Motor Focusers

[centroid]

What is a good, but simple Motor Focuser, ideally 12V powered.

By simple I mean just two button, for forward and reverse, plus fast and slow movement.

Back in the day, I used the Lakeside kit, very good, but expensive, now no need to go to that expense.

I need to be be able to control the motor from 3 to 5m away.

I don't need data feedback, as with the Pegasus Cube, as I will will be viewing the star image on the PC, through a Bahtinov Mask.

The Scope is an Altair 115 Triplet APO.

[StevieDvd]

Possibly something like a Deepskydad focuser might suit.

Not got one myself, still using Lakeside & Moonlite systems.

[vlaiv]

Fancy a bit of DIY?

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

That is complete motor focuser that can be connected to computer so it can be fully automated. I'm sure hand controller can be added if you wish, but if it is for imaging - I think it is better to have it automated.

[banjaxed]

37 minutes ago, centroid said:

What is a good, but simple Motor Focuser, ideally 12V powered.

By simple I mean just two button, for forward and reverse, plus fast and slow movement.

Back in the day, I used the Lakeside kit, very good, but expensive, now no need to go to that expense.

I need to be be able to control the motor from 3 to 5m away.

I don't need data feedback, as with the Pegasus Cube, as I will will be viewing the star image on the PC, through a Bahtinov Mask.

The Scope is an Altair 115 Triplet APO.

I built my own focusers which wasn’t difficult and they cost around £25.00. If you would like details send me a PM and I will let you have my list of parts. If you need remote control my motor focusers will not be suitable unless you can figure it out yourself.

[bottletopburly]

A deepskydad Af2 had WiFi not sure on the Af3 email  Pavle I’m sure he will be able to tell you .

[centroid]

26 minutes ago, banjaxed said:

I built my own focusers which wasn’t difficult and they cost around £25.00. If you would like details send me a PM and I will let you have my list of parts. If you need remote control my motor focusers will not be suitable unless you can figure it out yourself.

Thank you for your kind offer, but I would rather find a simple off the shelf solution, even though I spent a 40 year career in radio frequency and electronic engineering (lol,. I think the Skywatcher motor focus (£51) might offer an easy solution. Just need to know what the connector is, RJ10 or RJ11. I have a selection of RJ plugs, and the tool for fitting them, so I could make up a 5m cable.

[vlaiv]

16 minutes ago, centroid said:

Thank you for your kind offer, but I would rather find a simple off the shelf solution, even though I spent a 40 year career in radio frequency and electronic engineering (lol,. I think the Skywatcher motor focus (£51) might offer an easy solution. Just need to know what the connector is, RJ10 or RJ11. I have a selection of RJ plugs, and the tool for fitting them, so I could make up a 5m cable.

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p6041_TS-Optics-2-m-RJ10-extension-for-Skywatcher--Orion-and-TS-Optics-Steeltrack-Motorfocus.html

It appears to be RJ10

You can also go with wireless connection:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-focusers/4tronix-focusrf-remote-control-for-dc-focus-motors.html

[Tomatobro]

Your looking for the connector that plugs into the motor? If so it has just four connections.

Just looked it up and its as vlaiv says RJ10

Edited August 30, 2021 by Tomatobro
info added

[centroid]

Considering my requirements for a motor focuser, which is simply a unit with forward and reverse, plus fast and slow operation. I don't need any data fed back to the PC from the focuser,  as that will be a live star image, via a Bahtinov Mask, displayed on the monitor, while operating the focuser. Much as I did back in the day, with a Lakeside focuser.

The Skywatcher motor focuser, seems to 'fit the bill' perfectly. The motor is powered, and controlled via a handset, connected to the motor via four wire cable, with a male RJ10 connector at each each end. Although not long enough for my needs, it something that is easily sorted, as I have the cable, the RJ10 plugs, and the tool for fitting them.

The only question that I need to answer is, although the focuser fits a wide range of Skywatcher scopes, including their premium range, will it fit the Altair 115 APO.  I guess there is a good possibility that it will, as most all of the scopes the market come from the Far East, namely China and Taiwan, they likely share the same focuser assembly.

Have any of you guys used the Skywatcher motor focuser?.

 

[banjaxed]

I have used the Skywatcher focuser and they are quite easy to fit with the supplied brackets. My only negative view is that they are very slow with little difference between fast and slow speed.

[centroid]

2 minutes ago, banjaxed said:

I have used the Skywatcher focuser and they are quite easy to fit with the supplied brackets. My only negative view is that they are very slow with little difference between fast and slow speed.

Feedback from another forum says, 'cheap and cheerful, with backlash issues'. A case of "you get what you pay for" I guess.

[johninderby]

Works best with a proper controller like the Hitech USB focus controller which isn’t expensive. The included controller doesn’t give fine control.

http://www.hitecastro.co.uk/index.php/products/item/hitecdcfocus.html

Edited August 30, 2021 by johninderby

[bottletopburly]

Depskydad af units dont need a usb lead if using the optional hand controller .

[banjaxed]

Have a look at this, easy to make with much more speed control and you can make the power lead as long as you want it.

 

[saac]

20 minutes ago, centroid said:

Considering my requirements for a motor focuser, which is simply a unit with forward and reverse, plus fast and slow operation. I don't need any data fed back to the PC from the focuser,  as that will be a live star image, via a Bahtinov Mask, displayed on the monitor, while operating the focuser. Much as I did back in the day, with a Lakeside focuser.

The Skywatcher motor focuser, seems to 'fit the bill' perfectly. The motor is powered, and controlled via a handset, connected to the motor via four wire cable, with a male RJ10 connector at each each end. Although not long enough for my needs, it something that is easily sorted, as I have the cable, the RJ10 plugs, and the tool for fitting them.

