Thanks Robert, great project! I was going to go the stripboard route but after seeing how easy it was to order PCBs I went for the ESP32-DRV8825 PCB instead. While waiting for the parts I designed and printed my own case as well as the stepper/focuser bracket. Finally got it all together by September and it has worked well for me since.
Instead of a DB9 for the steppers I went with a GX12-6pin and combined the steppers and home position wires together to reduce connections. I used separate shielded cables for the stepper lines and homing switch to help prevent interference from the stepper pulses. Then wrapped them in braid. So far no issues.
I'm still back on V122 of the firmware since I had made changes for the IR codes and changed the spacing of the lines for the OLED display.
I got a different IR remote and it used different codes and the repeat code was FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF or effectively -1 and this caused some confusion in the IR switch statement since negative values were used for unassigned IR codes. I added a #if checking for positive IR code values around each case statement.
The OLED I purchased was two color and the text was split across the color separation. Shifted things a pixel or two to fix it.
I use the myFPESP in WiFi stationmode and use Astroberry on a PI-4. I had modified the MyFocuserPro2 INDI driver to support network based connections but the latest version of INDI has added network support to the MyFocuserPro2 driver so I've switched to that. The only issue I've had with network connectivity is more of a USB3-Pi4-ESP32 issue. I have a USB3 SSD and guide camera on the PI and the USB3 interference means that the ESP32 and PI cannot find each other. The ESP32 has no problem connecting to my WiFi access point so I've been using my home network to connect between the PI and the myFPESP.
Again, thanks Robert, great project. Hope to upgrade the firmware over the holiday break and here's a couple pictures:
In updating to the latest release
0. Remember you can use the Windows app to Save your current settings to a file
1. Use control panel to remove any windows applications and ascom driver
2. Run the ClearEEPROM.ino file on the ESP device to clear all data
3. Download latest files
4. Make sure you update the required libraries - recopy them into documents\Arduino\libraries
5. Load firmware with Arduino IDE
6. Config the controller in focuserconfig.h
7. Upload firmware to controller
8. Upload data files to controller
9. Run Windows app, connect to controller, restore settings from previously saved settings file (or set all the settings by hand)
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Thanks. I wasn't able to find a ClearEEPROM.ino that seemd to work but I used the erase_flash option on esptool which did seem to work.
I tried using the 135 version from sourceforge.
1. Deleted and replaced myDallasTemperature, myfp2eIRremoteESP8266, myHalfStepperESP32 and myOLED in the Arduino libraries folder.
2. Updated the focuserconfig.h, checked that myBoards.h was good and updated the irremotemappings.h.
3. Used esptool to clear the flash then I built and uploaded V135.
4. Then I uploaded the Sketch data with the upload tool.
Everything looked good after that but I had a few issues:
1. The new myFP2ESP app seemed to choke on the backup I made with the previous version of the app. I admit that I need to try this again since I may have messed it up in some way.
2. I determined that uploading the V122 data_per.jsn breaks the management server pages because the format of the file has changed (presets format is different) and there's missing data.
3. If I turned on the webserver via the management server the webserver started and worked fine but as soon as I rebooted the focuser it would go into an infinite loop. Seems like it gets past the WiFi connect and the OTA activation but then reboots at the webserver start. Only way to recover is to upload the Sketch data with a data_per.jsn with wson set to 0.
4. Leaving the webserver off. I did try to use V135 and it seemed to work but the Home switch would no longer work. I tried hitting it manually while the focuser was moving in but it didn't activate. I forgot to test it using the app. I'll give that a shot later.
I did make sure the data_per.jsn was a proper V135 version when trying issues 3 and 4.
Ran out of time at that point so I erased and then re-flashed back to V122. Everything seems to be back to working as it was.
I have another laptop where I'll try to do a fresh install of all the Arduino libraries and then build and upload V135.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
my bad. ClearEEPROM is redundant for ESP32
Oh and please do not use the firmware on sourceforge. It is now on GitHub for downlaod.
Goto Github and just do a seach for myFP2EFirmware
Maybe. Not sure. The new app should ignore those settings that are no longer supported
Uploading a different version data_per.jsn will definately break things. Though there is no warning about this, it is not something you should do.
Please report this as an issue on github
Please report this as an issue on github
Last edit: brownrb 2020-12-29
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Ok, thanks. I had looked at github but it seemed it only went up to 132 so I used the 135 I previously grabbed from sourceforge. I just saw your other post so I'll move on over to github and grab a copy there.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Hi Stephen
Do not go by the rev number on github. The code on github is the very latest. We really have not been using rev numbers on github. The master branch is way ahead than here. And has a few extra features.
I just added home updated tests for testing HOME POSITION SWITCH to github.
