THE WORLD'S FIRST STAND ALONE ARDUINO BASED TELESCOPE CONTROL GOTO. There is a 90º lag between them. from ui.laser_control_ui import Ui_LaserControl Here you can read some extra information about using interrupts on Arduino. Then I realized it would be better if I use a gear-wheel fixed to the mount and telescope to drive the encoders. Comparatively, a full moon have about 30 minutes of arc wide (0,5º). File “C:\Arduino-Telescope-Control-master\main\python\ui\icons_set_rc.py”, line 272, in But my voltmeter doesn't seem to be sensitive enough to pick up the 0. Here you are a small video of the prototype I made executing a movement sequence. NOTE: Because I also use this box for many other purposes, there are some extra cables going around. That is a pulse! It can cause you irreversible blindness. Nov 1, 2017 - Control Your Telescope Using Stellarium & Arduino: I am fascinated by astronomy since the first time I looked to the night sky. Combine this with Stellarium… The laser points towards the celestial objects indicated from Stellarium, by using a stepper motors system. It consists on a first approach to control a telescope mechanism by the USB port, builded from scratch and based on Arduino microcontroller, from a computer with GNU/Linux and the Stellarium software. It's a nice mount (cheap, portable and very easy to use), but to get what you want to see, you… Raspberry Pi Controlled Aquaponics. For this purpose, it's desirable that you enable some features at the "view" and "configuration" tabs, as you can see from the pictures above. Longitude will be calculated through AR and H. To set up your location and time, please follow the steps I described in the images above. To send a "slew" command to the telescope, select an object (e.g. You might have to slightly rotate the encoder to find the "ON" position at each channel. A multi platform, Arduino powered, open source, and open hardware telescope controller and PC interface. It's a nice mount (cheap, portable and very easy to use), but to get what you want to see, you… Raspberry Pi Controlled Aquaponics. I am fascinated by astronomy since the first time I looked to the night sky. To learn more about coordinate systems, positional astronomy or LST, you can go here, here and here... Hope you are already familiar with arduino, but if you aren't, please, don't worry - there is a lot of information you can get on-line. I am moving it VERY slowly as it is a 600P/R rotary encoder. Initially, the main reason for this blog is the publication of a personal project that I believe could be interesting for astronomy amateurs. It's a nice mount (cheap, portable and very … While connected to Arduino, periodically Stellarium sends 2 strings: ":GR#" - ready to receive RA and ":GD#" - to receive DEC. This configuration (timing belt with 300 teeth and encoder's pulley with 20 teeth) give a gear ratio of 15 (ratio = 300/20 = 15). By doing this, I also increased the portability of everything - it should be easier placing and removing the gear-wheels, by pulling the encoder back. 1 – PWM with encoder It also includes the processing of the image via MATLAB Ⓡ [2] that is obtained from the telescope in near future [3]. Store those values to calibrate the current position and get a near perfect alignment.I'm implementing something like this but my setup is a little different, i've got an SCT with fork and equatorial wedge. In this project I made and integrated an Arduino-powered star-finder with a small reflecting… 5 – Arduino Due (32 Bit) GOOD WORK!Troubleshooting: If your object tends to move at the wrong direction (azimuth or altitude), that means your encoder channels (respectively, azimuth or altitude) are reversed. Try to make the circle as perfect as you can! Zu Stellarium: Ein großartiges Programm... Ich bin aber kein Freund davon, OpenSource-Software für eigene Zwecke zu verändern. If someone have the arduino code .... Hello,Great project! If your timing belt have a different perimeter, you can find the circle diameter (d) doing: d=P/pi. Buy a goto telescope and you will see your problem solved! I'm looking for some help regarding the serial communication with stellarium and it's telescope control plugin. So, to prevent using a coordinate system that changes every single second, the astronomers have found a very ingenious way to determine the sky coordinates - the equatorial coordinate system. Control Your Telescope Using Stellarium & Arduino: I am fascinated by astronomy since the first time I looked to the night sky. Share it with us! I connect the encoders to a 9v battery and move the encoder, I see thru the oscilliscope that there is a signal change. Recently, I bought a 8" Newtonian telescope that came with a Dobsonian mount. Arduino must have configured how many pulses your encoders give by turn. Adjust all the trimmers until you read 3.3V at the middle pin. Hi Nelson,I wish I could say I have had success but it is not the case. The Arduino then compares the position of the target object to the orientation of the telescope, and using LEDs on the handset indicates to the user whether the telescope must be moved up, down, left or right. #rDUINOScope is an Open Source, Arduino Due based Telescope Control System (GOTO). Recently, I bought a 8" Newtonian telescope that came with a Dobsonian mount. 