New DIY ASCOM-Compatible Wireless Flat Panel!

Wow! Love the multidisciplinary aspect of this project. Must have taken quite some determination to realize this and be really satisfying once finished.

Amazing job! Thank you so much for sharing so great project, wireless! You went beyond, thank you!

Thank you for upgrading flat panel.... I'll try this ASAP..

Awesome ! It looks very professional and handy. I might give it a try !

World’s best indeed, loved the video, great as always

Long awaited! Can't wait to start the project! Thanks!

This is awesome! I really appreciate all of your time and effort to help all of us in the astrophotography world have a simple and better way of acquiring flats. The project looks like fun as well. I will build one soon and share my results. Thanks again for your efforts!!

Thank You!! This 1 I want to build!

Thanks!

Nice work and thank you for the shout-out! :)

Hi Julien. Excellent project and thank you; can’t wait to get started on it. I don’t see the capacitor listed in your BOM.

Thanks for sharing! Can you provide details on the JST connectors you are using. I can't find anything in the BOM.

Very well done project! Congratulations and thanks for your work and to share all with us! One suggestion: would it possible to add a physical button to switch on/off and dim the flat panel and use it without ASCOM connection? In some situations you don't have a ASCOM system available and then you could use this great flat panel as well...

I have the same LitEnergy flat panel. It is relatively easy to bypass the dimmer and control it with a simple Arduino Nano. This mimics mimics the Optec units and can be controlled within Voyager and NINA. I have my planel mounted on my observatory wall. There is a thread on the build over on Cloudy Nights.

Thats pretty cool..... You dont build for sale for people like me who can do things but not like to this level.... But I like it

Amazing DIY project! Before I get excited about building it can it be used with the ASIAir? 🙏🏻.

Fabulous. It is crazy that commercial companies haven't even put out a wireless panel. Congratulations and thank you for sharing. My question is: does it scale up to cover an 8" aperture ?

Nice project. I went the other way.... I used the KISS (keep it simple) method. I use a variety of setups..... 11" SCT with flat field reducer, same 11" SCT with Hyperstar, 8" SCT with reducer, 8" SCT with Hyperstar, 152mm APO refractor, and 80mm APO refractor in my observatory or at remote imaging at star parties. I made a box out of foamcore with a diffuser made of white frosted plastic. I cut in a series of circular nesting foamcore plugs that restrict the light to each of the specific apertures. Light is from 4 LEDs that are wide range and a few baffles to even the light across up to the 11" SCT. Power is from a couple of AAA Lithium batteries (to ensure no gradual voltage drop off during the exposure run). Rather than wireless or computer ASCOM control.... I simply used a small potentiometer with various outputs designated across the range of the potentiometer. Each filter/scope combo has a log of the settings of the potentiometer to achieve the correct exposure. It is simple and very easy to use as well as very light. Because it is very simple it has no failure points other than dead batteries. I can hold the device over the scope or mount it on a camera tripod to hold it in place....or simply aim the telescope straight up and sit the box on top of the scope aperture. I used a couple of devices to ensure flatness of illumination....first was a 1" photo spot meter....later a similar light measuring device I used in my old dark room. Both were extremely accurate and showed that the light fall off was negligible. Have you checked for the flatness of illumination across the device? I previously had a light panel for a 14" Astrograph and found it was far from even illumination.

Great Project. Just wondering if the project can work with an ESP32 utilizing Wifi, although it also supports Bluetooth, but my preference is always wifi in Station Mode...

Hello, this is a great projected and one I am well on the way to completing. However, I am at the point where I need to start cutting the panels from the donor light. In your cad drawing there are router templates, which I asume produce the correct size templates for cutting the defusers. What I cant seem to do is print those router templates, or is that not what they are for? Any help you cn give before I mess up the donor light would be greatly appreciated.