It's a nice mount (cheap, portable and very easy to use), but to get what you want to see, you need to know the sky like the palm of your hands (which can be a problem to a beginner like me..!). Read the voltage from one channel and be sure that voltage is 3,3V (or maybe a little bit lower for safety) - remember you might need to rotate the encoder a little bit to read the voltage (it will switch from 0 to 3,3V while you rotate). So far, if everything went OK, you can rest for a while!! January 6, 2004, By: Kelly Beatty Use the "config.h" file to make your changes. So, how can we know the angle? To overcome this roadblock, telescope manufacturers came up with the idea to computerize a telescope and make it a Go To telescope. Please note that the Encoder 1 is the Altitude encoder and the Encoder 2 is the azimuth encoder. Also, I always like to use recycled materials or something that I can salvage from scrap. Go to the next step to learn how to do it! Delivery - 5 to 8 weeks from receipt of order. There are a number of videos on Youtube now as well, which show how you can use the device and its basic functionality. I was thinking of doing exactly this modification and then saw your comment :), Reply Go To computers are specific for each mount — meaning they aren’t interchangeable. In fact, the friend I purchased it from said that he used it at a gathering and it tracked pretty-well for him there. Move your telescope around and up/down. There are two channels at each encoder (channel A and B); Each channel can switch between ON and OFF (0 or 1) as you turn the encoder. A quick tour of my Tasco 302012 Telescope including its clock drive and electric focuser. To learn more about coordinate systems, positional astronomy or LST, you can go here, here and here... Hope you are already familiar with arduino, but if you aren't, please, don't worry - there is a lot of information you can get on-line. First I though I could connect directly the encoders to the telescope. That is called a. Install the altitude wheel directly to the telescope, using the existing bolt. You can also use rDUINOScope as a PC/Tablet aided device. This means, a complete telescope's turn will give 15 complete encoder's turns , so you will multiply the encoder resolution by 15! After everything is set up, click to upload the code (Sketch > Upload). Multiplying this number by 4, the number I wrote was 36000, as you can see from the example above. Hi, you can start to check the log at the stellarium and see if it is receiving something.. Also you can try to make some simple debug- edit manually the values from the encoders position, maybe you can add a line that increase the count every loop. Reply Hi Nelson,Great project. Would there be any issue using an MXL belt instead of the GT2? And, why Arduino? I want to implement with a gps 6 and rtc. A month later I bought my first telescope (small 80mm SkyWatcher on EQ1), and after I assembled it and went outside, I realized that I needed to learn the sky. This gear will allow a smoother mechanical connection (to prevent mechanical loads on the encoder) and, more important, will allow more resolution from the encoder - by multiplying the turns of the encoder by a gear ratio. Looking at the owner's manual, I'm sure that there was once a telescope and tripod completing this ensemble. Question $10.99. Hi vernsburns1OK, lets start with something simple. A mount like this is extremely affordable and can carry a small telescope of up to 7 lbs. It will be also easier to make some future mechanical adjustments. 3 months ago. Portable Sun Tracking Solar Panel With a Windup Clock Drive: I've just designed and built a homemade solar tracker than can be easily set to accurately align to the altitude of the sun (as it changes daily, with the seasons), and also faithfully track the sun, from sunrise to sunset. Screw the holders to the telescope's mount and then install the encoders. Sky & Telescope is part of AAS Sky Publishing, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Astronomical Society. They also are location dependent, as you can imagine! and then move down until it's horizontal (use a bubble level...!). An introduction to my telescope mount. Feel free to use the materials you want (or you already have) and the sizes that better match your telescope and mount. (You can unsubscribe anytime). Using his skills as a machinist and his talents as a design engineer, he dedicated a year to develop several different gear systems, having numbers of teeth that could cancel the Earth’s rotation, by using only two clock reduction gears and a synchronous motor. You should see the object moving accordingly at Stellarium. Telescope Motor Drives. rDUINOScope also allows you to use your favorite planetarium software (Stellarium, Sky Safari and etc.) As you can imagine, if at certain moment you are pointing to one object using a certain coordinate, after a few minutes, you need to recalibrate your coordinates because the object has moved, so, altazimuth coordinates are time dependent. It seemed that either DIY telescope Go Tos did not exist or Google couldn’t find them. By: Dessislav Gouzgounov That happens that the sky is "alive" and seems to move around continually. Everything about this conversion is done, once in a computing cycle, using the function "AZ_to