adyj1

Are your piers going to be effectively bonded to the base slab of your shed? If so, is there something that will stop vibrations from walking on the base from being transmitted directly to the mount? 

I may have got the wrong end of the stick though... 

Fascinated to see how this turns out - really innovative approach 👍 

2 hours ago, bosun21 said:

I started off with just the ZWO camera and no guide scope or anything else. Just unguided EEVA. It doesn’t need to guide. I learned the basics and added the other parts one at a time. First the guide scope and camera, then the filter wheel and EAF auto focuser. So I was never swamped with everything at once to learn. I now just download from my SD card or thumb drive to my PC. I don’t think I would gain anything from changing to a PC based system.

This is a thread about guiding and the OP doesn't have a zwo guide camera...

I get that the Asiair is very good, but that's a fairly big outlay to get guiding working compared to the rest of the kit in his list. I'd have thought the next upgrade should ideally be his mount, once he's got all his current bits working and knows he wants to spend more money on the hobby. 

I'm with previous posters - pare it all back to basics and get one thing working at a time (although I do like plate solving, and got that working before I did guiding 😉) 

7 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I thankfully avoided all this dilemma and bought an asiair plus. Without any astrophotography experience I can now polar align without Polaris, slew to target and plate solve, centre the target, get perfect focus with my EAF, control my filter wheel and plan my auto run. Best little box I ever bought.

A nice option if you can afford it and all the ZWO kit it relies on... 

54 minutes ago, powerlord said:

But I don't think it would be right to share code

Ah, good point - didn't think of that and fully understand. The rest will be crumbs enough 😁 

11 minutes ago, skybadger said:

Full your boots with my alpaca driver at github/Skybadger/filterwheel which is Arduino compliant but written for esp8266.

Sounds like a plan. Thanks 👍 

Ady

Excellent job @powerlord!

Are you planning to share your build list and code? I have the 5 x 1.25" SVbony FW and similar plans for DIY automation, but the projects I've seen online so far have been much more complicated.

I appreciate a detailed 'follow-along' Youtube guide is quite an undertaking but if you can throw me some crumbs I'd appreciate it 😉 

Thanks

Ady

Good luck with the build! 👍 

For a mount control pc that sits in the obsy - but isn't going to be mounted on the OTA - I bought a "HP 260 G2 MINI PC i5-6200U 2.3Ghz, 8GB RAM W/PSU, NO HDD" from ebay for £63. I added a Kingston 240GB SSD from Amazon for £16.99, and it works a treat... 

15 hours ago, saac said:

Condensation in obsys seems to be something that inadvertently gets designed into the construction.  I'm of the mind that people often over think it and then end up chasing their tail trying to manage it.  The key is simply sufficient ventilation, but there has to be a high refresh rate.  My obsy is a converted garden summerhouse (roll off roof) wooden construction. Despite the climate here doing its best, I've never had any condensation and don't use a dehumidifier, no vapour barrier on walls etc.  Everything is uninsulated (walls , roof, windows etc) but there is a large refresh of air as the roof overhangs the walls leaving an adequate gap all round the perimeter (octagonal frame & roof). If you are determined to use a metal skinned construction I would go over the top to make sure you have maximum natural ventilation (high and low ventilators). 

Jim

This hasn't been my experience with my thin metal roof. There is currently way more ventilation than I originally planned (NB: must fill that two-inch gap that goes all the way along the top of the back wall) , and the condensation from the roof inside was like raindrops until I put some foil bubble insulation sheets up. 

[duplicate]

[duplicate - d'oh!]

2 hours ago, EarthLife said:

Also, metal sheds make for very nice faraday cages  .. could be good, could be not so good.

If you have any wireless comms between shed/house etc using antennas inside the shed then communication could be severely restricted. if it becomes a problem then just mount say any wifi antennas on the outside of the shed.

I was worried about this when planning my shed, but I have a few low-powered ESP devices running temp sensors and the roof motor logic and haven't so far had any problems accessing a wifi access point outside the shed.   My AP isn't that far away, so it may be that range is restricted if you were looking at longer distances.

As you say wired ethernet should ideally be the first choice (and that's what the astro PC uses).  

10 hours ago, powerlord said:

here's a dodgy animation of what I'm talking about.

 

A rather whizzy animation, to be fair. The description comes to life!

Sounds like a lightweight way to do it, for sure. Looks like I might be wishing you did this before I did mine 😉 

Good luck! 

Ady

You're right, I'm not sure I'm using the right terminology either, so I'll try harder 😉

I'll show you what I've done, but I'm certainly not suggesting it is the best way to do it. I just know it hasn't fallen off. Yet.  

I used Skelang U-groove gate wheels from Amazon in the end (rather than v-groove):

Probably engineering overkill (and I used 6 so that the roof doesn't 'flex') but I wanted a high level of confidence it would last longer than a summer ;-). (In hindsight, I've seen nylon grooved wheels that are a similar size but would probably have done as well).

