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OpenFocuser by Marco Cipriani
MoonLite-compatible motorized focuser controller with absolute and relative positioning
and half and full step switching. Linux & MacOS (INDI) and Windows (MoonLite and
ASCOM) compatible. Doesn’t support temperature compensation. Comes in two editions:
standard and Plus, which has a non-MoonLite extra function to control all the Arduino’s digital and PWM
pins, so that you can turn on and off (or regulate in current) other devices like dew heaters, mirror coolers, or
even a Raspberry Pi directly from your computer, or remotely if you use an INDI server.

Usage
Focuser
OpenFocuser is fully compatible with MoonLite softwares, so please refer to the oﬃcial user guides for
MoonLite focusers, or to the documentations for INDI, KStars, ASCOM or whatever software you use for
astrophotography.

OpenFocuser-Manager
OpenFocuser-Manager is a Java 8 desktop application that allows the end user to update the Arduino
ﬁrmware easily (eliminates the need of installing the whole Arduino IDE, compiling and uploading the
sketch) and to control the digital pins of the board if using the Plus edition. It comes bundled with avrdude
and the latest .hex ﬁrmwares for Arduino Nano, serial libraries, INDI4Java server and self-updating utility.

Installation
Debian and Ubuntu:
Install the Debian package: dpkg will automatically install socat and avrdude for you, a
launcher icon will be created and you’ll be ready to use it.
Packages openssh-client and openssh-server are needed if you want to upload and
download the conﬁguration ﬁles, see below for information.
Other distros:
Download the jar archive and launch it. socat and avrdude must be installed depending on
you package manager and in path.
ssh and its server are needed if you want to upload and download the conﬁguration ﬁles, see
below for information.
Windows:
Download the jar archive and launch it. avrdude.exe and libusb0.dll are bundled in it,
eliminating the need of installing them. The INDI server and driver and the settings sending
won’t be available, only ﬁrmware update.
MacOS: I don’t have a Mac, so I can’t provide a package for this OS. Feel free to help!

Updating the ﬁrmware

Firmware update via avrdude is supported in Windows (avrdude.exe is bundled in the executable jar
and will be unzipped at runtime in the system-default temp folder) and in Linux, no matter the distribution, if
the avrdude executable is in path (in Debian, install it with sudo apt-get install avrdude).
avrdude’s conﬁg is selected automatically by the Manager.
In the ﬁrmware update tab you can select the serial port of the target board, the board type (at the moment,
the ﬁrmware is built only for Arduino Nano, new and old bootloaders), and the ﬁrmware edition: standard
(focuser only) or Plus (controllable pins and polar ﬁnder illuminator). A label below the ﬁrmware selection
shows the version of the selected software. Press Update to ﬂash the board.

Plus edition pin management
Note: standard MoonLite focusers do NOT support pin management! They aren’t compatible with
OpenFocuser
If you are new to the INDI protocol please read more in the INDI website and in Wikipedia.
In the “Plus edition conﬁguration” tab you’ll be able to select the port for the INDI server (default 7625 to
allow other INDI clients like KStars to use 7624) and deﬁne the list of digital and PWM pins. You can click
“Add” to add a pin deﬁnition: adding a digital pin means adding an INDI switch element (a checkbox in the
INDI control panel of the client) that allows the user to switch the state of the pin ON and OFF; instead, after
creating a PWM pin, OpenFocuser will add an INDI number element to its driver that allows the end user to
write the pin value (0→100%) directly from the client INDI control panel. You’ll be asked about the pin port
(for example, pin 13). Note: you can add only the pins you have selected in the Arduino conﬁguration before!
Then you can click “Edit” to modify the pin’s properties: a custom name (e.g. “Dew heater”) and a default
value, applied when the driver starts. After deﬁning all the pins, save the conﬁguration and start the server
directly from the control panel or close it to use the driver or the server from the command line (see
advanced usage). In order to use the pin manager driver you’ll need an INDI client. In KStars, open Ekos from
the toolbar and create a new proﬁle containing your telescope mount, CCD camera or reﬂex and a MoonLite
focuser, and in the “Remote:” driver ﬁeld write INDI Arduino pin driver@localhost:7625. Be
careful to replace localhost:7625 with the right host and port. Uncheck the auto-connect box and give
the proﬁle a name. Now start the OpenFocuser server (from the control panel or from the command line).
Start the Ekos’ INDI server and open the INDI control panel. Connect your devices, go to the “INDI Arduino
pin driver” tab and connect the driver. In the “Serial connection” tab select a serial port and hit connect. A
new tab called “Manage pins” will show up, in which you can mange the PWM and digital pins you selected
in the control panel. Copy the MoonLite port to the clipboard and paste it in the “Port” ﬁeld in the MoonLite
driver tab. Select baud speed to 9600 and connect the MoonLite device. If everything is OK you’ll get the full
MoonLite control panel. Otherwise check if the OpenFocuser server is running, if the virtual port exists and if
the speed is 9600. Enjoy!