EQ()". See more ideas about telescope, telescopes, diy telescope. If you plan on capturing astrophotography images, I would recommend saving up for an EQ mount with a … I'd like to build something like this but not to control the telescope motion, not using encoders, just PUSH-TO. To photograph the stars, you need a gadget that can track the revolving night sky in a perfectly timed arc. The driver is powered by 6 AA batteries. Two years ago I discovered stargazing! Despite of involving maths, trigonometry, programming and some signal processing, don't worry, I will try not to be too extensive! Connect the USB cable (I'm using the programming port on Arduino). Question 1 year ago. To have the best result, start to cut a slight bigger circle and then sand it until the timing belt can enter. GPS, Bluetooth, and other features are sold separately. Stellarium is a really nice software for astronomy. Be sure the operation is smooth, and, the most important thing, be sure that there is no slip between wheels and encoder's pulleys. Arduino must have configured how many pulses your encoders give by turn. But when I add a serial port line to the NF_v1 code, the numbers start at zero and climb with no change. To prevent gluing the belt, I let it really tight around the plywood. Select from this list of Telescope Mounts to find the assembly that suits your next telescope application. Comparatively, a full moon have about 30 minutes of arc wide (0,5º). No rich information content, no touch screen. Load the code again and reconnect to Stellarium. It's very important that you not exceed 3.3V, otherwise you will damage the Arduino. 4 days ago, Hey, would you mind sending me your code modifications too? The following example shows the theoretical expected performance and limitations of a metal band drive used to drive a telescope. I'd like to know how to go about using a combination of IMU sensors and GPS/GNSS fusion data to simply identify where the telescope is pointing. I'm interested in making this. Information rich Touch Screen with Bluetooth link, GPS and integrated clock; Best ~250 Stellar Objects database - Messier Objects and Hidden Treasures. Start drawing a circle into a piece of 3mm plywood. Before I embark on this project I would like to know if the software allows to track the stars and not just go on it.Thank you in advance. It is possible to add an electronic clock drive for motorized celestial tracking. After you install the timing belt (mine have 6mm width), cut the rubber excess to get it as thick as the plywood (3mm). Store those values to calibrate the current position and get a near perfect alignment.I'm implementing something like this but my setup is a little different, i've got an SCT with fork and equatorial wedge. Maximum bore size available on clutch is 3.5" from 3.5" to 5" add $45.00 to order for special machining. Click on the "telescope tool" and then select "telescope configuration". To become a little more "instructive", I feel that I owe you, at least, a simple explanation about the way I programmed the Arduino and the techniques I used to make (almost) any telescope "speak" with Stellarium. If your timing belt have a different perimeter, you can find the circle diameter (d) doing: d=P/pi. For it to work with any object you'll have to find a way of telling the program (bluetooth or RTC modules should do the trick) both LST and your Latitude. Make a tour and learn how to use it! 3 months ago, You could bypass the alignment by levelling the base of your DOB, pointing it to a known object in the sky, slect the same object in Stellarium, click "Current object" and than "Sync". During the development, I shared a Youtube video and started to receive messages from amateur astronomers around the world. This single-axis motor drive from Celestron installs easily and operates via … to control your telescope – absolutely free. Features 2x, 4x, and 8x speeds, plus pause mode. My son and I have been working together on it and it has been a lot of fun.We are running into a bit of a hiccup though. Now, if you connect your telescope to stellarium, you will probably see that your telescope is not pointed to north as it should. 7 months ago Those gear-wheels will be attached and fixed to the mount and will be responsible to drive the encoders, as you turn your telescope around (azimuth) and up/down (altitude). This technique makes it possible to define a "time sensitive" section of code, and that was what I did to count all the pulses, with no exception. The MXL belts seem to more widely available in the US. Is that Ok or it needs a Due 32bits?RegardsGuillaume, Answer October 31, 2008, By: The Editors of Sky & Telescope Works with Celestron AstroMaster and PowerSeeker equatorial telescope systems, as well as any setup that employs Celestron CG-2 or CG-3 equatorial mounts. A few days later, I started looking for a Go To. 200 Brightest stars from Northern and Southern hemispheres; Stellar Map and location services on screen – no computer needed; Works with Stellarium, SkySafari 5, and PC over Bluetooth; Calculates the Local Sidereal Time and Hour Angle and points the telescope; Hemisphere independent - works on both sides of the globe; Auto Tracking, Auto Meridian Flip, Auto Stop when object below horizon; Keeps "Observation Log" for each observation, including temperature, location and etc. Well don't worry... that's because your location and local sideral time (LST) are not the correct ones! You will need to build 4 like those. 