Since I aquired an Losmandy G11 mount without any goto provision I decided to create my own solution. I was a bit reluctant to use a Gemini, mainly because of the cost, but also due to the reliability since the servo motors are somewhat prone to failure. I also like to have complete control over the software/firmware so that no "show stopper" issues will ever be a problem for me. Looking around the 'net I saw other goto systems that seemed capable, but either they had needlessly complex hardware or were commercial systems that cost about twice what they should.
OnStep is a computerized goto system, usually for stepper motor equipped mounts though any step/dir interface motor driver (including servo) should work. It was designed, from the beginning, as a more or less general purpose system and provisions were made in the firmware to allow for use on a variety of mounts including Equatorial and Alt/Az (GEM, Fork, Dobsonian, etc.) It uses an LX200 like computer command set with a few extensions to suit hand controller-less operation.
There's a telescope hand controller App for Android (free in the Google Play Store,) an option to control through a website (Smart Web Server,) and a dedicated physical hand controller (Smart Hand Controller.) Or, on a PC there's ASCOM and INDI drivers for control. These options allow you to setup and control OnStep using a wide range of software including my Sky Planetarium, Cartes du Ciel, Stellarium, SkySafari, KStars, PHD2, etc. You can see most of the control possibilities in the diagram below:
Also, please visit my StellarJourney.com site for updates, links to OnStep resources, my other astronomy software, or to see some Images taken with the assistance of my OnStep operated mounts.
If you find OnStep useful and would like to show your appreciation and support please consider making a small monetary donation. This keeps me motivated and helps cover expenses associated with my projects.
As Howard said, OnStep cannot use the UART interface.
You can still use the TMC2209, but you are limited to microstepping of: 64,32,16,or 8. Not a real limitation though, since it covers the range we use it at.
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Re: OneStep on raspberry pi
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Re: OneStep on raspberry pi
David Tremblay
Let the best tool do the task they are meant to do. If you need to control things from a raspberry pi there's a great project called indilib https://www.indilib.org/forum/development/1406-re-driver-onstep-lx200-like-for-indi.html
Le jeu. 12 nov. 2020 à 09:55, Dave Schwartz <Dave.Schwartz@...> a écrit : If you hoped to use an example of a camera/guider controller on an RPi
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Re: Question on Spiral Search - Android Message
On Thu, Nov 12, 2020 at 07:32 AM, Howard Dutton wrote:
Agree it is a bit confusing. The "." isn't really a decimal point only a separator.Thanks, that explains it. Being from the engineering world I guess I never thought about it that way. Minor revisions were always 01 thru 99. Now that I think about it that was only for readability. I am not in favor of purely numeric versions numbers, elegant but not in common usage. Having the minor revision as a two digit number would solve the problem for me.
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Re: OneStep on raspberry pi
Dave Schwartz
If you hoped to use an example of a camera/guider controller on an RPi as to why a GoTo mount controller could be the same, I hope you also recognize the irony of that statement.
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
On 2020-11-12 5:37 a.m., UndCon wrote:
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Orion XT10 Conversion with WEMOS R32 ESP32 and CNC Shield + some questions
bukl
Hi together,
I just finished converting my Orion XT10 Dobsonian to a GOTO with OnStep. First of all thanks for this great piece of Software to everyone who is involved in this. From mechanical point of view, I mostly copied John K.´s built: https://onstep.groups.io/g/main/message/13894 But had to redesign all 3D-Printed parts since I was able to slice his STLs. Here are some photos of my build: The Parts I used:
Home Position
Infinite Azimuth
Offset between OnStep and Stellarium
ESP32 WIFI
Many thanks and best regards
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Howard Dutton
Here's a summary:
https://onstep.groups.io/g/main/wiki/4464
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Howard Dutton
On Thu, Nov 12, 2020 at 05:02 AM, <scepo_88@...> wrote:
Are you sure ? What is purpose of upper pins then? I watched lot of tutorials people connecting exact same drivers via uart on SKR.1.3 and 1.4 but not on MKS Gen L...Ok, let me qualify that last statement. OnStep does not support UART mode for any TMCxxxx driver. I also have no plans to add that feature at this time.
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scepo_88@...
Are you sure ? What is purpose of upper pins then? I watched lot of tutorials people connecting exact same drivers via uart on SKR.1.3 and 1.4 but not on MKS Gen L...
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Re: Question on Spiral Search - Android Message
On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 04:23 PM, Drew 🔭📷🚴♂️ wrote:
On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 05:55 PM, Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:Agree it is a bit confusing. The "." isn't really a decimal point only a separator. Major 4 minor 7 is < major 4 minor 21.