The only question that I need to answer is, although the focuser fits a wide range of Skywatcher scopes, including their premium range, will it fit the Altair 115 APO.  I guess there is a good possibility that it will, as most all of the scopes the market come from the Far East, namely China and Taiwan, they likely share the same focuser assembly.

Have any of you guys used the Skywatcher motor focuser?.

 

 

I'm a big fan of the skywatcher motor focuser . They are simple to mount and to use; never had any problem with them.   I've used them on their own with just the hand controller for visual observing and with the HITEC controller when doing imaging.  As far as I'm concerned they offer excellent value for money.  I have only recently upgrade to a ZWO auto focuser so 10 years plus with the skywatcher is not too bad . 

 

Jim 

[CraigT82]

Another big fan of the SW motor focuser here. 

With a little imagination and bits of alu angle they can be fitted to pretty much any focuser/OTA.

I've had the fitted directly to a focuser shaft and also by using pulleys on the focus shaft and motor shaft with a toothed belt between. This way you can spec the pulleys to make it as fast or as slow as you like. 

Bombproof little units, had three so far and not a single issue between them.

[StevieDvd]

As well as the Hitec units (DC & Stepper motor) I see FLO have this 4tronix remote 

I doubt the standard SW DC kit adapter plate will be of much use for your much newer focuser but it should be easy to get one 3d printed.

As and when you decide what you need put a wanted ad up here as there must be quite a few unused DC/Stepper motor kits etc sitting on SGL members shelves with people upgrading and the ZWO only option on Asiair controllers.

 

[Tomatobro]

I have fitted more SW DC motors to more scopes than I can recall and all have worked well. For one scope I used a four button RF module with a matching four relay receiver and that also worked very well. This was so the user could sit at a Laptop screen and remote focus.

[centroid]

39 minutes ago, Tomatobro said:

I have fitted more SW DC motors to more scopes than I can recall and all have worked well. For one scope I used a four button RF module with a matching four relay receiver and that also worked very well. This was so the user could sit at a Laptop screen and remote focus.

For £51 I might as well give the SW motor focuser a try.  Don't want to Auto Focus, so a DC motor should be fine, as unlike a Stepper Motor can, I don't need to return a precise position, just to move the focuser while watching the displayed Bahtinov image on the screen.

I have read reports of the 9V battery supply, not being man enough to move a 2" rack & pinion focuser, with  a relatively heavy camera attached, especially when the OTA is pointing at high DEC.  A 12V (13.8V) supply with a better current capability might work well if the hand controller, and motor can handle 12V. In fact I believe that the HiTech controller uses a 12V supply, to control the SW motor.

Edited August 30, 2021 by centroid
typo

[tomato]

I have used a @Tomatobro installed SW focuser drive on an Altair 107mm APO, it worked great in conjunction with a Bahtinov mask.

[Tomatobro]

The handset uses a 9 volt battery but I have never measured the output to the motor from the Hitec controller. I can't see the extra 3 volts hurting the brushed motor but will check tomorrow what output I used for the radio controlled version and report back.

Regarding the torque output I have found that the Crayford focuser type will usually slip long before the motor stalls. Tomatoes Altair was rack and pinion and worked ok with a CCD camera and EFW focuser

[centroid]

21 minutes ago, Tomatobro said:

The handset uses a 9 volt battery but I have never measured the output to the motor from the Hitec controller. I can't see the extra 3 volts hurting the brushed motor but will check tomorrow what output I used for the radio controlled version and report back.

Regarding the torque output I have found that the Crayford focuser type will usually slip long before the motor stalls. Tomatoes Altair was rack and pinion and worked ok with a CCD camera and EFW focuser

As I will be controlling everything (mount, cameras, and focuser) via 5m cables from a comfy corner in the shed 🙂,  I will be using a 13.8V 7amp regulated linear PSU, which the HE5 PRO is quite happy running from. As such, if the focuser, and its controller would be happy with 13.8V, then I would remove the 9V battery, attach a small socket connector, and provide its power from the 13.8V PSU. As I said earlier the Hitech controller has a nominal 12V input.

Oh to be back in the days when I had a custom built observatory, with an attached warm room (as per my avatar picture) 😢.  Now its going to be a pier in the garden, and a corner of the shed/summer house, but at least I will be out of the cold, when imaging. 🙂

Edited August 30, 2021 by centroid

[Tomatobro]

Here are a couple of pictures of the remote controller I made for my Konus 90 which I use for Solar work

Internally it uses a L298N H Bridge module and a telemetry receiver all controlled via a PIC 16F84A. 12 volts is supplied to the motor (variable PWM).

The RS232 input is to allow me to set the PWM rate using TeraTerm software

[centroid]

9 minutes ago, Tomatobro said:

Here are a couple of pictures of the remote controller I made for my Konus 90 which I use for Solar work

Internally it uses a L298N H Bridge module and a telemetry receiver all controlled via a PIC 16F84A. 12 volts is supplied to the motor (variable PWM).

The RS232 input is to allow me to set the PWM rate using TeraTerm software

A very innovative solution Tom, all neatly constructed on Vero Board, thank you for showing me that. There was a time when I was very much into 'Homebrew', as a licensed Class A radio amateur for 53 years, I built much of my own gear. I gave up the hobby when the government reduced the technical entry requirements for obtaining a license to such a low level, the hobby became little different to CB.  I am now long since retired from my job as a Senior Technical Manager, and Consultant EMC Engineer, and at age 79, now look for the 'off the shelf' options. My main hobby is photography, but I am returning to astro imaging to 'scratch an itch' that hadn't gone away since I gave up the hobby in 2014, but in much smaller way than I did previously.  BTW, I have now confirmed with Altair Astro, that the Skywatcher Motor Focuser will fit to the Altair 115 ED Triplet APO.