off the bearings. I called in the order and explained that I would be using a mirror two inches thick. An electronic focuser, which moves the focus knob through a combination of hardware and software, solves this problem. he might just have a $3200 camera, they aren't very hard to come by. microcontrollers including Arduino and Raspberry Pi, Drones and 3D Printing, and more. . Please explain, in detail, how you attached your tube to the very unique drive system of an XT12G mount. Above youll find an interactive 3D rendering of the Sketchup file I used to design and cut all of the parts for my telescope. Bore out some 2.5 inch bar and mill a flat down the side making sure it is lined up. Inside the OTA is a ring of tightly fitting flocking paper that prevents any light getting in around the drawtube. 11 years ago Thanks again for the 'ible. The side bearings are each made from 2 identical semicircles of 5/8 inch plywood glued together to make a thickness of 1 inches. Share it with us! larger diameter. My first telescope I built was a 10" F8. To glue the side bearings and rocker sides to full thickness, I covered a side with wood glue, then carefully lined up the pieces and put two small nails into the pieces to hold them in place. If you're not familiar with Arduino, watch some tutorial videos. Pierre's Helical Crayford gets my vote hands-down for elegant simplicity. You should now be able to drill the 4 holes at each corner. During on-site assembly, attach each truss to its mounting T-nut using a bolt with a thumbscrew knob. Along with some silver bits document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); I have not yet figured out a better way to hold the tube. Let me see if I can get similar plumbing parts here. Other supplies that I bought for this project include wood, various bits of hardware, stain and finishing supplies, and a circle cutting jig for a router. After waiting for the contact cement to dry to the touch, and with my wife's help, I carefully aligned the edge of the veneer with the guideline on the tube and pressed the first inch together. So, I duplicated the aluminum gear pulley in SolidWorks, and printed it out. you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). The only thing on the list that was a bit difficult to find was baltic birch plywood, which had to be special ordered from the lumber yard. See above, this motor does not produce a lot of torque, but you don't need much for this application since there is no 'load' on the focusing shaft. I only do functional. The one company that did provide a price quoted over $500more than I was willing to pay for cardboard! While I will freely admit that most astro-photography is WAY beyond me, you certainly do NOT need a $3200 camera to do so. I #2 knitting needle would be just about right. Thicker knitting needles would be even I attached three feet equally spaced on top of the ring, and on the opposite side attached teflon pads 1 X 1 directly above the feet using very small brads and countersinking the brads below the surface of the teflon. Part numbers 351-4574 and 336-422. Next, attach the eyepiece and the focuser to the top part of the telescope tube. This consists of a small black box of electronics. I wanted the long focal length for good contrast. A The mirror itself must also be able to tilt in three dimensions in order to aim its light at the secondary mirror (a process called collimation). It interfaces to the computer via USB and comes with an ASCOM driver. Two inch internal diameter drawtube. Well, it sort of looks like a focuser.. See pictures below. The current needs to be adjusted on the DRV8825. If your optical train is heavy and the focuser has to bear it (see above) then this motor may be a better choice. I got a different stain, tested it, and went back to work. I . You can view and download the full file here. You won't need to write any sketches from scratch, but you will at least need to figure out how to upload them to the Nano. LVLaserTech is right please do not vote for the pictures my instructable is for the build of the telescope not the quality of the photos.and as i said before i was not there is there a possibility that he sent me the wrong photos sure is there a possibility that he used a different mount than the one i saw sure is there a possibility that he is lying to me me about what he did sure. I decided that my best option was to scale up their 8 inch design for a 12.5 inch scope and sacrifice the portability and easier storage of a truss scope for something that I felt confident in building myself. You really need a step ladder even for my 10" when pointed overhead. Contact cement is permanent, so the only solution would be to replace the tube! I called to express my concern and was told that it had all been packaged a few weeks ago and that it should have been sent. During assembly, youll attach the trusses to the mirror box, then sit the secondary cage on top and bolt everything in place. Attach the ball head to the top board. This allowed me to