3 – Altzmuth To configure your telescope, follow the images above. I'm new to coding with Arduino, any help will be greatly appreciated. Move around and you will find it! Erstellt am: 03.04.2013 : 18:15:39 Uhr . Would there be a high risk of error if the two axes were adjusted only with a brand? THE WORLD'S FIRST STAND ALONE ARDUINO BASED TELESCOPE CONTROL GOTO. You only need to this one time! 2 – Little Welding Check the box to activate the plugin. You can say: Yeah! At this moment, you can check if the wheels are centered and straight by rotating the telescope and the mount. Now that we already have the Azimuth's holder, let's build, following the same principles, the Altitude's holder. Stellarium etc does not control the motors directly. Please reply I stuck with this. Comparatively, a full moon have about 30 minutes of arc wide (0,5º). There’s many complex systems for automatically pointing a telescope at an object in the sky, but most of them are too expensive for the amateur astronomer. I had a bit of issue getting it to work initially, but I just had to re-configure the telescope settings and re-boot stellarium. Screw the holders to the telescope's mount and then install the encoders. I took these sensors out of an old printer, and I don’t know the model nor any helpful reference. Find these and other hardware projects on Arduino Project Hub. Feb 22, 2020 - Control Your Telescope Using Stellarium & Arduino: I am fascinated by astronomy since the first time I looked to the night sky. James Remove the timing belt and finish your work with a layer of black paint around the plywood. When I give 2 réferences (or 3), can I make all transformation from Ra dec to alt az and from alt az to Ra dec ? I’m not sure if I understand the issue, but if so, I think the risk of errors depends on the precision of the limit sensors. Feb 26, 2018 - Control Your Telescope Using Stellarium & Arduino: I am fascinated by astronomy since the first time I looked to the night sky. This gear will allow a smoother mechanical connection (to prevent mechanical loads on the encoder) and, more important, will allow more resolution from the encoder - by multiplying the turns of the encoder by a gear ratio. so we broke it down into 2 tests:1) check the channel voltage to see if it flips between 0 and 3.3V.2) Make sure the arduino is "talking" to Stellarium.OK, test #2 is successful. You can try to generate the icons set again with the pyrcc4 command. Before I embark on this project I would like to know if the software allows to track the stars and not just go on it.Thank you in advance. Scheint ein generelles Problem zu sein. Whilst the Arduino can happily handle all the tasks associated with running the motors and pointing the telescope, in a modern observatory the PC rules. The reticle is an object like every other in Stellarium - it can be selected with the mouse, it can be tracked and it appears as an object in the Search window. I'm interested in making this. The next time you open Stellarium, you should have a new tool at the bottom's bar (see pictures above). Yes, you would still be reliant on likes of stellariumscope to actually do the scope control but it keeps the platform specific stuff out of stellarium. Again, because one image speaks for one thousand words, I described this step by using the images and the video above (and their comments). Just download and install into your computer. It seems to be an incompatibility with the icons and the operating system. Just drill a hole at each corner to screwing it. All such applications talk to telescopes using the common ASCOM interface. We need to build the hardware interface for 2 reasons: Above, you can find the shcematics that I used for each encoder's channel. Like this, you can place and remove the wheels and encoders from your telescope and, at the end, your telescope will be exactly the same telescope you bought (except a very tiny and imperceptible 4 holes...). Please note that the Encoder 1 is the Altitude encoder and the Encoder 2 is the azimuth encoder. It's a nice mount (cheap, portable and very … Click on the "telescope tool" and then select "telescope configuration". Load the code again and reconnect to Stellarium. All available open source telescope controls either use Raspberry Pi, which consumes a lot of power, or uses Arduino as extension to a computer, smart phone or tablet. If you don't have the arduino IDE, you can download it freely from here. Thanks for all the hints and tips. They rotate 360º in about 24H (15º per hour). It's a nice mount (cheap, portable and very … We get the reticle named _HELLO_. Click "configure telescope". It's a very useful tool used to convert any telescope into a push-to telescope, keeping it with a very low budget. Wait a few seconds (10 seconds or so..) and a new object ( _Hello_ ) will appear somewhere at the Stellarium's sky. Here's a very little explanation: The technique: To avoid loosing pulses (because the code takes some time to run...), I used some special pins and functions on Arduino: Interrupts. Well, you are absolutely right! Drafted as stand alone system, rDUINOScope does not need PC, Tablet or Cell Phone, nor Internet connection in order to operate and deliver stunning views! The cover, as you can see, is made from a piece of acrylic. After a couple of nights using my telescope, I