Lunar Equatorial Mount

July 10, 2024 – v2.0: Almost completely refactored the firmware, changed to screen display parameters, added a wireless shutter release receiver, and can be controlled by my open-source shutter release cable. July
24, 2023 – v1.1: Adopts 16P Type-C, supports QC protocol.
 
The Moonflower Equatorial Mount is a single-axis equatorial mount inspired by the prototype equatorial mount posted by Blacklight on Tieba and the NanoLight open-source equatorial mounts (1, 2). This equatorial mount uses ESP8266 as the main controller and A4988 module as the driver. The firmware is built using ESPHome. It has a 0.96-inch screen and dial buttons, allows for completely offline parameter adjustment, and is compatible with shutter release cable systems. Only a 2.5mm to 2.5mm cable is needed to connect various shutter release cables (at least my Stande shutter release cable works). The experience is even better when used with my own designed wireless shutter release cable. It features equatorial mount mode, time-lapse mode, and star-sky time-lapse mode, with three tracking speeds: stellar speed, lunar speed, and solar speed. The time-lapse and star-sky time-lapse modes require a shutter
release cable to function. The Type-C power input uses the PD/QC 9V protocol and can be directly powered by a power bank with PD/QC 9V support. [Note: 5V can also power the stepper motor, but it's prone to losing steps at the highest speed; it works perfectly in 1x equatorial mount mode.]
Since I lack the ability to design a 3D-printed shell, the shell uses a combination of basswood board and an acrylic protective cover. 3D-printed shell designs are welcome.
 
Other detailed information and precautions can be found in the attached PDF. The attachment also includes the firmware source code (.yaml), my self-compiled firmware (.bin), and the acrylic shell file (.cdr) designed using CDR.
 
The following are sample photos taken using this equatorial mount:
In version 1.0, a single shot with a 50mm lens took 30 seconds; I wasn't quite familiar with polar alignment yet.
Version 2.0, a rougher test of polar alignment, took 5 minutes per shot.