Installing second motor on shutter

I purchased a track and gear for the other side .this setup works fine for driving both sides

Sorry to dig this post back up. I have installed the second motor and electronically it works fine. What I am stumped with is what everyone did for the tensioning block that is behind the track that is tighten with a set screw.

The Beaver board integrate the stepper driver on the PCB so you can't drive 2 motor, only one. Don't even try to connect 2 motors to the stepper terminal on the Beaver as it would probably kill the Trinamic stepper driver on the Beaver (too much amps being pulled)..

Also if you have an existing rotation controller that is not based on the enw Beaver board, it can't talk to a shutter Beaver... both controller need to be of the same type (rotation and shutter should either be the older Arduino type or the new Beaver ones, you can't mix-match).

I use my own controller ... and my own X2 dome plugin for TheSkyX :

https://rti-zone.org/astro_dome_control.php

I'm in the process of adding the 2nd motor controller and stepper on my 2021 shutter, along with some potential other hack on it.

Rodolphe,

You are indeed a valuable resource and source of information.

Thanks, Rod Michael

You can use the Beaver X2 plugin or ASCOM driver.

TheSkyX on Windows supports both ASCOM and X2 (and X2 on all platforms) so you can pick whatever you feel more comfortable with.

I don't use Windows so of course for me it's all X2 :)

If you're using TheSkyX, using the proper X2 plugin is usually better as it doesn't requires extra external drivers and ASCOM configuration and avoid potential conflict with settings in ASCOM and TheSkyX .

I'm on Windows, but I intend to use the SkyX Pro Plug in for dome control. So, no ASCOM drivers for me, I guess.

Best regards, Rod Michael

Thank you for taking the time to explain all this to me. I'm obviously not as technically qualified as you are and much of what you have told me goes right over my head. But I get the gist.

Thanks, again, Rod Michael

If your dome is brand new (2021) then you probably have a Beaver controller (what ASCOM driver are you using if you're on Windows ?) .

This means.. you can't do the dual motor modification as you can't connect a 2nd motor to the board and as the board are full shutter controller you can't use 2 in parallel.

As for my own system, I developed a new controller for myself (dome and shutter) to replace the one based on the Arduino as the 3.x and 4.x firmware were ... not up to my standard to say the least.

As for TheSkyX as this is what I use I wrote the X2 plugin for my own controller (I also wrote the X2 plugin for the Beaver controller for the new NexDome: https://rti-zone.org/software_x2dome_plugins.php#beaver ).

X2 is TheSkyX Pro own standard to interface with hardware and it's multi-platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux X86_64, ARM32 (Raspberry Pi and the like) and ARM64 (Odroid, TheSky Fusion)).

As this is a DIY project ... it's up to the user to do the assembly. I can probably produce a few board with the component soldered but the user need to get the controller, motor .... and as you already have a new Beaver controller I'm not sure you'd want to rip that out to use my DIY controller.

I still haven't installed a 2nd motor yet (this will happen when time permit).

The reason for a 2nd motor is to make the traction even and make the whole shutter assembly move better without skipping or binding. It also make it moves squarely as opposed to only one side tracking and making it go a bit sideway.

Also... as I replaced the original controller with my own system (Only works with TheSkyX Pro as I don't do ASCOM : https://rti-zone.org/astro_dome_control.php ), I'm not using the original stepper controller and use something a bit better but not compatible with the original NexDome board (the new beaver boards have their own stepper controller directly on the PCB and it's a lot better than the TB6600). With a bit of soldering there might be ways to make the stepper controller I use work on a NexDome (I use a ISD04 from StepperOnline).

As for what the French part above is about : Didier want some feedback from Alain as he wants to buy a NexDome but some of the comments in the forum are making him think about it twice (I'm French so this was an easy translation :) ).

So adding a 2nd motor is making things a LOT better (and I do plan on doing it on mine.. when I get the time, the track and the sprocket :) ).