realized that it should be helpful if, at any moment, I can compare my telescope position with the position of the target that I am looking for. I'm using the version 1.6.8, but others should work as well (just in case, try not to use some older versions). We cannot get the recticle in stellarium to move no matter what we try. I ordered a DSO 138 oscilliscope and new encoders. Required fields are marked *. I just receive themIf some one have the code with these items because i dont how to implement them in the code. I'm impressed. Those gear-wheels will be attached and fixed to the mount and will be responsible to drive the encoders, as you turn your telescope around (azimuth) and up/down (altitude). I am building something quite like this but I am using 3D printed gearboxes for a total reduction of 720:1 (1 rotation in the az or el plane gives 720 turns of the 600 p/r encoders)Here's the gearbox: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3079719It's 60:1 but I am also running two seperate GT belts and pulleys on each axis past the gearboxes both to give a final reduction of 720:1 and to bring the 600 p/r encoders up to sync at 720 p/r. 26.05.2020 - Steuern Sie Ihr Teleskop Mithilfe Von Stellarium & Arduino After this you can use a software like the open source stellarium to play with your telescope or PHD for astrophotography. This will be the overall resolution, equivalent to an amazing 36 seconds of arc (1296000/36000). Thanks for your reply, I’ve a look to coord.lib and I understood the process, even if some aspects of the program are not yet quite clear for me. There is no movement of the pointer in Stellarium. Telescope control using Stellarium PC direct via USB works fine for me, no Stellarium Scope required... the telescope marker acts as expected at all times. The Stellarium plugin works just fine with the LX200 protocol. However, because of my electrical background and because I like to consider myself hobbyist, my first thought was: - I can (and I will) build a DIY controller for my telescope. There are a lot of types of encoders. It's a nice mount (cheap, portable and very … I search a method for coordonate transformation and your library interest me, but in your demonstration you choose 2 reférences. Because Stellarium, through the LX200 protocol, only can read equatorial coordinates, I had to find a way to convert the readings from the telescope (altazimuth) to the equatorial coordinate system. Start drawing a circle into a piece of 3mm plywood. Can you please tell me which Sensor have you used? Why build a gear? Once again, I like to use wing nuts (see pictures). First I’m not a good programmer and my english is not very good so excuse me for that. All available open source telescope controls either use Raspberry Pi, which consumes a lot of power, or uses Arduino as extension to a computer, smart phone or tablet. As you can imagine, if at certain moment you are pointing to one object using a certain coordinate, after a few minutes, you need to recalibrate your coordinates because the object has moved, so, altazimuth coordinates are time dependent. 4 months ago, it works... thank a lotI want to simplify the initial lauch using a gps neo6m v2 and rtc. The pointer in Stellarium doesn't move when we move the telescope.Any ideas what we should try to troubleshoot?We have an 8 inch dob very similar to your setup so we made no changes or modifications to the code you made available. arduino cad xamarin-forms cnc cam 3d-printing fusion-360 esp8266-arduino stellarium laser-cutting esp32-arduino Sorry about that. Now that we have the wheels installed, we need to find a way to place and drive the encoders. I would want to know how i find the conversion of coordenites in the your  GitHub because i am with difficulties to moviment the telescope following the coordenites. Explore 1 projects tagged with 'stellarium and telescope goto'. In a very simple way, one encoder (angle encoder or position encoder) is a device (sensor) that can read, and therefore, transmit a position or an angle. The telescope is a $20 Goodwill Celestron 114AZ NPF with a SV105. I really encourage your work, I have try it and till now it seems to work well. Control Your Telescope Using Stellarium & Arduino: I am fascinated by astronomy since the first time I looked to the night sky. I'm intending to have a remote backyard setup with armchair mosquito free viewing. The code checks this strings and then sends, to the serial port, the corresponding string with the current right ascension (RA) and declination (DEC). It should be easy and fast to install and uninstall it (to transport and pack up easily). After the paint dry, install the timing belt again and it´s done! #rDUINOScope is an Open Source, Arduino Due based Telescope Control System (GOTO). 5 months ago We never get the voltage to change. to create a coordinate system. It's a nice mount (cheap, portable and very easy to use), but to get what you want to see, you… Your email address will not be published. 