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.
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Re: Something a little different
njgood51
Hi Tomofreno, Its very basic. The DEC drive unit pivots on a bolt through the drive unit backplate. Under the drive unit base is a fixed plate that has a 6mm bolt tapped through it that can be screwed out to push the unit and drive shaft against the DEC wheel. When i have enough pressure another bolt in a curved slot through the backplate can be tightened along with the pivot bolt to lock it all in place. Nick ---- On Sat, 28 Nov 2020 15:37:00 +0000 tomofreno2000 via groups.io <tomofreno2000@...> wrote ----
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Re: Configuration advice
George Cushing
Yes, I've used 36T:12T to get 3:1. With the 40T that's 3.33:1, netting a further improvement in tracking (0.58).
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Re: Configuration advice
George Cushing
Problem is the CI-700's GR-2 ratios of 180:1, the 200 step motors and trying to use 128 µsteps. The GR-2s are hard to fix, but they work well on the GM-6 with 0.9° drives and a 3:1 GR-1. The easiest thing to change is the µstep rate. Next are the steppers. I just ordered ten 0.9° NEMA 17s for under $10 (Blk Fri special). Working with what you've got this looks more workable: And the estimated tracking resolution is actually a 27% improvement.
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Re: Problem with ESP32s Development Board for SHC
George Cushing
Can't be sure. But these are correct:
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Re: Abandoning Blue/Black Pill. What Next?
George Cushing
Just bridging the resistor with solder means you have to apply the parallel resistor rule.
So there's really no reason to flick the resistor out of the way just smother it in solder. If you have already mucked up the PCB, or want to play it safe. Solder a resistor (R*) between pin PA12 and 3.3V. If R10 is gone you want something within 50% of 1.5KΩ. Anything between 2.25K and 750Ω will work. With R10 in place R* can be found with the Resistor Calculator. Using a 1.8KΩ nets us 1525Ω. certainly close enough.
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Re: Something a little different
tomofreno2000
How do you apply force between DEC disk and drive wheel to get sufficient friction?
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Re: Something a little different
tomofreno2000
Nice nj!
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Re: FYSETC S6 and OnStep - proposal for update
I'm an INDI user, and I ended up putting the GPS on the RPi4 running INDI. I wanted the added benefits of gpsd and NTP, and the INDI server can use the time to sync all my attached gear to the same timebase. I bring the PPS output from the Pi to the MKS Genl using the Pin Howard designated for that purpose. So far as I can tell, it works very well. It you're using PPS, you can update the rig continuously if you want, which ensures a very accurate timebase, and minimizes error here and there. Howards approach sounds appropriate to me. One and done is the safest all around way to use a GPS. Continuous update of very precise time (not location) has some benefits, but at the cost of a lot of hassle and code. Location should never be updated continuously. When my rig is home, I just tie it to the house timeserver, an RPi 3 running the Adafruit GPS, fully phase locked with PPS, and running at Stratum one. I send the address for this in DHCP, and use the PPS output for radio gear as well as astro. Every network device in my house runs on the exact same time, and it's correct to the microsecond.
On Fri, Nov 27, 2020 at 8:14 PM Khalid Baheyeldin <kbahey@...> wrote: On Fri, Nov 27, 2020 at 07:14 PM, Brian Davis wrote:
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Onstep MiniPCB2 basic questions
#iOptron
Hello guys, Currently I have my G-11 modify with Onstep MiniPCB2 (Tenssy 3.2) with Smart Hand Controller (ESP32 version)
Before I ask questions... I'll explain how I use 1st.. My Step by Step Using Onstep: After power up MiniPCB2 success Connect WiFi Onstep on Smart phones then I lunch Onstep ApK set Date & Time then key in coordinate altitude and latitude & upload, after that I set my home park & try do a object goto slew..it was slewing to wrong direction. I didn't do any star alignment yet. My Questions: 1. Izzit must do star alignment to tell onstep system to recognize all the sky objects location before get accurate goto slew? 2. Izzit possible to build a GPS in onstep for easy recognize the sky ones power up MiniPCB2. Similar like IOptron system? 3. If my coordinate show in SkySafari N 04º 03' 24.3" E 101º 37' 15.1" +8 timezones ( what should actually look like in onstep ) ? I do hope anyome could help me solve this last step to get it all working correctly, appreciate anyone for advice & help. Thx
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Re: STM32 Blue Pill : Windows doesn't detect CP2102
#uart
Dave Schwartz
Try a different cable - one you know works to exchange data.
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
A lot of micro-USB cables are made as 'power-only'. If you picked up one that came with a device that only needed to charge and not exchange data, the manufacturer likely cheaped-out and omitted the two data wires. You would not be the first (or second) who has fallen into this trap in this exact situation.
On November 27, 2020 11:44:09 PM EST, Mike Ahner <mahner@...> wrote: Windows will detect the CP2102 if things are working. Do you get a red light on the CP2102 when you plug in the USB cable? The CP2102 is powered only from the USB port of the computer, so if you don't have a red led, you don't have a good connection to the computer. Perhaps your cable is bad? --
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
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Re: STM32 Blue Pill : Windows doesn't detect CP2102
#uart
Hemendra Rawat
Thanks Mike. It was just a bad Micro USB cable.
On Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 8:44 PM Mike Ahner <mahner@...> wrote: Windows will detect the CP2102 if things are working. Do you get a red light on the CP2102 when you plug in the USB cable? The CP2102 is powered only from the USB port of the computer, so if you don't have a red led, you don't have a good connection to the computer. Perhaps your cable is bad?
