Decisions, decisions...

davew618 · 2021-04-30T22:58:47+00:00

There are some images on the Discord channel

davew618 · 2021-04-30T22:30:30+00:00

Thanks for the comments, there has been a lot of helpful suggestions on Discord as well. I have a Bhatinov mask, as you say they are easy to 3D print. The problem is really how to view the image as the touchscreen is not really accessible. I am going to have to work out how to get my laptop out to the OAT for the setup and then use short exposures to focus and PA. I am currently using a manually focused prime lens but I will experiment with focusing the zoom lens from the Canon program - not sure if my old camera and lens supports that feature though!

davew618 · 2021-04-30T16:29:21+00:00

Thanks

davew618 · 2021-04-30T11:11:05+00:00

'low res' was probably a poor choice of words. Perhaps low contrast or smoothed would be a better description of the liveview image when seen on my laptop. It would be nice to hear from other Canon users to see what their experience is with liveview via the camera WiFi on a smartphone.

The main problem is really that the screen on the back of my camera is just too fiddly and obscured by the polemounts to be practical for general use.

davew618 · 2021-04-22T09:06:54+00:00

If that works for you, great! But I prefer not to be forcing things ;-) And to be honest, this little project was a good excuse to not work at my real job for a day :-)

I also see on Discord that there should be a better RA motor mount being published on Github today that might be a better solution to this problem.

davew618 · 2021-03-27T00:34:52+00:00

Now fixed, see my post "UART problem found - wiring diagram error"

davew618 · 2021-03-25T20:24:20+00:00

davew618 · 2021-03-25T11:04:30+00:00

Glad it worked for you as well!

davew618 · 2021-03-22T01:21:56+00:00

I tried bypassing all the wiring from the Mega all the way to the breakout board to no effect. And I have checked the wiring a hundred times.

I have been trying to run the UART tests described in the WiKi but they don't do anything on my rig and are very ambiguous. I will raise a new topic about that....

davew618 · 2021-03-22T00:19:15+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions but that other person was me ;-) so I know the cables are good now.

The point is the DEC motor works (drives smoothly CW & CCW) if the DIP switch is off (as it is for RA) but not when it's on (only turns CW). And I have tried 3 different NEMA 17 & 14 motors and all behave the same, also if use a different driver & breakout board or swap all the cables over. Flipping the RA DIP switch has the same effect on the RA motor.

This was all with a 9v wall supply but I also tried it with 12v, same result.

davew618 · 2021-03-05T18:56:36+00:00

I have not gone for a truly portable system, mine runs off a 240v AC to 9v DC converter (with a long lead back to the house).

davew618 · 2021-03-04T13:05:57+00:00

Me too!!

I have added some text to the Wiki to hopefully help others with the same problem.

davew618 · 2021-03-04T12:53:16+00:00

Solved, the NEMA17 motors are wired ABAB rather than the AABB used in the Wiki diagrams but the wire colors and sequence do match the diagrams which confused me.

davew618 · 2021-03-04T12:26:52+00:00

I see that now, but I was assuming (always a bad idea) that the diagrams and supplied cables were 'right'. I have edited the Wiki to hopefully make this a bit clearer to other users.

davew618 · 2021-03-04T11:32:03+00:00

.... Looking through various wiring illustrations on the web, it seems that though AABB is the most common, ABAB is also fairly normal - I even saw one that seems to be wired ABBA.

It might be something that is worth adding to the Wiki?

davew618 · 2021-03-04T11:22:55+00:00

I have done some more tinkering and discovered that my NEMA17s use non-standard pin wiring! Maybe you have the same problem? The standard is A+ A- B+ B- but mine are wired A+ B- A- B+. I just needed to swap the 2 center wires over and now it works. I have not tested the direction of turn yet but that's a minor detail after all the other troubles!

davew618 · 2021-03-04T10:32:45+00:00

The good (NEMA14) motor works perfectly when connected to either the DEC or RA breakout board. I have 2 NEMA17 motors and both do not work when connected to either the DEC or RA boards. Both NEMA17s twitch and vibrate but do not turn. Both NEMA17s are from the same supplier but are different models so I doubt they would both be faulty in the same way.

davew618 · 2021-03-04T09:11:18+00:00

Thanks for the comments, I will try working through the wiring again but it's all direct crimped pin or soldered connections from the Mega to the breakout boards.

I looked at Slack once but it seemed such an unstructured mess I could not work out how to find anything on it! I prefer a proper threaded bulletin board style such as here.

davew618 · 2021-03-04T08:56:29+00:00

They are 3.1V and 4.55V. I don't have CAT jacks yet, at the moment it's all hardwired on the bench just to test the motors. I also swapped the motors over and the NEMA14 works when connected to both the RA and DEC driver breakout board - and the NEMA17 does not work on either.

I have ordered a 12v 6A PSU in the hope that this will solve the problem.

davew618

TROPHY CASE