ZWO Electronic Automatic Focuser Operating and maintenance manual

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Electronic Automatic Focuser
Detailed Installation and
Operations Manual
苏州振旺光电有限公司
Suzhou ZWO Co.,Ltd.
Thank you for purchasing the ZWO EAF. This guide will give you a brief introduction to the installation of
your new Electronic Automatic Focuser. Please take the time to read it thoroughly and if you have any
other questions, feel free to contact our support team at [email protected]

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Catalogue
Electronic Automatic Focuser..........................................................................1
Detailed Installation and Operations Manual ...................................................1
Welcome to Your New Focuser Experience ....................................................3
Product Description .........................................................................................3
EAF Specifications...........................................................................................6
Installation........................................................................................................7
Dimensions......................................................................................................8
Connecting your EAF.......................................................................................9
Software Installation and Configuration .........................................................11
Connecting EAF to your Astronomy Software................................................12
ASIStudio.................................................................................................12
ASIAIR.....................................................................................................13
Sharpcap .................................................................................................17
FireCapture..............................................................................................18
Sequence Generator Pro.........................................................................19
Maxim DL Pro..........................................................................................19
Nebulosity................................................................................................20
The SkyX .................................................................................................20
Manual/Automatical Focus Control................................................................22
ASIStudio.................................................................................................23
ASIAIR.....................................................................................................28
Sequence Generator Pro.........................................................................28
FocusMax ................................................................................................31
Measuring the Focuser Backlash.............................................................36
6 Warranty and Return Policy........................................................................37

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1. Welcome to Your New Focuser Experience
The EAF is a high quality Electronic Automatic Focuser (EAF)
designed to suit a wide range of Optical Tube Assemblies (OTA). It
is supplied with a versatile mounting bracket system suitable for
flexible installation across a wide range of telescope focuser
systems.
2. Product Description
The ZWO EAF is an all metal bodied electronic focus drive system
designed for installation across a wide range of Optical Tube
Assemblies. The flexible mounting system allows installation
across refractors, Newtonians, Cassegrain and many other
telescope designs. The accessories coming with the box offer a
quick and simple installation using the supplied hardware and
wrenches.
Finished in an attractive red anodised finish, the EAF’s original
design will grace any telescope. The EAF logo uses the Airy spot
as an embellishment to reflect its precise focusing performance.
The EAF utilises a 35mm stepper motor which is subdivided into
5760 steps capable of being accurately positioned at any angle.

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Features (Standard Version)
•High quality metal focuser with anodized finish.
•Precise focus control for planetary and deep sky imaging.
•Can be used in both autofocus and manual modes.
•Flexible installation for use on a variety of refractors,
Newtonians, schmidt cassegrain and other Optical Tube
Assemblies.
•Versatile mounting bracket system with other adapters
available for purchase.
•ASCOM/INDI compatible drivers available for download –
interfaces with many well-known astronomy software
packages.
•ASICAP support built in.
•Native support in ASIAIR.
•Integrated USB interface.
•Powered by USB 2.0 cable.
Features (Advanced Version)

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In addition to the features of the Standard version, the Advanced
version offers:
•Temperature sensor
•Hand controller
Supplied Accessories
1. EAF Body contains the focuser motor and controller.
2. Motor Bracket for attaching the body to the OTA focuser
assembly.
3. Flexible Coupling to attach the focus motor shaft to the OTA
focuser drive shaft.
4. Mounting Hardware –Spacers and screws to mount the
focuser body.
5. M4 and M5 Wrenches for secure the shaft locking screws and
bracket hex screws.
6. USB 2.0 Cable –connection of computers or ASIAIR to the
focus controller.

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3. EAF Specifications
Construction Material
All metal, red anodised finish
Motor Specification
35mm Stepper Motor
Subdivision Steps
5760 steps
Torque
1.5N/M
Focuser Payload Limit
5KG
Power/Data Interface
USB 2.0
Sensor/Hand Controller Interface
3.5mm audio, Centre Positive
The ZWO EAF utilises a USB2.0 interface for data communication
which supports ASCOM and can be used in association with a wide
variety of astronomy software.
Planetary imagers can use ZWO’s ASICAP or other third-party
software packages such as Sharpcap, FireCapture.
Deep sky astrophotographers can enjoy support from ZWO’s
ASIAIR or other well known packages such as Maxim DL, The
SkyX, Sequence Generator Pro, Nebulosity and many more. Third
party focus software such as FocusMax, is also supported.
Your EAF is also fitted with a small multi-function interface that
supports a temperature sensor or external hand controller.
A dedicated temperature sensor can be connected to collect
temperature data and allow focuser control from your chosen
software. The hand controller allows for manual control of focuser
position and focus motor speed.

