Homemade motofocus

A 5 YeaR Old · Post by **A 5 YeaR Old** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:48 pm

here's their website http://www.ai.com.sg/

i think their workshop is in kallang ....

anat · Post by **anat** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:15 pm

FYI, I finished a re-designed board using the PIC microprocessor in the original INEX board. I attempted this because the manufacturer may discontinue producing the board soon but they still supply the microcontroller. This homemade board is much smaller and cheaper. Now, we can have a low-cost autofocus-capable focuser

I will provide the board diagram and ASCOM driver source code for interested people.

The board will go to Matthew soon

Anat

Post by **weixing** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:58 pm

Hi,

FYI, I finished a re-designed board using the PIC microprocessor in the original INEX board. I attempted this because the manufacturer may discontinue producing the board soon but they still supply the microcontroller. This homemade board is much smaller and cheaper. Now, we can have a sub-US$25 autofocus-capable focuser I will provide the board diagram and ASCOM driver source code for interested people.

I think you still need the programmer to "burn" your program to the EPROM or whatever and a compiler or interpreter for your source code, right?? How much does the compiler/interpreter and the programmer cost?? Been out of touch in the microcontroller field for quite a long time.

Anyway, I'm thinking of adding a microcontroller base "GOTO" to my Vixen GP mount when I have more time and fund...

Have a nice day.

anat · Post by **anat** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:48 am

Weixing:

I bought the programmed PIC microcontroller. So, there is no need to burn the chip. The source code that I mentioned is for the ASCOM driver used to interface with any astro software.

For your GP, you may find the littlefoot controller interesting.
http://littlefoot.rajiva.de/

Anat

anat · Post by **anat** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:28 am

I am getting close to the final stage of development.

Buttons are built-in and everything is packed in the palm-sized control box. Those are buttons for:
On-Off
Manual-PC control (including Autofocus)
Move-in
Move-out
Motor release
Speed control

Anat

anat · Post by **anat** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:30 am

History of the development

MooEy · Post by **MooEy** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:37 am

looks gd, going comercial soon?

~MooEy~

anat · Post by **anat** » Thu May 05, 2005 2:50 pm

Thank you, MooEy. My immediate plan is to provide all information including PCB drawings and purchasing sources to make this motorized focuser on a website. I would like to demonstrate that we don't need to resort to any expensive solution to get motorized focus and autofocus which is essential for webcam/CCD/DSLR astrophotographers. It costs about US$50 if you do it yourself. By this solution, I may get about 80% (or more) of what the expensive solution gives but I pay only 10% of that

Any comment is welcome.

BTW, the official name of this stuff is "EzyFocus" :oops:

Anat

anat · Post by **anat** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 3:25 pm

With valuable comments from Matthew and singastronomers, this project becomes a real product ...
First computerized/computerless DSLR autofocuser
http://www.xactfocus.com/

Admin, please don't change my name's color to Pink. I will have less power

Happy new year.
Anat

kingkong · Post by **kingkong** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 12:22 am

good work anat!
now.... how about something for autotracking the lxd75 using a pda...? ;-)