The setup is the usual, ASI 224MC, TSO ADC, N250/1200, HEQ5 with the home made motorized focuser and the home made arduino noszogtató mount guider. I would like to call this the soapbox project — it is mounted inside a soap box, though in Hungarian and Romanian we use soapbox to denote compact and dumb cameras too.

2019.06.07. Jupiter 2019-06-07-2144 7 pipp g3 ap1 reg1 szep

2019.06.07. Jupiter 2019-06-07-2226 5 pipp g3 ap1 reg1

2019.06.07. Jupiter 2019-06-07-2326 8 pipp g3 ap1 reg1 szep

2019.06.07. szaturnusz 2019-06-07-2352 1 pipp g3 ap6 Drizzle15 p5

The soapbox device:

a soapbox

almost like a Pear product, white but does not cost a fortune

powered by an arduino nano

the soapbox in action

the soapbox in action

top right corner…

same with Saturn this time

The arduino source code used to pull down the ST4’s input pins, through an optocoupler much like here:

#include "timer.h"

#define TIMER_INTERVAL_MS 10

auto timer = timer_create_default();

#define TIMER2_DIVIDER 21 // for some reason that extra 1 is needed, and below, comparing to 1 works, to zero does not
int timerDivider;

const int READ_BUFFER_LEN = 15;
char readBuffer[READ_BUFFER_LEN];

#define RA_PLUS 9
#define RA_MINUS 10
#define DEC_PLUS 11
#define DEC_MINUS 12



typedef struct HEQ5_Pin {
   int pinNumber;
   int inPairWithPinNumber;
   int timeLeft;
   int currentState;
} HEQ5_Pin;

HEQ5_Pin heq5Pins[5];

//---------------------------------------------------------------------

void pins_add(int pin, int ms){
  if (pin > 4){
    return ;
  }
  if (pin < 0){
    return ;
  }
  if (ms > 0){
    // valid ms, increment the time left
    heq5Pins[pin].timeLeft += ms;
    if (heq5Pins[pin].inPairWithPinNumber > 0){
      for (ms =0; ms < 5; ms++){
        if (heq5Pins[ms].pinNumber == heq5Pins[pin].inPairWithPinNumber){
          heq5Pins[ms].timeLeft = 0;
        }
      }
    }    
  }else{
    //invalid ms given, stop the motion
    heq5Pins[pin].timeLeft = 0;
    if (heq5Pins[pin].inPairWithPinNumber > 0){
      for (ms =0; ms < 5; ms++){
        if (heq5Pins[ms].pinNumber == heq5Pins[pin].inPairWithPinNumber){
          heq5Pins[ms].timeLeft = 0;
        }
      }
    }    
  }
}

//---------------------------------------------------------------------

void pins_process(){
  for (int i=0; i<5; i++){
    if (heq5Pins[i].timeLeft > 0){
      if (heq5Pins[i].currentState != HIGH){
          digitalWrite(heq5Pins[i].pinNumber, HIGH);  
          heq5Pins[i].currentState = HIGH;
      }
    }else{
      if (heq5Pins[i].currentState != LOW){
          digitalWrite(heq5Pins[i].pinNumber, LOW);  
          heq5Pins[i].currentState = LOW;
      }
    }
  }
}

void timerCallback(){
  for (int i = 0; i<5; i++){
    if (heq5Pins[i].timeLeft > 0){
      heq5Pins[i].timeLeft -= TIMER_INTERVAL_MS;
      if (heq5Pins[i].timeLeft < 0){
        heq5Pins[i].timeLeft = 0;
      }
    }
  }
  timerDivider--;
}

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  readBuffer[0] = 0;
  Serial.begin(9600);
  while (!Serial) {
    ; // wait for serial port to connect. Needed for native USB
  }

  heq5Pins[0].pinNumber = RA_MINUS;
  heq5Pins[0].inPairWithPinNumber = RA_PLUS;

  heq5Pins[1].pinNumber = RA_PLUS;
  heq5Pins[1].inPairWithPinNumber = RA_MINUS;

  heq5Pins[2].pinNumber = DEC_MINUS;
  heq5Pins[2].inPairWithPinNumber = DEC_PLUS;

  heq5Pins[3].pinNumber = DEC_PLUS;
  heq5Pins[3].inPairWithPinNumber = DEC_MINUS;

