Thinking of Raspberry Pi Push-To Mod

[pjhauser]

Am I crazy? I have a spare raspberry pi knocking around, along with  a touch screen for it. So I was thinking, couldn't I place it on the top of my scope, and use an IMU (http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/minimu-9-v3) to get the positioning in real-time, hook it up to Stellarium and hey presto, a push-to scope.

Does this sound to anyone like a remotely good use of time? or am I kidding myself and the accuracy would be way off? 

Another approach would be to ditch the Pi and use a smartphone, which already has the sensors (and power / battery).

[pjhauser]

Should really have titled this "Thinking of Raspberry Pi Push-To Mod" but I can't seem to edit it

[Stu]

Sorted.

How accurate are sensors on those things, particularly near metal? Could you use the Pi but with encoders instead?

[pjhauser]

Thanks for changing the topic title. Yeh, rotary encoders would likely be more accurate, I was just trying to think of a simple solution that I could use with both of my scopes. But I fear the accuracy would be too low

[cjdawson]

You might want to take a close look at this.

https://edtracker.org.uk/

It's an accelerometer based head tracker for use in games like Elite: Dangerous.

It's a great piece of kit, and does keep the calibration whilst it remains powered.  There are issues that can affect the accuracy, such as temperature and changes to metal objects. Also if you use only the accelerometers there's drift which will knock it off aliment after about 30 mins, or less.

I think you'd be better off making a set of encoders for each scope, then plugging the scope that you are using into the PI before use.  Just my 2p's worth.

[Syed Saif Alam]

Yeah raspberry pie is a wonderful tool if you use it for making push to go scopes . I think it will depend on the quality of the accelerometers how accurate you scope will be . Wish you best of luck . Raspberry pi is a really flexible machine . Clear skies mate .

[weareborg]

Take a look at the 3 videos here:http://youtu.be/2eTR0QFh6kw

[cjdawson]

That's awesome, I can see someone upgrading that to a Pi-2 adding a screen and using the whole thing stand alone without the need for a laptop at all.

[weareborg]

That's exactly what I'm looking into doing