Well, I received my kit yesterday (Friday) and all appears intact according to the packing list so I guess this is it!
I had a look at the webinar that I missed because I apparently don't know how to set a alarm! Not a good sign for someone who is supposed to be programming a new board! - it was a 1.00am webinar for me, as they all seem to be, so I had to wait till it was posted as it was recorded. I did see the almost if not the same version on the NXP site but is was practically unwatchable as it was such a low resolution as to be unreadable on anything but the major headings. The downloadable version was far better. I have everything I think except for the software downloaded but that will have to wait till tomorrow. It's 4am (nearly) and I am in the bad book with my better half already and it's only the first day of the project!
Ahh yes, the project...My project was to create a new go-to controller for my telescope. My previous road tests were not blogged at all. Just a report at the end. I had regretted this but hopefully I can make up for that. I am off work at the moment and have some time to dedicate to this project.
I have an original Meade LX90 scope with an "Autostar
" hand held guider. It is primarily an Alt-Azimuth scope, meaning it pans around the azimuth line ie the line that is 90 degrees to the earth directly on the scopes position and it tilts as it changes it angle to the earths plane. I also have a device called a "wedge" which remounts the scope base on an angle corresponding to the scope's latitude thus converting the scope into an equatorial scope which is capable of tracking point objects for tasks such as photography and spectroscopy.
I have never been happy with the device (the guider, that is, not the scope) and had always intended to try to port my various libraries for tracking, sidereal calculations, periodic error correction etc that I had accumulated over the years into a decent micro.
I was about to start designing a motor driver board for use with a fairly popular and ARM based controller when I saw the road test for the LPC1500 Motion Control Kit. For some reason, I had problems finding detail on the kit at first but it seemed to be quite capable of the resolution I needed for control of the motors in the equatorial tracking mode.
The blurb on the kit says it can drive several different types of motors. The motor supplied is a ... and I am hoping to adapt this to driving the gearbox and using the quadrature encoders and the A to D converters (500ns conversion rate) to determine position distance traveled and position at any point in time during motion. The board is designed for bigger motors but the definition of control this kit is supposedly capable of should be enough.
Enough for now...
Terry
Forgive spelling and grammar - it's past 4am! I am definitely in strife now!
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