arduino ascom focuser

[tonez]

after a bit of googling around i found this:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuser/

after a quick look on ebay and jaycar to price things, the total cost came in at $50 so i couldnt really resist.
if it does what it says it does (and im sure it does) thats pretty amazing as far as bang for buck goes.

of course my grand idea has to be on the saturday of a long weekend.. but i'll update when i get the bits and start to get something together.

[redtail]

I have built a few of these for myself and others and they work a treat but i don't use that motor.

[tonez]

that gives me a bit more confidence i guess
it will be my first time playing around with an arduino, i went with the more conservative (cheaper) version to get my head around it :)

did you use a coupling or go belt drive with the more powerful stepper?

[redtail]

I use a coupling.

[Lurkingpom]

You get so you can't sleep tonez take a look at this thread (https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/218975-arduino-ascom-focuser-mark2/) on SGL, it's where tekkydave started it. may be helpful.

[Stonius]

I'd love to see pics of completed projects. The SF page & Wiki doesn't seem to have any. I'd like to see how it's mounted.

Markus

Wait - there they are in the first link; https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/218975-arduino-ascom-focuser-mark2/

[Garbz]

Oooh this will be inspiration if I ever put an autofocuser on my SCT. I have a Moonlight on my ED80 and I thought I was going to get into hell trying to build a focuser for it, but after reading the source code and thinking it was simple, and then looking at the ASCOM documentation I found that most of it is actually incredibly simple. I highly recommend hacking around a bit in the code to see what you can do with it.

[ChrisV]

Yes, I will also follow with interest. Could be a bit of fun.

[tonez]

finally had a chance to get everything together and give it a test run..

stepper seems to have a bit more torque than i expected and should be just fine for my setup atleast.

just have to tidy up the wiring and shoehorn it all into a jiffy box

[ChrisV]

Pics of the gradual build please

[bugeater]

My post here: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=144018
outlines the one I made. Worked quite well, though other commitments has meant I've not really used it much.

[tonez]

it probably wont be a thing of beauty but ill get some photos when i tidy up the wiring a bit