dave's blog

After some months spent waiting to acquire various parts, and not being able to work on things due to work commitments, I have finally managed to complete the focuser hardware and have mounted the control circuit boards in a neat plastic box on the mounting bracket. The engineering required to get all of the circuitry into such a small box was fairly challenging, with a double decker stacked circuit board arrangement. However, the final result is quite pleasing. I'll try to post an image when I've got it fully attached to the telescope.

Recently I started building myself a motorized focuser based on the ideas generated by the SGL Observatory Automation group. I'm part-way through the build, although I still have the circuitry attached to a breadboard and I am writing my own firmware to drive the focuser. I could have just used the SGL firmware, but as a developer, I wanted to have the fun of doing this bit myself. In the process, I think I will be able to implement some improvements, such as allowing the focuser motor to move while the firmware remains responsive to the serial command protocol.