Thanks Ving. The kit's only $18 and is based around a UCN5804 stepper driver. Such a driver would simplefy my circuit by 2 ICs. Now Farnell sell the 5804 for $24 - so it would be cheaper to buy the kit and use it for parts. The kit won't provide dual speed, but it does have variable speed so it maybe it will do. Food for thought - thanks
Yeah those projects are all very well and good for what they are doing. I already had such an electric motor based focuser - when the wheels fell off... What fires me up about a stepper motor based solution is the digital readout. I can get to know at what number each of my eyepieces are in focus and then only have to fine tune for the (small) slop that exists in my rack and pinion. I have hopes that the foscusing would be good enough for visual observing...
In your searching Ving have you come across any stepper motor based solutions?
I hadn't done any R&D on it so thanks for the links ving. I was aware of jims mobile (it's where I bought the mounting hardware for the rotary encoders for my DSC). robo focus ($us395) is again out of my immediate price range though.