1 year ago. This project might help: OnStep is an open-source telescope controller, a device that controls a telescope to point at something interesti… To become a little more organized, I separated this step into 2 parts: this one to show how to build the Azimuth encoder holder and the next one (which is very similar) to show the Altitude holder. In my case, I have a 600 pulses encoder and a mechanical gear ratio of 15 times. The project is going to be published in a post series about different implementation details like Stellarium communications (Stellarium Telescope Protocol), communications with the device (USB-Serial), coordinate transformation (Toshimi Taki’s Matrix Method for Coodinates Transformation), interface, etc. Traceback (most recent call last): Recently, I bought a 8" Newtonian telescope that came with a Dobsonian mount. It's a nice mount (cheap, portable and very … For the references you’ll need the local (horizontal) and ecuatorial coordinates, and the local ones are not the same every day at the same time, so you can choose the same reference objects, but you can’t use the same values for their coordinates in a static setup. I have been getting a lot of errors in my code. So, each time that one of this pins changes his state (meaning the encoder has moved), this special pin (through the interrupt) activate a special piece of code (ISP - Interrupt Service Routine). It’s a Linux script, but I guess it must be equivalent commands to do so in windows. My intention is to build a more accurate and efficient design, although I think it’s going to take me some time (I have to work to pay the bills…). Because the GT2 timing belt have a 600mm perimeter, you should draw a circle with a 95,5mm radius (or 191mm diameter). Yo can also use the stellarium log file and try to see if it is receiving something or not.. Hi Nelson,Thanks for such a quick response! 5 months ago, Dear Nelson,Great project, i am happy with the code it Works perfect, i use a raspberry as laptop and that works fine.

I’m a teatcher in a french scool and try to make a motorised dobson telescope with student. I've rebuilt the breadboard 3 times, replaced the encoders and nothing shows up in the stellarium log file. Despite being not so easy to integrate with Arduino (programmed in C), these encoders are reliable, cheap (at least the ones I bought..! File “C:\Arduino-Telescope-Control-master\main\python\laser_control_main.py”, line 11, in Recently, I bought a 8" Newtonian telescope that came with a Dobsonian mount. Answer This means, a complete telescope's turn will give 15 complete encoder's turns , so you will multiply the encoder resolution by 15! So that’s all for the moment :)… In the next post I’ll start with the python-Stellarium communications. To reinforce the box, I glued some pieces of wood at the corners. More details are available on the github project page. To became more portable, instead soldering directly the encoder wires to the PCB, I added USB connectors that I took from 2 USB cables. We have tried to add a serial. Large reflecting telescopes can track the night sky for hours, and usually come with a computer interface and a GOTO button. For sure there is a problem with the encoders.. there is 50% chance to measure 0V at each channel, not 100% to 3,3.. so the encoders are always "high" and that's why the pointer does not move at stellarium.Check if the encoders can work as low as 5V.. you can try to supply with 9V or 12, but first disconnect from arduino and trim again to 3,3.One tip: You can use the arduino as an osciloscope with a very simple code - read digital pin and print the reading to the serial port, then you can check the signal in the IDE serial monitor. Feel free to use the materials you want (or you already have) and the sizes that better match your telescope and mount. After you build the box, just place the Arduino and secure it with some hot glue or even some small screws. It's a nice mount (cheap, portable and very … Connect the USB cable (I'm using the programming port on Arduino). Das sollte von einem eigenen Programm realisiert werden. Go to the configuration window and choose the "plugins" tab. This means, a complete telescope's turn will give 15 complete encoder's turns , so you will multiply the encoder resolution by 15! What part of the code do you need to change in order to do this? Stellarium telescope control plugin integration with arduino and xamarin forms (WiP). Once a telescope is successfully started/connected, Stellarium displays a telescope reticle labelled with the telescope's name on its current position in the sky. May 15, 2020 - Control Your Telescope Using Stellarium & Arduino: I am fascinated by astronomy since the first time I looked to the night sky. Hi, you can start to check the log at the stellarium and see if it is receiving something.. Also you can try to make some simple debug- edit manually the values from the encoders position, maybe you can add a line that increase the count every loop. Recently, I bought a 8" Newtonian telescope that came with a Dobsonian mount. Once you’ve configured the reference objects, you can make transformation from Ra-Dec to Alt-Az, and also from Alt-Az to Ra-Dec. Hobbies: Astronomy, DIY projects, Flight sports, RC planes and drones, https://www.meade.com/support/LX200CommandSet.pdf, https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3079719. My son and I have been working together on it and it has been a lot of fun.We are running into a bit of a hiccup though. Pierre-Marie says: 13/01/2014 at 10:20 pm. To test the encoder I have disconnected it from the breadboard and arduino. The initial idea was to create cheap and easy to build alternative of commercially available GOTO hand controllers, but in a better, feature rich way. One thing that is important to do: Set up your location, otherwise, all the coordinates will be wrong.. on Introduction. 