Assembly and User Instructions for the Mounting Kit for ZWO ASIAIR and EAF Belt Drive for the Askar FRA 300 Pro Telescopes

The mounting kit for Askar FRA 300 Pro can be assembled in around 20min. Despite the telescope itself, ZWO EAF, ASIAIR and the parts of the kit, you will need 3mm, 2.5mm and 2mm hex screwdrivers, whereas the 2mm screwdriver is only needed to place the pulley on the EAF. Keep in mind that the new ZWO EAF have a thinner (4mm) axis.

On all assembly steps, keep it mind that we work on an optical instrument: do not tighten the screws too much. This guide mentions the use screws and other fasteners for reference purposes, and for those customers who bought a download version of the kit. If you bought the printed version of the kit, all screws and fasteners are included.

We start with removing the finder scope holder. We will later place it on another location.

The main frame is mounted on the holes on the focuser body for the finder scope holder. You might want to first align the screws in the holes before screwing them all the way. We use four M4 10mm thread, 14mm total height, round head screws (DIN 912) for this.

The EAF holder is a pre-assembled block. We just need to mount it on the top of the main frame. We use the M3 6mm total height, flat head screws (DIN 7991) for this.

As next, we mount the EAF on the frame. We use M4 screws which are supplied with EAF.

The kit supports ASIAIR Pro and ASIAIR mini. They can be mounted in various orientations depending on your needs. You can change the orientation any time. For now pick an initial one.

ASIAIR is held on the main frame with help of a clip is slides in a slot.

Depending on the orientation you selected, mount the clip on ASIAIR. We use two M4 6mm or 8mm total height, flat head screws (DIN 7991) for this.

The same applies if you use ASIAIR mini.

The clip is fixed with two M3 10mm total height, flat head screws (DIN 7991). For this step, you need to put the scope on the side.

Now, we can finish the main assembly works by placing the pulley and the belt on EAF. EAF drives the coarse knob of the focuser via an adapter which is included with the mounting kit parts. The tension is controlled by the tension screw on the EAF frame. Make sure you remove tension when not using the telescope for a longer time and before unmounting the belt drive. The kit uses standard 330mm GT2 belt with a 20 teeth GT2 pulley or 320mm GT2 belt with a 16 teeth GT2 pulley. One of the variants is included with the mounting kit parts.

We almost finished! We now mount the adapter for the guide scope holder instead of the original handle bar. We use the orignal screws for this.

If you prefer, you can also keep using the handle bar to mount your guide scope, but this increases the total height of the setup and makes it less compact while transporting.

On the last step, we mount the original finder scope holder with original screws on the adapter.

It is ready now!

The kit can be optionally purchased with short USB cables for EAF and for the guide scope.

The this guide shows 3D-printed parts in the black color. The kit is also available in the red color which matches well the red color used by ZWO and Askar. The kit is available as printed and download version in the Photastro shop.