It’s been a while since I started working on my home made telescope focuser. I faced so many challenges in terms of the difficulty in finding the right component. Some I bought from Fry’s Electronics, some are from RadioShack and a lot of research. I was able to finally make something working but still not useful.

During my painful research and component search, I stumbled with what I thought was an easy thing but have proven to be difficult as there are so many solution. Either I can use Stepper Motor or a Servo, Arduino or an Easy Driver. So far, I got some of the basic components and program working. So here’s the latest that I have.

The list of materials so far I have that I’m using on the video

• Arduino
• 360 High Torque Servo
• Bread Board
• FingerTech Timing Belt
• FingerTech Timing Pulley ( so far this is a problem since it can’t fit the servo)
• Variable Resistor
• Stereo Microphone Jack/Port

Materials that I’ve ordered and still waiting (will update once it arrives)

• Lynxmotion Servo MXLS-02 Timing Belt Pulley – 32 Tooth (Futaba) – hopefully this will fit the Servo

• Arduino Enclosure

Materials that I’m not using so far

• Stepper Motor
• Raspberry Pi

The Arduino Code

#include <Servo.h> 
 
Servo myservo;  // create servo object to control a servo 
 
int potpin = 0;  // analog pin used to connect the potentiometer
int val = 90;    // variable to read the value from the analog pin

int rightpin = 7;  // controlling the clockwise turn   
int leftpin = 8;  // control for the counterclockwise turn

int rightval = 0;
int leftval = 0;
int active = 0;  // to check whether the right or left button is pressed


 
void setup() 
{ 
  myservo.attach(10);  // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object 
  Serial.begin(9600);
  
  pinMode(rightpin, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(leftpin, INPUT_PULLUP);
} 
 
void loop() 
{ 
  
  val = analogRead(potpin);            // reads the value of the potentiometer (value between 0 and 1023)
  rightval = digitalRead(rightpin);
  leftval = digitalRead(leftpin);
  
  if (rightval == HIGH && leftval == HIGH){
    // don't do anything
    Serial.println("NOT DOING ANYTHING");
    val = 90;
  }
  else {
    if (rightval == LOW || leftval == LOW){
      // turn the motor but identify what direction
      if (rightval == LOW){
//        val = 91;
        val = map(val, 0, 1023, 91, 180);
      }
      if (leftval == LOW){
//        val = 89;
        val = map(val, 0, 1023, 90, 0);
      }
    }
  }
  
// 90 stop
// 180 - left continous
// 0 - right continous
// 93 - slow left
// 89 - slow right
  

//myservo.write(1);
//delay(1000);

  Serial.println(val);
//  val = map(val, 0, 1023, 0, 180);     // scale it to use it with the servo (value between 0 and 180) 
  Serial.println(val);
  
  myservo.write(val);                  // sets the servo position according to the scaled value 
  delay(100);                           // waits for the servo to get there 
}