Rodolphe

Alain or Rodolphe,

WHAT WAS WRONG WITH YOUR SHUTTER MOVEMENT? I would like some additional information about your shutter operation that prompted addition of a second motor. What was happening with your shutter. I saw that Omar indicated his gear was skipping or slipping in operation.

MY SHUTTER OPERATION. I have yet to install my motor, but, my shutter in manual operation is uneven in terms of the ease with which it goes up and down. At one point in its travel it requires some substantial strength to move fully from one end to the other. I haven't installed the motor yet. But it's attractive to think that it will move with greater certainty with a drive on each side.

PARTS REQUIRED. I understand the following parts and sources are required.

1. 57STH56 NEMA-23 Bipolar Stepper with 15:1 Gearbox from Phidgets

2. DaFuRui TB6600 4A 9-42V Stepper Motor Driver CNC Controller, 32 Subdivision Upgrade Nema tb6600 Single Axes Stepper Motor for CNC from Amazon.com

3. Track, motor mount and gear from NexDome

WIRING OF MOTOR TO CONTROLLER.

A+ : Black

A- : Green

B+ : Red

B- : Blue

"EUREKA" MOMENT.

I don't speak or read French. Please tell me what you wrote in French above that may be important for me to know for success.

Thanks, Rod Michael

With Alain's help I was able to add the second motor and get everything installed. I'm happy to say that it is working perfectly. Prior to the modification the motor would skip in the track more often than not.

bien sur sans problème :)

Bonjour Alain. Votre retour d'expérience m'intéresse beaucoup. Pourrions nous en discuter hors forum ?

I bought the track, motor mount and gear with Babak. I bought the stepper controller at amazon ( TB6600 4A 9~42V TTL 32 Micro|Étape) and the motor directly to phidget. It work very well.

@Rodolphe / @Alain Delon can you post the list of items so I may try this. I've given up on making single track work - just not enough power to close my system. I've emailed Babak asking what else can be done but my shutter per this post https://www.nexdome.com/forum/observatory-automation/shutter-wont-close-under-its-own-power can't close.

I can probably track down the motor but can you list part numbers/sources for the track, motor, motor mount, set screw insert, cog, cog-track alignment... I take it that's about it?

ps. @Alain Delon how's this worked for you since?

ok donc c'eat la valeur en pas et non en micro-pas :)

EUREKA ! MILLESSSS MERCI Rodolphe, ça fonctionne au poil. par contre j'ai changé la valeur a 44160 car 368000 a pleine ouverture me donnait une position de 18% mais avec la nouvelle valeur, le span est de 0-100% !

comme la photo ci bas le montre, j'ai maintenant une indication de la position du shutter.

Encore une fois milles merci !

Alain

Ok, donc on fait des progrès can cette valeur ne devrait pas etre 0.. , je pensais qu'il sauvait par défaut.

Essayes `@ZWS` pour sauver dans l'eeprom.

Avec le logiciel Putty, ci bas une image des commandes que j'ai fait RRS indiquait 0, j'ai modifié avec la commande RWS,368000, ensuite le RRS me donnait 368000 mais dois je enregistrer ces parametres car j'ai fermé Putty et fait l'essai du shutter sans succes et quand j'ai entré a nouveau dans Putty, le RRS etait revenu a 0.

et donc meme après avoir fait un ouverture et fermeture avec le rocker switch ca ne marche toujours pas via software ? :(

Perso j'utilise plus ce firmware... trop de problème "mistérieux" .. mais bon je suis pas sous Windows et j'utilise TheSkyX donc pas forcement le cas de tout le monde.

Je ne sais pas trop quoi tenter d'autre.

Si tu a un terminal série genre CoolTerm, tu peux essayer d'envoyer la commande '@RRS' (sans les ' ) via le terminal (avec un CR+LF a la fin) pour voir la valeur stocker dans le controleur du shutter. Si la valeur est 0 ou toute petite, tu peux tenter de la changer avec '@RWS,368000' (sans les ' )