Hi,

I know, to email, the original designer of the Sharpsky focuser - Dave Trewren... I'll drop him an email to see if he can get interested...

Phil

That's what I've tried - maybe you'll have better luck.

Ok, if we get nowhere with Dave, I'll start on this and see what I can discover.

I'll let you know what happens... or maybe Dave will join the forum.... let's see....

Phil

It looks like Sharpsky focuser is MoonLite/Robo compatible (as described in Other features on the focuser site )
This means that you can either:
1) use MoonLite/Robo control box and MoonLite focuser driver
2) skip any control box and use any stepper motor controller (see this post ) or use Astroberry PiFace driver (see this post )

Option #2 will let you just control the stepper motor and will not provide all other focuser capabilities (i.e. temperature compensation etc.). Depending on level of compatibility option #1 might provide you with support for all capabilities.

I'd be interested as well. I asked Dave some time ago as well.

I got an email back from Dave.... I have asked him, if he has some time as he does have a day job, to join the forum to potentially join in the discussions....

Phil

In reply to Kaczorek: I've tried both of these drivers (for #1). I haven't tried #2 yet.
I'd like to get temperature compensation as well.

Hi Phil

Did David get back to you on this? I did ask him a while ago. I have the same focuser.

Hi,

The last email I had from Dave said he was going to look at the Indi project if I could give him various links (which I did) - the final sentence was, "it's sad, but it just boils down to time... or the lack of it"

It sounds like he would like to get involved... but can't afford the time...

Phil

OK, time to get started then. Can't wait forever. It would be nice to have the protocol, etc to speed this up, but it appears not to be an option.

Dmesg gives this when I connect the focuser:

44.703687] usb 2-1.1.1.1: new full-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci
[ 44.799169] usb 2-1.1.1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0925, idProduct=7001
[ 44.799171] usb 2-1.1.1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 44.799173] usb 2-1.1.1.1: Product: Generic HID
[ 44.799174] usb 2-1.1.1.1: Manufacturer: SharpSky Pro
[ 44.802145] hid-generic 0003:0925:7001.0002: hiddev0,hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Device [SharpSky Pro Generic HID] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.1.1.1/input0

It looks like it sets up 2 things under /dev -> /dev/hidraw1 and /dev/usb/hiddev0.

Under Windows, I ran Wireshark to capture some USB traffic. I've never used Wireshark before so I don't know what I am doing with it yet.

I've attached some captured output files that I'll start working on trying to understand. One file is just connecting the focuser only. The other has connection and moving the focuser back and forth. I've attached in case someone else can understand the data and/or tell me if I'm capturing the right stuff.

It looks like the focuser is recognized as a hid device, not a serial device. I have experience with programming a driver for the latter, based on the serial over usb communication (UART). That's how quantum filter wheel was developed based on serial commands sniffed with wireshark.
For HID device, It might be the case that you will not get anywhere further with this without specification of the communication protocol.