Here is a picture of my roof mid-build. The dark wood is an extra run of old pergola struts which raise the sides of the roof and give me better clearance for my scope, which I decided to add during construction and now realise is a key contributor to the weight... (I extended the shed's back wall up to the lip of the roof, so that the dark wood roof base is actually only 3-sided):

I've seen proper gate v-channel used for the runners, but boy is that expensive 😮 - 12mm metal galvanised steel channel from Wickes at a pound a meter worked great for me (fitted the other way up to the pic). 

I have a 3d printer, and I would worry that it is asking a lot of the v-groove pulleys, they are quite small and I would worry about the weight of the roof.  

I'm not trying to deter you  - having seen your success so far I'm sure you'll figure a way to make it work. As I see it the challenge is to brace your roof sufficiently without adding too much weight.

Hope this helps

[Fair disclosure: my DIY competence is inversely proportional to the unreasonably high ambition I have for my projects.]

I built a metal shed ROR obsy last year. Got an 8' x 4' from Amazon: Apex Roof Storage Shed (Grey, 8x4) ( in green). The 4' width was a limitation of space, but my 150PDS/EQ6 fits neatly. 

First warning: the metal is very thin and flimsy, with structural rigidity being provided by the roof pinning the walls together. Strengthening the roof is a double-edged sword - you want to try to keep the weight down, but need the roof to stay absolutely rigid for your motors and runners to work reliably. I used a not-excessive wooden frame and this added a fair bit of weight (which at least has the advantage of stability in windy conditions). I see you are planning use stepper motors, so you'll need to make sure they are man enough for the weight of your strengthened roof. Are you thinking of using the heavy-duty drawer runners, or v-groove wheels? I used a gate motor for automation (a la astrobloke) but then again my roof is all in one piece. 

The sliding doors on this type of shed are ultra-flimsy. I've had to move the handles up the doors so they are closer to the 'hanging runners'  at the top to open them smoothly. I've fitted a locking hasp to the outside for security, but this is more to put off the casual thief than a determined burglar. I'm expect the visible CCTV cameras covering the garden, shed and back gate are the biggest deterrent. I suspect a rambo-style hunting knife would open up the shed door (or walls) like they were nothing more than sturdy parchment...  😞

Mind you, there's a fair chance any thief would knock themselves out on the beams that run out at about 5' high either side of the shed door (for the roof runners) - I know I've banged my head on them more times than I count - and I'm the eejit that put them there 🤣

HTH

Ady

Changed the head 17 times and the handle 14 times... 😁 

15 hours ago, pinakoza said:

Excellent job, many thanks for sharing this great project. Ordered everything more than a month ago, and arrived a week earlier. I put together everything neatly, and connected it to the mount. The wifi started showing up on my laptop, and got connected to it - succeed up to this stage. But when typing 192.168.4.1 in my Chrome/Edge, it won't open up it's webserver! It looks similar problem as described by stash_old. I have also ordered two of the devices, both of them shows their own wifi, but none of them opens up on webserver. Any advice?

This is the ESP8285 ESP-M2 chip that I ordered:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32891837399.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.72461802vSLp6i

running on 5volts using this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32807048132.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.14311802zUyE3n

Just to check - what IP and Gateway address does your PC have when it connects to the ESP access point network? 

Very impressive! 

11 hours ago, Spaced Out said:

I've not tried it again tonight. I just assumed the brand new ZWO one should work, so it concerns me that the problem persists, but I take your point, I'll try the other one again and see if it still works ok.  👍

I agree, but the list of what works and what doesn't work may point to the problem, and hey - if you've got something that works, then that is a plus ☺ 

If it does work, compare the spec of each PSU (and if you've got a multimeter, check them - I've got a cheap chines 12v psu that pumps out 14v!l

Ady

On 04/10/2022 at 22:32, Spaced Out said:

I tested the cameras this evening with a different PSU and everything seems to work as expected, which is encouraging.

I assume this psu isn't working any more either? 

2 hours ago, Elp said:

If you're using a goto mount it needs to be level and aligned prior to switching power on. Saying that a motor is a motor, it will continue to move regardless unless told otherwise. When I viewed the sun last I only made sure the tripod was level and scope was facing roughly north, I couldn't do it accurately as I didn't have the compass with me and the scope was pointing directly at a wall rather than my usual spot. Power was switched on, I declutched it and manually aligned it to the sun, then simply chose point and track.

Thanks @Elp

I think we should 'like' this as the seminal answer and delete the rest of our posts. 😉 

29 minutes ago, Gfamily said:

Can you let us know if it works, the online Synscan app manual says 

So it would be useful to know if it adjusts the tracking to RA only if in EQ mode

not 'point and track' - just 'tracking'

Ady

1 hour ago, Gfamily said:

Not really (or rather, yes!)

If we're going back to change previous posts without making it clear the edit is to change the gist, then this could get really messy... 

Apologies if I've sent this down a rabbit-hole.

In an attempt to have a positive contribution to this thread, for those that may not be aware similar functionality can be had in EQ mode (as long as you carry out reasonable polar alignment when setting up).  

You don't even have to tell the mount what you are looking at, just point your scope at the object you want to view (you can use a combination of manual slew and fine-tuning with the RA/DEC buttons) and then turn on tracking in the app/on the handset...

Ady