4 – Equatorial after But when I add a serial port line to the NF_v1 code, the numbers start at zero and climb with no change. It's a nice mount (cheap, portable and very easy to use), but to get what you want to see, you need to know the sky like the palm of your hands (which can be a problem to a beginner like me..!). Please ignore them! Recently, I bought a 8" Newtonian telescope that came with a Dobsonian mount. What are the changes to the code that has to be made when used in Southern Hemisphere?RegardsCham, Question It also should have a low budget, otherwise, it would be better if you just buy what you are looking for. Well don't worry... that's because your location and local sideral time (LST) are not the correct ones! The world's first standalone Arduino-based telescope control Goto. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. That operation is a little bit complex because involves spherical trigonometry and some time concepts (Local Sideral Time - LST). Control Your Telescope Using Stellarium & Arduino. Recently, I bought a 8" Newtonian telescope that came with a Dobsonian mount. Recently, I bought a 8" Newtonian telescope that came with a Dobsonian mount. I think I will just rebuild the entire system from the beginning. Recently, I bought a 8" Newtonian telescope that came with a Dobsonian mount. Drill a center hole in both wheels. Drafted as stand alone system, rDUINOScope does not need PC, Tablet or Cell Phone, nor Internet connection in order to operate and deliver stunning views! Either that or something is wrong with the encoder I suppose. Instead a huge description on this step (and the next one), I will show you how it's done by using a video and some pictures (please, read all the comments carefully). I am trying to link my arduino with stellarium and make a goto telescope. Hi Nelson,Sorry to have taken so long to respond. We have backed down the voltage through the trimmer to 3.15V just to be safe, but we never see it go to zero. Now you are only a few steps from your reward! 19.06.2019 - Steuern Sie Ihr Teleskop mit Stellarium & Arduino Ich bin fasziniert von Astronomie seit dem ersten Mal sah ich in den Nachthimmel. Arduino Star-Finder for Telescopes: Space is big. This system it's very intuitive and easy to use because is related with your quotidian life (go up/down and right/left...). But it doesn't move when we move the telescope.Checking the channel voltage has been more difficult. Nov 9, 2016 - Control Your Telescope Using Stellarium & Arduino: I am fascinated by astronomy since the first time I looked to the night sky. It's desirable if you build a box to place the all the components, including the Arduino. You should see the object moving accordingly at Stellarium. Would there be any issue using an MXL belt instead of the GT2? Es ist eine schöne Halterung (billig, … 8 weeks ago Because we need to read 2 axis (altitude and azimuth) we need to build 2 wheels. This instructable will guide you, step by step, how to complete your own controller using Stellarium (astronomy software) and Arduino (open-source prototyping platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software). Control Your Telescope Using Stellarium & Arduino: I am fascinated by astronomy since the first time I looked to the night sky. Connect the USB cable to your computer and open the code (see attachments). Finally, you can point your telescope to whatever you want, using Stellarium to guide you! The same way, use the existing bolt at the bottom of the mount and install the azimuth wheel on it. Go to the next step to learn how to do it! To become a little more "instructive", I feel that I owe you, at least, a simple explanation about the way I programmed the Arduino and the techniques I used to make (almost) any telescope "speak" with Stellarium. Initially, the main reason for this blog is the publication of a personal project that I believe could be interesting for astronomy amateurs.

I’m a teatcher in a french scool and try to make a motorised dobson telescope with student. I used a wing nut instead, as it will became useful when you need to dismantle or adjust the wheel. Despite of involving maths, trigonometry, programming and some signal processing, don't worry, I will try not to be too extensive! Deutschland 308 Beiträge . In the heart of the system is the rDUINOScope Software, some 2500 rows, controlling all HW components and handling communcation with external devices (Stellarium, … 23 days ago, You could bypass the alignment by levelling the base of your DOB, pointing it to a known object in the sky, slect the same object in Stellarium, click "Current object" and than "Sync". Make sure you have everything in place (both electrical and mechanical) and run your telescope by opening the telescope's plugin. If you accomplished the previous step without any major problems, this step should be a "piece of cake"! Hello, I’m a teatcher in a french scool and try to make a motorised dobson telescope with student. The part of the code that raise the error is auto-generated code.