Davey-T

No, two bits of aluminium joined with a "skeleton" hinge, bit cheap and floppy but does the job. Nicked the idea from Dave D Dave

Just got this on the scope, been waiting for the Sun to go too low as it's on the Quark scope and didn't want to disturb it 'till now. Only running on the AAF2 app ATM, need to remount the scope and see if I can get it to work with Maxim. Dave

Know the feeling, I carried the hoover downstairs this morning full of good intentions, then the Sun came out so I spent an hour looking at that, made some butternut squash soup for lunch, did a bit in the garden, cleaned a bit of the camper van, got the dinner, idled away some time on SGL and did a bit of guitar practice, never did get any hoovering done Dave

Knitting ? Dave

Hi Gina, sorry you're not feeling too chipper ATM, best have a rest and plan a few more projects did you get the all sky camera going for the Gemenids ? Dave

Hi Gina, I used this to fix the end of polycarbonate sheet, this looks like plastic though, the one I used was aluminium. Dave http://www.screwfix.com/p/corotherm-side-flashing-brown-x-16-x-4000mm-pack-of-2/77226 This one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aluminium-F-Section-Glazing-Bar-for-Polycarbonate-Glass/110531112416?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D28111%26meid%3D055d13335e0b4ae88cbd26445c711158%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D11472%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D121514733146&rt=nc

You've obviously got too much time on your hands Dave

Motion co site has a handy thing for working out belt length Dave

I think in win 7 you can shift and rt click on the desktop to get the drop down menu. Dave

In Win 8 you can press win key + z to get a drop down menu and one of the options is open command prompt as administrator, you'll need this to register the DLL. Dave

Finally managed to get it all in a box today, bit bigger than I wanted but at least it all goes in with room to spare, used your idea of sticking the Arduino on a bit of Vero board, just got to fit it to the Lunt LS60 somehow now. Dave

In true M'Soft tradition Dave

Making progress Dave

Thanks Dave, will try tomorrow. Hard to download as it keeps getting jumped on by M'Soft Security and Norton Security, have to fight them off to download Dave

So what's the answer ? Don't have temp' sensor Dave

Spent the evening beating Win 8.1 into submission and finally got it working nearly, just getting this error message now, do I need to download a different sketch ? Dave

Done a quick test sketch to flash LED which compiles OK and runs, doesn't work and gives error "avrdude: stk500-getsync ():not in sync: resp=0x00 Anyone know what this means ? Dave Got it working now, had the wrong board selected under the "tools" drop down menu. I'd forgotten what fun it was checking all the punctuation in lines of code

Dowloaded IDE, got all the bits plugged into each other and got red/green flashing LED on Arduino, got no "found new hardware message" but it said it was installing a USB device, but no name, didn't ask for driver and in device manager it's got something called CH340 on COM Port 3, no mention of Arduino is this it ? Dave Running Win 8.1

Hi Dave, Got all the bits now so will make a start today, as an Arduino virgin it will be interesting, on your photo you appear to have jumpers on the pins at the opposite end to the USB plug, are they serving any purpose or just insulating the pins ? Dave

Most of the bits have arrived, do stepper motors have a standard spindle size ? I can only find 4mm or 5mm wheels but it seems to be between the two (must get a metric micrometer) Measures just under 20 thou inch. Dave

Be one more if the bits ever show up Dave

Ordered the bits, downloaded the IDE, just need to sort belt and pulleys to fit the LS60. Dave

Thanks Dave, Is it obvious what the lines in your prog' do or is it annotated, used to do endless annotating as my memory wasn't that good and it's a lot worse now Dave

Thanks Dave, will order bits. By the way what is the programming language like ? haven't programmed since Delphi 2 and Win 98 and a bit of Access 2003 Dave

Now you've inspired me Dave,(and done all the hard graft) I'm going to have a stab at making a focuser for my Lunt LS60. You appear to be using a 9v stepper motor but I can only find 5v and 12v on EBay. Is this suitable ? Dave http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-5V-Stepper-Motor-With-ULN2003-Board-5-Line-cable-for-Arduino-Raspberry-Pi-/131070819595?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item1e846dfd0b