MarkAR

Onstep is a pretty cheap option if you're good at a bit of soldering, the expensive part is if you want to use a large worm and wheel to drive it. I'm currently building something for a 10" newt. https://www.backyardastro.org/topic/689-10-newt-to-dob-base/

Looking to order the MaxESP3 kit and Smart hand controller and bits, comes to around £85. Just add a pair of Nema23's and power.

Aiming for Goto. Either wifi to my phone and use Stellarium or maybe build a RPi4 console for the mount and use Astroberry.

Thanks for the heads up, tech is advancing daily but at least I know the MaxESP3 works. Will be using Nema23 motors so S109 drivers required.

I'm looking to do similar with a Dob mount, investigating the MaxESP3 and Arduino at the moment.

Going to have another look at OnStep kits, maybe the MaxESP3. Coding a driver for the Pi would be totally beyond me.

That is a possibility I looked at, also tried looking for stuff about Astroberry Board and Astroberry DIY, implementation is non existent on these two as far as I can find.

Thanks James, that's roughly what I thought it does. Cant find any evidence of anyone actually using it though. @Gina has mentioned she has edited/compiled drivers in C++, that sounds like an option. Another thought was that I could bodge together an EQ6 Synscan upgrade kit onto the dob mount but not sure if it works in AltAz.

Just trying to figure out a goto function that would work with a custom mount. I would like to use planetarium software to point the scope and track whilst observing. I have another rig for photography.

Anyone any ideas ???

Hi all, I'm planning on building a dob mount form 250P-DS and eventually would like to make it GOTO. I'm aware that a Pi can handle the stepper motors with Python but I came across this in the INDI site https://indilib.org/develop/indiforjava/i4jdrivers/raspberry-pi-gpio-driver.html Anyone any ideas about what it is, what it does and how I might be able to use it as an interface between EKOS or CduC, I would hope to be running Astroberry on the Pi and using a joystick/button controller and a 10.1" touchscreen. I know that OnStep is available to build and works but sourcing the components or kits is a pain.

Pulse via serial is the better option. Not familiar with the EQstar, is your profile set to EQMOD ?

I would look at Lindy's active cable offerings. https://www.lindy.co.uk/search/usb-c4/usb-extension-c222/usb-3-0-t2096/active

I had the same in Ekos a couple of times after updates. Sounds like it loses it's position on startup. At least in Ekos there's a stop button.

An excellent image, not too blue as it is. In fact there is a hint of green which is made noticeable in two spots circled.