There's still some Sound-Card based Free software you could used... it's still better than nothing. Be carefull with signal amplitude and it should give you some pointers.
I already used VA (Visual analyser)
http://hacca.altervista.org/
There's still some Sound-Card based Free software you could used... it's still better than nothing. Be carefull with signal amplitude and it should give you some pointers.
I already used VA (Visual analyser)
http://hacca.altervista.org/
Steve
It's not a bug, it's a random feature.
There's no problem, only learning opportunities.
Wow! A free oscilloscope! Thank you, Mister-e! Now I must find an old sound-card....
"Probably the original design used MOSFETs, so the voltage loss was reduced to a minimum..." - I thought I was actually building the original design. You will clearly see +6v on the original circuit diagram. But I am now inclined to think you are right, and this circuit does not actually work as specified...![]()
Well it has to work as expected with HIS OWN step motor... but how many different model is there in the world?
You can now buy a sound card under 20$ here... 1/10 of almost any decent used scope.
When i talked about the original design, i meant your previous one... not the one you found and post here.
Last edited by mister_e; - 28th March 2008 at 21:52.
Steve
It's not a bug, it's a random feature.
There's no problem, only learning opportunities.
"...but how many different model is there in the world...?"
He is using a standard chinese clock-drive for an EQ4/5 scope - so am I. I was expecting our motors to be identical....
"You can now buy a sound card under 20$ here.."
I have some separate sound cards already - I was assuming that you plugged the probes into the game port on them. But now I have downloaded VA, I see there is no info about where to connect the probes to at all. Do you connect the probe to the 'microphone-in'? If so, I can connect it to the built-in sound card on the motherboard of the system I am using. It is odd that there seems to be no information about this vital point...?
"When i talked about the original design, i meant your previous one.."
Sorry - I misunderstood. In fact, I still have the original handcontroller. My problem is not that it was broken, but that it drove the motors at the correct speed for an EQ4/5 mount (1/10 rpm) and I wanted to use it for an EQ3-2 mount (1/11 rmp). Those are the final speeds - there is a gear train of approx 200:1 between the scope and the stepper. The original controller used an Amtel micro, directly driving an array of 8 transistors. They could well be MOSFETs.
you plug your probe to in Line in, make sure you set your Soundcard Mixer properly as well.
In VA, Click on Settings>> In/Out Device to confirm your setings.
Trent, i can't tell, it worked for me awhile back, not sure about the current one...
EDIT seems that I had the same version... doesn't seems to bug here.
Last edited by mister_e; - 29th March 2008 at 00:21.
Steve
It's not a bug, it's a random feature.
There's no problem, only learning opportunities.
T Jackson "Your reference to the website incurred me to think you found this code rather than wrote it..."
You are right. I have copied this code directly off this website. That's why I am on this forum - because the website claims it works together with the circuit they provide, but I can't make that happen.
Having said that, I have found other sites where precisely the same circuit is used with similar code, so it seems that I am doing something wrong.
Mister-e - I can't make VA work either. I am not skilled in electronics, but expected to see a set of 6v steps if I put a probe on the output of this circuit and attached the ground to 0v. Instead, what I got was a sine wave. In fact, whatever I do, I seem to get a sine wave. The oscilliscope setup setup just seems to measure RMS or peak-to-peak - I can find no DC setting at all. When I turn the circuit on, the sine wave is interrupted by short pulses which decay to 0v rapidly, so if those are real I am failing to get a proper signal to the stepper coil, but since I can't even make the scope line jump up when I put 6v across the terminal I can't be sure that VA is working at all....
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