Hardware mod and wiring

[alepensato]

Nice project, could you send some pictures of the hardware modded and arduino wiring? Regards

[Blueshawk]

Sure can! I'll try to get this updated and add a few photos when I get a chance.

[edited: because my brain was thinking about my indi(handi)-cap project.]

[alepensato]

indi-cap could be the second project. I would help a friend with a FLI filterwheel that is not supported by indi

[Blueshawk]

You're forcing my hand. :P Both these need updating. I abandoned my indi driver for now as indilib code is like sorting spaghetti, but my current [unit does work with the existing moonlite driver]. I'll have ot make sure git matches my sketchbook before matching it to the current build. I had used a hall effect originally but after breaking a leg and not having anther handy, I found a neat little reed relay for the home position and I actually like it better..if you can get them. I'll leave info for both types. I'm lucky to be working today so pics when I can, shouldn't be too long..and I think I may have something online already. just needs linking. Exciting to see someone wanting to use this. :D

[Blueshawk]

I do need to update this mess anyway, but for the sake f ease and helpfulness, there should be a driver called indi-fli you can download for that unit. It's shown as a third party driver --I think Jasem may have reshuffled those a little and cut out a few older models of things recently. Have you asked about it at the forum? If the unit is working otherwise we could probably get the fli driver to find it. [excitement suspended until further troubleshooting...:P]

[Blueshawk]

I couldn't leave this alone and went looking. Hope this helps. I do recommend using that repository mentioned here as ubuntu ones are years behind. https://indilib.org/ccds/fli-ccd-filter-wheel.html

Otherwise it would be a neat project to convert that nice bit of hardware to arduino.

[alepensato]

The FLI wheel that i have is too old and is not supported by INDI and FLI does not support it. So I am tring to build a modified version using your arduino code. I have a standard hall sensor A3144, how can I have to wiring it to work with your code?

hall pin 1 (supply) --> A2 hall pin 2 (ground) --> A1 hall pin 3 (uotput) --> A3

[Blueshawk]

Hi! I did get some pics but neglected to share them. Sorry, I'll get right on it! :P

in case translation has issues: hall pin 1 (supply) --> A2 =+5v hall pin 2 (ground) --> A1 = ground(gnd) hall pin 3 (output) --> A3 = digital output This pic shows the pinout for that HET. Solder wires and slide small heat shrink tubing right up the wires and legs you may have to turn the magnet around to make it pull the right way to activate the het --A3 should then change states (0v-5v-0v) and then glue it on the wheel such that it's close to "home" somewhere before the point where the first filter is aligned.

Hey this new drag and drop pic uploader is nice! I'm going to do a better writeup on this at some point really I am! Just keep poking me till it happens. :dagger: Good luck!

[alepensato]

ok, actually i do not have got the HALL sensor, i will get it in next days and make some tests on my desk of the electronics before touch the FLI wheel

[Blueshawk]

I wonder how they did it originally? the hardware might already be there. Some exploration may be needed to sort out the motor situation too. My design uses a little center mounted stepper motor and a uln driver board. How you build that end of things may depend on what kind of motor it has, as well as power supply needs.

pic going in my writeup. This shows the motor and boards. Basic amazon 5 for $15 motor kits and an arduino teensy on idc headers hanging from it. The big solder is the sheld from a usb cable. The usb socket got pulled off so I patched a cable in. These things have a rough life sometimes. :P

[alepensato]

The FLI, and others wheels like the QHY CFW3 are equiped with a bipolar stepper like mini nema17 or nema14 and an HALL sensor for the home position. Actually I do not want to made mods to the original hardware, but if tests are good, I will check how to reuse the original hardware by changing the motor driver with an easydriver or a4988 or others

[Blueshawk]

This is showing the little board with a reed switch on it. the het would look similar but glue the case in the right spot. There is a magnet(from an old servo motor) glued on the wheel. This set's zero position.

