So I am designing a new concept SHG from the ground up. Below are the design goals that I am HOPING that I can achieve with this project.
1. Weight: I am shooting for about 700-800 gr in weight (without the optics). so about 50% heavier than the 3D printed. The added weight is well justified.
2. Structural stability: I want the housing to be extremely stable and used in any configuration, it'll be able to take a camera/additional accessories of at least 5kg in weight without any structural support.
3. 100% thermal stability: I want the kit to be 100% thermal stable, withstand any amount of solar radiation and have zero problem with degradation/deformation/focus shift due to increased temperature without any added shielding
4. Backward compatibility: The kit will be compatible with the Shelyak optical kits without any further modification. It'll be able to take on a 1.25 inches mounted slit of up to 10mm in length (with an additional accessory maybe). This SHG will be able to be used with the Star'Ex guide cube and optics and can be used in the Star'Ex confirguration.
5. Support for both 125/125mm and 80/125mm optical configuration.
6. A built-in micrometer on the collimator and maybe an offset table so you can offset the focus of the collimator tube for respective wavelengths. (This is a big requirement, for solex design, the focusing mechanism is so bad and impossible to refocus mid session so we have to live with a slightly out-of-focus collimator, which negatively affects image quality on UV and NIR.)
7. An optional micrometer on the grating dial so you can easily adjust the grating dial and make it a lot more motorizing-friendly.
8. Cheap price. I am setting the price goal for the SHG Aluminum anodized at 250$, 70$ extra for the micrometer on the grating dial, 50$ extra for the Star'Ex guide cube.
As you can see the design goals are very ambitious. And currently, I am confident I achieved the 1,2,3,4,5 The 6 and 7 require more testing 8 is hard but I think I can make it work.
The main thing I am working on is the micrometer. Making the micrometer stable, without any wiggle and ensure complete light isolation and structural integrity is no small task.
So the design is still in it's infancy and I am welcoming all the opinions. I think it'll take at least 1-2 month until I can come up with a working prototype. (highly speculative)
Now, prototyping in CNCed Aluminum is expensive so I'd like to ask for you guys to pooling in for a batch of prototype. I'll not ask you to pay until I am confident that I have a working prototype. Since this is prototyping I'll only take what it cost to make (estimated at 200-250$, without the micrometer on the grating dial).
A few disclosures that I want to get out there:
1. This is conceptual design so it bounds to have some design flaws, I will do my best to avoid these but there almost certainly will be some. so Buyer beware.
2. Also a conceptual design, the SHG may fail to materialize, in that case I'll do a full refund only if I am not able to ship.
3. The timeline mentioned is highly speculative. I do this on my free time and I am having a lot on my hands so there's zero guarantee that I'll met my goal the time I said I will make them. I believe I have quite good record with time keeping and I'll try my best to met them but buyer beware also.
With all of that out of the gate, if you still want in, here is the Google Form that let you log an order. I need at least 5 orders to get the prototype out with a reasonable price.
https://forms.gle/cYxErBfEzNpNbkXz9
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