cut perfect identical circles. We all know the problems with focusing. I added three inches for a margin of error and in case I need to rebalance the tube in the future, making a distance of 25 inches from the balance point of the tube to the rocker bottom. Most people will want a knob on Rock Paper Scissors Using Tinkercad Circuits and Arduino, Punchy the MECH & the Autonomous Fight Club, PCB (printed circuit board) - download the, DRV8825 - stepper motor driver chip/board - again, clones available on. A project collaboration and documentation platform. This will determine the size of the coupler you will use to connect the stepper motor. I have built a homemade electric focuser for my Celestron 8SE using a radio control hobby servo and some spare parts. One of the neat things about the square design is that the When you want to focus, you just open the program and press focus. This extra space would allow the tube to be repositioned within the tube box to rotate the eyepiece or balance the tube. on Introduction. 10 inch or 12 inch. A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. Get hands-on with kits, books, and more from the Maker Shed, Skill builder, project tutorials, and more. I will post the pic of final focuser once ready. In the "ARDUINO FIRMWARE" folder, in it you will find a ZIP file "myFP2-Firmware 312-1.zip". 11 years ago Frustrated by these difficulties, I stopped by one more hardware store to ask for advice. Cost is $25 - $30, and you will have 5 PCBs in about a week. (Technically, it should have been 62.5 for a 12.5 inch f/5, but when the mirror came it had a note on the back that the focal length was 61 inches.) Download the Gerber Files. Headers for the LEDs, buzzer (2-pin) and temperature probe (3-pin). Focuser minimum height is 50 mm and maximum a little over 90 mm so it is good overall. the tube is cardboard as well, you can also get a quality mirror at telescope.com for much cheaper. Find a special something for the makers in your life. Since there is no drill bit that exactly matches the 13.1mm of the shaft, I had to do some rough enlargement of the hole. Line the underside of the rocker box with a ring of ABS plastic to allow it to ride on the base. This is the kind of simple off the shelf design I was looking for. crafts, science & engineering, design, and technology. Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. More commercial crayford focusers are of a more enclosed form, whereas mine is more "open frame" approach. Here's a detailed response from a thread at CloudyNights:http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=4721255 "The image scale is wrong on the M31 image, fits too much of the galaxy in for even a 35mm chip. I suspected that the company was either in trouble or no longer in business. I only use the OTA. You simply glue or screw the 'nut' part to your scope OTA, and thread the tube part in/out to focus. These will be stored in your browser only with your consent and you have the option to opt-out. The plate has slotted screw holes for tensioning the 6mm belt. New Creation Tamil 6.96K subscribers Welcome to New Creation Tamil Our Channel include of Guiding Videos: 1.DIY Projects 2.Awesome Ideas 3.Tips You are inter with New Creation Tamil you can enjoy. occurred to me that a square turned 45 degrees would give me two flat In order to check your measurements, you can construct jigs for your mirror cell and secondary cage, positioning them on a straight, adjustable track such as 2 planks of wood. All Dobsonian telescope projects are unique buildshere are the notes from my latest version to help get you familiar with the process and determine how youll design yours. Measure the diameter of the exposed shaft. If you enter it in the next contest please let me know and i will make sure to vote for you. I then ran a bead of glue on the mark, and after it dried I cut out the nylon up to the glue. exactly 2" with adhesive labels placed one at a time inside the tube We were careful to press out any bubbles as we went, but when the job was done we found that there were multiple bubbles in the veneer. telescope page, I wasn't really eager to buy two commercial Crayford large in diameter (1.6") so that adds to the fine-ness of the focus A 6 in primary mirror does not have enough weight to make the dob stable. I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. The mirror box encloses the mirror cell and allows the entire telescope to rotate vertically. Plus it comes in black, so you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). but try for a snug fit if you can. Thin 1/16 Kydex plastic should be cut to length to line the inside of the cage as a baffle to block outside light. I was inspired to build telescopes during a trip out to McDonald Observatory in west Texas, where I saw a 36 fork-mounted telescope, tiny in comparison to the huge research telescopes at the site. Another thing, the resolution on the Dumbell nebula seems a bit too high for that telescope. Make the hole diameter fairly snug, too. eyepiece