3 days ago. Any clue what might be happening? Adapt the voltage level from the encoder (minimum voltage = 5V) to Arduino DUE (3.3V); Add a pull-up resistor (it's needed because the output from the encoders is a open collector). The Stellarium plugin works just fine with the LX200 protocol. 6 months ago, it works... thank a lotI want to simplify the initial lauch using a gps neo6m v2 and rtc. A new window will show up and the only thing you need to do it's click "Start" and... voilá! It should be faster and easier, but, because I had 2 bearings sitting on the shelf, I gave them a proper use! In my opinion, a DIY project should be something that you can make in your garage using your own tools. In my case, I have a 600 pulses encoder and a mechanical gear ratio of 15 times. It will also work with existing Go To mounts, replacing the controller with a modern, sleek, touch screen, feature- and information-rich device! Is it possible to modify the rDUINOScope for this? Once again, I like to use wing nuts (see pictures). Select, under the "tools" tab, the board (Arduino DUE - Programming port) and the port that you are using. I've rebuilt the breadboard 3 times, replaced the encoders and nothing shows up in the stellarium log file. There is a 90º lag between them. It's a wonderful project and we hope it could help, all kind of astronomers. An equatorial mount telescope is one equipped with a clock drive that keeps the equatorial axis of the Earth, known as its right ascension, in synchronized motion with the perpendicular axis of the sky, known as its declination.The clock drive will keep the mount in synchronization with any fixed objects in the sky. The trimmer's center pin is then connected to the Arduino's input pins. I was again disappointed, but few days later I decide to look for a DIY controller. These motors are commonly used in clock mechanisms and timers that use mains voltage for power. Sometimes bringing your computer to your observation location, which could be many miles away or in the desert, is not a wise idea. By default, the telescope should be aligned to north (0º azimuth) and leveled horizontally (0º altitude) before connecting to Stellarium. Check the box to activate the plugin. It then sends a ":SrHH:MM:SS#" string with the RA coordinates and waits for a response from arduino (Serial.print(1) should do the trick), then Stellarium send another string in the format":SdsDD*MM:SS#" with the DEC coordinates. The 2 channels are not in phase. One simply pushes a button ....and voila – The Great Orion Nebula is in the eyepiece! I used 5 pieces of 3mm plywood glued together to make a 16x14x5 (cm) box, as you can check from the pictures above. July 28, 2016, By: Roger W. Sinnott Thanks! Were you able to install the rDUINOScope to EQ1 mount? free, open source, DIY option, rDUINOScope Boiana, https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p420_Skywatcher-EQ1-equatorial-mount-with-field-tripod.html. That means I will have 9000 pulses by turn. March 31, 2011, By: Bob King The idea being that the Pi would be just like a motion sensor smart tablet except that the sensors are actually the arduino on the telescope.I've been looking at various products to potentially use, absolute IMUs with magnetometers gyroscope, and accelerometers in 9DOF, etc. Later on in the development process, I realized that my system could not only fit a new mount — it could fit any mount! It also should have a low budget, otherwise, it would be better if you just buy what you are looking for. It will be a lot of fun trying to do something new; It's a good contribution to learn a lot of new things (otherwise skipped by using a ready to use solution) like: alt-azimuth and celestial coordinates, local sideral time, earth movement, spherical trigonometry; You can control your own budget and keep it below 50USD; Your telescope will be customized to fit your needs; Your telescope will become "famous" among your friends; If you are not interested to spend thousands in a go-to mount, this will give you a really good help when you start to point your telescope to the sky; Have a huge community and tons of information online; It's easy to find libraries that can help you using a lot of different things; You can easily add a lot of shields and sensors specially designed for Arduino, or you can adapt others; For most of the projects, it's reliable enough; It's very versatile and flexible (I/O ports, communication, etc); It's easy to interact with I/O ports, both digital and analog; Find a way to place 2 position sensors (encoders) to read azimuth and altitude; Build the hardware interface (elementary electronics); Program the controller to calculate coordinates and communicate with a computer; Install and config Stellarium to work together with your controller; 2 bearings 5175 (5mm hole and 5mm thick), but you can use others, Arduino DUE and USB cable (UNO have a lot of limitations for this project..), a small proto PCB to solder the components (instead, you can work with a breadboard), 2 springs (you can remove from a pen..) or 2 rubber bands, metal plate (I use 2mm aluminium plate I took from an old cabinet, but