Last Updated: 11/11/2014

Version 7 includes a change to the microstepping mode being used. AstroEQ now has a user selectable stepping modes allowing used of all modes supported by the DRV8825 and A4988 chips. If you have legacy hardware, please read the "Upgrading from 6.x to 7.x firmware" file. The Arduino Mega variant of the design has been adjusted as described in the upgrade file to bring it up to date and as such, it is no longer considered legacy hardware.

A small number of AstroEQ controllers are available to purchase. These can be bought from me on my website (http://www.astroeq.co.uk).

If you have any questions or need support, I have opened an AstroEQ Forum which can be found at http://www.astroeq.co.uk/forum/

The AstroEQ Firmware is currently proving to be very stable. If you do happen across any glitches, let me know as I can usually fix them fairly quickly.

There are two hardware options. Firstly to use an Arduino Mega (Uno is not supported), which requires only two DRV8825 or A4988 driver boards and a couple of capacitors to build.
The second option which is used for purchased controllers is a completely custom hardware which is based around an Atmega162 chip. Although this is not officially supported by the Arduino IDE, I have modified the bootloader to suit.
Schematic and PCB Layout designs are available in this repo for the second option. For the Mega, refer to the PinAssignments.h file for the digital pin numbers to connect the driver boards.

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AstroEQ Arduino code, and Hardware schematics.

AstroEQ is written and Designed by Thomas Carpenter 2012.
With thanks Chris over at the EQMOD Yahoo group for help communicating with EQMOD.

AstroEQ is an alternative to the expensive SynScan upgrade. The project acts as a gateway to connect the EQMOD Software (and hence ASCOM planetariums) to a motorised Equatorial mount that lacks Goto functionality.

The EQMOD Project can be found at: http://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/

  Works with EQ3, EQ5, HEQ5, and EQ6 mounts. Along With custom mounts.
 
  Current Software Verison: 7.3
  Current Hardware Version: 4.5

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