Howdy all,

I do Radio Astronomy at home using a custom built 1 meter antenna. I am experimenting with drives and controls to eventually add tracking capability to my scope. I 3D printed a slew drive which had good results moving the scope in elevation; I suspect it will do even better in azimuth based on my testing.

docs.google.com/presentation/d/10aHnodI9...7&rtpof=true&sd=true

I am using the Waveshare motor hat to manually drive the motors but would like to integrate with KStars, Stellarium, or the like. I have reviewed some projects already, and other literature (like Radek's github.com/rkaczorek/astroberry-diy, and Kevin's www.indilib.org/forum/focusers-filter-wh...or-raspberry-pi.html), but they seem focused on focusers (ba-dump). Also I've read that the microstepping has been a concern.

However, for my application pointing errors are not critical as my beamwidth is so large. Can anyone offer any help on how to modify some of the offerings so that I can control two motors in an Alt-Az configuration for slewing and tracking purposes?

Thanks,

Nathan

Welcome to the forum, Nathan!

I have built a very simple pan-tilt Controller for my weather camera. Maybe its code is helpful for you: pan_tilt_controller.py

Cheers
Wolfgang

Nathan,

Take a look at this onstep.groups.io/g/main/wiki/Home
It can be configured for Alt/Az applications and there is plenty of information and choice of components. There's wealth of information to help online and here on the forum. I've built one based on a Teensy 4.0 2130 stepper drivers on Veroboard and it works very well on an old EQ5 mount with Kstars / Ekos using the Onstep LX200 driver. Other people are using it with AZ mounts with good success and all the heavy work is done for you.

Thanks

Alan