The DIY guy

This is another DIY stuff which I made just out of the parts available off the shelf. Please note all the steps might not be explained properly here, because it has been months since I made it and writing now as I remembered, what all I have done that time. Feel free to comment or contact on the mail if you want to make one for yourself. I will try to explain the doubts if you have. Also, make sure to comment and share if you like it. So it goes back in April 2018, when I bought my first DSLR, Canon EOS 200D with both the kit lenses. I wanted to buy a prime lens and skip the telephoto lens which comes bundled with a camera, but a friend came for rescue and removed this thought from my mind. Forever grateful to you Gaurav, for this. Many photos captured, with me realizing the importance of zoom lens especially for birding and Astrophotography. For birding, the struggle is real. You have to maintain distance and also get a good photo at least not the frame, which you can anyti

This is my first project to use Atmega328P standalone without any Arduino based boards. The advantages I found in doing so is the size of your project is considerably reduced, the thickness of the enclosure that you need to make or 3d print whatever is reduced. Most important is your project looks so neat and well made. What is Intervalometer An intervalometer is a remote trigger to your DSLR cameras, which makes it possible to click photos periodically with a given shutter speed and given delay. In simple words it tells camera when to take photo. With an intervalometer, you can push the camera to its best limits. Do I need one? Yes, you need one if you are interested in photography and like to do some creative stuff with your DSLR, rather than just taking photos and processing and publishing them. How to use an intervalometer?? Well, watch the video on how to use.  Pocket intervalometer Using the intervalometer, you can trigger the camera at the interval s

What is NodeMCU?? Detailed information about this can be found at  https://nodemcu.readthedocs.io/en/master/. Basically it is an IoT board at very (!) cheap price.   Why to use relay boards The board can be used or IoT applications which involve switching devices as primary application. The relay board has the wifi on board so it will minimize the number of wires in your IoT project. Total 8 GPIOs are used for controlling 8 relays. The unused pins are soldered to male headers and kept open for other applications and connecting different sensors. The basic pin diagram of NodeMCU can be found at [NodeMCU documentation]--- https://nodemcu.readthedocs.io/en/master/ NodeMCU can be programmed using Arduino as well . Download Arduino IDE first. Connect NodeMCU using the micro usb cable. Install drivers for CH340G or CP2102 (depending on the controller on your NodeMCU). In the boards manager (Arduino IDE) use this URL. http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266

This is the second blog post about some DIY hardware I have made for controlling the telescope on equatorial mount based on AstroEQ platform, fully open source hardware. for more info about AstroEQ--- https://www.astroeq.co.uk/tutorials.php See what is an equatorial mount -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_mount The board is fully an open source hardware based on ASCOM, EQMOD and AstroEQ, driven by powerful 8-bit microcontroller Atmega2560 (incorporated in Arduino boards). The board acts as shield for the Mega2560 boards available in the market and is capable of converting any equatorial mount telescope into a motorized telescope with both axis control and it will let you do through the PC or laptop... yay.. sounds interesting. Let us see what is required to do so..... First of all you need a telescope mount which supports mounting motors on that (either single axis or double axis). Once you have telescope mount, you have to do some basic calculations for

Why to use shield when you can customize with wires Exactly, because of the last word in the point made above. WIRES , they are the ones which make your project or instrument look very old fashioned and ugly. This is the reason why people prefer PCBs over breadboard. The shield which you have got takes care of that and ensures you have a smaller number of wires (Coming only from the sensors) in your project. Connection guide The relays operate through a phototransistor of Toshiba optocoupler, connected to the digital pins of the Arduino board. The optocoupler isolates from any short circuit happening on the output load which is to be connected. The Bluetooth is standard HC-05 Bluetooth module (Supplied with the board if opted). The overall design of the board is user friendly in the sense, user can change the Bluetooth modules if it goes bad by any chance. Bluetooth communication is a serial communication and can be programmed via Arduino IDE available for