Advanced usage and troubleshooting
Sending conﬁguration to another computer
You can send the pin conﬁguration and all the settings to another computer. Ensure OpenFocuser-Manager
is installed on both computer alongside with the required dependencies. The other computer must have a
SSH server installed, while the sender a SSH client. From the sender computer, open the control panel and
click on “Send conﬁguration”. You’ll asked about the remote host, username and password. If the process
fails due a missing remote folder, open and close one time the control panel in the remote computer and
retry (this will create the required conﬁg folder in the remote user directory, which must be present in order
to send the settings ﬁle).

Stand-alone CLI server
Use openfocuser -p=xxxx, replacing xxxx with whatever port you want (or 0 to use the saved port), to
start the server without GUI in the terminal. The conﬁguration will be the same saved before in the control
panel.

INDI driver in another INDI server
The INDI driver can be run inside another INDI server executing openfocuser -d. No GUI will be loaded,
nor the server will be set up: the driver will communicate with your external server with stdin/out, just like
any other INDI driver.

Starting from the command line
bash: openfocuser
Windows: java -jar OpenFocuser-Manager.jar
Short
option

Long
option
--

-a

serialport

Param

e.g.
/dev/ttyUSB0

Description

Speciﬁes a serial port and connects to it if possible.
Otherwise it will be stored to settings only.

-c

-controlpanel

Shows the control panel.

-d

-driver

Driver-only mode (no server, stdin/stdout)

-p

--indiport

-v

-verbose

e.g. 7625

Stand-alone server mode, CLI. If port=0, fetch the last used
port from the settings.

Verbose logging mode.

Common errors
Exit
code

Error

Java not
found

Solution

Install Java >8 and ensure it’s in path

Exit
code

Error

socat not
found
INDI not
found

Solution

Install socat (Linux)

Install indiserver (Linux)

avrdude
not found

Install avrdude (Linux)

jar not
found

Where did you put OpenFocuser-Manager.jar? Did you build the project and
artifacts?

Conﬁg
folder
could not

OpenFocuser-Manager wasn’t able to create the folder where it’ll put the
conﬁguration. Using your ﬁle manager, go to you home directory and check if the

be
initialized

Unable to
parse

.config/OpenFocuser-Manager folders exist and are directories

Check the command line arguments

parameters

Invalid
options

socat
error

Invalid combination of command line arguments (for example, you can’t run the
driver and the control panel or the stand-alone server at the same time)
socat could not be started. Check if it’s installed, up-to-date and in path. No
solution for operating systems other that Linux, but shouldn’t happen: report an
issue if so.

Hardware
Autodesk Eagle circuit
In the “Eagle” directory you can ﬁnd the full circuit project, both schematics and PCB for the standard and
Plus editions. Feel free to modify it to accomplish your necessities: for example, you could add another dew
heater controller, or remove the Newton mirror cooler MOSFET.
Made with Eagle 9.2.2 Premium

Motor holders
I included the mounting brackets I made for the common SkyWatcher Dual-Speed Crayford focuser (I have a
200mm f/5 Newton OTA).
AutoCAD 2019 project, STL and IGS exported ﬁles ready for 3D printing.

Focuser motor and drivers
I use a Nema 11 motor that moves the focuser knob using a belt. If you don’t have a heavy focuser, also
consider using a Nema 8. A 20 teeth pulley and a 6mm wide 160mm long belt are enough. Supported motor
drivers via the StepperDriver library:
Generic 2-pin drivers
DRV8825
A4988
DRV8834

Developer’s guide
Arduino conﬁguration
Compiling from sources
The Arduino sketch manages the communication with the computer and sends the appropriate commands
to the motor driver. To conﬁgure the pins and enable/disable features refer to the “Using the Conﬁg ﬁle”
section below.
Required: the Arduino IDE for editing (or compiling manually) and a Linux machine.
Builder/build-fw.sh is a bash script that automates the process of conﬁguring, compiling, renaming
and updating the hex ﬁles in the Manager sources. To run it, execute Builder/build-fw.sh, no
arguments required. The script will create and place in the Manager sources the ﬁrmwares for both the
standard and Plus editions of OpenFocuser, compiled for Arduino Nano with the new and old bootloaders.
Arduino CLI is used to compile the sketch. It’s part of the Arduino project. The Arduino trademark and this
executable belong to its owner and I’m not aﬃliated with it. License of Arduino CLI.

