Setting up my focuser in the Equipment Profile Manager.
On the Focus set up tab, I want to fill in the “fine focus step size” field.
It does not specify unit of measure.
I have either microns or microinches available.
please advise!
thanks,
Malcolm Park
The unit is simply steps. “Fine focus step size” defines how many steps are taken when you click the fine focus buttons in the control panel. The same applies for “Coarse focus step size”. If you hover your mouse over the field, you can see an informative help message. I think the same information is also available in the manual.
the informative hover message asks for step SIZE
Maybe that should be reworded if thats not what it requires?
There’s a difference between the number of steps you want to move the focuser and the size of the step.
Surely I’m not being anal retentive here.
thanks for your reply though 
Your criticism is quite justified, but the topic has been discussed before: Step Size Terminology - Sequence Generator - Main Sequence Software
Result: developers are reluctant to change this terminology since users got accustomed to it.
Bernd
you don’t know what you don’t know!
Yes, of course, only intended as an information. I agree with you that the wording “step size” is not suitable in this case.
Bernd
Agreed. The whole set of terms used in the area of focus when SGP was programmed are confusing and not in keeping with what things are generally accepted to mean in the imaging community. Inertia and the fact that SGP users generally understand the “SGP definitions” regarding focus sadly means this is not likely to change.
I do suspect that many of the new user questions on the subject of focus would go away with the use of more accepted meanings.
I do suspect that many of the new user questions on the subject of focus would go away with the use of more accepted meanings.
This is my impression too.
Bernd
Multiple support queries about the same thing can be a useful source of information on where things may benefit from some sort of modification.
It’s complicated here because its pretty noisy, there are a lot of posts that are unrelated to SGP and quite a lot where the user seems to be using the forum as a substitute for looking in the manual, or in some cases thought.
A change here, could help; ‘size’ is usually an indication of magnitude, not quantity. ‘number of steps’ rather than ‘step size’ may be better.
Indeed. I had suggested “steps per sample” (or alternatively, “steps between focus samples”) in the other thread on the subject.