SEC: UNCLASSIFIED. RE: ATM Focusing Motor Digital Readout

[afmartyn@raaf.defence.gov.au]

--- t colbert <k3hx@juno.com> wrote:
> 
> ALL Electronics is selling a "motorized dual 10K
> linear pot" for $4. 
> These can easily be made into focus motors.

Adam wrote
>Hey,
>If you hook a small digital ohmeter to this thing,
>you'd have a digital focusing readout...   Has 
anyone
>on the list tried this sort of idea before?

Not enough turns, What you need is a motorised 5 or 
10 turn pot. They are also a lot more accurate. have
 done a bit of mucking around with motorised focusers 
and decided the extra weight and leads etc are not 
worth it. Sure the image may jump around but I find I
 can get pretty good focus and the scope has finished 
wobbling in a few seconds. Now if I was using my 
scope regularly for public viewing then that would be 
a different story.

What I'd really like to do is to motorise the mirror 
end and have the focuser fixed. This would be great 
as I could keep the eyepiece end low profile thus 
smaller secondary but still be able to accommodate a 
large range of focus. Would also keep the weight down
 where it should be, but then again you would be 
shifting the balance of the scope when you focused. 
Just another dream.

Andy
Australia

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