Thalestris24

Oh ok, I was thinking more in terms of generic parts that could be made use of. As I've never looked, I accept you're probably right! At the same time I intuitively feel someone must have made a star tracker from scratch before somewhere.... There are some projects on Thingiverse but, yeah, all also seem to use printed gears. However, presumably the aim is to control the tracker at a sidereal rate so that could be controlled by an Arduino-type processor, stepper motor and the control pulses adjusted for whatever the worm/gear/stepper motor combo allows? I'm just thinking out loud - I've probably missed something obvious! I'm so out of touch with astro things these days! I do have a motorised rail which I use for a microscope and which allows microsteps in the micrometer range. Louise

Cool project, Vlaiv! Might metal gears be better and more rugged? I'd have thought the Star Adventurer, or similar, gears would be easily obtainable? (Though I admit I've no idea really.) Then you'd just need to make the housing/add a motor etc.? Re: Filament absorbing moisture. If you get some large ziplock plastic bags (47 x 33 cm) you can store/dry filament by including a few handfuls of silica beads in a small porous/mesh bag. I find I can quickly and easily dry the beads for re-use in my microwave oven . How are you finding FreeCAD? My educational Fusion 360 is about to expire so I might switch to FreeCAD. I'm not sure what I might lose by using the hobbyist Fusion 360 instead - especially with things like threads and custom threads. I suspect it's not easy to create T2 threads in FreeCAD but I'll have a look. Cheers Louise

Ah - that would explain it! I find I have to put in my own custom values in order to get T2 threads to work on my Ender 3 Pro v1. I'll compare my values to yours! Thanks Louise

Hi I was interested to see what values you've used for the astro threads but have not managed to read your .xml It throws up an error in Edge and the downloaded file isn't easily readable in Notepad++ which I normally use for xml files like the AstroISOmetric one. Any ideas? Thanks Louise

Hiya i took the liberty of doing a quick auto stretch.... Would benefit a lot from flats Louise

Thanks for the reply, Peter. I had a feeling all was not well and I think she was a bit older than me. Sad times. Louise

Are you still around, Gina? Louise

Not sure if he was any relation to James Webb but David Webb was Jason Bourne's real name Louise

The attached paper suggests that black PLA is pretty much opaque to near IR 3D_OpticalTransmittance.pdf

Hmm... I don't think that IR is an issue, at least it wasn't with the original Lowspec that I printed. Even if it was, I'm sure you could spray or coat the outside with something opaque to IR. What symptoms do you have with the printer? Louise

OK, tho I don't see any need for ABS over PLA but it's up to you! I seem to remember (3yrs ago) that Paul had a more sophisticated printer then, at least... Louise

Am not sure how often Paul comes on here... Is there any reason you don't want to use PLA or PLA+ or PLA carbon fibre? The carbon fibre one is supposed to be stronger, stiffer and lighter but prefers a hardened steel nozzle. Also, Cura is rather slow - I use Prusa Slicer which I find easy and pretty good https://github.com/prusa3d/PrusaSlicer/releases/tag/version_2.5.0-alpha2 - that's the latest release which I've not tried myself yet. (You just make a folder and 'extract all' into a subfolder then do a 'send to' desktop of the .exe file. I think the first time you install, you select which printer(s) you are using it for i.e. Ender 3 and configure accordingly Hth Louise

No - Altair Astro

OK - you shouldn't get blocked nozzles with PLA if settings correct...

Oh dear - PLA is much easier to handle, I think You will need to focus the camera but maybe only the once (as I recall, but it's a bit foggy now!). However, you'll have to work out beforehand where the camera/sensor will sit so that it's close to the focal plane to start with. Once you've got the approximate distance from the case then you'll be able to work out the best way of fixing it to the case. I'm just using my imagination here. Is there some guidance with the build instructions? I have a GPCAM3-178M and the sensor is quite small so you don't have to worry much about the connection aperture. Louise

ps something you could try is to heat the metal T2 piece (you are trying to connect) with a hairdryer. When hot it can be easier to screw in. I've only done this with PLA.

I think it's down to printer calibration and maybe printer settings too. FWIW it's something I had a problem with as well. A way around it is to modify the design so that you can fit in place short metal T2 tubes/adapters rather than relying on printing the T2 threads. So just convert threaded part to unthreaded so you can fit and glue an appropriate T2 adapter in place. It's a long time since I printed my old original design lowspec case but I think that's how I got around the problem. It can get very frustrating to have to reprint a whole case (more than once!) just to get the T2 threads right... I'm not sure what the current design is like exactly but if I was printing any kind of substantial case with T2 threads, I'd probably do it in the way that I suggested. It's still worth calibrating the printer properly - x-y movements, filament motion, and accurate levelling, of course! When I printed my lowspec it was the first thing I ever did on a 3D printer. Then began to realise there was quite a steep learning curve for me - so many things to adjust and get right! Louise

If you do a search on here you should be able to find instructions for setting up custom threads in Autodesk Fusion 360 if you need to make any from scratch. But aren't you just printing out the existing design? You would probably have to calibrate the printer to get threads to print out accurately but it's a good idea to do that anyway. There are videos on YouTube for doing that. Louise

I found some stuff - invoice and registration ack. Looks like I created an account then registered on the web site. Not sure if export@jeulin.com is still their correct email. If it is you can contact them to check the ordering procedure, if you need to. Part of invoice - the shipping and handling adds a fair bit... Louise

You may do. I can't remember now but I'll have a look back through my emails. Make sure you are buying from Jeulin, not Ovio. Louise

You only need the disk itself tho I got one with the holder not realising at the time you could get one without, d'uh. However, they are quite fragile. Have fun! Louise

Just go here: 12 simple radial slots - 40 mm diameter token - Jeulin Add to basket. I think you have to create an account. It's 3 yrs since I bought mine so not sure if anything has changed.... Louise

Hi there! Well I'm afraid I'm not doing any serious astro anymore. It's really the lack of clear skies that's the problem. It's rare that I can look out and see more than a couple of bright stars. Even if it's not actually cloudy the amount of water in the atmosphere negates transparency. An exception might be frosty winter nights but, as I enter my twilight years, I can't cope with the cold anymore - not even from inside the flat. Louise

I got it basically working but kept dropping it! I just got frustrated and put it to one side. I've not really done any serious astro for most of the last 2 years. The sky conditions here have become terrible (they always were but now it's just too difficult to do anything interesting so all of my astro equipment just gathers dust I hope you fare better. Louise

Hi Rick You just need a camera rotator - maybe one of these Teleskop-Express: TS-Optics T2 Thread 360° Rotation and Quick Changer - 5,5mm short or similar. Louise