Auto focuser not working

[Gavin1234]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone could offer any advice on this. 

After a long wait my auto focusing kit arrived today. it’s a feather touch focuser boss 2 kit with a hsm.

I’ve got the drivers installed, plugged in the control unit and put in all of the settings into the software. Everything seems to be setup properly but for some reason the motor won’t turn.

I can plug the numbers into the software and hit sync or got to, etc and the software will go through the motions as if it was working, but nothing is physically happening with the focuser or the motor (no movement, no sound).

attached is some pics of the cabling and the software screens. I’ve been playing around with the settings by the time of this photo but I’m hoping someone can spot something I’ve done wrong.

ive checked the focus lock screw by the way and it’s not that.

Any ideas?

[fwm891]

You've probably done it but some drivers etc need to have the computer rebooted to activate (been there)

[LightBucket]

Correct COM port..?

[Gavin1234]

Thanks for the advice guys. I just figured it out.

for the record in case anyone else has the same problems. I had the following issues:

after installing the drivers I got a conflict between one of my cameras and the focuser (seemed to both want the same com port). I resolved that by switching the USB cables around to different ports on the laptop. Not sure why that worked but it did.

the next problem I had was that even though I had installed the device drivers, there was also one for the serial to USB cable which I didn’t see. I had to reinstall that 3 times to get it to take for some reason but, Once I installed that I could get it connected.

the problem which took all night to solve was the simplest. As I mentioned earlier it all looked right on the screen but the motor wasn’t physically turning. It turns out the motor housing (where the red cat5 cable plugs in) is a clutch. You have to twist that about 45 degrees to disengage the clutch and allow the motor to spin. I probably should have figured that out 12 hours ago but I’m putting it down to sleep deprivation.

 

thanks again.

[Gavin1234]

Here’s a quick video of it in action. 

Very happy with it.

[sloz1664]

Glad to see you have it up and running. Nice set-up btw ?

Steve