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Re: STM32 Blue Pill : Windows doesn't detect CP2102
#uart
Mike Ahner
Windows will detect the CP2102 if things are working. Do you get a red light on the CP2102 when you plug in the USB cable? The CP2102 is powered only from the USB port of the computer, so if you don't have a red led, you don't have a good connection to the computer. Perhaps your cable is bad?
If you have a red led but no COM port in the device manager, then perhaps your USB cable is a charging cable, not a data cable. Again, try another good USB cable. The CP2102 will light red and show as a COM port without power to the OnStep controller. Another possibility is the CP2102 is defective. -Mike
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STM32 Blue Pill : Windows doesn't detect CP2102
#uart
Hemendra Rawat
Hi,
I just finished my Onstep Blue Pill PCB (version 1.8) and I'm in the process of flashing Onstep firmware on STM32. I powered on the board and connected my Windows 10 PC to CP2102 using a micro-USB cable but windows doesn't show any COM ports in the device manager. By reading the wiki, it appears like windows should detect it without installing any special drivers. Am I missing anything ? How do I debug this issue ? Regards, Hemendra
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Re: FYSETC S6 and OnStep - proposal for update
On Fri, Nov 27, 2020 at 07:14 PM, Brian Davis wrote:
The .GPS. clock is the NMEA time broadcast by the GPS constellation. The .PPS> clock is the NMEA output conditioned to the GPS PPS signal. Note, the jitter in the .GPS. clock. That's a lot. The offset value is about half a second, meaning that the average time given is about half a second off from the start of second (PPS). That's not a big deal, because the alignment process will take care of the error. But the jitter, means that every time the system clock gets updated, its going to change the clock (system tick counter) by a significant amount. If you can update once, then ignore the GPS, great. If you set up PPS, even better. But don't run it on NMEA time.I have a GPS with PPS on my S6 (and so does Dave Schwartz). The way I understand it (Howard will correct me) is that OnStep waits until the GPS gets a lock, then reads the coordinates and time, then does not bother with those anymore for the rest of the session. PPS is just that: one second pulses from the GPS, and they are just one pin that OnStep averages to sync its timing.
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Re: FYSETC S6 and OnStep - proposal for update
MartinL
Thanks Brian,
I am waiting for GPS module with PPS signal - Is combination of GPS and RTC supported in OnStep?
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Re: FYSETC S6 and OnStep - proposal for update
Beware with respect to the GPS. Here's the output of my Pi3 timeserver, running an Adafruit Ultimate GPS, external antenna, and PPS enabled (along with GPSD and NTPd): pi@tappertime:~ $ ntpq -crv -pn associd=0 status=0115 leap_none, sync_pps, 1 event, clock_sync, version="ntpd 4.2.8p12@1.3728-o Fri Oct 2 15:12:16 UTC 2020 (1)", processor="armv7l", system="Linux/5.4.51-v7+", leap=00, stratum=1, precision=-20, rootdelay=0.000, rootdisp=1.090, refid=PPS, reftime=e36c10b9.bc25c591 Fri, Nov 27 2020 17:56:41.734, clock=e36c10c0.8d41913e Fri, Nov 27 2020 17:56:48.551, peer=36753, tc=3, mintc=3, offset=0.000407, frequency=-2.907, sys_jitter=0.000954, clk_jitter=0.001, clk_wander=0.000, tai=37, leapsec=201701010000, expire=202012280000 remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset jitter ============================================================================== o127.127.22.0 .PPS. 0 l 7 8 377 0.000 0.000 0.001 x127.127.28.0 .GPS. 1 l 7 16 377 0.000 -473.98 34.068 *127.127.28.2 .SHM2. 0 l 9 16 377 0.000 0.000 0.001 The .GPS. clock is the NMEA time broadcast by the GPS constellation. The .PPS> clock is the NMEA output conditioned to the GPS PPS signal. Note, the jitter in the .GPS. clock. That's a lot. The offset value is about half a second, meaning that the average time given is about half a second off from the start of second (PPS). That's not a big deal, because the alignment process will take care of the error. But the jitter, means that every time the system clock gets updated, its going to change the clock (system tick counter) by a significant amount. If you can update once, then ignore the GPS, great. If you set up PPS, even better. But don't run it on NMEA time.
On Fri, Nov 27, 2020 at 4:17 PM <martin@...> wrote: Hello,
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Re: FYSETC S6 and OnStep - proposal for update
MartinL
I can try my first pull with those default values for aux features :) lets see :)
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Re: FYSETC S6 and OnStep - proposal for update
Howard Dutton
On Fri, Nov 27, 2020 at 03:38 PM, Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:
Howard, do you want me to submit a pull request for this?I added analogWriteResolution(8) to the STM32 HAL instead. Please test and let me know if that does the trick. Wow, that's an unfortunate situation STM32Duino defaulting to 12bit but I'm sure there's backwards compatibility considerations, so I understand.
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Re: FYSETC S6 and OnStep - proposal for update
MartinL
That is also on my roadmap - like a small panel which fits one side of the enclosure (LEDs, GPS, Wemos, Weather) and just connect that with ribbon cable..maybe we shall join our effort here :)
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Re: FYSETC S6 and OnStep - proposal for update
MartinL
This could be also done like board specific - easier and for nomal user "hidden", they dont need to bother themself with it...
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