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Re: Question on Spiral Search - Android Message
Martin Bonfiore
For some unknown reason I am not getting the needs >= 4.7 message and spiral is working. I have no clue why since It went from fail to working without changing anything. I am starting to question my sanity. One thing I did seem to notice was that the onstep version splash screen on the Android app did not consistently appear...but I can’t swear to this. At this point my problem is nominally solved and I thank everyone for their help.
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Howard Dutton
On Thu, Nov 12, 2020 at 04:10 AM, <scepo_88@...> wrote:
Problem is i dont know how to connect them in UARTThat is not supported, stand-alone mode only.
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scepo_88@...
Hi to all i really hope that someone could help me.
I bought MKS Gen L v1.0 board and fysetc TMC2209 v3 stepper drivers. Problem is i dont know how to connect them in UART i tried everything and watch all tutorials i could find but on all others TMC2209 there are 3 pins on top, but on fysetc there are just two... https://wiki.fysetc.com/Silent2209/ I dont understand schematic, so i would appreciate if someone can tell me what to do. Thanks in advance
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Re: TMC2130 and Wantai 42BYGHM809 and cables
UndCon
That is correct!
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Re: OneStep on raspberry pi
UndCon
ZWO Asair and ZWO Asair PRO both runs on RPI
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Re: OnStep / ASCOM - Realtime Telescope Position - 3D Visualization Software (free)
irving pieters <Irving.pieters@...>
Great piece of software. Is there a new version?
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Re: OneStep on raspberry pi
Rafael Barberá Córdoba
I don't understand your motivations. What OnStep does, in the end, is controlling some pieces of hardware (motors). Here perfect timing and a simpler execution path is the goal. And for this, microcontrollers are vast superior. Yes is more difficult to build fancy UI using it or adding complex software, but there is not need at this level. OnStep is a very modular system with multiple microcontrollers each one performing a dedicated task. Take for example WiFi add-on. Is not only software. You need to add a dedicated micro to handle it. Why? because is simpler and more testable. You have OnStep main controller communicating via serial interface. You add another micro with WiFi capabilities talking via serial with the main OnStep one and bang, you have WiFi capabilities "built in" your system.
You need more high level software? perfect, add it to other computer and use ASCOM / INDI to communicate with OnStep ecosystem. I've done with a Mac. Now, I'm running all the software I need inside a Raspberry Pi 4. This RP4 connects via WiFi with the add-on that talks via serie interface with OnStep. Complex? Perhaps, but I only interact with one system (KStars/Ekos). At this level of modularity I was able to test each component independently and I can put a new connection at each interface. For example, I also use SkySafari on my phone to connect directly via WiFi with the mount to control it when I'm at the eyepiece. If you put all this possibilities on a Raspberry and also tries to run the top level software (KStars/Ekos) on it you will have a lot of food on the same plate. And you need to enable all the communications with the external world (a ton of users prefer to use Windows software connecting with ASCOM). I think that the goal you have is enormous and I don't see any advantage. I like a lot having OnStep so close to the metal. It's completely autonomous and does one thing extraordinarily well: controlling the mount. All the other task are delegates to other micros / computers.
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Re: OneStep on raspberry pi
dhirajranger@...
I was thinking of writing all the code from scratch in python or even reUse the C code but yeah the Arduino Libs used will be a major undertaking, I understand these are two very different universe but still wanted thoughts of people who have done this/tried this. from what i gather from all your views it will not be much of a port rather it will be parallel project from scratch. I was under impression some clever hack of running arduino code on Rpi and pinMapping. Thanks everyone for your input
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Re: Question on Spiral Search - Android Message
On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 07:23 PM, Drew 🔭📷🚴♂️ wrote:
On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 05:55 PM, Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:I rather meant that in the future we should make the numbers explicit so no confusion can ever occur. That is also why I advocate purely numeric version numbers (e.g. 042101 rather than 4.21b), which can be checked easier in the code all the way down to the major/minor/patch). I did not mean that 4.7 > 4.21, since it works correctly in my case, and for others. Martin's situation is something else.
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Re: Question on Spiral Search - Android Message
On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 05:55 PM, Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:
Maybe with version 5.x we should start putting an explicit leading zero.So you are saying the app was checking for version 4.07 or greater? I am still trying to understand what the logic behind this is. 4.21 is not greater than 4.7 this is what Martin reports in the first post.
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