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

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Question about focuser module

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I think from reading your telescope specs, and using 2 arcsecs seeing and 7% focus tolerance, you actually have 62.4um CFZ size (full width). Now, using your 1600 motor steps/rev divided by 2000 um/rev focuser travel, you have 0.8 steps/um or 1.25 um per step. So, you have 50 steps through your CFZ (+/- 25). This is fine. Read those mount instructions carefully. I suspect you'll be using the slow knob, not the 1/10 fine focus. You're sampled sufficiently. You will enjoy the motorized autofocus that Ekos provides. If you have access to a temperature sensor, you may even benefit down the road from automatic focus adjustments between exposures via AFC, but that's a topic addressed by a different thread. ;-) Good luck, Cheers, Doug
3 years 3 weeks ago #68136

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sorry for the dumb question, Doug; but, with the slow motion knob I mean the 1/10 fine focus; is not the same? I have a dual speed crayford, you know, the typical one. The motor is mounted and engaged directly in the axis where the orange knob was connected.
Regarding the cfw, well, I used a cfz calculator that does not take into account seeing and focus tolerance (I guess that's the old cfz :) ) In any case, it seems I'm enough sampled, I hope!
And yes, I also have a sensor temp connected to the rpi I'm using and weather watcher configured to take the most of it :)

cheers
3 years 3 weeks ago #68137

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These aren't dumb questions at all. Most people are confused the first time they do this. I mentioned reading those instructions carefully because many focusers are slightly different in how they mount. I don't have your focuser. What I see from the picture is that there's a brass colored knob (likely the fine focus), and a black knob (likely the coarse / slow) focus. In my case, my motor vendor had me remove both knobs and attach the motor coupler to the slow focus mechanism. If you connect to the fine focus, it will take 10x the number of counts to move a revolution. I'm sure that once you git fiddling with it, you'll get it figured out pretty quick.

On the CFZ, note that the "new" way of calculating this is somewhat important. The reference is a good read for why. You don't want to get complacent and assume your CFZ is actually 2x as big as it really is....that leads to wasted exposures.....
Last edit: 3 years 3 weeks ago by Doug S.
3 years 3 weeks ago #68138

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Well, if you're curious, have a look to the assembly process:









There you can see the motor is engaged into the slow motion knob axis :)
Regarding the number of counts per revolution, well, actually, yes, it would take 10x more counts to perform a full revolution of the normal/big (I don't know how to say sorry!) focus knob. Indeed, during the measurement of the drawtube travel, I counted the number of revs of the slow (orange) knob. So I guess it's right: the motor needs 1600 steps to perform itself a full rev, which translates in 16000 steps to make the "big" knob perform a revolution cause it's connected to the 1:10 axis. Sorry, I know, I'm not using the correct terms properly. Hope you know what I mean.

And regarding the cfz, you're right. Maybe I have to count with the worst case to perform the calculation.

m
3 years 3 weeks ago #68140

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I think you've got it. Nice looking focuser BTW. About having gone through the learning curve to knowing your CFZ size, it's going to help you down the road.

FWIW, I highly recommend you begin logging your autofocus results (you'll need to turn on verbose focus logging for that). This will begin to create a record of temperature versus focus position (plus some altitude residual information) for your gear. You only have 50 steps in good seeing to stay in the CFZ. Getting a feel for where you normally reach focus and how much it changes (in steps) is a good step towards knowing how often you need to autofocus. Autofocus has some definite quirks, and these are being at least partially addressed by Adaptive Focus Control (temperature and altitude focus compensation). That feature when released will automatically analyze your historical data and add some sophistication and efficiency to focus management. Wasting open-shutter time on AF runs isn't where most of us want to be spending time. ;-)

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that you'll also want to measure your focus motor's backlash. There's an INDI/Ekos setting for this that you should set once you know what it is. I was surprised to see mine was so big. You can "eyeball" this measurement if you don't have a caliper. Just hook ekos up to the focuser, and do manual moves in larger and smaller increments until you can see where reverse motion kicks in (via a coupler move). Once you get it as close as you can, set the backlash control. That will definitely help you down the road too.
Last edit: 3 years 3 weeks ago by Doug S.
3 years 3 weeks ago #68141

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Thanks again, Doug. Very useful your help and tips :)
Need to learn more about focus processing. It has more details and quirks than I initally thought.

I will also have a look to backslash and its measurement; which I'm not really sure.

Kind regards, Doug!
3 years 3 weeks ago #68187

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The learning curve is part of the fun... This part will be over quite soon enough. If confused, just ask (lots of folks are willing to provide help when you need it).

About backlash, simply put, this is just some mechanical slop in the gear mesh of your focuser motor. It's normal. The effect of backlash is that when your focus motor reverses direction, some amount of steps are required before that slop is taken up and the motor actually causes shaft motion. You can eyeball this by carefully watching your coupler's set screw or anything else (as close to the motor shaft as possible) that moves as you push focus-in or focus-out controls.

The test is pretty simple. To set up for the test, move one direction with a reasonably small jog until you know you're causing motion in that direction. Once you know you have motion in that direction, you're ready to begin the test. Using something like 20 steps (progressively refining as you start to learn what the real value is), jog focus in the REVERSE direction. Keep jogging IN THAT DIRECTION, noting total steps as you go. When you first detect motion, the total number of counts it took is your backlash value. Repeat the same test now in reverse again (the other way). Do those tests repeatedly (both directions) until you convince yourself you have the smallest number of steps required to cause focuser motor shaft motion in either direction. That's the number you want to set in the Ekos/Indi backlash value. FWIW, my EAF motor has 95 steps of backlash. An educated guess might be that you're looking for something on the order of 25 < backlash < 100? Hope this helps. Good luck...
Last edit: 3 years 3 weeks ago by Doug S.
3 years 3 weeks ago #68207

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Thanks Doug. I've been reading about focuser backlash. I have some experience with dec backlash in autoguiding, but that was quite automatic. This is a manual task. I've been reading how to do it.
But I've just noted that the backlash option within ekos is greyed out and cannot set it. I will open a new thread.

m
3 years 3 weeks ago #68252

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