[Blueshawk]

This one just shows how I wrapped some foam board around to keep light out. you can also see the handwheel and why edge rollers weren't as good for that model.

[alepensato]

Last 2 images are not visible

[Blueshawk]

Oops I went too fast. It sucks the FLI isn't supporting that wheel. In the interest of science and all things FOSS, If you can get the covers off and send some pics of the wiring I might be able to give some advice on where to go. I suspect the hardware is there and you just need to replace the board or boards with arduino stuff. You might not even need an het if we can figure out how they were indexing it, as we get time.

[alepensato]

I need to get the wheel form my other house. I remember that il present an hall sensor

[Blueshawk]

That's a fancy one! It's already got everything you need without building and the hardware is done! you don't need an het or motor. I'd like to see pics inside that white box and the wiring in the wheel itself to see if we can determine how much is done in the white box and how much is inside the case.

I got a copy of the FLI linux SDK mentioned at indilib.org forum to see if I could get the command protocol from it but ..wow. The SDK is a "driver" that translates usable usb protocol to something crazy. If FLI isn't going to support that controller anymore then you are right to rebuild, but probably don't need to gut the wheel itself, beyond exploring to get the wiring layout. Maybe open it up and start drawing and writing what wires go where on that socket. Then you can wire that to a stepper driver board and arduino controller using the pinout in my readme.

I should really get back to my own project now. :D good hunting!

[alepensato]

Mmmm... the problem is not the protocol for the coomands, but linux or raspberry see the device in the USB list, but INDI was unable to manage it because this model is no longer supported by the FLI SDK that use INDI to communicate with it

[Blueshawk]

oops bad case of editing on my part. see above. :fearful:

[Blueshawk]

As above I found that out also... making a new controller for that hardware should do the trick, and might solve that problem for others as well.

[alepensato]

I'll do some stuffs, but for the moment I can't work upon the FLI wheel because I do not have it on my hands. We are in lockdown due covid19 and going outside is authorized only for minimal reasons like work and shoppings

[Blueshawk]

How it goes... :/ The end of the tunnel has appeared. Hang in there. You might try some searching along the lines I mentioned above. Maybe somebody has already started working on a replacement FLI wheel controller.

[Blueshawk]

The FLI, and others wheels like the QHY CFW3 are equiped with a bipolar stepper like mini nema17 or nema14 and an HALL sensor for the home position. Actually I do not want to made mods to the original hardware, but if tests are good, I will check how to reuse the original hardware by changing the motor driver with an easydriver or a4988 or others

I just found this comment I missed. Sounds like a plan.

[alepensato]

Tests started with che HALL sensor. I had to wipe the eeprom because filters offsets were returned as 65535, soI think that variable type for position and offset should be int rather than word type. I didjust few quick test using ASCOM, but there is something wrong. I will continue during the weekend using INDI and ASCOM

[Blueshawk]

Eeproms generally start out all ffff (65535) so it might have just not had any offsets stored as yet, although the offset array is populated with all zeroes so I'm a little confused by what you saw there. Mine has the relative fine tuning offsets show up in indi control panel, and I'm pretty sure you can even tweak from there, though it's been a year or more since I needed to play with that. The positioning is very stable once you get them lined up.

word filterPos[] = { 0, 200, 600, 1000, 1400, 1800}; The word variable type is used to set up a memory array that can be referenced by position in the array such that 0=home, 200=filter 1,600=filter 2 etc. Each offset is an integer within the array.

The "offsets" you see in indi(and presumably ascom) zagyl control panel will be the ones relative to the hard coded fixed array. I did this to cut down on setup fiddling a bit by having preset values to act on individually without it having a cascading effect on the rest of the positions. to use it you go to each position and note where it landed physically, and then add a little offset and reselect that position, repeating until you have it centered. Having the filter wheel plugged in on the desk is the easiest way I found to get things lined up. (this should go in my instructions)