on the ground (or worse, on your primary mirror!) Make sure the shroud can slip on and off of the assembled scope, and that it stretches along the circumference (not lengthwise). This is because my router bit was inch and the arc would be cut by the outside edge of the bit (where the circle had been cut by the inside edge.) I did find, though, that the 3D printed gear would slip on the shaft, so it needed a set screw. Showcasing amazing maker projects of 2022. The kit just contains the electronics - it is up to the user to find a stepper motor and attach it to their own telescope focuser. Install on Windows 10, this part is pretty straightforward. I don't *do* pretty. I got no response to phone calls or emails after another week, and decided to wait until the primary would be finished in another two weeks. But let me see what items I can arrange to make a helical. This motor has a 5mm drive shaft. Did you make this project? As I set of the scope, several club members came over to check things out and it was nice to hear the positive comments on the appearance of the scope. Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. My concern turned to alarm when my wife told me that Discovery had charged the balance due on all items to my account a few weeks earlier. To interface with the computer, I have used the Artemis Focuser module from Steve, Arthur and Co. I did run into a small problem with the focuser. Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. All Orion 1.25" and 2" telescope focusers are engineered to provide smooth drawtube action to ensure you hit the exact focus point . I told them to take their time and get it right. Most of these have one or two set screws. Only problem is if I put a diagonal it wants to rotate the helical part. I didn't bother reading his whole article to figure out what f/# he used) I am not trying to say that good AP isn't possible with a sonotube scope, (the 'friend' may very well have pulled it out of the dob mount, added rings and a dovetail, and mounted it on his CGE-Pro or comparable) but in this case it is unlikely.". Nice one. I wanted to finish that instructable before the contest ended but was too late :-). and hope it doesn't fall off Knitting needles are It has become an indispensable piece of equipment for me that so beats hacking and filing PVC pipes etc. haven't yet found any design elements that need improvement. by cranking 4 years ago In order for the Rocker Box to pivot on the Ground Board, a center pin is placed in a hole at the exact center of the Ground Board and Rocker Bottom. I laughed, packed up the cell with a long letter describing the series of events that led to the return, and put it in the mail. This might have been tempting if I wanted to build a 6 inch scopeat that size, they say that first-timers do pretty well at grinding and figuring their own optics. If you wanted to really go low-profile with this design, If you found some good surplus lenses, you will have made a stunningly good objective for your scope. A 10 inch scope would not be very much longer or heavier than my 6 inch, yet it would allow me to see much more. Subscribe to the premier DIY magazine today, Community access, print, and digital Magazine, and more. The wide square footprint would make it pretty stable when mounted to Share a cool tool or product with the community. Built one of these http://emediadesigns.com/focuser/ working really well only cost less than 40.00. Made of plywood, the rocker box supports the mirror box on 1 teflon pads, allowing it to rotate vertically. I bought a 4" PVC Sewer pipe cap, used a hole saw to cut a 2.25" hole then attached the helical thing to the PVC cap. that is a great website that guy has some fantastic photos. Once you get it working, there's some calibration you need to do. It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. forward and back along with the drawtube when you focus, and you'll get Maker-written books designed to inform and delight! I will have a lot of fun building my homemade 12.5 inch Dobsonian Telescope!!! Staples or finishing nails work fine, but be sure they dont bump up above the surface of the plastic. I wanted a tight / press fit, so I only added half that, 0.25mm. can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart I was still doing some construction on the morning of the event, but I succeeded in making first light on that clear, dark night in late July. I will get good 30-40 mm focusing range. For my project I needed a 14 inch diameter, and I had a tough time finding one. Reply It turns out that sonotubes are a stock item in 8 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch, and sometimes even 16 inch diameters. work really well, for a fraction of the cost of a commercial Crayford I Hope to give you ideas if you are thinking about building one for yourself! The box should be deep enough to allow the mirror box to swing all the way down. Since my focuser shaft is 6mm, I ordered the coupler shown here in the 6mm to 8mm version from Amazon. I wanted