To All, Has anyone used CdC to control an equatorially mounted Cassegrain powered by Animatics SmartMotors via ASCOM drivers?
Amateur Astronomers, Inc. operates Sperry Observatory on the campus of Union County College in Cranford, New Jersey ( www.asterism.org ). One of our telescopes is an aging 24-inch reflector made by Group 128 (a defunct company). The telescope is currently driven by a pair of stepper motors running a train of two worm and worm gear combinations with an overall gear reduction of around 13,000 to 1 on both RA and Dec axes. The final worm gear is clutched on both axes, but the clutches can be locked down tightly with no slippage. The original electronics drive for the stepper motors is shot. Rather than try to rebuild the 35-year-old electronics, with some re-design to accommodate modern components replacing those no longer available, I am thinking that it might be smarter for us to scrap the old drive and steppers, replace the steppers with Animatics "SmartMotor" synchronous motors, and write ASCOM drivers for the SmartMotors. This could give us a modern GOTO drive for the telescope. Trouble is, I have no idea how big an undertaking writing the ASCOM drivers for the SmartMotors would be. Animatics supplies a programming language for their motors. I assume that we would write the drivers in that language. Here's the link to Animatics: ( http://www.msitec.com/Vendors/Animatics/main.shtml ). Does anyone in the group have any advice for me on whether or not this is a good idea. Has anyone done this for a SmartMotor based telescope drive before? There is some confusion to this question as a result of patented telescope drives by Meade referred to as "Smart Motor Technology", but I believe this has nothing to do with the Animatics SmartMotors that we are considering. If this is a good way to go, I would appreciate advice about how to get started with the programming and how to integrate the drivers with CdC. Thank you for your help. Ray Shapp
