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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

My DIY Focuser with AstroBerry

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  • Thank you received: 15
Hi,

i would like to share with you my diy project : "focuser with astroberry". for the moment it's a prototype state yet. The stepper motor is an recovery from an eq2. I don't know exactly the characteristics of this motor but it does the work. For the moment, like you see, that's a velcro belt between the motor and the telescope, on a wood plate retained with elastics.

All that for say that is very easy to build. A great thank you to Radek Kaczorek ;) for the her excellent work on the indi driver.

The next steps are :
- add belts and pulleys
- secure against humidity
- fix more strongly the plate with the raspberry and the motor

Off course, I've a lot of questions for terminated my project :
- I use the power from the raspberry. I've afraid that isn't enough. Do you think that is better to powering the driver board (for the motor) with an external power ?
- for the pulleys, how many teeth ?
- how to fix a pulley on the focus button ?

But is very exiting to automate her setup just before winter.... :blush:
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq
7 years 5 months ago #10617
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Great to hear this Christian.
Please note that Astroberry drivers have been replaced by Astroberry PiFace drivers. The PiFace version is designed for people that prefer to use available raspberry pi hardware modules than soldering own electronics.
7 years 5 months ago #10706

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for using astroberry piface drivers which expansion board is necessary? "Piface digital" or "piface relay+" or "piface relay extra"?
My plan is to build up focuser with stepper motor. I'm more familiar using Arduino and stepper motor driver but don't know how to link it to INDI libraries.
7 years 3 months ago #12951

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You can find this information in README file.
What you need is PiFace Relay Plus for relays and PiFace Motor Extra for focuser.
7 years 3 months ago #12953

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Will this work with the Adafruit motor controller HAT?
www.adafruit.com/products/2348
7 years 2 weeks ago #15081

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No, it will not work with this driver. This HAT is using I2C to communicate with RPi.
Astroberry PiFace is using SPI to communicate with RPi and legacy Astroberry is directly controlling stepper driver from GPIOs.
7 years 2 weeks ago #15086

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hi Ihoujin,

from the beginning of this post i have completely rewrote, from scratch, my focuser driver.

I am inspired of Kaczorek code (at who i say thank you very much) .

Finally, it's not very hard if you have, of course, some development experience.

If you want help for write your own driver, don't hesitate to request me.
7 years 2 weeks ago #15089

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Thank you Christian. I am interested in assembling a remote focuser controlled by the Pi, having had some success with a remote controlled one I designed mostly with 3D printed parts and off the shelf controller boards.
At this time I don't have any servo controller boards for the Pi. Adafruit appeared to be one component and less expensive, vs the PiFace Relay Plus And additional PiFace Motor Extra. I should probably go with PiFace if this hardware is already supported by your driver as I do not have any developer experience.
7 years 2 weeks ago #15091

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It appears that the PiFace Relay+ is no longer manufactured. It is only available from 3rd party distributors, presumably there is a limited supply now.
7 years 2 weeks ago #15093

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Take a look at this post .
Gregj888 reported that the driver works with PiFace Digital too. I have not tested it so contact him before shopping.
BTW. I might develop a driver for Adafruit motor controller HAT, but I need to get a device for testing first.
BTW2. Let's setup separate topic for this because we're hijacking Christian's thread for a discussion not directly related to his DIY focuser
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Last edit: 7 years 2 weeks ago by Radek Kaczorek.
7 years 2 weeks ago #15095

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