Electric focuser

[Andy274]

Hi guys am considering moving to electric focusers for my altair 110 & 70mm apo's as I'm now a complete convert to APT. Does anyone have any suggestions? 

Cheers

Andy

[Astrosharkey]

I use Sharpcap and Pegasus focus cube on an Altair 80mm, It makes getting correct focus as easy as anything once you understand how to use the different focus systems in Sharpcap

[Adreneline]

I use Sharpcap and an SW focusser and also find it works well. I've also used the SW with SGPro auto focus and had little success and wasted a lot of imaging time - probably me getting the settings wrong in SGPro.

I recently purchased a ZWO EAF to use with my ZWO ASIair and it works a treat - very nicely made and excellent results.

Both my motorised focus units are connected to the scope/lens via a toothed belt so I have no experience of direct connections.

HTH

Edited January 2, 2020 by Adreneline
Photos added

[Andy274]

Hmmm OK, I've never seen a belt driven motor focuser before. 

[Adreneline]

3 minutes ago, Andy274 said:

Hmmm OK, I've never seen a belt driven motor focuser before.

And now you've seen two in one day!  

Top one is the ZWO EAF on a Canon 200mm lens.

Bottom one is a SW focusser on a SW ED80DS-Pro fitted with a Baader Diamond Steeltrack replacement focus unit.

Edited January 2, 2020 by Adreneline
Clarification

[haitch]

Make it 3... home made focuser on my C11... 

[haitch]

1 hour ago, Adreneline said:

 

Is that the original Baader motor? I was thinking of making a belt driven one for mine but didn’t know the spec of the teeth to order belts and a pulley for the motor end

Edited January 2, 2020 by haitch

[Adreneline]

27 minutes ago, haitch said:

Is that the original Baader motor?

Hi.

The motor itself is the Sykwatcher motor. The focus unit is the Baader and is unmodified. I purchased a toothed pully from Motionco along with a suitable belt. As it turns out the teeth on the Baader unit are an exact match for the toothed belt. The motor mount is custom 3D printed to fit the Baader and allow me to mount the motor. The whole thing works a treat with the HitecAstro software combined with Sharpcap. I am sure the problems with SGPro are all down to me but I am happy with the semi-auto procedure I use and I certainly waste less imaging time.

HTH - let me know if you need anymore details.

Adrian

[Andy274]

Making your own is awesome

[haitch]

That's excellent - my C11 

1 hour ago, Adreneline said:

Hi.

The motor itself is the Sykwatcher motor. The focus unit is the Baader and is unmodified. I purchased a toothed pully from Motionco along with a suitable belt. As it turns out the teeth on the Baader unit are an exact match for the toothed belt. The motor mount is custom 3D printed to fit the Baader and allow me to mount the motor. The whole thing works a treat with the HitecAstro software combined with Sharpcap. I am sure the problems with SGPro are all down to me but I am happy with the semi-auto procedure I use and I certainly waste less imaging time.

HTH - let me know if you need anymore details.

Adrian

That's excellent, thanks. it was the belt type I was after (for my Diamond Steeltrack) and that's in your link.

I'll be 3D printing my bracket too (as I did for the C11)

Cheers

Paul

Edited January 2, 2020 by haitch

[haitch]

14 minutes ago, Andy274 said:

Making your own is awesome

& cheap 😉

Tenner for a motor, a quid for the belt £20 for the custom pulley and a few pence worth of plastic assuming you've already for a 3D printer (if not why not!?!?!?)

Almost forgot the Arduino for computer control - still cheap

Edited January 2, 2020 by haitch

[JamesF]

Very helpful to know what belt it is.  I shall be motorising mine using Robert Brown's design:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuserpro2diy/

once I finish building my dew controllers (also based on a design of his).

James

[haitch]

2 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Very helpful to know what belt it is.  I shall be motorising mine using Robert Brown's design:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinoascomfocuserpro2diy/

once I finish building my dew controllers (also based on a design of his).

James

That's the code I use for mine - works a treat

[haitch]

1 hour ago, Andy274 said:

Making your own is awesome

Belt drive is more versatile for homebrew too as you have more options for gearing and I've seen the direct couplers get damaged if the alignment is off

[JamesF]

The other nice thing you can do with belt drive is to clamp the driven pulley onto the focuser shaft so it can be released and spins freely, allowing the focuser to be moved by hand if required.

James

[Andy274]

given me plenty to think of there guys.  My main thing is to be able to control all my gear remotely - that way I can sit in the warm & remote desktop from the PC in the observatory to the iMac in the house & control everything from there... So whatever I have needs to be ASCOM compatible.