Julien  ðŸ”­

Measuring focuser backlash on the Newtonian and dialing in backlash compensation in the Ekos software focus tab.

The objective is to find the largest displacements (number of steps of the stepper motor) that does not move the dial gauge needle when making alternated in and out focuser movements. Once the backlash compensation value is dialed in, the software will add this number of steps to the requested focuser movement when changing direction. This should help repeatability of the auto-focus routine that uses measurement of star size at different focuser positions to achieve the best focus.

#astrophotography #astronomy #astrodon #precision #kstars #ekos #astroberry #foss

Jun 8, 2024 at 7:58pmWeb
Show threadHal CanaryJun 8, 2024

@jdlbt

I did something like this in college 25 years ago with a physics experiment. I had a laser on an arm that had to move to each of several angles over the course of the experiment. my solution was (I think) to just keep making smaller movements to dial in the correct angle.

that might have been the first time I was ever paid to write a piece of software.