DIY motorized Focuser

[TheMrGecko]

2 RPM Motor and a rubber band. you get a remote operated motorized Focuser. Anyone need more details or wiring diagram message me and ill make a tutorial of sorts but its pretty straight forward.

[kbrown]

Cool. How do you control it?

[Dave In Vermont]

Making a tutorial would be great! An excellent addition to the libraries of many I'm sure. I hope you go for it - inexpensive 'home-brew' gear is great stuff to have at hand for people who thrive on do-it-yourself solutions.

Thank you -

Dave

[Anne S]

I’d also be interested. My Lunt solarscope doesn’t have a commercially made motorfocuser.

Anne

[Gina]

I've made many remote focusers but I use stepper motors controlled with either an Arduino or Raspberry Pi 3.  I use the cheap little 28BYJ-48 geared stepper motor, excellent for the purpose and easily controlled.  I'll think about writing a tutorial on using an Arduino to go with my Raspberry Pi tutorial.

Setting up a Raspberry Pi for Astro Imaging and Hardware Control

[kbrown]

I made one too with a stepper motor and arduino. Testing it here with the remote control I made for it (also arduino based): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OjhFKZu1io

I've now also programmed an INDI driver for it so I can use it from EKOS/KStars.

 

 

[TheMrGecko]

I thought about using raspberry pi but it seemed overkill. I just used a 2 way momentary switch. And a reverseable 2rpm motor. Only cost me about 15 quid all in

[Gina]

Yes, an RPi just for focussing would be overkill, I agree.  With mine the focussing is just one little part of several.  Imaging, dew heater and mount control too.

[TheMrGecko]

2 minutes ago, Gina said:

Yes, an RPi just for focussing would be overkill, I agree.  With mine the focussing is just one little part of several.  Imaging, dew heater and mount control too.

I would love to see this. Sounds very interesting! 

[Gina]

Setting up a Raspberry Pi for Astro Imaging and Hardware Control

[wimvb]

Great initiative, @TheMrGecko. Since we seem to be sharing DIY motorfocusers here, here's mine. SW dc motorfocuser on Arduino running the MoonLite protocol. I just run the standard MoonLite driver under INDI and do autofocusing from Ekos/Kstars under windows. It has worked pretty much faultfree (as long as I don't forget to connect the power plug to the Arduino). It's not as neat a solution as a stepper with absolute positioning, but it works.

Btw, how will the rubber band behave in cold weather? That may be the weak link, if temperatures decide to drop well below 0. "Up here" I wouldn't rely on it (at -15 C), but maybe that's not an issue for you.