Regards
Last edit: brownrb 2020-12-29
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Thanks Robert, great project! I was going to go the stripboard route but after seeing how easy it was to order PCBs I went for the ESP32-DRV8825 PCB instead. While waiting for the parts I designed and printed my own case as well as the stepper/focuser bracket. Finally got it all together by September and it has worked well for me since.
Instead of a DB9 for the steppers I went with a GX12-6pin and combined the steppers and home position wires together to reduce connections. I used separate shielded cables for the stepper lines and homing switch to help prevent interference from the stepper pulses. Then wrapped them in braid. So far no issues.
I'm still back on V122 of the firmware since I had made changes for the IR codes and changed the spacing of the lines for the OLED display.
I got a different IR remote and it used different codes and the repeat code was FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF or effectively -1 and this caused some confusion in the IR switch statement since negative values were used for unassigned IR codes. I added a #if checking for positive IR code values around each case statement.
The OLED I purchased was two color and the text was split across the color separation. Shifted things a pixel or two to fix it.
I use the myFPESP in WiFi stationmode and use Astroberry on a PI-4. I had modified the MyFocuserPro2 INDI driver to support network based connections but the latest version of INDI has added network support to the MyFocuserPro2 driver so I've switched to that. The only issue I've had with network connectivity is more of a USB3-Pi4-ESP32 issue. I have a USB3 SSD and guide camera on the PI and the USB3 interference means that the ESP32 and PI cannot find each other. The ESP32 has no problem connecting to my WiFi access point so I've been using my home network to connect between the PI and the myFPESP.
Again, thanks Robert, great project. Hope to upgrade the firmware over the holiday break and here's a couple pictures:
Last edit: SHillier 2020-12-27
Hi Stephen
Awesome
The latest firmware is on GitHub. Any issues please use "issues" at github
regards
Robert
I suspect that your oled display uses the SSH1106 chip - if used with the default these oleds tend to chop the character of each line
This spacing issue gets fixed by using this in focuserconfig.h
There have been significant updates since 122.
Last edit: brownrb 2020-12-28
In updating to the latest release
0. Remember you can use the Windows app to Save your current settings to a file
1. Use control panel to remove any windows applications and ascom driver
2. Run the ClearEEPROM.ino file on the ESP device to clear all data
3. Download latest files
4. Make sure you update the required libraries - recopy them into documents\Arduino\libraries
5. Load firmware with Arduino IDE
6. Config the controller in focuserconfig.h
7. Upload firmware to controller
8. Upload data files to controller
9. Run Windows app, connect to controller, restore settings from previously saved settings file (or set all the settings by hand)
Thanks. I wasn't able to find a ClearEEPROM.ino that seemd to work but I used the erase_flash option on esptool which did seem to work.
I tried using the 135 version from sourceforge.
1. Deleted and replaced myDallasTemperature, myfp2eIRremoteESP8266, myHalfStepperESP32 and myOLED in the Arduino libraries folder.
2. Updated the focuserconfig.h, checked that myBoards.h was good and updated the irremotemappings.h.
3. Used esptool to clear the flash then I built and uploaded V135.
4. Then I uploaded the Sketch data with the upload tool.
Everything looked good after that but I had a few issues:
1. The new myFP2ESP app seemed to choke on the backup I made with the previous version of the app. I admit that I need to try this again since I may have messed it up in some way.
2. I determined that uploading the V122 data_per.jsn breaks the management server pages because the format of the file has changed (presets format is different) and there's missing data.
3. If I turned on the webserver via the management server the webserver started and worked fine but as soon as I rebooted the focuser it would go into an infinite loop. Seems like it gets past the WiFi connect and the OTA activation but then reboots at the webserver start. Only way to recover is to upload the Sketch data with a data_per.jsn with wson set to 0.
4. Leaving the webserver off. I did try to use V135 and it seemed to work but the Home switch would no longer work. I tried hitting it manually while the focuser was moving in but it didn't activate. I forgot to test it using the app. I'll give that a shot later.
I did make sure the data_per.jsn was a proper V135 version when trying issues 3 and 4.
Ran out of time at that point so I erased and then re-flashed back to V122. Everything seems to be back to working as it was.
I have another laptop where I'll try to do a fresh install of all the Arduino libraries and then build and upload V135.
my bad. ClearEEPROM is redundant for ESP32
Oh and please do not use the firmware on sourceforge. It is now on GitHub for downlaod.
Goto Github and just do a seach for myFP2EFirmware
Last edit: brownrb 2020-12-29
Ok, thanks. I had looked at github but it seemed it only went up to 132 so I used the 135 I previously grabbed from sourceforge. I just saw your other post so I'll move on over to github and grab a copy there.
Hi Stephen
Do not go by the rev number on github. The code on github is the very latest. We really have not been using rev numbers on github. The master branch is way ahead than here. And has a few extra features.
I just added home updated tests for testing HOME POSITION SWITCH to github.
Regards
Last edit: brownrb 2020-12-29
Yes big thanks for this amazing project and the support you provide