Restart KStars? That's about all I can think of, if the file is there, perms are OK, and it has Kevin's content, it ought to work. It's unlikely that the XML files live in a different folder, but you could try picking one of the other drivers that's in the Ekos distribution and searching for it everywhere in the file system with:

sudo find / -name name-of-file.xml

where "name-of-file" is the other driver filename, like indi_wmh_focuser.xml.

If you find the file in another place besides /usr/share/indi, you could copy indi_wmh_focuser.xml there too and see what you get. Beyond those two ideas...I got nothin', I'm afraid.

Hmm, well that's odd. Sorry for asking a couple silly questions, but I need to get them out of the way. Did you restart KStars after installing the Waveshare driver? Are you running KStars on the Raspberry Pi, or on another computer over the network? If it's the latter, then you'll have to install the XML file on the remote computer as well.

Raspberry pi 4 running astrobery os locally.  I rebooted the whole computer.  Sorry for my lack of linux skills.  

I am really looking forward to using this hat!


thanks for the replies... Bruce

Raspberry pi 4 running astrobery os locally.  I rebooted the whole computer.  Sorry for my lack of linux skills.  

I am really looking forward to using this hat!


thanks for the replies... Bruce

I don't actually run Astroberry myself, but since it's free, and I have a spare micro SD card, I'm downloading it now. I'm going to try my own written instructions on a fresh Astroberry install, and see if it works. Give me an hour or two...

Okay, found the problem. From a terminal, execute:

You may need to reboot the Pi for it to take effect.

Let me know if that works for you.

-- Kevin

Thank you that works.... Bruce

I just put together a setup for my Radian Raptor using this setup.  It is similar to the one I originally used with my SkyWatcher 250P, except this time I use the NEMA17 with the planetary reducer (36PA5.18) and a GT2 timing pulley (60/20) and belt set instead of plastic gears.  This yielded 50,000 steps end-to-end and worked well with a 60ms delay.  The 60-tooth pulley is connected to the fine focus knob of the scope.

  

Nice! Looks solid!

I don't think you need a stepper with built-in reduction, since you're attaching to the fine focus knob, and you have 4:1 gearing reduction on the timing pulleys. On my 80mm scope, I have a small NEMA 14 motor, attached directly (1:1) to the fine focus knob, and it has plenty of torque.

I didn't do it for the torque. I wanted more steps. Some of the autofocus routines I have been using like to make big jumps (100 steps or more) initially and then fine-tune the steps as the final number gets close. In my other implementation, with just a NEMA17, I only got 2400 steps, and that was barely adequate for some autofocus routines.

....granted...50,000 might be overkill...a bit.

I have a change that I need to commit to git, that you might be interested in. It enables the Abort button, as well as showing the current position in realtime as it's moving. Handy for people with focusers with 50,000 steps.

I should have that change committed to git sometime later today.

Last time I went you your git page, it was broken....  (no it wasn't...I was broken..."pilot error")

....and yes, that'd be handy.

While on the subject, I notice that WaveShare doesn't promote the dual HAT board anymore on their website. You can still find it if you dig. They seem more inclined toward small, single HAT boards for the pi. Do you know if any of those still work with the code. I imagine they would, if they use the same controller chip.

I may have to try one and see. The full-size double HAT board blocks the fan quite a bit and gives me thermal issues when I run Siril for stacking on the pi (which is a handy thing to do while waiting for an hour's worth of new images to come in).