Looking to build a tracking mount

[rwzfs]

Hey guys, new here.

So essentially I'm looking to build a tracking mount for my DSLR. It's the first time I'm attempting anything like this (never had a proper build-project before) and I'd sort of like to build a tracker that isn't manual but that uses an arduino board. I've seen a few builds online where people do this but I don't want to build one and find out that there was a better guide or a better version I could have used elsewhere. 

I was thinking of using this guide, what do you guys think? Or do you know of any other guides that might be more helpful or better suited?

 

[cjdawson]

Let me be the first to say, Welcome to SGL.

Looks like you are going to be making a barn door tracker.  There are lots of variations on this project.  This is the first one that I've seen with an Adunio in the mix.

[rwzfs]

17 hours ago, cjdawson said:

Let me be the first to say, Welcome to SGL.

Looks like you are going to be making a barn door tracker.  There are lots of variations on this project.  This is the first one that I've seen with an Adunio in the mix.

Thank you! 

Yes a barn door tracker exactly. Well the only reason I want to make one that has an Arduino board built in is really to just learn how to use one, haha. 

[happy-kat]

Welcome and great project

I like that link of yours not seen it before, I had found a different arudiono barn door to copy, but your find looks more straight forward.

This is the link to the one I had found that I will probably try to follow as I liked the switches.

link here

Unfortuneately my arduino board will need to be soldered it doesn't have those nice plug in connectors.

This link is useful if like me you buy the carriage bolt first and then have to make the boards from scratch to fit the bolt you have. Even if you have the right bolt for your project it is still useful site to know about.

barn door calculator link

My barn door build with built in latitude base as I don't have a tripod to use and this works so much easier for me to accomodate on the small flat area outside and the build is very stable.

link to build

This is an interesting open downwards magazine build with instructions but haven't see images from it when used in earnest.

magazine article link here

This ball head is excellent. (I did have to buy an adatpor to fit in the thread for my smaller tripod head screw I have used and for on the gorilla SLR also have), I had a cheaper one before but this ball head makes camera adjustment so much easier.

camera ball head

Using Astroboot I got a very cheap red dot finder which is what I willl now use for alignment of the hinge (you just have to align theRDF to the hinge then the RDF can be used to align to Polaris as you will know the hinge is pointing correctly).

Keep us updated with you build please it's sounds interesting.

[John78]

So I took a different approach when I designed mine - I used razorlab's laser cutting service and made a gear pair and a holder - I got it all the way ready to test and then an EQ5 came up cheap so I bought that and haven't worked on it since.  It needs to have another board attaching to the top surface to mount some kind of polar alignment device.  This method is much much simpler than the barndoors as you just need to run the stepper motor at the right speed forever, no accumulating errors...

CAD files attached...  Pictures in a moment.

astro final.dwg

big gear.dwg

little gear.dwg

[John78]

Pictures of the almost complete device...