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hi,
I finally finished assembling my controller, thanks to Dave and Brendan for their help.
I wanted to reduce the cables on my OTA so I did away with the 3pin DIN and mounted the temp sensor in the controller box and soldered it to the board directly. works fine for my setup.
I also found a 2.5mm male to 2.1mm female DC power socket adaptor. this allows you to use the standard 2.1mm power adaptors if the socket is 2.5mm.
I still need to tweak the step period setting for my moonlite stepper, but I did have a few questions,
1. if you set the step period via the software, does the pic store the value and use it with the manual control? mine has a bit of a lag with the manual control and it doesnt recognize the pulses if rotate the knob too fast.
I will add two spst micro switches next to the encoder so I can use them instead of turning the dial. just a personal preference.
2. how is the temp compensation intended to work between subs?
I use maxim and ccd autopilot so will be refocusing between filters, but if I'm taking say 10x15 min subs for the same filter and the temp drops, will it adjust the motor during the sub exposure? is it independent of maxim or focusmax's control?
anyone using the moonlite 2.5inch newt focuser with the stepper? if so, could you post what step period works best with it?
I've tried between 4 and 35. 4 is the fastest without jitter, 10 was suggested by Dave and is smooth. gets progressively slower and at 35, there is no movement at all.
mine is an F4, so I will need the smallest mechanical step possible with the moonlite stepper.
Brendan, your PCB layout is very good, thanks for letting me use it and thanks again to Dave for the PIC.
Cheers
Alistair
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