Motor focuser DIY

[Astrofriend]

A good working motor focuser is important to get good quality photos. I make small improvements year after year. But now starting all over from the beginning and make a focuser that I have designed. It's a 3D-printed focuser and now I'm building the focuser controller based on the open source project MyFocuserPro2.

Here is my project:
http://www.astrofriend.eu/astronomy/projects/project-motor-focus-driver/01-project-motor-focus-driver.html

Maybe I can do some desk test of it this week. Looks promising.

Lars

[bojan]

Looks very good, Lars.
I am also using MyFocuserPro f/w (or, "Sketch" in Arduinian..) for my C11 (https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=192676&highlight=focuser).

[Astrofriend]

Hi Bojan,

Now I have done some more test, works very good. Just one problem, my stepper motor have very low impedance, the DC resitans is only 2.2 Ohm and it doesn't work very well with the DRV8255 driver and 12 Volt, need another stepper motor, but not worse than I could use it.

Added some more pages with information:
http://www.astrofriend.eu/astronomy/projects/project-motor-focus-driver/01-project-motor-focus-driver.html

I have now take out the dust collector, my TS130 APO refractor. 3D-printing new tube rings for the guide telescope I will use until I switch over to off-guiding technology. I have also changed my Vixen dovetail to a shorter one to make mor room along the telescope tube. Rebuild the dew heater band to lower power. I designed it for 8 Watt which was too powerfull, now I aim för 3 Watt. The dew heater for guide telescope will also be reduced in power. Lower power means smaller battery.

Lars

[Astrofriend]

Today I could do the first test of the focuser's load capacity. I loaded it with 5 kg and it handled it with a glance.

Load test:
http://www.astrofriend.eu/astronomy/projects/project-motor-focus-driver/10-project-motor-focus-driver.html

Lars

[Astrofriend]

The last weeks I have done some test of the focuser on real objects. One of the objects is the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51. It's taken from home with Bortle Class 9 environment.

http://www.astrofriend.eu/astronomy/astronomy-photo/galaxies/m51/m51-galaxy.html

It's very noisy but the focuser worked very well.

Lars

[bojan]

:thumbsup:

[Astrofriend]

Thanks Bojan,
Next problem, how to get this big and heavy equipment into my small car ? Later I shall test to mount the TS130 telescope on my smaller HEQ5 mount and check if it's stable enough. If, then there is a chance that I can take it out to the darkness with my car. From Bortle class 9 to Bortle class 4.

But what much slower a f/7 system is compare to the f/4 system I have used the last years. I forgotten that.

Lars