Moonlite or lakeside focus motor?

[Tim star]

I have recently upgraded my SW Equinox 80 with a Moonlite focusser. Great piece if kit, screw off the old and screw on the new 2 minute job all works perfectly. Easy fine focus on my Atik 460 with EFW filter wheel, a massive improvement on the manual wheel I had. No focus slip at all. Now I would like to move on to remote focussing as I move to a full remote system. I can't decide between the Moonlite stepper and the Lakeside focusser, both similar price ( ouch). I need a long cable since the scope sits in the garden away from the shed. The Moonlite has a clutch for manual operation which looks useful though the Lakeside has presets. I'm not a genius with software but suppose they both bring the same challenges. Any advice?

[wuthton]

I've not used a Lakeside but I do have 2 Moonlites with motor focus. I have no complaints at all, very solidly built with no discernable backlash.

The SGP autofocus routine is wonderful, you'll never go back to manual.

[Steve 1962]

I've got the Lakeside and have used it for several years without problem on several different scopes (you just buy a new adapter and bracket when you change the scope)

Mine runs on a Serial - USB adapter but I think the new ones are USB natively.

The service I've received from John(?) of Lakeside and his agent (Ian King) - both based in the UK - has been excellent.

I run my Lakeside through SGPro and as Matt has said - the autofocus routine is just brilliant.

Steve

[FraserClarke]

Well I have a lakeside controller driving a moonlite stepper -- so you can combine both if you want! 

The moonlite stepper itself has not had a single problem in the past 4--5 years for fairly intensive operation (50-100 nights/year).  The moonlite stepper controller however developed an increasingly frequent problem with communincation dropping out and needing to be reset manually (pull out the USB lead and plug it in again  -- pretty inconvenient for a basically robotic observatory).  I think this was down to a dodgy joint somewhere in the power connector electronics, but I could never track it down.  I didn't bother going back to moonlite to see if they'd replace it, as we'd had the unit for 3--4 years by then.    I replaced the moonlite controller with a lakeside controller -- purely because it was easier to buy in the UK (in stock) and (I think) was a bit cheaper.   I'm very happy with it, and now the whole system runs very reliably.

The lakeside controller feels a bit more 'handmade' than the moonlite one. Don't take that as much of a criticism -- it works incredibly well and robustly, it just needs a few more manual configuration steps to set it up. The upside of that of course is that once you've got it configured correctly (and the 2 page long manual is all you need to do that), it runs robustly.

I'd certainly be happy to buy either again.

[cfpendock]

I use a moonlite focuser with autofocus provided from a Lakeside stepper motor and lakeside controller.  No problems at all.

Chris