to wrap the tube in veneer because I had seen a homemade telescope on a website that used veneer and I liked the look. Read the documentation though, there are a lot of functions and options. This motor is available on Amazon. All in all it seemed like a pretty robust design, so I gave it I also decided to make a separate mounting plate for the stepper motor, since I figured aligning the shafts precisely would be all but impossible. I'd CNC files (optional) Download the Sketchup files. To make the hole for the focuser, I used the focuser tube to mark a circle in the shroud. I was inspired to build telescopes during a trip out to McDonald Observatory in west Texas, where I saw a 36 fork-mounted telescope, tiny in comparison to the huge research telescopes at the site. Our websites use cookies to improve your browsing experience. I am using scrap upvc pipe material. The back of the mirror floats on 3 or more support points (this build uses 6) that are calculated usinga software tool called PLOP. I even began taking careful notes about needed supplies and plans for each piece of the truss tube scope. Just to make sure I liked the stain, I applied some to a piece of scrap wood. love to hear from people who are interested in this focuser design. The next day, I called back to ask their opinion about the kind of spider and secondary holder to order. The cell from Anttler's, for which I had received a refund, had arrived. Once I had my design set, I was ready to buy the parts. Un-real!!! the bearings, totally eliminating any flex. To test the concept I used a short piece of two inch PVC for the draw tube. The 2-1.25" adapter is a sink drain slip fitting in 1-1/4" size that slips into the large tube for 1.25 EP's. The original Crayford Focuser is on display there. We moved the operation to a nearby park and got a focused image of the most distant trees (300-400 yards away) quite easily. The part is very strong! I waited until dark and pointed the scope at the sky. All that remained was to design and print a bracket, and buy the needed parts. The glue should keep the nylon from fraying. The hole is made slightly larger than the shaft, this is normal. I applied contact cement to the first inch of the veneer and the mating inch of the tube. This project is based on Robert Brown's "Arduino ASCOM Focuser Pro2 DIY". A couple setscrews and you're up & running with an off the shelf solution. The rocker sides are each made of two identical pieces of inch plywood glued together, creating two sides one inch thick. It was important that the two circles be identical because the edges had to match perfectly when glued together and the two side bearings had to be identical in order for the altitude motion to work well. The dimensions of the Tube Box Sides are based on the outer diameter of my tube14 3/16. Again from the main FILES page, go to "ASCOM DRIVERS" and download everything. It wouldn't be a two-speed design, but if I used a thin enough But -- you have to be careful that the mechanism is true and the motor does not have a load on it at any time, otherwise it will 'stall' and stop moving. A celebration of the Maker Movement, a family-friendly showcase of invention and creativity that gathers
5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. This NEMA-17 direct drive stepper motor is available from Adafruit and many other sellers. on Introduction. After a dry fit of the rocker to make sure that the tube box with side bearings would fit well, I glued the rocker sides to the rocker front, holding them in place with small nails and clamping overnight. You can easily, and economically (10$) build a Crayford Helical Focuser like the one pictured above in one evening with simple tools. They said they would make the brackets extra long to accommodate the mirror and it would take about a week. weight. If the telescope rotates forward or backward on its own, then the mirror box is too deep or too shallow. We are now ready for some testing. I brought a saw with me so that I cut it in half to fit in my minivan. I started by trying to drill out a metal gear for the focuser shaft. I drew a guide line straight down the side of the tube and cut the veneer to length with one extra inch on each side68 inches long. After the pieces were glued together, I used a belt sander to smooth out any rough edges, being careful to keep both rocker sides and both side bearings exactly the same. I think I got what I wanted and seems best solution for me. } catch(err) {}, SH-232 Sharpless sh-232, sh-231, sh-233, sh-235, NGC2174 Monkey Head Nebula, Sharpless 252, Sh2-252, HDW3 Hartl-Dengel-Weinberger 3 PN G149.4-09.2, SH-198 Sharpless 198, Soul Nebula, IC1848, NGC281 IC11, Sharpless Sh2-184, Pacman Nebula, SH2-173 SH2-173 Phantom of the Opera LBN 593, SH2-168 Sharpless HII regions. stronger, but would give me a coarser focus action because of their Pretty dry but important! I had installed the mirror about an inch too far away from the focuser. Drill a hole and attach the ball head using a shorter 1/4" 20 bolt.