Quote:
Originally Posted by rcheshire
I've been looking for a method to interface with an Arduino to send pulses, RA and DEC, to the hand controller of my mount, so that I can guide using CdC or Xephem - but I'm not sure that that is an effective/rational/sensible approach to the guiding problem.
Still very much a learner with the Arduino and little idea on how to create a serial interface between my Linux laptop and the Arduino board.
At the moment I use two Arduino boards, one for camera control and dithering via the hand controller and the other for DSLR cooling temperature control. I plan on using the cooling board to implement guiding.
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I downloaded Astroduino and had a look a few weeks ago - Its quite a comprehensive bit of software. It contains libraries for encoders for positioning feedback and a serial parser for LX200 -> ST4 style pulses.
The author has modified his telescope hand controller to accept ST4 pulsed autoguiding, and uses the Astroduino to convert LX200 serial commands into pulses for guiding.
I have had to come at the issue from a different direction - my mount does not move at all without the arduino sensing pulses at the appropriate rate directly to the motor. I do have a second stepper i have attached to the EQ3 that i'd like to see if i can use for autoguiding with LX200 commands