Taking the OnStep plunge

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astrosathya
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Re: Taking the OnStep plunge

#21

Post by astrosathya »


Hi Guys,
I chanced upon this thread when looking for fellow DIY'ers who've built the OnStep. I know there's a tonne of us out there. I used to have a fully working SW HEQ5-PRO Synscan GOTO mount until two weeks ago when the motherboard just blew or rather gave up. I decided to build an OnStep controller based on the CNCV3 and Wemos D1 R32 and i've ordered the components today. Hopefully i'll have it working by the end of this month.
This is a nice thread by the way. :)
Regards from Bangalore (India)
Sathya.
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Re: Taking the OnStep plunge

#22

Post by SkyHiker »


astrosathya wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 1:34 pm Hi Guys,
I chanced upon this thread when looking for fellow DIY'ers who've built the OnStep. I know there's a tonne of us out there. I used to have a fully working SW HEQ5-PRO Synscan GOTO mount until two weeks ago when the motherboard just blew or rather gave up. I decided to build an OnStep controller based on the CNCV3 and Wemos D1 R32 and i've ordered the components today. Hopefully i'll have it working by the end of this month.
This is a nice thread by the way. :)
Regards from Bangalore (India)
Sathya.
Nice Sathya, you chose the same OnStep components. I started mine with the stable v3.16o before there was an official CNCv3 support so I created my own pin map. Just a matter of following the pins from the CPU to the Wemos to the CNCv3. If you look at the one that OnStep provides, IIRC it requires soldering some pins. In my version this is not necessary because I restricted the functionality to the bare minimum - just get the motors and Bluetooth running and leave the rest to Ekos on the Pi, such as WiFi. This is something you may consider, it worked very well for me. Meanwhile I switched to a Pi4B with 8 GB memory and have had no complaints so far. The Pi2B still works OK but it's nice to have more horse power when wanting to do more and dealing with an astro camera. Good luck!
... Henk. :D Telescopes: GSO 12" Astrograph, "Comet Hunter" MN152, ES ED127CF, ES ED80, WO Redcat51, Z12, AT6RC, Celestron Skymaster 20x80, Mounts and tripod: Losmandy G11S with OnStep, AVX, Tiltall, Cameras: ASI2600MC, ASI2600MM, ASI120 mini, Fuji X-a1, Canon XSi, T6, ELPH 100HS, DIY: OnStep controller, Pi4b/power rig, Afocal adapter, Foldable Dob base, Az/Alt Dob setting circles, Accessories: ZWO 36 mm filter wheel, TV Paracorr 2, Baader MPCC Mk III, ES FF, SSAG, QHY OAG-M, EAF electronic focuser, Plossls, Barlows, Telrad, Laser collimators (Seben LK1, Z12, Howie Glatter), Cheshire, 2 Orion RACIs 8x50, Software: KStars-Ekos, DSS, PHD2, Nebulosity, Photo Gallery, Gimp, CHDK, Computers:Pi4b, 2x running KStars/Ekos, Toshiba Satellite 17", Website:Henk's astro images
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