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I speak from bitter experience here, I've tried the DIY route and it's hard, really hard. I'm not boasting but am trying to give you the benefit of my experience, I am a pretty good programmer

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Hence the lego option - it removes lots of the interfacing headaches.

The challenges then are positioning and management of the sidereal rate. If we exclude Alt-Az (to simplify the path followed, and the control loops required), then we are down to managing the PE - and we start to get into the woods.

For the drive, I would look closely at 'zero' stretch belts (aka vehicle timing belts - use them with the teeth out) driving an idler drive system - it's easier to make a consistant 'flat' drive surface with little run-out (a car brake disk for example), than a large 'perfect' round - but that depends on the equipment to hand.

You will need gearing of some kind - simple friction rollers would seem to be the simplest and best solution although they will need to be kept clean, and speed accuracy can be further managed by motor speed control.

The route, I would personally take for this, would be to set that gate at 1 minute with low PE - tinker to reduce PE, and go for 5 minutes with low PE - tinker to reduce PE further - and go for 10 minutes with low PE - etc.

Small managable chunks is easier than one big chunk, and is likely to keep you motivated in the challenge, so much more likely to succeed.


Have fun with your back-yard moonshot!


Owen

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