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4. Installation
Your EAF is supplied with a bracket for connection to a wide variety
of focusers. The standard bracket supports:
SkyWatcher Astrophotography Reflectors, SkyWatcher Black Diam
ond, SkyWatcher Dobsonians, SkyWatcher Maksutov-Newtonians.
TS Optics,
Astro Tech,
Feather Touch,
SharpStar telescopes,
SkyRover telescopes,
Explore Scientific telescopes
……
We recommend you refer to this instruction to confirm whether your
telescopes and focusers are compatible to EAF.
https://www.yuque.com/zwopkb/hardware/eaf-support-list#G2tSm
You can also check the mechanical drawing below to estimate the
compatibility by yourself.
A range of brackets for other telescopes are going to be available
with time. Please keep your eyes on the ZWO site.

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5. Dimensions

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6. Connecting your EAF
Remove the coarse adjustment knob of
the telescope focuser with a suitable
sized wrench.
Install the flexible coupling on the
telescope focuser shaft and tighten the
lock screw.
Attach the bracket to the focuser and
then fix it to the EAF body with the
screws.
Attach the bracket to the focuser and then
fix it to the EAF body with the screws.

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Check whether the installation is robust.
Connect the EAF to the ASIAIR/
computer/cooled camera, hand controller
or the temperature sensor.
For curved focusing seats, such as those on the Sharpstar and the
Feathertouch focusers, you only need use the original locking screws
and 3 spacers to fix the EAF. There are grooves on the bottom of the
EAF connecting plate, and the single screw provides sufficient stability.

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7. Software Installation and Configuration
ASCOM Installation
The latest version of ASIStudio has native support for the EAF.
Other software packages will require the use of an ASCOM driver.
EAF ASCOM drivers can be found on the ZWO website:
https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/software-drivers
Download and install the ASCOM driver and launch the EAF
dashboard from within your astronomy software.

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8. Connecting EAF to your Astronomy
Software
ASIStudio
Take ASICap for example:
1.Open the focuser control panel.
2. choose the focuser that you connected.
3. Set suitable settings for your EAF.

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ASIAIR
The newest ASIAIR App version supports Manual Focus and Auto
Focus.
1. Tap the Focuser icon on the top navigation bar to enter the
Focuser Settings page.

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2. Manual Focus Settings
There are three types of settings,
1) Info Display
Temp shows the environmental temperature in Celsius format with
an extra Temperature Sensor (comes with the ZWO-EAF-A kit), or
the EAF inner temperature without one.
Position Info > Current shows the EAF stepper count of the
current position based on the last ZERO position. Also, you can do
a position GoTo here.

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2) Action Settings
GoTo, see above.
Reverse, turning it on means make the EAF Motor rotates in the
reverse direction based on the current direction.
3) Parameters
Tap the Focuser icon in the left Auxiliary Tools area to show the
Focus Control Pad, switch the move step size which is set in the
Fine (Slow) Step and Coarse (Fast) Step options by tapping the
text button ‘Slow’/’Fast’.
Max Step Limit, the max step that the EAF can move, which is
based on your telescope focuser and has the upper limit of 60,000.
Recommended to set it to 60,000 by default.
Backlash, see 12 section of this document to measure.
Beep, make a sound which is described as the tip text tells after the
EAF moved.

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3. Auto Focus
Tap the ‘Next’ icon (>) to enter the Auto Focus Settings.
All the settings have the meanings as the title or the tip text tells.
AF EXP, here the value is a common setting if there is no ZWO
EFW is connected and only effects while AF is enabled in Autorun
mode. If a ZWO EFW is connected, go to the EFW Settings page to
set different AF EXP for each filter.

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AF has two trigger ways, manually or automatically. AF runs
automatically in the Autorun progress if any of the options are
enabled in the above settings.
Trigger it manually by tapping the AF icon on the Focus Control
Pad.
Sharpcap
1.Open Sharpcap settings.
2.Choose ZWO focuser.

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FireCapture
1.Open the focuser panel in settings menu.
2. Check “Use ASCOM Focuser”
3. Choose ZWO Focuser in ASCOM panel.

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Sequence Generator Pro
Maxim DL Pro
1.Open “Observatory panel”, in “Focuser 1”option, click
“Choose…”.
2. Choose ZWO Focuser in ASCOM panel.

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Nebulosity
To be added
The SkyX
1.Open “Telescope” menu, and select “Telescope Setup”
2.Select “Focuser Setup”