Thursday 16 June 2016

Raspberry Pi ST-4 compatible Autoguider

I'm working on a project to add a Raspberry Pi to my telescope setup. In the end it will do everything from plate solving to photography and also allow me to do it from the warmth of my armchair rather than standing out in the cold all night.

I'm not the first one to have thought of this and there are many ideas as to how to do it. Presented below is my take on an ST-4 compatible autoguiding interface. It plugs into the Pi's 40 pin I/O connector and sticks out of the case so as to allow the cable to connect from the guide port on your mount to the Pi. I've also added a DSLR trigger too.


I've uploaded the board to Oshpark so that you can order one (well, 3 really). The BOM is trivial and the opto chips are nothing special.

Order from OSH Park

Below are the Eagle files.

RPi_ST-4_Opto_Interface.brd
RPi_ST-4_Opto_Interface.sch

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4 comments:

  1. Orlando22 June 2016 at 07:37

    Which 3D rendering software did you use?

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  2. Orlando22 June 2016 at 07:39

    You say the BOM is trivial, but I don't know what components you used. Unless I'm just missing something.

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  3. Mark/NI2O29 June 2016 at 19:04

    Read the schematic. It's a quad opto-isolator and a single opto-isolator and a few 100r resistors.

    The rendering software is Eagle3D. It's a free ULP script from somewhere in Germany. I've had it forever.

    IIRC the current Eagle has a built in renderer.

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  4. root423 May 2017 at 12:10

    Looks awesome. Which driver is used for this?
    Also: can you put up the BOM anyway?

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