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Custom telescope mount using harmonic drives and ESP32

svendewaerhert.com

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Re: Custom telescope mount using harmonic drives and ESP32

#11

Post by eurekin »

fusslo wrote: post #5

I've been using freeCAD for about 3 years now. Looking at what he was able to make with it blows my mind. I love freeCAD, but I don't think I've ever been so continuously frustrated by a piece of software

Can concur. I jump between OnShape and FreeCAD in my free time. OnShape feels very polished. I go back to FreeCAD, because I've bought some models, I don't want to publish in OnShape's free tier.

It's amazing how much can be done, but anything that I think will take an hour, lasts 6. Many times into the night.

Re: Custom telescope mount using harmonic drives and ESP32

#12

Post by zokier »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #6
mrgaro wrote: post #4

I'm most impressed with being able to order the CNC'ed metal parts. I'm just a novice cad designer and I'd love to learn that capability.

It's super easy actually ! 1) Upload step file, 2) see what's possible: https://jlccnc.com/cnc-machining-quote

Xometry and pcbway are alternatives, among many others

Re: Custom telescope mount using harmonic drives and ESP32

#14

Post by zokier »

One thing that I'd be interested in is having telescope mount suitable for doing quantitative measurements, basically doing astrometry from first principles. To me solving the orbits of planets (etc) based solely on my own measurements sounds very compelling. It would be like retracing the steps Kepler etc did.

Re: Custom telescope mount using harmonic drives and ESP32

#15

Post by waerhert »

artgship wrote: post #13

I love this so much. Is there any open-source software that calculates where a given planet or star might be (based on your coordinates) and automatically finds the star / planet and then follows it? Can these mounts be used with such software if it exists?

Stellarium and Kstars (which has EKOS built in) are both very good planetarium software. Both can interface with indiserver, which can talk to many astronomy devices such as mounts, filter wheels, cameras. I use Kstars mainly for controlling the mount, and Stellarium mainly for finding nice targets.

Re: Custom telescope mount using harmonic drives and ESP32

#16

Post by krisoft »

artgship wrote: post #13

I love this so much. Is there any open-source software that calculates where a given planet or star might be (based on your coordinates) and automatically finds the star / planet and then follows it? Can these mounts be used with such software if it exists?

> Is there any open-source software that calculates where a given planet or star might be (based on your coordinates)

Sure. Skyfield is a python library to calculate that (among others). Right on the front page is an example how to calculate the azimuth and elevation of Mars: https://rhodesmill.org/skyfield/

Re: Custom telescope mount using harmonic drives and ESP32

#17

Post by davidhyde »

Loved the write up, well done to the author. I get the same feeling building stuff with freecad and then printing it. Feels like there is no limit to what can be done. After going through the growing pains of designing stuff that was just poor and difficult to print I’m now confident enough to send it to be printed by jlcpcb or pcbway. And when they tell me to accept the risk of a failed print then I think, “I feel your pain, good luck”. So far I have never gotten a failed print back. Maybe a little warped but way better than my attempts. If I never have to use my large resin printer ever again I will be happy.

On the pcb front, I dread going through those final steps in the pcb ordering process. No matter how many parts I preorder, there is always something that is unavailable. So much churn in component availability.

Re: Custom telescope mount using harmonic drives and ESP32

#18

Post by waerhert »

fusslo wrote: post #5

I've been using freeCAD for about 3 years now. Looking at what he was able to make with it blows my mind. I love freeCAD, but I don't think I've ever been so continuously frustrated by a piece of software

Though very grateful for projects like FreeCAD, I did encounter a fair bit of frustration while designing this. Especially random crashes, which only got worse as the project got more complex. As far as usage goes, it's mostly a matter of knowing how to do things in FreeCAD. I haven't encountered anything I could not achieve in FreeCAD. Having no experience in other CAD software probably helped sticking to it.

Re: Custom telescope mount using harmonic drives and ESP32

#19

Post by dylan604 »

mrgaro wrote: post #4

I'm most impressed with being able to order the CNC'ed metal parts. I'm just a novice cad designer and I'd love to learn that capability.

I joined my local Maker's Space specifically for the machine shop. They had a CNC machine that I took the classes on to be certified. I designed my first simple plate design piece for cinema camera support gear in the CAD software they had connected to the machine. There was even a bit of software that generates the G-code with a simulator to check for head crashes. However, every time I went up there to actually try to build the piece the unit was down because someone crashed the head and destroyed bits. Instead, I wound up using the regular metal working machines to hand make the first piece. It ended with square corners instead of rounded, and some of the hole alignment wasn't as precise as intended. I wish I would have known of one of these types of sites to have the piece still CNC'd instead.

Re: Custom telescope mount using harmonic drives and ESP32

#20

Post by Aurornis »

fusslo wrote: post #5

I've been using freeCAD for about 3 years now. Looking at what he was able to make with it blows my mind. I love freeCAD, but I don't think I've ever been so continuously frustrated by a piece of software

I think it’s great that we have FreeCAD as an option and I’m excited to see it mature.

That said, I recommend Autodesk Fusion free tier for anyone who just wants to get quality work done quickly. Some will refuse to use it on principle and that’s fine for them, but it really is quality software free for hobbyist use with trivial restrictions.

EDIT: Getting downvoted, presumably for suggesting a non-OSS software to get a job done. However I’d recommend anyone who just wants to get work done at least consider the options at their disposal. Not every software decision needs to be made on principle.

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