Excellent suggestions, I'll definitely add those to the board.

Paul,

I was planning to run the Owl through the Arduino in as much as counting the steps and monitoring the system. I figure Papywizard will do all the hard calculations and send instruction via the Bluetooth. The Arduino is just for keeping track of the positions and decoding the instructions from Papywizard. It will also control the shutter etc. I am hoping that Papywizard can issue an instruction, confirm the data then wait until the mount indicates last instructions are completed. It will also be useful for the Arduino to send the present positions back to Papywizard. This way using the jog buttons on the Owl you can visually pick the start and end points for a Gigapixel shot.

Hi Greg,

2/ Shutter and focus with relays interfaced

Maybe beter to use "opto couplers" who are cheaper than relays and more save for the camera ...?

fma38 wrote:

Keep in mind that Papywizard is not designed to receive asynchronous data from the head; it always initates the communication, by asking the position (periodically to monitor it on the GUI), or requesting a new position.

As I explained before, when a goto command is sent, the head should execute it in background, and continue to handle new commands ; Papywizard continue to periodically read the position and the status to see if the head is still moving or if the drive command ended.

This should work fine. One question is would Papywizard read the positions of the head after we move it with the jog buttons to a start or end point and then be able to store that?

Would it be a good idea to use a joy stick http://dkc3.digikey.com/PDF/C091/P1941.pdf interface for the manual positioning? One reason I ask this is I am running short of digital input pins and the analog pins are open for use. There could be also the advantage of having variable speed of the axis movement.

The other option is stepping up to the Arduino Mega and then there is tons of room for expansion. The Mega will provide more processing power as well, and if needed I could run a brake system for the axis with this controller, price is a minor increase except for us that already have the Duemilanove. But you can always make another project with the Duemilanove. The Mega also has the advantage of multiple serial ports 4 times the memory. Then things like the LCD become possible. (Anyone want to buy a slightly used Duemilanove :-) )

I use a WII Nunchuk as a joystick, it uses SPI-interface, so it does not cost extra pins and I feel it is easier to position the head with a joystick on a cable compared to one mounted on the head. the two switches on the nunchuck are useful to confirm the settings or fire the shutter.

I've done some testing with a small stepper motor, I think if I increase the size of the stepper to this unit http://www.web-tronics.com/stmo4.html which has 50% more torque than the one from SparkFun it may satisfy my requirements. I have to get a hold of a video camera so I can show how this moves with the SparkFun motor. I am using the Easy Driver for this and it will rotate my D300 with a 18-70mm lens on it at close to the nodal point. If this works it would be the least expensive way to go. The servo system will still be tested once a few items arrive.

Feel like pulling my hair out today. Bought a avr programmer off eBay and it isn't Vista 64 compatible. I was wanting to start testing the DC motor system this weekend and now it has to wait a little more. The circuit boards look good just hope I didn't make any errors on it.

I'm holding off on getting larger stepper motors since they also need a higher power driver, my budget has gone way over board on this with all my testing ideas. At least the hardware all fits together.

Thought I would update what is going on.

Last edited by Greg Nuspel (2009-11-27 14:06:08)

Well done. Are you able to move both axis independently?

I've been playing with the Arduino talking to the servos and have figured out how to get them to be friendly. A big stumbling block I see right now is that the servos do not put up with the kids in the back seat saying are we there yet (sorry a parents joke). If you try to inquire as to the position of the servo while in motion it stops. It will tell you where it is if you want, but not while in motion.  When it has finished the last move it sends out a '%' indicating it is ready for the next instruction. I see this as a potential problem since Papywizard is set up to request positions regularly. I am wondering if it would work to reply with the last position until the servo has stopped and then update the information for Papywizard.

I have been playing with a GLCD and having the Arduino do everything but the interface is not near as friendly as Papywizard.

I can write the firmware to provide a position after the head has moved. The firmware could to only respond once the move is finished with the position. I don't know if Papywizard would time out because of this or would it wait. If there is a stop move command issued I can interrupt the move and then report the position.

So if this is fine I will start trying to get the head to talk to Papywizard.

One other thing I would like to see is with the shutter control is having the ability to check to see the exposure is finished. I am implementing a flash contact sensor to check the camera's shutter. From what I have read it looks like the flash contacts remain closed during the exposure provided you aren't using rear curtain sync. This would allow a bracketed series in the least amount of time.

OK I will try to get the firmware to work with the present plugin, if I have problems that profuse hair pulling does not solve I will look to see if we can write a mount specific plugin.