I have been through two back surgeries in the last year and I discovered I can't lean over to look through the grain focuser and reach up to turn the knob. Well, I can, but about 3 seconds at a crack.
On of my other hobbies is doing CNC conversions to machine shop equipment. Stepper motors and controls are not a problem for me...
My goal was to make this a bolt on addition as I did not want to go through the hassle of removing the Zone VI Cold Light as I feared vibrations could break the tube. Omega left two well placed holes!
Next was to make a bracket to hold the Stepper motor, this was 3D printed from PETG and ABS like material. Good and solid:
The drive would be MXL timing belt based:
A knob for manual control was next. The backside of the knob was pocketed to be a sug fit on the hub of the pulley. The pully hub was drilled and tapped. The fit was actually good enough that I could turn the knob and it would not slip on the pulley.:
Controlling the stepper was really easy, I sourced a 4amp stepper controller module from Amazon ($25) and it was off to the races. The controller has several modes, the best two were a) stepper moves in sync with turning the pot b) stepper moves in one direction while pressing the CW button and the opposite when pressing CCW, stopping when the button is released. The pot can be turned to change the speed of the motor.
I obtained a extruded metal case from Amazon and replaced the aluminum end plates with some laser cut 3mm black acrylic. I disassembled the controller and insterted two layers of deep red Cinegel filter to cut the light output to a manageable level. The display is readable in normal room light do programming it does not need to be done in the dark. ROFLMAO
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