Great stuff to listen in on guys! That 350 KG video and the implied near degree per second movement at that weight is awesome to ponder, given the stingy load limits and performance of off the shelf mounts and what they cost to get even decent AP performance.

I have used perhaps a dozen different phidget products in non-astronomical projects so the 1067 "feels" right in addition to liking the usb programmatic control and the safety features. WBIRK I bet there would be general interest for all 1067 users in a well designed heat sink for that board. I am assuming that if the stepper is driving a worm then back EMF and torque holding issues are not the issues they would otherwise be.

I can see some limited advantages in the .9 degree 400 step NEMA 23 motor in an attempt to avoid or limit microstepping, but I would think I would still need a planetary gearing and couldn't go direct at 400 steps even with 360 teeth. Although I can brute force torque, the smoothness I need is only going to come from stepping/planetary ratios (I think). Doesn't the Phidgets 1067 automatically implement stepping through microsteps anyway?

Assuming you wanted to create a mount to drive a 20-30 KG load and didn't mind a slow slew rate, is there any hope for avoiding a planetary ratio in your stepper for RA tracking? Direct drive mounts are such an illusive goal in general, but even direct stepper drive of a 360 tooth 12 inch worm would seem illusive given the desire for arc-seconds smoothness regardless of the motor size or choice. I am going to either do planetary/microstepping or both.

BTW, I have a Phidgets servo motor controller and a nice high torque CR servo with metal gears.. I have a good python program to control rotation and acceleration (use it on a lesser CR servo for focus control)..how would a high end hobby servo do for mount control I wonder.

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