASIAIR, you first mount the brace on the plate.

For this we use 2x M4 nut, DIN 934, which should be countersunk into the plate as it was explained for the guide scope plate.

When the brace is in place, we mount the plate on the rings with the M6 screws.

Now, we can also mount ASIAIR itself in the brace.

Next, we go back to the EAF. EAF drives the coarse knob of the focuser with the supplied 340 mm GT2 belt and an adapter placed on the knob.

We first mount the pulley on the EAF axis. The pulley is GT2 with 20 teeth.

For mounting and for later freewheeling it is more convenient to put the belt on the pulley first and then the adapter with the belt on the knob.

Try the belt tension adjustment screw. Not much tension is needed to drive the knob. It is also a good idea to remove the tension after use.

ASIAIR and the EAF are placed on the kit in a very compact way. Long cables are not needed in this case anymore. You can optionally order short cables from ASIAIR to EAF and to the guiding camera to save space and avoid dealing with cable management on this place.

An additional accessory plate can be placed on the other side of the rings. You can order it with the kit or separately

The kit is available in the shop here.

Clear skies!