Astro Tracker build begins

Thanks to a combination of a couple days at home, more parts than I expected showing up and that fact I'm still waiting on my dash PCBs to show up, I was able to start building the OAT (OpenAstroTacker). Annoyingly, the t-nuts didn't end up in this package so all I could really do was assemble the RA wheel and DEC sling, anything to do with profile had to wait.

After what felt like 1000 heat set inserts and three seasons of Final Space I managed to have 85% of the mount assembled minus the base for the RA ring but it gave me an idea on how this thing is going to work - but also gave me the chance to figure out the software and get the firmware installed on the controller board.

The peeps who put this thing together were pretty smart. The control board is just a conventional RAMPS/Arduino based 3D printer motherbaord. They're cheap, everywhere and have every input and output already on the system board. So far I'll only be using two channels for the stepper motors, I want to add the auto polar alignment and auto-focuser to the system, I already have the channels and stepper drivers required, just need to add the steppers and print the extra parts.

I've also pulled out the LattePanda SBC I've had in storage for YEARS for this project. Astrophotography is a lot of nights outside, right now, outside is quite cold, controlling everything from the warm inside is desirable. The LattePanda is a true x86 SBC so it has a full fat installation of windows 10 on it. Now, it's not fast, at all. Since it hasn't been turned on in so long there's a lot of updates but the 22H2 update has been stuck at 88% installed for about 2 hours now so it could be swapped out for something else sooner rather than later - I digress.

The software I want to use is called N.I.N.A (Nighttime Imaging 'N Astronomy) It's windows only but is a single pane of glass imaging manager. It'll control the OAT, Use the guiding camera to keep the image on track and also run the camera for me on top of sequencing. Sequencing meaning, If I want to image more than one target in a night, It'll move to the next target and image that for me without having to tell it to image the next target, just brilliant. Using the LattePanda or some other low power windows computer lets me control everything remotely.

Technically, if I had everything connected to mains and the computer internet connected, I could control this thing from literally anywhere. So when it's cold or I wanna be rugged up in a sleeping bag while I'm camping in a dark sky zone I can do that while also managing the imaging system.

All going well I'll have the rest of the hardware this week along with the Dash PCBs as well so I can tick off two projects in one week, that'll feel good 😁 I'm also very much looking forward to my first images with the setup.