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: sky planetarium does not connect.. help please
asirio <asirio.x@...>
Hi, thanks for your response.
No, I connect via bluetooth, but I tried serially and it also disconnected.
The problem I have is that there is no type of error message, just the second it connects, a message appears that says "unknown step rate axis1 and axis2", I don't know if it will have anything to do with it.
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Re: Steppers with Planetary Gear boxes
On Fri, Aug 6, 2021 at 09:49 AM, <pcboreland@...> wrote:
You suggest micro stepping down to this level. I was concerned about accuracy and holding power. For the Dec axis I suppose this is not such an issue?The sweet spot that the vast majority of OnStep users are at is: 1/32 microstep. A small percentage use one step off on each side (so 1/16 and 1/64). Using extreme microstepping (1/128) is not something that is commonly done because of exactly what you said: torque and precision. Although, if one is autoguiding, that will take care of things anyways.
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Re: Steppers with Planetary Gear boxes
Peter Boreland
George,
You suggest micro stepping down to this level. I was concerned about accuracy and holding power. For the Dec axis I suppose this is not such an issue? Peter
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Re: LX200 OnStep control software
Chad Gray
Guess I should say I use Indi on Raspberry Pi for the Indi server. I plug all of my devices Celestron CG5, ZWO1600, QHY guider, ZWO Focuser into the Pi. Then I connect to the Raspberry Pi indi server with my laptop running Kstars/Ekos. I can control all of my devices and the images stream to my laptop in about 5 seconds of download time. Chad
On Fri, Aug 6, 2021 at 9:35 AM Khalid Baheyeldin <kbahey@...> wrote: I am using KStars/Ekos as well, on an old laptop (Dell E6410, 14" display 1440x900,
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Re: LX200 OnStep control software
I am using KStars/Ekos as well, on an old laptop (Dell E6410, 14" display 1440x900,
Core i5 M520 @ 2.4GHz). I use Xubuntu, which is the simplest desktop distro. Still
A laptop will always be bulkier than a Raspberry Pi, but also faster and has a display.on 18.04 LTS. That CPU was introduced 2010, and last production was 2012. The laptop is still plenty fast with an SSD though. And I find that using Jasem's PPA repositories is more stable than what people report with AstroBerry and such. With a display, I can operate the mount from the laptop, unlike a Pi. I can also review the images, and colour stretch them from the command line. Just two nights ago, we had a smoke free night, though the sky was not the best. I packed the mount and went out of the city and was able to capture all four Messier nebulae in Sagittarius: the M17 Swan, M16 Eagle, M8 Lagoon, M20 Trifid. All are single 5 minute exposures, colour stretched. It was the first time I tried PHD2 multi star guiding, and it worked incredibly well with 1 second exposures with RMS of 0.6" - 0.7" instead of the usual 1.2" that I got regularly before. PHD2 is from Patrick Chevalley's repository (same author of CdC/SkyChart). So nothing to compile locally, and pretty stable. My workflow is not typical though. Unlike most astrophotographers, I don't prepare a sequence and leave the mount unattended since I don't stack. I am content with just a couple of single exposures. Instead, I look for what objects are up, and get a 60 second test exposure, and assess if I should get the 5 minute ones or not.
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LX200 OnStep control software
Chad Gray
Hello, i have mainly been using the KStars/Ekos software to control my OnStep telescope.
I am curious what other people use? I do astrophotography so acquiring images while controlling the mount would be very useful for me. Thanks! Chad
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wanting to the reverse the mount
koal01
Hi all,
Hoping most of you are enjoying nice skies. I have a manipulation question, a few days ago i was about to image an object at the zenith but the camera was very close to the mount, the camera was at the west side of the mount. I started imaging anyway regretting one hour later not having reversed the telescope on the mount to prevent it from touching the mount and complete the imaging session. I was far from the merdian so i did not want to launch a meridian flip, not sure by the way that the command would have been accepted by Onstep... There is the SYNC_CURRENT_PIER_SIDE_ONLY parameter in the config file but i have never use it, may be that one would help ? Whas is the operation i should have done or what you do in my situation ? Thanks Koal01
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Re: Adding an optical encoder to a dual shaft stepper motor, does onstep hardware/software support this?
George Cushing
For PEC all you need is a Hall effect sensor, about a buck.
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Re: Steppers with Planetary Gear boxes
George Cushing
There are 25714.2857 0.14"s in a degree (3600/0.14). So why don't these work? 
