Friday, May 30, 2014

Star autoguide with RPi - (4) Electronic circuit

The Orion Atlas EQ-G autoguide port is shown in below picture.

A simple circuit has been design for making the connection between RPi and EQ-G autoguide port.
The color of LED and the GPIO pin# from RPi are following:
Yellow LED, Dec +, GPIO #4
Green LED, Dec -, GPIO #22
Blue LED, RA-, GPIO #17
Red LED, RA+, GPIO #18
Below is the circuit board based on above configuration.
Next step: Connect RPi auto guide cable to EQ-G.

Setup for the real test now
The webcam has been installed to 400mm guide scope.  Now, start the star auto guiding test.  A bright star has been chosen for the test.  You may skip the lengthy boring start auto guiding process.  It just for a record.
Test with 2 pixels tolerance and x0.5 autoguiding speed.  Again you may skip the lengthy boring star auto guiding process too.
Test with 1 pixels tolerance and x0.125 auto guiding speed.
<Add video here>

What if I discount and re-connect the guiding cable from EQ-G?










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12 comments:

  1. UnknownAugust 5, 2014 at 5:54 PM

    HI Maple
    What is the voltage source that you have shown in the driver circuit?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownDecember 10, 2014 at 7:31 AM

    Hello Maple,
    What kind of NPN transistors are you using? I would like to rebuild this circuit.
    BR, Pieter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maple YangDecember 11, 2014 at 12:11 AM

      I found those NPN transistor from my very old inventory, say 25+ years old. You may choose any (or even the cheapest) NPN transistors you can find. Good luck!

      Delete
    2. UnknownJuly 6, 2016 at 3:19 PM

      hello I am not very knowledgeable in electronics, you can tell me what kind of transistor should I buy?

      I'm trying to do it step by step.

      Greetings.

      Delete
    3. Maple YangJuly 9, 2016 at 3:38 PM

      Hi Robertox,
      Any inexpensive NPN transister can be used here. You may try 2N3904 2N2222, or other.

      Delete
  3. Maple YangJuly 9, 2016 at 3:38 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kokoro SanJuly 6, 2017 at 10:27 PM

    Hello Maple Yang

    am Kokoro from Malaysia.

    Interesting using Pi for guiding, i would like to learn how to build one with my
    ASI034MC 50mm200mm guide scope.

    is possible to give me a step by step how to make it work in Pi3b.
    great help is most appreciated.

    alex_chong79@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maple YangJuly 8, 2017 at 9:14 AM

      I don't have experience with that USB sensor, if you are lucky enough your camera sensor can work was the RPI directly without any special driver. If not, you will need to find a proper driver for your USB camera sensor that can be installed on the RPI. You may contact your sensor`s supplier for more info. Good luck.

      Delete
  5. JoeBloggerJuly 19, 2017 at 8:44 AM

    Hi
    How do I connect the J1 from interface to Raspberry-Pi ?

    I cannot see a diagram of that.

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maple YangJuly 21, 2017 at 12:20 AM

      Connect it to RPi`s GPIO pins. You can find many example on internet about this part. Have fun!

      Delete
  6. Maple YangDecember 22, 2017 at 2:15 PM

    Hi All,
    You may consider using PHD2 on Linex too, see https://launchpad.net/~pch/+archive/ubuntu/phd2 for detail.

    ReplyDelete

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