Avocette replied to the topic 'HitecAstro DC Focus' in the forum. 4 years ago

Sorry to reawaken this thread! I’ve just come across it now that I’ve started to try to get Autofocus to work with my set up. I have a HitecAstro DC focuser V2 driving a Sky-Watcher (non-stepper) motor with internal gearbox. After initial problems with coupling to the focus shaft on my SW ED80 refractor, I am confident that a short pulse of drive does adjust focus.
My normal focus routine used a Bahtinov mask and the Sky-Watcher battery box, but I recently invested in the HitecAstro unit. I had a couple of what seemed like initial successes running Autofocus with all settings in default values. I also had a number of failures. I then switched to Linear which I understand helps to account for the inherent backlash by approaching from one side of the optimum focus position. However I now often find that a warning message from the Indi focuser driver saying words to the effect that the motor did not move, although I have heard the sound of gear movement.
For the moment I am using the Ekos focus measurements to help optimise manually 15 ‘steps’ at a time. If I run the Autofocus the initial steps taken by the algorithm mostly leave the image well out of focus. The manual step approach works well enough and is certainly more convenient than using a Bahtinov mask.
I just wondered if I have missed some useful information from this forum relating to recent upgrades in the focuser module? I have read the KStars handbook, but clearly a lot of improvements have been introduced since it was written.

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