steel should be fine), plywood (5mm and 3 mm thick) and some pieces of wood (12x12mm), wire and connectors from scrap (old serial or VGA cables, usb cables, ...), solder, shrink tube, cable ties, tape, etc, some dupont connectors for arduino (optional). I'm new to coding with Arduino, any help will be greatly appreciated. This configuration (timing belt with 300 teeth and encoder's pulley with 20 teeth) give a gear ratio of 15 (ratio = 300/20 = 15). More About Telescope Drives & Controllers Electronic motor drives provide electronic control of one or both axes of equatorial mounts, eliminating the need for you to manually reposition the telescope to keep objects centered in the field of view. So, I wasted some extra time doing flexible holders (using bearings and springs). There are a lot of types of encoders. Do you see it? Here's a very little explanation: The technique: To avoid loosing pulses (because the code takes some time to run...), I used some special pins and functions on Arduino: Interrupts. Nevertheless, I will guide you how to start from scratch! This will be the overall resolution, equivalent to an amazing 36 seconds of arc (1296000/36000). To configure your telescope, follow the images above. Go to the configuration window and choose the "plugins" tab. Comparatively, a full moon have about 30 minutes of arc wide (0,5º). Tip Now that we have the wheels installed, we need to find a way to place and drive the encoders. This applies to 6" & 9" drives only. 2, Yes, I would like to receive emails from Sky & Telescope. The video above shows you exactly what I have done so far. Now you are only a few steps from your reward! Wait a few seconds (10 seconds or so..) and a new object ( _Hello_ ) will appear somewhere at the Stellarium's sky. Right now, [Chris] is looking into a German equatorial mount, a telescope that is able to track an individual star through the night sky using only a clock drive motor. Recently, I bought a 8" Newtonian telescope that came with a Dobsonian mount. A blog dedicated to the restoration of classic telescopes, telescope and mirror making, telescope equipment and all things amateur astronomy. Copyright ©2021 AAS Sky Publishing LLC. As you can imagine, it is not easy to obtain a perfect mechanical joint while using handcrafted tools. Be sure the encoders are well connected. Have a look! By doing this, I also increased the portability of everything - it should be easier placing and removing the gear-wheels, by pulling the encoder back. It is the steep learning curve that one needs to overcome, the one that makes most people give up after few tries. I'll use absolute encoders instead of incremental, just waiting for it to arrive.Edit: also, you can get the whole LX200 command reference from Mead: https://www.meade.com/support/LX200CommandSet.pdf, Reply So, using the "config.h" file, set how many pulses you have by turn and then multiply by 4. By doing this, just be sure you won't swap any wire - following the colors would help you a lot! 3 months ago. See more ideas about telescope, telescopes, amateur astronomy. Repeat this test for each channel and be sure they are connected to the right pin.Be sure the arduino is connected to stellarium (you will see a pointer with the name you give). It received needed attention from both the Amateur Astronomy world and Creators world! For this specific purpose, I have chosen the incremental ones. Byers realized the need to supply affordable drive systems for smaller telescopes. I was surprised, but mostly disappointed, to find that even though I knew the location of Messier objects I was not able to locate them on the sky. A "Done uploading" message will show up, after a few moments, at the bottom of the screen. Hi Nelson,I wish I could say I have had success but it is not the case. A month later I bought my first telescope (small 80mm SkyWatcher on EQ1), and after I assembled it and went outside, I realized that I needed to learn the sky. Sky & Telescope maintains a strict policy of editorial independence from the AAS and its research publications in reporting developments in astronomy to readers. Finally, you are ready to connect your telescope to Stellarium! 170. 4 months ago To reinforce the box, I glued some pieces of wood at the corners. To do that, just open the code using Arduino IDE and edit (using the tab "config.h") your current location and the right ascension (AR), as well the hour angle (H) of the pole star (at the moment you connect to Stellarium). 4 months ago. WARNING: Be sure, before you connect the encoders to Arduino, that you adjust the trimmers to output exactly 3,3V. That operation is a little bit complex because involves spherical trigonometry and some time concepts (Local Sideral Time - LST). First the DS1307 real time clock module is consulted by the Arduino to get the current local time. Why build a gear? Geometry: A 7:1 "gear" reduction final drive for a telescope using a final drive pulley of 20-inches in diameter and a drive pulley of 2.857 inches in diameter (D) is assumed. Knowledge of the target RA is then used to find the required Hour angle. You can do this easily by pointing the telescope to the pole star (0º north aprox.) STEPPERONLINE Short Body Nema 17 Bipolar Stepper Motor 1A 18.4oz.in/13Ncm DIY CNC…. Be sure the code files (NF_v1.ino and