dazzystar

Hi All,

My Startravel 102 focus tube has this crazy sticky grease on it which makes it quite stiff to move. I can feel the stickiness on my fingers as I type this!

Does anyone know how to remove the tube so I can remove and re-grease?

Thanks

Daz

Here's a pic of the stepper motor with its case & lid and the bracket that'll hopefully screw to my ST102 scope.

2 minutes ago, malc-c said:

Hey, if its working and it's going to be encased, no one will know or care what the board looks like...

Quite and neat job, and top marks for using heat shrink 👍

The thing is I care what it looks like but I've simply had enough...with everything I've bought, ruined, etc. I could have probably bought a used ZWO EAF or Pegasus Focuscube V2 !

Well. It's built and working (at the moment anyway!). Now need to make a case.

Board not cut great I know!

47 minutes ago, malc-c said:

Ok... saves me the time and effort if you are going down the strip board route.

Thanks for the offer though Malcolm!

48 minutes ago, malc-c said:

Cutting the same track between two 0.1" pitch pins may be possible, but as the cut would be small there would be a risk of jumping it with solder.  The only way I can think of doing it is to lift the section of track under these two pins and use sumper wires soldered directly... messy but doable

It's no problem. I'll simply desolder the two pins from the 2209 driver and solder a wire directly.

8 hours ago, malc-c said:

OK there is one problem that will make using any prototype / strip board build very difficult.  The above schematic uses a pin on the module PCB labelled DIAG. as shown in the top half of this image I found on the web

 

The problem is the VREF and DIAG pins are all in line with the ENable pin and at standard 0.1" pitch, so effectively shorting them together when placed on a proto / strip board. 

It would also seem that the 2225 has been replaced by the 2226.  I've checked the component library in DipTrace and the TMC2225 doesn't exist so I'll have to modify one of the existing driver boards to create a new component and then if I get time will design a small PCB based on the schematic and upload  the gerbers.  It's up to the OP if he wants to send them off to a Chinese PCB house and have them made.  It won't be anything fantastic, just a crude slap together design

 

Using the 2209 Malcolm. Can't wait for the PCBs to arrive from China hence stripboard. Just need the board really for rigidity. Going to cut all tracks, solder the items to the board and try and wire it up using small jumper wires.

9 hours ago, malc-c said:

Strange design... grounds are not common and he uses the USB socket on the NANO to power it, meaning you have to have it plugged into a USB charger or batter bank, unless the Nano connects to a computer to receive instructions?  

If you are not sure about strip board, you can use protoboard like that shown in the post above, or simply mount the Nano and driver below each other in the same way , then use a 3mm drill bit between your fingers to brake all the tracks underneath the parts thus isolating all the pins.  Then use solid core wire (telephone extension cable is good for this) and the connect pin to pin on the schematic, eg D8 on the nano to pin 1 of the driver, D7 to pin 2 of the driver....

Yes Malcolm. The Nano is connected to the PC to control the autofocuser.

No and it probably wouldn't do me much good as it's the linking with wires and cutting of the tracks that I'm struggling with!

Pulling my hair out a bit now. Trying to use a piece of software called veecad.com to design the simple schematic onto a piece of stripboard but every time I try and do it, I end up screwing something up...it's like a puzzle!.  Can anyone help please?

2 hours ago, kbrown said:

Like others have already pointed out, vero boards are an option, if the circuit is fairly simple. Have a look at this: https://veecad.com/

It's a handy vero board designer that can take a netlist from KiCad for example and you can plan the vero board (fairly) easy.

It's very simple. An Arduino Nano, TMC2209 driver and a resistor. Plus power and small socket for the stepper motor

Only need 1 board for my autofocuser

Yes, I got some made in China a few weeks ago but I need this quickly.

Hi All,

Can anyone recommend a DIY PCB etching kit? Need to produce one small PCB quickly and cheaply. 

Thanks

Daz

Hi All,

Looking for advice on a decent performing, value for money, guide scope and camera suitable for a Startravel 102 refractor on an EQ3 Pro mount please.

Cheers

Daz

Thanks a million Malcolm!

A guide scope and camera are next on my shopping list!

yes. I did. But not entirely certain the driver I had was wrong. I'm just trying to avoid downloading and installing loads of crap on to the mini pc when I come to set it all up.

Thanks Malcolm. Just need to get my head around what I've done and why it's working now!

don't ask me how but it's now working in Stellarium....problem is, when I set it up on the real mini pc I don't know what I did I tried so many things!

Thanks for the reply. Not sure what to do now!

am I meant to have the Synscan controller plugged in to the motor control box and the USB cable connected to the hand controller too...don't want that. Just want usb to control box.

belay that. Found the program and installed but there's no EQASCOM to select in the dropdown

18 hours ago, malc-c said:

I'm wondering if the driver downloaded form the SW website is custom written to work with the synscan app

So basically you have the com port on the mount that has the PL2303 com port driver installed on the windows PC.  Then you need the "ASCOM  compliant driver" which is going to act like EQMOD or GSServer would as being the interface between the planetarium application and the mount.

So one possible thing to try to establish communications - Having installed the PL2303 driver I posted, down load EQMOD from here 

Once  installed open up EQASCOM TOOLBOX  and under the setup panel ensure EQASCOM is selected in the dropdown box, and click on Driver set up.  

This will launch the driver - Under mount type chose "SyntaEQ " if not already defaulted to this option

Set the baud rate to match the 115200 set in device manager for the port, and set the port number to match that assigned to the mount's com port

For now as this is just a test ignore the site info  - click OK

Place the mount in the default parking position,  weights down and scope pointing North

With the mount powered on and connected to the PC click the "test connection" button - if all is well this should launch EQMOD and establish communications with the mount.  If it keeps timing out and closing / opening over and over again, then click the disconnect button on the Toolbox to close EQMOD.

Assuming it connects, in the "slew control" section, change the 1 to 4 in the small drop down boc between the RA and DEC rate sliders.  

Now click on the NSWE buttons - the longer the click the more the mount should move.   

Move the mount as if pointing at a random target and click the park to home button - the scope should move both axis to revert the mount back to the default home position.

Under whichever planetarium software, or any application that needs to control the mount, when in the option to select the mount just choose EQMOD HEQ5/6 (as this was what EQMOD was originally designed for back in the day).  Don't worry about your mount not being listed, EQMOD interrogates the motor board to obtain information from it so it knows the correct gear ratios etc.

 

Naturally this can all be done in the day time - Fingers crossed 

If  you still get issues seeing the com port (even though Device Manager states its working fine) then you might just have to reside yourself to the fact this won't work for some reason, and purchase and use a LYNX FTDI EQDIR cable instead 

 

 

I downloaded following your link but the only .exe file it's installed is ascompad.exe. Can't see any EQASCOM TOOLBOX...?

Thanks for the replies. I'll give that a go when I get home from work this evening.