Feb 26

DIY Telescope progresses once again…

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Hi again,

Long time no see? :) …

After a long delay due to high workload over xmas sales and having to move house (again), the telescope goto mount progresses.

The man-cave is now mostly setup as a workshop and various projects begin once again.

workshop

Man-cave

*A-hem* back to the project :) …

Programming the PIC Micro goes into gear with the motors now controlled by an interrupt service routine. The timer is on about a 5ms tick. each tick it tests the speed setting of each of the 3 motors. If the motor is within 10 degrees of the aim the speed is set to slow by the main routine else it’s fast. The ISR will either tick the motor over every interrupt on fast, or every 4 ticks on slow.

Perhaps a tad rough but its a start and it works :) (well after much debugging and swearing as usual ).

With only 5ms per tick I needed to keep the ISR code as simple as possible, my first attempt had it too slow and there wasn’t enough time for the LCD code in the main routine to work!!!

Also I found the motors turn much smoother and stable with the ISR control. Though I’m not convinced the steppers I chose will be strong enough for the end design but at least they are easy to swap over.

For those of you who may be interested in the code just let me know in the comments, if needed I’ll clean it up and post it.

So onward to sleep :) back again soon I hope!

Thanks!

- Radan.

Oct 04

DIY Astronomy progress

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As the above YouTube video shows, circuit now has 3 stepper motors under individual control. Serial IO commands can be sent to set each of the 3 motor positions independently.
Motors will be used for Altitude, Azimuth and focus.
Yes this progress took many modifications both hardware and software as well as much swearing and coffee.
Now I am happy to end another day. Next aim is to put the motors on a timer control so I can control their speed. Then its on to mounting them on the actual mount itself.
Until then, enjoy!

–
Radan.

Sep 16

DIY Astronomy Progress!

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Greetings, work on my DIY Telescope GOTO mount continues again.

ET-Base40 Proto board with PIC16C877 cpu, 2-line LCD Display, Stepper motor and driver board. Wired up for first test.

After several attempts re-learning ‘C’ to program the pic, I have the motor on a swing with the rotation on the LCD display.

Unfortunately due to working on it late at night a couple night ago, I managed to fry one driver chip and destroy a motor. Oh well, progress is not without some costs. (about $7, not really a concern)

Here’s a youtube shot of the action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIUbCfqXFwA

Time to get back into it, more work to be done!

Thanks!

Radan.

Apr 23

Puzzle me!

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Hi again,

Added yet another hobby to my list (actually a few inc some gadgets but later)

Saw a jigsaw puzzle in a Toy & Sports shop located in Milton NSW that I just HAD to get, actually they had about a dozen of them I wanted but just one for now…

Heres a link to the site and a picture of the one I purchased (1000 piece – should take me a while :) )

Awesome! It’s just so me ;)

I’m thinking I might Webcam the construction, not 100% sure yet, going to test the feasibility of it.

(if you think I should webcam it let me know by comments!)

Other new events are gadget purchases that have kept me busy along with watching more anime and playing Wii games. My partner and I have been stuck on playing Rune Factory for the Wii, complex game, sometimes frustrating, but awsome fun as well. :)

Purchased myself a MID – Mobile Internet Device, basically a cheap iPad type thing, 7″ screen, reasonably light and portable, runs 3 systems, Android, Windows CE6 & Ubuntu Linux. Lots there for me to tinker with ( and being a cheapish unit it needed a little tinkering ;) )  Half the price of the iPad and far more ability to tinker…

Learning Java as I can, thus the MID purchase with Android being java based and potential profit maker if I can start developing apps for it…

Well that’s most of my catching up, let me know about the webcam thing, or any other comments, any suggestions on apps? ;)

seeya again soon!

ttfn.

Radan.