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.

1 hour ago, kens said:

have a lookat https://github.com/rkaczorek/astroberry-diy

There is a driver there for a focuser controlled from the GPIO pins, but its a way to control a stepper motor and could possibly be adapted.

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.

6 hours ago, JamesF said:

I think the software just allows the GPIO pins to be exposed as INDI-accessable controls, perhaps so they can appear as switches in the Ekos interface.  I'm not sure it helps you at all with your goal however.

James

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.

7 hours ago, Tomatobro said:

I have a question. Are you just trying to accurately locate objects or do you need a goto function for remote control?. The reason why I ask is that if its just about putting objects in the eyepiece then there are simpler ways of doing it

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.

On 18/10/2020 at 17:04, alacant said:

Hi everyone

I had a bright Newtonian for the weekend, so took advantage of the new moon with a galaxy. It seems a bit too blue, but that's what Siril's photometric database gave. TBH, to make it look nice, I increased the colour saturation. Maybe too much.

Thanks for looking and Newtonian users, please post your shots of the same. Comparisons help us a lot.

700d @ ISO800 3 hours

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. 

Nicely done.

Excellent, I think you can move on to other targets now.

Lovely image, well done. 

A couple of good images especially Jupiter, well done. 

Image isn't that bad, chrominance is a little strong in the stars. Try this:

Use Starnet, tick the create star mask option.

On the star mask, play with curves, chrominance/saturation etc but just small tweaks.

On the nebula, I would try to lighten it, I think to get a lighter yellow you might need a hint of green adding. If the dark structures look pale then there's always the Dark structure script.

Once happy with both, re combine with Pixel math.

Lovely image @alacant, interesting one @paraman.

Very nice image, especially the wider field.

Not sure if I can help, dithering should only take a few seconds. Don't know anything about APP, might be some settings that need changing.

Maybe if you take shorter subs the read noise might reduce a bit.

Standard USB cable will connect direct to mount. It might take a while initially to figure out that the Baud rate needs to me 115200. You can always set it manually to 115200 in the INDI Control Panel for the mount.

48 minutes ago, pete_81 said:

How have you yours setup?

Everything connected to a Pegasus Ultimate Power Box V2, the Pegasus then connects to a Raspberry Pi4, the Pi4 connected to Macbook via ethernet cable. This makes it neat and tidy and a lot faster than wifi. 

50 minutes ago, pete_81 said:

I assume that KStars will continue to track position movement of the scope with the mount-on-board encoders?

Yes it has auto guiding.

51 minutes ago, pete_81 said:

Can KStars work with the AZEQ6 in altaz mode to slew mount around also?

I would have thought so but not tried it.

From the close up there does seem to be a noise issue. Are you dithering between subs ?