Libraries
AccelStepper by Mike McCauley, license
StepperDriver by Laurentiu Badea, license
Button Debounce by maykon, license

Contributors
This ﬁrmware uses parts of the sketches by Orly Andico and Daniel Franzén:
Inspired by arduino-focuser-moonlite by Orly Andico, blog post
Modiﬁed for INDI, easydriver support (removed) by Cees Lensink
Added sleep function by Daniel Franzén, [GitHub repo]((https://github.com/FranzenD/arduinofocus)

Using the Conﬁg ﬁle
In the ﬁrmware folder, the Config.h deﬁnes:
the pins and type of motor driver

the status LED pin
serial speed
hand control buttons and potentiometer
whether or not the polar ﬁnder illuminator is enabled
the customizable pins

Motor drivers
STEPPER_TYPE
0. BasicStepperDriver
1. DRV8825
2. A4988
3. DRV8834
DRIVER_DIR: stepper driver DIR pin
DRIVER_STEP: stepper driver STEP pin
M0, M1, M2: pins for setting the microstepping mode (not used by BasicStepperDriver)

Hand controller
ENABLE_HC to enable it
HC_SPEED_POT the potentiometer that controls the number of steps the focuser moves every time
you press a button
BUTTON_UP and BUTTON_DOWN: pins of the buttons

Pin management
To change the default list of customizable pins, turn on this function with ENABLE_PIN_CONTROL and then
deﬁne the customizable pins in the CUSTOMIZABLE_PINS array. You’ll be able to control them using
OpenFocuser-Manager, see below for further information.

Polar ﬁnder illuminator
You can include a LED output to illuminate the polar ﬁnder of you mount enabling ENABLE_PFI and setting
PFI_POT: the analog input of the potentiometer that dims the LED
PFI_LED: the pin of the LED (I suggest a red one)

Compiling the Manager from sources
Required: IntelliJ 2018.2 with Bash Support plugin, Java >8 - To build the Debian installer, run conﬁguration
“Generate Debian package” - The utput Debian package will be generated in OpenFocuserManager/deb-builder/OpenFocuser-Manager.deb - To compile the universal jar executable, start
conﬁguration Run Windows-compatible Jar - The output archive will be generated in OpenFocuserManager/out/artifacts/OpenFocuser_Manager_Windows_jar/OpenFocuser-Manager.jar To create Javadocs, use the dedicated tool in IntelliJ

OpenFocuser-Manager used libraries and resources

OpenFocuser-Manager uses some third party libraries. Their jar Packages can be found in the
OpenFocuser-Manager/lib folder.
Gson by Google, license
Commons CLI by Apache Commons, license
INDI for Java by Zerjillo, in module OpenFocuser-Manager/I4J with the following dependencies:
Ostermiller Java Utilities by Stephen Ostermiller, license
jSSC by scream3r, license
JSch by JCraft, license
Radiance, Neon and Substance L&F by kirill-grouchnikov, license
Materia Design icons by Google (icons are in the OpenFocuserManager/src/marcocipriani/openfocuser/manager/res folder), license
GitHub logo, logo and Octocat terms of use:
GITHUB®, the GITHUB® logo design, OCTOCAT® and the OCTOCAT® logo design are
exclusive trademarks registered in the United States by GitHub, Inc.

Behind the scenes of the Plus edition
To work, the OpenFocuser Plus INDI driver uses socat and creates two virtual devices (sockets). Let’s say,
for example, that /dev/port1 and /dev/port2 are created: the ﬁrst virtual port is used to read whatever
is sent to the second one and the end user will be asked to connect the MoonLite driver to /dev/port2.
OpenFocuser will forward every byte sent to port2 to the real Arduino, plus command :AVxxxx#, where
xxxx is an hex number that represent the target pin and its new value, to change the state of a pin, and
command :RS# to reset the board.

License
OpenFocuser is a project by Marco Cipriani
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0
Google, The Apache Software Foundation, Java, GitHub and MoonLite trademarks belong to their respective
owners. I’m not aﬃliated with these manufacturers, companies and software foundations.

Forking and issues
Feel free to submit pull requests, report an issue or suggest new features! Also, new mounting brackets are
welcome!

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