config.h) are inside a folder with the same name ("NF_v1"). to create a coordinate system. I just receive themIf some one have the code with these items because i dont how to implement them in the code. encoder 1, channel A - connected to pin 2, encoder 1, channel B - connected to pin 3, encoder 2, channel A - connected to pin 5, encoder 2, channel B - connected to pin 4. It will be the serial port that your computer associates with Arduino. I used a wing nut instead, as it will became useful when you need to dismantle or adjust the wheel. It surpasses what you can find on the market. Connect the USB cable to your computer and open the code (see attachments). By: Alan MacRobert Arduino then uses the known longitude of the observatory to calculate the local sidereal time. You might have to slightly rotate the encoder to find the "ON" position at each channel. Like this, you can place and remove the wheels and encoders from your telescope and, at the end, your telescope will be exactly the same telescope you bought (except a very tiny and imperceptible 4 holes...). Hello,Great project! Click "configure telescope". on Step 12, HiI just bought a dobson 400 and want to install a push to with arduinoI discover this programm that looks like perfect and exactly what i wantI'm waiting to receive my encoders.I have a arduino mega 2560 R3 with clock 16bits. This system it's very intuitive and easy to use because is related with your quotidian life (go up/down and right/left...). Computerized finding, and particularly tracking, is important enough when using a telescope that I am willing to put up with the complexity of a computerized drive. Let your telescope do the driving! Make sure you have everything in place (both electrical and mechanical) and run your telescope by opening the telescope's plugin. Then I realized it would be better if I use a gear-wheel fixed to the mount and telescope to drive the encoders. I have seen similar type motors used in azimuth drives on telescopes so that they can track contra the rotation of the Earth. 9 months ago. I always considered myself an intelligent person, able to learn quickly, but this had bested me! Question on Introduction. Now that we already have the Azimuth's holder, let's build, following the same principles, the Altitude's holder. Just download and install into your computer. Be sure you have installed the DUE drivers (SAM boards, 32 bits) - check images above. What are the changes to the code that has to be made when used in Southern Hemisphere?RegardsCham, Question For this purpose, it's desirable that you enable some features at the "view" and "configuration" tabs, as you can see from the pictures above. SKU: CEL-93514. See an article of mine in Sky and Telescope magazine, … I am fascinated by astronomy since the first time I looked to the night sky. Never, but never point your telescope to the sun! Solder the female ends to your PCB and the male ends to your encoders. Use a compasses and do not forget to make a good mark at the circle center - you will need it! In my case, I have a 600 pulses encoder and a mechanical gear ratio of 15 times. Just drill a hole at each corner to screwing it. This holes must have the same diameter as the existing bolts, so, I drilled a 6mm hole from the altitude whell and 10mm hole from the azimuth wheel. To do that safely, connect the red wire from the encoders to the +5V Arduino pin and the black wire to ground. To become a little more organized, I separated this step into 2 parts: this one to show how to build the Azimuth encoder holder and the next one (which is very similar) to show the Altitude holder. Finally, you can point your telescope to whatever you want, using Stellarium to guide you! You can add a hook to hang the box in a convenient place or, like the in last image above, you can glue a piece of plywood with a hole that you can use to hang the box using an existing bolt from the mount. 4.5 out of 5 stars. After a couple of nights using my telescope, I realized that it should be helpful if, at any moment, I can compare my telescope position with the position of the target that I am looking for. RuiLing 4PCS 1.5M 59 Inch Stepper Motor Cables Lead Wire HX2.54 4 Pin to 6 Pin. NOTE: Because I also use this box for many other purposes, there are some extra cables going around. What part of the code do you need to change in order to do this? But I'd like it to be additionally capable of simultaneously outputting the direction to a Raspberry Pi, such that the Pi would use the sensor live pointing action as the basis for running apps like SkySafari and Stellarium. I am trying to add a clock-drive to a home build German Equatorial Mount for a 10" Newtonian Telescope when I stumbled into your blog post from 2013. Otherwise all you’ll see is streaks and blurs. Radius (r) is r=d/2. Remove the timing belt and finish your work with a layer of black paint around the plywood. Did you make this project? This instructable will guide you, step by step, how to complete your own controller using Stellarium (astronomy software) and Arduino (open-source prototyping platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software). In my opinion, a DIY project should be something that you can make in your garage using your own tools.
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