wormix

Oooh, what’s this mean? Should get my LCD this week and my case is now printed.

Finally solderered everything up - need to print the enclosure and I can get this finished. The Nano was a real challenge and I appear to be at the point where I am now both short and long sighted!

Welcome aboard Andrew - looks good. I’ve been mulling over how to improve the focuser on my ETX125 as it’s virtually frictionless to the point that even the weight of a peg (as a low end feather touch focuser) causes it to shift.

This has got to be the quickest ‘scope related DIY I have ever done. Need to design a mounting bracket and it’s finished (pulley in the post). Thanks @tekkydave for the code and design.

Crikey - that was easy. Arduino and motor arrived this evening. 5 minutes with Arduino IDE and a soldering iron and it’s working! Will design and print a casing tomorrow and away I go!

Another similar project here; https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4656496?fbclid=IwAR3zd1IOXobN6Y3_pRVDcjF-NYfU10gAeYuKfN-SM_l9YmzNxQBNfKGhHBg

Been considering an Autofocuser build recently and was going to do a Robert Brown but think it’s too feature packed for what I want so have ordered a couple parts to give an AAF2 a go.

Just the mosfets to go now - I tried Fozzys technique first - soon ran out of patience and broke the Dremel out with a mild grit sanding drum on low speed. Worked nicely. All other components ordered and arriving imminently, really must get round to printing the case

I’m going to attack mine tomorrow - was going to try a sanding drum in the dremel, taking it nice and slow.

Following my adventures with PCB manufacturers I have been doing some reading - just for starters, what is the benefit of the OLED / LCD screen? I’m presuming that’s if you’re running “headless”. My use would be with my 72mm frac and apt, so presumably there is no benefit having a screen? Ta

Have just been looking at JLCPCB and can get 10 boards delivered for £10! Not that I have any need for 10 boards whatsoever (or any for that matter) - but it’s useful to know for future projects that this company exists. In fact I may build a focuser - cost for 10 of the recommended boards is only £7.65

That’s a great price - when I looked originally I think I was looking at around £30 for 3!

Glad you got one at last - that’s been a long wait!

I love my Meg72 - Great views and bombproof build quality, not had any issues with the focuser (Crayford) either at this point using a DSLR.

I believe so, although it does seem set back quite far Difficult to see in photo but the first ~ 15mm is wider bore and unthreaded - is that how it is supposed to be as I’m aware that some have been shipping with no thread at all

Ok, beginning to think this was user error. One of the beauties of this mount is it’s so quick to set up and get running so I thought I would try a few things. Aligned straight away and it’s now had Mars sitting in the centre of a 5mm BST for the past 20mins. Next imaging session will be the next test.

Thinking about it (now I’ve packed everything away) - could it have been poor balancing? The mount was making a noise which suggests it’s doing something....

I have just been imaging Mars with my new az gti and have to say I’m very disappointed with the tracking in az mode. I could manage ~1 min before Mars moved out of frame. Am I expecting too much as I was using an ASI120MC on an ETX125 (nearly 2000mm focal length) so tiny fov? Also, could this just be a backlash issue that I can sort out through software does anyone know? ta

I have been playing around with this and have now finished. Im not sure whether the close proximity of the electrics will impact the USB - I guess it’s quite likely, but building it kept me entertained for a while so no great loss if it doesn’t work. I have altered it slightly from the first picture by incorporating a dc-dc buck converter to give 5v to the usb hub and one of the outlets to power a Pi. I also wanted to include 8v for a Canon camera but decided to build that in line with the camera power cable instead.

How did you find it’s stability with the Az Gti? I was considering one, but fear it may be a touch heavy so was considering modifying something like a skyhawk instead at 114mm

It’s finally arrived, plus it came with the added bonus of a clearish night so I got to test it’s go-to / tracking performance. All seems ok at the moment. Really impressed with the accuracy off the bat using north-level alignment. Going to use this for some planetary shooting and dabble in some EEVA I think, as well as travel.

It’s arrived! After nearly 8 week wait, fortunately it’s been wet for each of those 8 weeks so didn’t need it. Bigger than I was expecting - now need to assess whether this one went through QC

Currently on hold till I get the enclosure printed so I can be sure of length of wires, etc. Will start that this weekend but will need to relocate my printer as it’s currently in the shed and the cold / drafts are creating pretty severe warping. No huge rush now that some %{€€~*{! <impolite word> stole my camera whilst it was on its way to be modified

The william optics ones are clear acrylic i believe

I printed a grey mask for my Meg72 and it works absolutely fine