[davidpretorius]

I am going to be updating my attempts to use stepper motors to follow elusiver and drive my focuser. I am also attempting to drive my alt/az movement for tracking, field rotation etc

• Stepper motor controller thru the usb port http://www.ar.com.au/~softmark/page44.html has been ordered.
• 2 x 12 volt 1.8 degree stepper motors to be bought probabley RS components with 6 leads.
• 1 x 12 volt bipolar 4 lead.
• Gear reducer (60:1) and roller driver (with reduction 40:1) to give reduction of 2400:1 or 1/4 arc second per microstep
• Bearings for the dob base will be bought from a hardware store tomorrow

http://www.bbastrodesigns.com/cot/ch...ring_ideas.jpg

• References for alt / az conversions to ra / dec:
  • http://www.stjarnhimlen.se/comp/tutorial.html
  • http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/
• Reference for field rotation: http://www.stargazing.net/yizen/fieldrotation.html

Hopefully end result along these lines
Altitude:
http://www.bbastrodesigns.com/cot/rollerdrivealt.jpg

Azimuth:
http://www.bbastrodesigns.com/cot/rollerdriveaz.jpg

reference: http://www.bbastrodesigns.com/cot/mechanic.html