rDUINOScope - Arduino based telescope control system (GOTO)

rDUINO SCOPE is Arduino Due based Telescope control system (a.k.a. GoTo). Basically it have a database with stellar objects, calculates their position on the sky and point's the telescope. Once the object is in the eyepiece, the system keeps tracking the object.

The system works with stepper motors of all types and even works with the some commercially available products like SkyWatcher, MEADE, Orion, Vixen and etc.

rDUINO Scope utilizes the code and few sensors in order to collect needed data to control the telescope mount. As an output the rDUINO Scope controls 2 stepper motors representing RA and DEC movement of a German Equatorial Mount (GEM). The system only works with GEM and cannot control Alt/Az or Dobsonian mounts unless you add some code.

Published under GNU General Public License

Instructions on how to build hardware can be found on the project's website: http://rduinoscope.co.nf/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rDUINOScope/

Release date: 28 March 2017

Status: official BETA

This release is dedicated to my daughter Boiana Gouzgounova, who have a special day today 28 March 2017!

This is the final release of the rDUINOScope software for Equatorial Mounts. There is a “jump” in versioning after latest V.1.8, because small improvements have been made for the past year, but those were never released to the general public, thus V.2.1 is a cumulative release.

PLEASE NOTE: Within v2.1 I promised support for AltAz / Dobsonian mounts. Later in the development I decided to split the code in 2 streams:

• #rDUINOScope v2.1 Boiana EQ - Version for German Equatorial Mounts;
• #rDUINOScope v2.1 Boiana AltAz – Version for AltAz / Dobsonian Mounts;

By the time of this release the AltAz version is ready but not tested, thus it will be released a bit later!

• Added “1 Star Alignment” Method;

• Added “Iterative Alignment” Method;

• Added 200 brightest stars to be used in alignment procedures;

• Added Bluetooth control from Stellarium (cloned LX200 communication protocols);

• Added Bluetooth connection with PC;

• Code has been refactored for easy reading/editing;

• Bug fixes:

  o Wrong DEC movement for negative DEC values;

  o Revised RA movement formula;

  o OnScreen messages have been fixed;

  o 1px. Buttons move after press event was fixed;

RTC DS3231 – Real-Time clock to hold the current date and time even when the system is not powered. The RTC DS3231 is a very accurate clock ±2 ppm - ±3.5 ppm, depending on the temperature, which creates variation of around ±2 min/year. I’m using the sensor in order to keep the time and later on calculate the time zone when calculating LST. (data: PDF);

GPS uBlox Neo 6M - Is a GPS sensor, with pretty decent parameters of accuracy and time to resolve. So far I have only tested it in my house, thus the Cold start was a bit sluggish – 2-3 min. The hot start however is pretty fast – 10 sec. According to the datasheet it should be something around 30-40 sec for cold start, but this is about to be tested. (data: PDF);

PS2 joystick – is a 5V joystick for Arduino. As the Arduino Due only supports 3.3V operation on each pin, the initial schematics I created (supplying 3.3V) was not performing well. I have developed a solution which can be seen on the schematics page. The main advantage of using Joystick rather than buttons to manual move RA and DEC is that based on the position of the joystick I assign different speeds, thus if you touch the joystick it moves slower than if you push it all the way down (full speed);

Temperature & Humidity sensor DHT22 – Is also a pretty accurate temperature and humidity sensor with variations of about ±1 degree and humidity ±5%. I’m using this in order to provide the user with immediate information about the environment, but also log the data into the “statistics” screen and statistics sent via Bluetooth;

Bluetooth module HC-05 – Used to assure communication with Cell Phone/ Tablet.

Stepper motor drivers DRV8825 – A stepper drivers allowing up to 2A per coil and utilizing 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 micro Steps. The mode of operation is selected based on the setup you have (mount parameters) and on the XLS file with calculations. Please, use the file to calculate your values and edit the code accordingly.