Badder Steeldrive

[hayju01]

I need to start by saying I am writing this to take a break and calm down a little after 2 hours of frustration and disappointment.

After 2 years and 4 attempts (supply of this has suffered from delays and I have cancelled orders) this time it took over 5 weeks and allot of patience (to not cancel) I received my Steeldrive on Friday.

I have been extremely pleased with the Steeltrack focuser my trouble has been getting that mm perfect focus when looking at laptop screen without too much shake.

The Steeldrive seems like the answer.........albeit an expensive one @ £317........for a Stepper motor!!!

First impression, two boxes ! One for drive and one for controller.

Small and sturdy.

A4 printed instructions, you'd think considering the cost your get a proper manual.

Also noted I need power but I have plenty of 12v cigarette lighter power cables.

After a tough working week I decide to leave it until today to fit it, so I got the kids sorted and settled down at 11 with OTA, drive, allenkeys etc.

I read the instructions, yes all the way through and felt confident I knew what was involved so unpacked Steeldrive.

Although the unit is small and well made I was surprised by two things

1. Fixing to focuser is by way of 4 grub screws, one of my pet hates as these seem to be all the rage on toilet roll holders and towel racks and never hold these with some amount of rattle.

2. Some of the PCB is outside the enclosure, I know wires have to come from connectors but a little more though could have this inside. Ok so it will be covered when drive is installed but even so considering cost.

So on to fitting, I decide to do a trial fitting without belt attached and this is where the frustration started and my concerns about grub screw attachment were proven. It took over 1 hour to attach/reattach on multiple occasions to get the correct placement, alignment and security. I questioned if the engineers at Baader had ever tried fitting one of these and if they have, then I doubt in 'real life' scenario e.g. On scope in dark with gloves on because they would have come up with a better solution.

I do not have the luxury of an Obs so I will be setting this up each time and yes it will have to be each time as you can't use the focuser manually with belt attached.

With the drive finally attached but already thinking about returning it I decide to power it up and it was at this point that I discovered that it cannot be powered by regular 12v power cables!!

Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!!

Now I'm calmer I will get the laptop out so I can test as it is powered by us. I need to install 4 software items, let's hope it's goes better...... Will report back later!!!

I will also add pics of the grubs screws/exposed PCB.

Thank for listening

[hayju01]

Ok so part two.

In summary - Steeldrive is being returned.

I got the software installed and managed to get it drive to move a few mms but then it would stop and reading up on it there was some belt adjustment necessary which I did. I also read a comment in the manual that manual use of the focuser should be possible.

So I thought ok let's start again.....

Well it was possible to get the drive attached securely but not in such away that drive and pulls were aligned, even by adjusting stepper position.

So after almost 4 hours I have run out of patience and unit is going back because even if after another 4 hours I get this working there is no way I will have time to fiddle with this in the dark after it was fiddling with focus that U.S. Was supposed to be helping with nit switching one fiddle with another. It may be ok for perm obs setup but I have my reservations even then.

Final summary - fiddly setup and expensive for what it is.

[Stu]

It's very interesting to hear of your experiences. I purchased a used unit and in all but one respect I've been delighted with it.

I found the fitting very simple, a matter of a few minutes, the alignment I did with the belt in place and it has held securely with no rattles ever since.

I don't remove it each time, and it is still possible to use the focuser manually so it is quite convenient.

My one problem, which I think is down to a lose connection, is that the position resets to zero every now and then. I'm not using it with a laptop so its not a major problem but at some point I will check out the wiring and hope to find the problem.

It's a shame you couldn't get on with yours.

Stu

[perfrej]

Mine moves fine manually with the belt on... What is stopping yours?

/per

[hayju01]

Well sounds like I might be doing something wrong. As far as stability/security of attachment it is secure I was just surprised by the somewhat (IMHO) flimsy nature considering Baader make the focuser and the drive I would have expected a better solution.

As far as manual focusing is concerned I can use the micro focuser knob but not the major focuser, it simply won't turn very far.

What's stopping it? I can only assume the stepper motor...

I will take another look thanks for you comments

[hayju01]

Ok, so after a strong cup of tea and wifey with instructions in hand (not sure thus helped ). I started from scratch and explained to her as I went.

There was no Eureka moment as to what I had done wrong but after more fiddling with grub screws and very (and I mean very) slight adjustments to positioning of drive...it worked!!!!!

I can now manually adjust focus on both knobs and use drive attached to laptop. Currently no position info is displayed but as I have no interest in that for my purposes I'm ok with that.

One last question - what you using to power the handset?

I know a guider can be used or there's a Baader outdoor supply I had assumed as the blurb said can be controlled by the supplied handset that this was battery powered or as I said earlier took a standard 12v cigarette cable but again I was wrong

[perfrej]

Actually, my Steeldrive now has no electronics at all on-board. I took it all out and drive the stepper from my other home-brew electronics. When I used it with the original electronics I never connected the handset, I just connected the USB and loaded up the drivers. I did write an alternative ASCOM driver for the original electronics as my fellows in the remote obsy had a problem in that the driver needed an OK-click for the com port selection. My own driver got rid of that behavior. Let me know if you want to try the driver, which is really geared at full automation scenarios.

/per

[hayju01]

Thanks for the advice and sorry for the delay.

I'd certainly like to give your driver a go please.

Justin

[BlueAstra]

_{I have had a Steel drive from when it was first issued. In the early days there were many software issues, but I think its fairly stable now. I've enclosed a link describing those problems. I find it easy to fit to the focuser, and I power it independently from the control box. I control it entirely from the PC and never use the control box. I no longer have it fitted to a Steeltrack, its now on my Feathertouch focuser.}

[hayju01]

Thanks for the info BlueAstra.

After a couple emails with FLO we were able to ascertain that a standard cable would not fit the Baader handset as this has 2.5mm internal dimension rather than the power cables are 2.1mm. However FLOs supplier did remark that we may be able to get a connector off of amazon.

After some searching (most cables had the male and female round the wrong way for my needs) I was able to find this.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00C2P2JPA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

I can confirm that it works brilliantly

Thanks all for your help advice and support.