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Re: Steppers
George Cushing
Set the DMM to Ohms. connect the probes to any two wires. If there is no reading, move one probe to another wire. If there is no reading, move the probe to the remaining wire. Record resistance. Usually Red and Blue are the ends of one coil and Black and Green the other. Polarity in such cases is Black A+ Green A- Red B+ Blue B- Apply Ohm's Law https://ohmslawcalculator.com/ohms-law-calculator
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Re: sky planetarium does not connect.. help please
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Re: Steppers with Planetary Gear boxes
I have used OMC Online Stepper motors with a planetary gearbox. I used them on an 8" Dobsonian telescope I built. https://photos.app.goo.gl/Mev4PmVaqpaH7Usp1
I ended up using the high precision motors since the cheaper ones developed quite a bit of backlash after a year or so of use. So far the 50:1 Precision Planetary motor has performed well. I too have a G11 mount and I too am moving to OnStep with it. My plan is to use 09. degree NEMA 17 motors and TMC5160 stepper drivers at 64 microsteps. This should result in 24,600 microsteps per degree. Here is where I am today with this G11 to OnStep Conversion today. I used a new set of Losmandy Oldham Couplers to join the motor to the worm. I only finished this today and have not even painted the mounting plates yet. However it does seem very stable and solid. I am still waiting some parts to arrive s
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Re: Adding an optical encoder to a dual shaft stepper motor, does onstep hardware/software support this?
Peter Boreland
Robert,
The optical encoder I posted has a index mark. https://www.anaheimautomation.com/products/accessories/encoder-item.php?sID=193&pt=i&tID=112&cID=34
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Re: Adding an optical encoder to a dual shaft stepper motor, does onstep hardware/software support this?
Peter Boreland
Robert,
There is a closed loop solution using Clearpath motors but there are expensive. If the goal is to correct PE I do not think these h
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Re: Steppers with Planetary Gear boxes
Peter Boreland
Robert,
Mount is a G11. I'm planning to direct drive both the Dec and Ra worms via a rigid coupler. On the Losmandy forum I've shown the benefit of using a step size less than 0.56" leads to much improved guiding performance for the Dec axis. This was achieved by replacing the optical encoder from 265 to 1024. I want to achieve a step size of at least 0.14", so was thinking inline gearbox would be best way to do this. I was hoping to find a harmonic gearbox but have had no luck. As long as software can cancel out the backlash all should be good I think. For the Ra axis 0.56" seems to work just fine with minimal advantage going to a smaller step size. My focus is on removing high frequency noise I plan to use a high res clear path motor for a close loop solution. It has a built-in 6400 optical encoder providing 0.56" step size. The input is step and direction so will not need a stepper driver.
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Re: OnStep driver issues
villem989@...
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Re: OnStep driver issues
Dave Schwartz
If Windows 10 won't install the drivers automatically, maybe you need to get them from here https://www.silabs.com/developers/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
On 2021-08-05 3:36 p.m., villem989@... wrote:
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Francois94
Yes , design comes from Frank in that topic : https://onstep.groups.io/g/main/topic/my_skywatcher_150p_on_an/83327227?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,120,83327227
I just made some minor changes to improve stability as the RA mount is only fixed
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OnStep driver issues
villem989@...
Hello, I bought a second hand Losmandy G11 with OnStep ESP32 goto kit already installed. However I cant get the OnStep to talk with ASCOM / SGP. I feel that Im really stuck so any help would be a great help. Im running Windows 10 PC with Sequence Generator Pro and ASCOM Platform 6.5SP1. I have installed drivers from here: http://www.stellarjourney.com/index.php?r=site/software_telescope and I have tried latest Beta and all of the older versions avaiable at that page (1.50 and 2.0.6). The device itself is powered correctly with 12v power supply and I have tried multiple USB cables too with no success. Im unsure what to do next, as Windows doesnt recognize the OnStep controller. In device manager it only shows up as CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller with a yellow ! mark. I have tried to run diagnostics too but Windows cant solve the problem on its own and only states that the device doesnt have any drivers.
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Re: Cnc V3 and SHC Problems
George Cushing
Terry, I'll assume you are using Branch manager ESP32 1.0.4. A couple days ago I started having similar issues with a MaxESP32 I was testing. My experience was with OnStep 4.24g. The MaxESP32 was configured with a D1 mini Pro, LV8729 drivers and the SHC32 (ESP). When powered, the ESP32 would not fully boot to OnStep. At least I would get no status 1 LED PPS signal, the SHC would not connect and gave the connection warning - coordinates error. The motors would not operate even though auto on had been selected. The D1 mini Pro did connect with the ESP32. I assumed that ESP 32 1.0.4 had become scrambled and removed it and installed Ver. 1.0.6 and flashed one ESP32 with it. Then I reinstalled 1.0.4. The reinstall did not change anything. A ESP32 with 1.0.6 installed booted, established communication with the SHC, motors were operative, but the D1 mini Pro (flashed with 2.7.4 did not connect with the ESP32. D1 mini flashed with ESP8266 3.0.0 connected. And D1 mini Pro flashed with 3.0.0 prevented the ESP32 from booting. Removing it from the PCB and repowering resulted in a good boot and SHC and motor operation. There are a couple of more recent revisions to 3.0.0. I'll try them and see what happens. Seems odd that anything would change in the old ESP managers that would stop 1.0.4 from working with 2.7.4.
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