hi guys and girls



i hope you gurus could point me in the right direction

i am putting together a goto telescope project

i have built the encoder circuit it communicates via serial port ( no problems )

http://www.atmpage.org/contrib/Ek/dsc/

my intent is to use stepper drives of the shelf these are parallel input

the problem lies in that the astro software outputs in serial or ethernet not parallel

any suggestions as to the easy way to control the drives

the astro program is stellarium

http://www.stellarium.org/

scope control via

stellarium scope

http://www.bytearts.com/stellarium/

using these drives

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280510841769&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

any pointers would be welcome

side note

i read the forums and have gained a lot from the wealth of knowledge thats
flows across

regards

willow 52

 

While your encoders use a serial I/F -

Communications Protocol

The interface communicates with the PC through one of several predetermined protocols. I've implemented protocols for BBox, NGC-MAX (which is also SGT-MAX and a few others), and MicroGuider III. Each of these protocols requires the interface to wait for a command from the PC via the serial port, and to return information (such as the current encoder positions or interface status) based upon the command received. In other words, the interface doesn't speak until spoken to.​

Your stepper controls are neither parallel nor serial in the sense of an interface. The inputs are:

Input Signal:
1: PLUSE (step pulse/Rising Edge)
2: DIR ( direction)

3: ENA (enable)

​

- not at all the same thing as a parallel interface.

You will have to take the output from the software package and use a microcontroller (you could do this in logic, but it's also a pain) to interpret the serial output and generate the direction and pulse signals for the stepper controller from that.