OnStep retrofit kit for Losmandy G11, GM8, G9, AZ8, HGM200 and their Celestron equivalent non GoTo mounts. Onstep is the most popular alternative to the expensive Gemini 2 retrofit kit goto system.

This kit is the same for the above mentioned mounts, only main firmware differenciate, wich one you can easilly change with the firmwares supplied on this site.

You can select your Losmandy drive to be shipped with the right firmware installed from the available options, motors are the same for G11, GM8, G9, AZ8 & HGM200.

Based on Nema 17 stepper motor positioning system, this kit includes all necesary to fully control your mount, hand controller is optional, package content:

2x Nema17 0,9º Step Angle Stepper Motors (5,4VDC, 0,9A, 36Ncm nominal Specs), installed on brackets.
2x Motor-to worm gear couplers.
2x Flat RJ45 cables 1 metter long.
Main Drive with TMC2130 stepper motor drivers installed, 2x antenna for BT and WiFi.
2x reusable nylon fasteners, 4x inox screws for the motor brackets.

FEATURES

Permanent PEC
Up to 6 star goto asisted polar aligment correction.
Custom park and home positions.
Integrated Bluetooth and WiFi server/command channel.
Refraction rate compensation
Automatic meridian flip, meridian flip pause at home.
Custom backslash setting.
Up to 600x slew rate.
Custom limits (overhead, horizon, meridian)
Custom observing sites.
Large object database: Solar System, Messier, NGC/IC, Herschel, Bright Stars, User Custom Catalog.
Manual speed/guide speed rates: 0,5x, 1x, 2x, 8x, 24x, 48x, 300x
Slew Rate: Adjustable 150 to 600x
Tracking: Sidereal, Lunar, Solar, Fine Adjust
Power source: 2A 12VDC (up to 400x) for 600x slew rate use 18VDC (recomended). Max 24VDC.
Tracking resolution, in arc-sec: G11: 0,035 GM8/G9/AZ8: 0,07 HGM200: 0,046
Guide resolution, in arc-sec: G11: 0,56 GM8/G9/AZ8: 0,56 HGM200: 0,37

INSTALLATION

Installation is as easy as this example for G11, other Losmandy mounts are similar, they share the same motor hardware design;

EASY STARTING

Download OnStep app from google play.

Manually move your mount axis to the home position (pointing to the celestial north), OnStep asume to be in this position every time is powered on.

Connect motor cables and power on the drive, the motors will not be energized until a “move axis” command is sent.

Disable your device mobile data, connect your android device to “OnStep” SSID, default password is: “password”, configure onstep app to connect to IP address and port: 192.168.0.1:9999 (top right drop down menu --> Connection).

Once a sucessful conection is done go to top right drop down menu --> Observing sites --> Enter you location and UTCoffset --> upload: This settings will be stored into memory for the actual and next sesions.

Go to main screen, press “Initialize/Park” --> “Set Date/Time”: The drive will take your device date and time, this step need to be done on every power on.

On main screen press “Tracking” --> “Start”: Tracking will start at sidereal rate.

Again to main screen, press “Solar System”: Select an object and press “GOTO”: The mount will point to the desired object at default slew rate (1,2º/s), default slew rate can be set anytime from 0,6 to 2,5º/s.

The connection may be done also throught bluetooth (previously paired with OnStep and configured in the app)

The drive can also be controlled throught any webbrowser, just connect to OnStep SSID and type "192.168.0.1"

For SkySafari app control use IP 192.168.0.1 and port 9999

For Stellarium Mobile use IP 192.168.0.1 and port 9998

FIRMWARE AND MANUAL

-This firmware is only valid for Instein ESP32 goto kit drives purchased from september 6 2020

-Instein goto kit drives purchased from september 6 2020 to september 20 2021 has TMC5160 stepper drivers installed, if nothing else specified.

-Instein goto kit drives purchased from september 20 2021 and onwards has TMC2130 stepper drivers installed, if nothing else specified.

This is source code for arduino, contains main drive MCU, wifi, hand control and ethernet adapter firmwares, unpack to anywhere on your PC and follow README.md file instructions.

ONSTEP.3.16Q.G11.TMC5160.17HM15-0904S

ONSTEP.3.16Q.G11.TMC2130.17HM15-0904S

ONSTEP.3.16Q.G8.TMC5160.17HM15-0904S

ONSTEP.3.16Q.G8.TMC2130.17HM15-0904S

ONSTEP.3.16Q.AZ8.TMC5160.17HM15-0904S

ONSTEP.3.16Q.AZ8.TMC2130.17HM15-0904S

OnStep-PDF (preliminary)