Actuator selection #2
Description
The telescope needs an actuator motor to have the ability to move to a precise position. The most obvious drive mechanism to select is stepper motors. Unfortunately, the classical open-loop control of steppers has many drawbacks. Therefore it is desirable to make the telescope actuator a closed-loop control system, where the absolute position should be sensed as close as possible to the telescope optics (on which position matters).
There are known open-source projects of adding closed-loop control to steppers:
Another option is the use of a direct drive mount. There are a few examples of this system, but it could be even better than using the steppers. Unfortunately, the actuator itself needs to be self-constructed.