Vixen Dovetail to 1.5-inch PVC Adapter

An adapter to mount a 1.5" PVC pipe to any mount that can accept a vixen (CG-5) dovetail. I would be surprised if anybody else ever needed this, but if you're that other person hopefully this saves you some time. I used it to mount an antenna to my EQ mount to attempt radioastronomy.

There are two versions. The first has the mounting point for the pipe in the center.

V2 has the mounting point offset toward one side, as this worked better for me when placed on my telescope mount and allowed the antenna to have enough clearance to swing.

Note that the diameter of the pipe mount on V2 is ever so slightly smaller (a few tenths of a millimeter, if that) than V1, as I found that it fit an average 1.5" PVC pipe better. Your results may vary given PVC tolerances.

I left the holes in place from the original design so that something could still be mounted or so that a bolt could be run up the center of the pipe.

Other notes: The picture of the black one (which is PLA, cubic) is not fully printed. However, even missing the top ~1.5" it still holds a pipe without wobble.

I'm not going to print another of these unless I need to, but if you're considering printing this I might recommend modifying it to include through-holes on the side of the pipe mount through which a bolt could be inserted to a) keep the pipe from accidentally being pulled off and b) to keep the pipe from spinning. I'm just going to drill the hole out.

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Creality

Printer:

Ender 3 Pro

Rafts:

Doesn't Matter

Supports:

No

Resolution:

.2mm

Infill:

30% Tri-Hexagon or Cubic

Filament: Overture PETG Silver

Notes:

It's pretty sturdy, but depending on your use case consider upping the wall thickness/layers. Also, I don't know that tri-hexagonal is the best infill, but it seemed to yield good results. I printed in PLA with cubic and it also was pretty sturdy that way.

With screw for extra stabiility.

Optional, but probably a good idea.

I recommend modifying the file to include a hole through the side. However, I just drilled one and tapped the hole opposite the head. This allows for a screw to go through the pipe and the mount to add a bit of extra stability and make sure that the pipe doesn't spin on the mount.

Full Setup

Here's the full setup, as requested. In practice, the USB hub is secured to one of the legs. Here I moved it to facilitate getting everything in one picture.
Mount: Celestron AVX

Antenna: Premiertek ANT-GRID-24DBI

Filter and LNA: Nooelec SAWbird+ H1

SDR: 2x RTL-SDR BLOG V.3. Dongles (only one is needed but sometimes the extra bandwidth is nice for other applications)

Mini PC (pretty cheap/low spec works fine) for controlling the mount and running SDR software.

There's definitely room for improvement in terms of cables/connectors used and such but I put this together pretty quickly from other setups I had (SDR scanner, astrophotography rig) so I just used what I had.

How I Designed This

Modified from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3192186 in Tinkercad. Pipe size referenced from https://www.pvcfittingsonline.com/resource-center/pvc-pipe-dimensions-18-through-24/. Very basic stress testing was done in Fusion360 with a model of a 1.5" PVC pipe sleeved over the mount and it seems like it won't snap too easily. In real life testing, it holds a ~7lb antenna easily.