What i Needed:
DIY focuser rail, i used a photography slider and adapted a threaded rod and a stepper motor.... 200 steps per rev.
Digicam Control
Arduino Uno with a stepper controller, (lots of options here)
The firmware for arduino comes from an Astronomy solution here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduin ... erpro2diy/
As you can see the hardware option are many, i only assembled a simple version with arduino and stepper driver, but as you can see, control buttons can be added, LCD screen to know the position ETC...
The arduino firmware listens on the com port for commands....
Digicam Control has 2 awesome features that we can use.....
Under Plugins ==> Tools ==> Arduino (Serial)
you will find this:
On this window you need to declare the port where the arduino board is connected, i also flaged the Show Buttons on Startup option.
Also tick the Active option...
then i use the Send windows command option...
on the "Send after file transfered" i added this :64-10# the command means, :64xxx# where xxx is how much to move
This is already great because the rail will move that amount of steps after each image download....
But there is More
If you configure the Buttons on the same window you will get this:
This is my new Focuser Stacking rail command Panel
now i can move the rail at will and adjust my position....
This is how the MyFocuserPro2 firmware looks like:
Of course, in order for this to work you need basic Arduino knowledge and also need to know how to connect the stepper motor and the driver, on MyFocuserPro2 web there are schematics and instruction...
On the following image a screen capture of my working screen after few test shots...
i used timelapse and asked the software to shoot 100 exposures
After i set the exposure time and ISO values i want, only find my start position and click start...
the software will:
Expose
Download
Move
repeat
:-)
you decide how much to move and configure it on the Arduino Tab, as a command to run after each file download...
this is the result of the first test.