  // sanity check led
  heq5Pins[4].pinNumber = 13;
  heq5Pins[3].inPairWithPinNumber = 0;
  
  for (int i=0; i<5; i++){
    heq5Pins[i].timeLeft = 0;
    heq5Pins[i].currentState = LOW;
    pinMode(heq5Pins[i].pinNumber, OUTPUT);
    digitalWrite(heq5Pins[i].pinNumber, heq5Pins[i].currentState);  
  }
  timerDivider = TIMER2_DIVIDER;
  timer.every(TIMER_INTERVAL_MS, timerCallback);
}

void reportStatus(){
  Serial.print("STATUS ");
  for (int i=0; i<5; i++){
    if (heq5Pins[i].pinNumber == RA_MINUS){
      Serial.print("ra-,");
    };  
    if (heq5Pins[i].pinNumber == RA_PLUS){
      Serial.print("ra+,");
    };  
    if (heq5Pins[i].pinNumber == DEC_MINUS){
      Serial.print("dec-,");
    };  
    if (heq5Pins[i].pinNumber == DEC_PLUS){
      Serial.print("dec+,");
    };  
    Serial.print(heq5Pins[i].timeLeft);
    Serial.print(" ");
  }
  Serial.println("STATUSEND");
}

void loop() {

  if (Serial.available() > 0) {
    char c = Serial.read();
    if (c == '#'){
      readBuffer[0] = 0;
    }else{
      if (c == '/'){
        //process the command pin, #P,TTTTTTT/
        //                         #rap,TTTTTT/
        
        int pinIndex = readBuffer[0] - 48;
        
        if (readBuffer[0] == 'r'){
          // rap, ran
          if (strncmp(readBuffer, "rap", 3) == 0){
            for (int pi = 0; pi<5; pi++){
              if (heq5Pins[pi].pinNumber == RA_PLUS){
                pinIndex = pi;
              }
            }
          }
          if ((strncmp(readBuffer, "ran", 3) == 0) || (strncmp(readBuffer, "ram", 3) == 0)){
            for (int pi = 0; pi<5; pi++){
              if (heq5Pins[pi].pinNumber == RA_MINUS){
                pinIndex = pi;
              }
            }
          }
        }
        if (readBuffer[0] == 'd'){
          // decp, decm/n
          if (strncmp(readBuffer, "decp", 4) == 0){
            for (int pi = 0; pi<5; pi++){
              if (heq5Pins[pi].pinNumber == DEC_PLUS){
                pinIndex = pi;
              }
            }
          }
          if ((strncmp(readBuffer, "decm", 4) == 0) || (strncmp(readBuffer, "decn", 4) == 0)){
            for (int pi = 0; pi<5; pi++){
              if (heq5Pins[pi].pinNumber == DEC_MINUS){
                pinIndex = pi;
              }
            }
          }
        }
        char * timeString = strstr(readBuffer, ",");
        int timeAdd = 0;
        if (timeString){
          timeAdd = atoi(timeString+1);
          pins_add(pinIndex, timeAdd);
        }
        Serial.print("ECHO: ");
        Serial.println(readBuffer);
        Serial.print("pin[");
        Serial.print(pinIndex);
        Serial.print("] += ");
        Serial.print(timeAdd);      
        Serial.println("");  
      }else{
        //continue to concat
        int n = strlen(readBuffer);
        if (n < READ_BUFFER_LEN-2){
          readBuffer[n] = c;
          readBuffer[n+1] = 0;
        }
      }
    }
  };
  timer.tick();
  pins_process();  
 
  if (timerDivider <= 1){
    timerDivider = TIMER2_DIVIDER;
    reportStatus();
  }  
}