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All in one Arduino

Michaelo

By Michaelo
in DIY Astronomer

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Morris Oxford

Morris Oxford

Posted
Posted

I used mine for RA and DEC and focus control.

I bought the EQ3-2 dual motor upgrade kit for my mount but the controller didn't slew quick enough for my liking. Also a motorised focuser would mean extra kit/leads etc.

I made a three channel stepper driver that plugs in like a 'shield' and drives all three using a joystick I picked up from a car boot.

Pictures of it are in my gallery.

No PC communication at the moment just manual control but I would like to add this feature at some point.

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Gina

Gina

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Ever get the feeling you've been "volunteered", Chris? :)

James

:D Just a suggestion :) Absolutely NO obligation :D Think I might have overstepped the mark - sorry Chris.
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yesyes

yesyes

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:D Just a suggestion :) Absolutely NO obligation :D Think I might have overstepped the mark - sorry Chris.

Absolutely no apologies necessary. No marks have been overstepped. ;-)

I haven't posted anything here because it's not really astro related. I will, however, have loads of these HA devices in my obsy. I will post that then when the time comes. ;-)

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JamesF

JamesF

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I used mine for RA and DEC and focus control.

I bought the EQ3-2 dual motor upgrade kit for my mount but the controller didn't slew quick enough for my liking. Also a motorised focuser would mean extra kit/leads etc.

I made a three channel stepper driver that plugs in like a 'shield' and drives all three using a joystick I picked up from a car boot.

Pictures of it are in my gallery.

No PC communication at the moment just manual control but I would like to add this feature at some point.

Given the rate at which the hand controllers seem to go pop, I think quite a few people would be very pleased to see lots more detail on this project if you have time to write it all up.

James

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Gina

Gina

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Absolutely no apologies necessary. No marks have been overstepped. ;-)

I haven't posted anything here because it's not really astro related. I will, however, have loads of these HA devices in my obsy. I will post that then when the time comes. ;-)

Thanks Chris :)
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George

George

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Absolutely no apologies necessary. No marks have been overstepped. ;-)

I haven't posted anything here because it's not really astro related. I will, however, have loads of these HA devices in my obsy. I will post that then when the time comes. ;-)

Chris I don't think posting anything not specific to astronomy is a problem when it can easily be adapted for astronomical use :grin:

Carry on with the discussion........

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Michaelo

Michaelo

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@Chris ... no problems it's all good and interesting ;)

As to getting one Arduino to do everything... not now my aim but it was originally...

I've modified my ideas based on everything I looked at... it's a little more like this...

A master control unit with LCD and radio communication, capable of controlling 16/32 remote units....

Each remote device would have it's own Arduino but where possible replacing the normal processor with the 8 pin chip version...

I do not intend using an actual Arduino dev board, I would build a dedicated PCB and supply the schematic and Eagle PBC ect...

Mike

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Michaelo

Michaelo

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Multitasking in any processor is a bit of a myth... even multi-core processors are fed their instructions sequentially... mind you, all Arduino do support at least one hardware interrupts so in theory is can multitask...

It would be a nice exercise to use two or more Arduinos and create a real multitasking board... One processor dealing with focuser(s), one dealing with dew heater controls etc., and one to control them and send the control data... and of course they would all share the LCD and Buttons... definitely worth pursuing...

@Chris, can I ask how much are the radio boards you mentioned?

Just to recap devices so far....

Devices: (independent devices no control needed)

  • Rain sensor...
  • Cloud sensor...
  • Weather station (several sensors)...

You could add the ability for each of these devices to send its data to the controller, in which case they would go in the next group...

Controllable Devices:

  • Autoguiding...
  • Cloud sensor (use controller to setup and receive data)...
  • Dew Heaters (multiple heaters on various scopes with one controller)...
  • Focusing (multiple scopes with one controller)...
  • Weather station (use controller to setup and receive data)...

post-27704-0-03881600-1359303500_thumb.j

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yesyes

yesyes

Posted
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@Chris, can I ask how much are the radio boards you mentioned?

Of course! ;-)

This is one of the listings on ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290741200025?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

They are £8.75 at the moment with free postage from Hong Kong. The version with the SMA connector instead of the antenna are a little more expensive.

Regarding autoguiding, has anyone actually managed to get this working? I would think the Arduino is not powerful enough and hasn't got enough memory to analyse video frames at a good enough resolution.

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JamesF

JamesF

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Multitasking in any processor is a bit of a myth... even multi-core processors are fed their instructions sequentially...

I think with modern processors that implement features such as predictive execution that may be a difficult assertion to support, but even before that I think most people who used the expression would understand "multitasking" in a computing context to mean some sort of time-slicing or similar processor-sharing system rather than parallel execution of multiple instruction sequences.

I believe that regardless of how the instruction pipeline(s) are being filled, modern Intel processors can have multiple instructions being executed at the same time. Processor designs make my head hurt these days though.

James

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Michaelo

Michaelo

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True multitasking requires multiple processor executions on the same clock cycle... (true in multi-core processors)...

Multitasking has come to mean the ability to perform several task at what we perceive to be the same instant in time (almost any processor)...

It's purely academic... we have gone from time slicing in older processors to hardware slicing in modern processors to achieve the same results albeit faster...

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astrofox

astrofox

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If price of buying several units is a problem you can get all the bits including a professional PCB to build an Arduino for just under a tenner. Thats a saving on the official UNO R3 which retails at £20-24.

You could also shave that price by buiding on on Veroboard aka "Veroino"

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George

George

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If price of buying several units is a problem you can get all the bits including a professional PCB to build an Arduino for just under a tenner. Thats a saving on the official UNO R3 which retails at £20-24.

You could also shave that price by buiding on on Veroboard aka "Veroino"

They can be had for much less than that:

http://www.ebay.co.u...ts-Electronics-

/230890930834?pt=UK_Computing_Other_Computing_Networking&hash=item35c22c0292

http://www.hobbyking..._ATmega328.html

This guy is pretty good too....Ive used him.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/rcubestation

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Michaelo

Michaelo

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I don't think cost will be a deciding factor... using actual Arduino development board would be wasteful...

Veroboard is fine for prototyping but I prefer to make a PCB for the actual device...

If you have enough quantities, getting them made professionally make sense...

Should point out, I'm not new to this, been doing this kind of thing for thirty years...

Mike

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George

George

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I've ordered one then I realised that was a bit foolish... should have got four as the postage was more than the unit price :eek: ... Never bought off ebay before so I will consider it a test..

Has anyone looked at Penguino before (http://pinguino.cc/) the 32 bit look interesting...

Postage was same for each additional item......you didn't lose out :)

Dont see the point in moving to the Pinguino when the Arduino and clones is so well supported, if it aint broke..........:)

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astrofox

astrofox

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If price of buying several units is a problem you can get all the bits including a professional PCB to build an Arduino for just under a tenner. Thats a saving on the official UNO R3 which retails at £20-24.

You could also shave that price by buiding on on Veroboard aka "Veroino"

Just to clarify when I said you can get anproffessional pcb for under a tenner I was including all component Arduino chip with bootload for £3:50 Crystal £1.50 plus misc caps and resistors and voltage regulator. The board itself was £3:50
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